Spring Time Activities at Spring Garden Acre

We're a busy bunch of crazy kids this time of year. We have rabbits and chicks. Perfect for Easter season. But please don't tell the Easter bunny! Because... well you know... We're also working on everything from planting brassicas to cold frame harvests and more. It's all in pictures below.

35 chicks are 3 weeks old. We'll put them in their tractor as soon as they have permanent feathers on their heads (to keep them warm on frosty nights). We'll have them for a total of 8 weeks. It costs around 6 dollars a bird to raise them this way. They dress out at about 4 pounds. So we're paying $1.50 a pound. I saw a package of organically raised chicken selling for $8.79. We're essentially trading labor for price. It's the only way we can afford to eat organically!

Our egg layers are 3 years old this spring. This will be their last year with us. They'll be hard to let go. Their great birds. The kids love them.

We tried turnips this year for the first time. They look very healthy. We'll plant them outside on Saturday.

These are a few of our rabbits. They are the Australian breed. They are usually all white, but occasionally they are "blue". Very pretty!

This "blue" mamma gave birth this morning to a kit of 4. I think there are probably more. I haven't reached in to see just yet. We don't want to upset the nest, because we could lose them.

These are our brassica plants. We're going to plant on Saturday. We have tatsoi, baby boc choy, broccoli, turnips and cabbage. The boxes that look empty are onions. We started them from seed again this year.

This is where we will plant the brassicas this year. The black soil on top is composted manure. My next big project is to put the broadfork to use and turn the compost into the garden. It's a big job every year, but you know what they say about how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

This is our newly planted strawberry bed. You can't really see the starts, but there is an example of one in the picture below. We got 26 plants in two rows. The rows are spaced 4 feet apart with each plant spaced 18 inches. We'll use the central space to plant other things. Maybe onions?

The garlic bed is growing nicely

Garlic plants are about 4 inches tall now.

This is about 15 -20 pounds of thawing frozen tomatoes. They are from last year. Belle is making a new batch of tomato sauce this weekend.

I don't remember what we planted in this cold frame. It looks like spinach, and I think carrots.

This is our overwintered spinach. We still have plenty of picking to do!

Lettuce for our meals. We've enjoyed eating it all winter long!