touchtheearthfarm.com Blog

December has brought the end of the area’s drought, but it’s brought along some extreme weather as well. Most damaging here at the farm have been the high winds. While the snow fall early in the month collapsed some of the low tunnels, the snow itself is relatively insulating and did little damage. The winds, [...]

It’s official: we’ve been updated to severe drought status where we’re located in Washington County. The US Drought Monitor shows our area as one of the worst in the state along with Southern Maryland.

…you begin to talk about the weather as more than just passing conversation… and you begin to follow the weather like some folks follow baseball or Nascar… and you begin dreaming about the weather and creating elaborate rituals designed to make it rain.
This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned how hot and dry we’ve been, [...]

We’ve gotten nearly all the animals out on pasture over the past couple of weeks, beginning with the laying hens in their mobile coop. They have adjusted quite well to their new home, with only a slight decrease in egg production, which will hopefully even out over the next week or so. I’m not entirely [...]

When we arrived home on Wednesday after running some errands, this is what we found! Imagine our surprise, as we weren’t expecting him for another 3 weeks. By the time we arrived on the scene, mama had him nicely cleaned, and he was standing and nursing and eliminating, so all is well. He weighed about [...]

This is one of our most recent additions to our farm. Isn’t she sweet? Maya is a tamworth gilt, and we plan on keeping her for breeding here at Touch the Earth Farm. In the left photo, she’s not too sure about heading out into the great big world she’d been hearing from the safety [...]

Our first round of poultry arrived on Thursday, April 12th, and Friday, April 13th. We received White Chinese Geese, Rouen duck, Narragansett and Royal Palm turkey poults, Delaware chicks, Ameraucana chicks, and slow growing Cornish chicks. Despite this cold weather, they all seem to be thriving and growing well. They’ll continue to brood for a [...]

Our two tamworth barrows head to the butcher next week. Email now for pricing and to reserve your cuts.

Seeds are started:
We have Italian broccoli, broccoli raab, English peas, Amish snap peas and artichokes started in the seed flats, with the first, small broccoli seedling unfurling as I type. We’ll sow successive trays two weeks apart for the next two months. We plan to start our first early tomatoes and peppers in two weeks, [...]

Many of the following varieties are heirlooms, though not all, and I ended up ordering from four different sources: Southern Exposure, Seed Savers, Johnny’s Seeds, and I ended up getting my horseradish from Gurney’s because I couldn’t get it from the others.
2007 promises some exciting trials of several varieties, and I’ll try to feature them [...]