Today was a busy day! We started a new batch of yolks curing in salt, transplanted the cauliflower and planted the parsley. The duck egg yokes are now buried in a salt and sugar mixture, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge for the next week or so. As our dear friend Max says: “I think you can’t overdue it. Cells want water to be in equilibrium, so they will really only absorb so much. More like salt cod, less like smoked salmon.” Once finished, we will rinse and then dehydrate the yolks.
We then transplanted more of the cauliflower and got some parsley seeds going. It’s late for parsley, but we just got the seeds, and they are tiny (pictured left).
Overall, we’re thinking it’s going to be an early, warm and relatively dry spring…which is not good, especially after last year’s drought. It’s still in the 20s when we go to “release the beasts” (i.e., let the ducks out) in the morning, but the days are creeping back up getting ever closer to 50. We did get two large rain storms recently, but they were a lot of rain all at once, and the mud from them is all but gone.
Our new large garden cloches that were backordered have arrived, and we’re pressty excited to deploy them with some of our peppers when the time comes. We’re also experimenting with a couple of accelerator type projects to help get some plants off to an early start outdoors. Stay tuned for more info about that.
In the meantime, the seedlings are doing well, with several of them already requiring light fertilization and transplanting. We’re still holding off on getting into the garden too much so that our pollinators that are living in the leaf litter have a chance to emerge, but we have gotten our hoops set-up so we will be ready!
Inside, we’re still hunkering down in front of the fire every night with Didion and Moby, as we excitedly talk about the plans for the coming season!
Three Bird Farm 