Many of you are probably wondering how our baby goats, Hic-cup and White Face, have fared. Well, they are both still with us thanks to three weeks of four-times-a-day tube-feeding: an ordeal for both goats and humans, to be sure. Mom still isn't putting out enough milk, but the kids are slowly gaining some weight due to their increased consumption of hay and alfalfa pellets. I believe their growth has been/will be stunted indefinitely, so they will not be suitable for meat, but they are so accustomed to humans and so adorable they should make great pets. In case you were wondering, yes, they are still in the living room, but I hope they will soon be relocated to the great outdoors.

Also on the animal front: We are delighted to announce the birth of nine healthy piglets last month. Dave was prepared this year with a brand new birthing shed designed to shelter the sow and protect the babies from being crushed by mom's weight. He lined the floor with a thick layer of fresh hay and was able to move our very pregnant sow, Yorkie-Girl, to her new housing with three days to spare. Living up to the specie's reputation for being "pig-headed," however, Yorkie-Girl had her own ideas: she preferred to give birth under the stars and proceeded to move the hay out into the open pen where she fashioned her nest. Next she converted her new shelter to an elegant out-house.

The piglets were born during a 20 degree afternoon. The temperature dropped to single digits their first night. Dave had wrapped and covered the open pen with some old tarps which the cold easily penetrated. However, sows' bellies radiate heat like wood stoves. Between the hay nest and Yorkie-Girl's belly, all nine survived the first night in great shape. Even though the piglets arrived two months before the ideal time weather-wise (did I mention that Yorkie-Girl's pregnancy was unplanned?) the good news is since they are getting an early start, the pigs should be ready to butcher considerably earlier than our pigs have been in the past, to the benefit of some of our seasonal customers. It's not too soon to let us know if you wish to reserve one.

On the vegetable front, I have been delighted so far with the "experiment" that is our field hoop house. Almost all of the greens I planted inside it in the fall have survived, and are starting to grow again with the additional hours and intensity of light. As the ground beneath the structure never froze, I was able to begin this season's planting in mid-February as planned. In December and January I had raised a variety of sets indoors (head lettuces, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, chard, fennel), hardened them off in an unheated back room which got close to freezing temperatures frequently in early February, and then planted them in the hoop house on February 20th under two layers of row cover. That night the temperature dipped into the single digits. The next day I was afraid to look, fearing that the tender sets had frozen to death overnight. The following day I summoned my courage, rolled back the rowcover, and to my delight and amazement found not one casualty! I speculate that the soil was sufficiently warm that the heat it radiated out during the night was adequate to protect the seedlings.

Although we have been spared the severity of the recent snow storms that have plagued regions south of us, the recent overnight dumping of about 8 inches of wet snow was enough to collapse the hoop house. Dave went out early the next day and laboriously shoveled off the wet snow. He described the experience as "like lifting water at the end of a stick". As he cleared each section, the plastic pipe rebounded and the hoop house popped back up. He had only to re-secure the wall at one end, and it was good as new. I am hopeful that this structure will allow us to offer a good variety of produce very early in the season (beginning May or before), so our customers will find frequent trips to the farmstand to be worthwhile this spring.

In service of our goal to ensure that each animal has a job, last month we placed our boar and unbred sow in part of the vegetable garden behind the house that they didn't get a chance to till and fertilize last fall. All went well until the heavy wet snow discussed above shorted out the portable fence enclosing the pigs, and they decided to explore the rest of the garden. Before we realized what they were up to, they systematically worked their way down half a row of Swiss chard left under row cover over the winter, and began to harvest our precious parsnips! When I went out yesterday to investigate, I found that although they had dug out and eaten a few of the roots, and knawed the tops of some others, most of the parsnips were still completely intact. I dug a few and cooked a sample and am happy to report that they are as sweet and tender as can be. And since we have had unusually warm days and nights for the last week, I plan to begin harvesting the parsnips now. So if you are interested in some tasty treats, let me know and I will dig some for you. We also have a quantity of leeks that have wintered-over in the ground successfully, and some garlic and potatoes which have kept well in cool storage.