Garden and Farm Update

I thought it would be good to put up an update on how the garden and farm are coming along. The garden is doing well overall but some things are struggling a little bit.  The first year of a new garden is always a little worse because the soil is not quite up to my standards. It takes a good 2-3 years for me to get it all worked up good and get the right amendments in and get a good worm population going. This garden seems to be struggling even more than previous first year gardens.  I think it might be because there was a barn where the garden is when we moved in and we tore it down. That ground had not seen rain or sunlight for many years and tractors were stored in there so there is no telling what fluids got dripped onto the ground.  I did bring lots of new soil and compost in to make my raised beds but I am thinking the soil that was there is having an effect. There are parts of the rows where whatever I have planted is stunted, yellow, and not looking good. It is really crazy.  I am hoping it will work itself out in a year or two. Overall though we are doing pretty good on vegetables. We had lots of early season bok choi, radishes, spinach. We ate on sugar snap peas for a long time and just recently cut them down as they had mostly stopped producing. I don't plant a whole lot of potatoes but what I did plant produced great, it was a good potato year. We have canned I think 20 quarts and 30 pints of green beans so far and they are still producing. As usual, we also have an overabundance of squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. Peppers are going crazy right now also, I am planning to can some pickled peppers and hot sauce soon. We are starting to get tomatoes, although they are not looking as good as I would like. This corn is really struggling this year but I am hoping it turns out ok. I have pretty much given up on the eggplant, it just has not done anything. My winter squash and cantaloupe is coming along nicely. The fruit trees and berries are all looking good also, especially the strawberries, they are growing like crazy. I hope to have lots of berries next year.
I have been able to start selling more produce this year with my bigger garden and hope to continue to sell even more in the future.  If anyone in the area is interested in fresh veggies, let us know.
The farm is coming along nicely also. I feel like I am starting to catch up on all my projects and getting the "to do" list knocked out. My biggest project I still have left is fence but most of it will have to wait for the fall and winter. Our animal count is growing also. We currently have 25 chickens, 10 sheep, 6 goats, and 9 steers.  We are taking a steer to the butcher on Saturday and will soon have lots of beef in the freezer which is exciting. We ran out of home grown beef a couple months ago and it is hard for us to buy beef from the store. We had a baby lamb born sometime last night so that is very exciting.
One thing we are loving about all of this is having the girls get involved in helping with the garden and animals. They seem to really enjoy themselves and are learning lots. And I am excited for them to experience and help even more as they get older.

Steers

Sheep

Here are the goats. The big goat in the middle is our ginormous billy goat named Heisenberg. He is one of the biggest goats I have ever seen. For perspective, the goat standing to the right of him is a normal sized full grown goat.