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Down in the kitchen garden, the tomato plants are in the ground.
As part of the Smithsonian's traveling "Hometown Teams" exhibit, now at the Howell Living History Farm visitor's center (until June 22), students from a local elementary school visited the farm today to learn the basic tenets of America's Great Game: old-time baseball.
Tallies, the predecessor to "runs," were accounted for my adding corncobs to a bucket. Umpire Pete Watson collected fines from the team's coaches for any un-gentleman-like or un-lady-like behavior, including stealing bases, sliding, blocking the base path, or attempted bribes. The version of old-time baseball played at the farm has rules that date to the 1860s. When it comes to finding shade, Howell Farm's sheep are like heat-seeking missiles--or perhaps you might say coolness-seeking missiles.
Many snow geese spend their winters in tropical New Jersey, before leaving in the spring to migrate to their breeding grounds north of the timberline in Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. One snow goose visiting Howell Farm had a different idea, however, and has decided to become a non-migratory snow goose, joining the flock of non-migratory Canada geese who already inhabit the farm. Add in the Toulouse geese that were introduced to the farm several years ago, and Howell Farm has become a spot of high goose biodiversity.
It required three horsepower and two farmerpower to get this field of sod plowed. Its destiny this summer is to be a field of corn.
The sky at Howell Farm was very blue today, especially against the backdrop of a red barn and vibrant green grass.
Farmer Ian weeds the potato field with the help of Jack and Chester. The tines on the weeder are set at a depth so that they disturb small weeds but not the growing potato plants.The crop of oats planted earlier this month has shown itself.
Oats are part of a traditional crop rotation practiced at Howell Farm that's easy to remember: COWS. Corn is followed by oats, followed by wheat, followed by sod, meaning the field is left to fallow for a year. This rotation, accompanied by frequent applications of manure, help keep the fields fertile year after year. |
About
The Furrow is the online newsletter of The Friends of Howell Living History Farm. We will be updating this site about once a week with crop reports and other insights into life on a horse-drawn living history farm. Archives
June 2015
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| THE FURROW: The online newsletter of Howell Living History Farm |
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