Farm update 6.10.19
It’s been another busy week on the farm as we continue to expand the market garden.
We did have an unexpected issue this week however with our chicken feed. Some months back after an infestation of moths in the cupboard where we store our feed (which resulted in some losses of chicken food bags too), we spent the time in bug proofing our chicken storage cupboard - completely sealed without any space for bugs to lay eggs or to be able to get in.
This was around the same time the cost of our Aus Organics certified organic chicken feed went up considerably due to the drought and increasing cost of grain, forcing us to order minimum a tonne at a time to save on some expense from the rise - thus even more reason to have a guaranteed pest proof storage option!
What we didn’t however factor in was now that the cupboard was completely sealed, potential for moisture in the air to become trapped in the cupboard….. Last Sunday night we went to the cupboard and found that all of our remaining chicken feed stock, some 400+ kilos, had all gone mouldy!
Bags and bags of mouldy chicken feed, $700 in value, all disposed of (well, turned into compost!)
We went through every bag, all mouldy. $700 worth of stock! Not only that, we had a lot of work ahead of us in removing the mouldy stock, taking it up to our composting area to create a whole new compost pile to dispose of it, fix the cupboard to keep out pests but to allow ventiliation, all before we could order replacement feed stocks.
Darren started on fixing the feed cupboard right away, adding vents and lattice to keep a nice airflow throughout the cupboard to hopefully prevent a disaster like this occuring again. We’ve had to paint the inside and we are waiting for it to be completely dry before we go ahead and order the new delivery of feed.
The back garden continues to expand with even more beds planted out this week, as well as trellises installed for the beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, loofah and bitter melon that is starting to really take off.
This new growing style has been so much more efficient to work on with consistency in garden bed length and width (800mm width, 12.5m long with 400mm wide footpaths), making it easier to tarp, to plan seedlings we raise as well as harvesting. We’re reallly happy with how it is all coming along and we know our regular customers are really looking forward to the summer crops!
The trellises have gone up in the new market garden, ready for climbing beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, loofah and bitter melon.