Category: Thornhill Farm

pigs & soil improvement, Thornhill Farm

field report. stump & rock picking team.

After weeks of picking rocks from a field we transformed from forest, this most honorable team was happy to see me planting a green manure crop oats and peas. Their work was done, for now, and it was time to rest. Thank you Keven, Harold, Chuck, Cliff, Dave, and Ronan, L to R.

The forest went through a 6 month review process – with the forester and ecologist to identify land that was relatively flat and not wetlands, then presentations and sign offs by the USDA, Northeast Kingdom wetlands chief, and finally the Vermont Land Trust. Then a month of harvesting the wood, sending the few hardwood and softwood logs to the saw mill a few miles away and making huge piles of wood chips, which will be food for the soil. A month of harvesting stumps and rocks followed.

It is dry now, I tasted the dirt of of the land for dinner. Tomorrow afternoon the rains will come.
Thornhill Farm

October 3, 2015 Greensboro, Vermont

Eight days after drilling in the winter rye, it has emerged in this field.
The greener areas are where the oats self seeded and came back with the winter rye.
This is the well drained soil that did not need drainage, and thus was able to receive the oats and peas green manure seeds early in the summer.
The crop of winter rye will be harvest next August.
As it will grow in the winter, it gains in character and flavor for making rye whiskey or being part of a farm program to feed our pigs.
Our pigs are here to feed and nourish the soil, and for this we are grateful.
Todd Hardie