| THE FURROW: The online newsletter of Howell Living History Farm |
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Howell Farm's own Ian Ferry took home the first place ribbon in the 30th annual plowing match. Congratulations Ian!
In the old-timers division, the blue ribbon went to farmer Steve Spayd of Ringoes, NJ.
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A few photos from the 30th annual plowing match at Howell Living History Farm. Winners to be announced soon.
The Howell Farm farmhouse is under renovation. Check back soon for more details.
Farmers Jeremy and Ian spent much of the morning in the barn putting new shoes on the draft horses. The report from the barn on Bill -- who had been on injured reserved for most of the year -- is encouraging. Jeremy has used Bill on a few manure spreading expeditions, and so far Bill seems up to the task.
Just two weeks remain until Howell Farm's 30th annual plowing match, on September 1 from 9:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. To many of us, it feels like we were just celebrating the 25th annual match, and the 20th annual match wasn't long ago either. Bill the draft horse returned to action today after nearly a year on the disabled list -- leg problems have kept him in the barn and out to pasture, rather than pulling farm implements.
Farmer Jeremy started Bill slowly and carefully, hitching him to an underloaded manure spreader. Bill did fine, but did seem unusually sweaty afterward. Jeremy plans to introduce Bill gradually to more strenuous work -- he probably won't participate in fall plowing, though he should be more than ready by spring. In the Howell Farm orchard, the peaches are still rock hard, but the apples (few though they are) are crisp and ready to eat.
The potato lifter gets its moment of glory this weekend during the annual Howell Farm potato harvest. This special implement does just what it sounds like--it lifts the potatoes out of the soil for our workers and volunteers to then harvest by hand.
This year's crop certainly isn't one of our best ever -- the plants were eaten by swarms of deer and weeds became a big problem as well. Nonetheless, spirits always seem to be high on potato harvest day. Volunteers can come pick potatoes for as long or as short as they like -- from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lemonade and cookies will be served to field workers throughout the day. The potatoes will be donated to the Greater Mercer Food Cooperative. Howell Farm's field corn this August is strikingly tall -- taller than I've ever seen it -- I've been looking since 2008.
The shortest stalks in the field are about twice my 6 foot frame. And the tallest are taller still. Indeed, Howell Farm's entry in the "Tallest Corn Stalk" category won the blue ribbon at this year's Mercer County 4H Fair. True, it was the only entry, but at 16 feet it was a formidable contender nonetheless. "Wicked tall" says Farmer Rob. He thinks it might even compete for the blue ribbon way up in Flemington. To what factor is this monster corn crop attributable too? Hard to say for certain, but June 2013 was, by far, the wettest June in New Jersey recorded history, dating to 1895. July 2013 was the fifth warmest on record. More notable, according to the New Jersey state climatologist, is how hot it stayed in the evenings of July. "NJ has almost certainly not had any month in more than a century of observations with such excessive overnight warmth," he writes in his monthly report. Do these record setting weather patterns affect the growth of corn? It seems plausible. |
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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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