Alfred Reed Bishop and Doris William Butler

The picture above is the very tap root of Bishop's Homegrown/Face Of The Earth Seed. My grandparents shortly after moving to Pekin Indiana from Greensburg KY in 1947 where they purchased the farm that is now Bishop's Homegrown. This picture was taken in Pekin in front of the old co-op next to the old railroad depot, neither of which exist today.

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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Spring Is Sprung

The first of the early planting is done with many sprouts already showing their beautiful little heads right above the soil line including a number of cabbages, kales, collards, broccoli, hull less oats, wheat, onions, peas and more. I'm also nearly finished seeding in the greenhouse and composting like crazy.

Currently there are 4 bantams setting eggs and 30 eggs in the Hovabator Genesis of Salmon Favrell and Cukoo Marans heritage which will be followed up with a dozen or so Guinea eggs.

We are waiting on some pear rootstock to arrive in the mail for grafting with a number of interesting pear scions which we a really excited about, one of our biggest projects this year is starting our small orchard and vineyard for fresh fruit, preserves, and wine making! We have also been studying maple taping which we hope to implement next January! This august we will be recieving a number of apple bud wood selections for grafting as well.

The honey bees have been out flying the past few days and it's nice to see them once again.

Today we tilled and mulched an area and planted gooseberries and blackberries. We mulched using some ten year old composted sawdust, very beautiful stuff.

The worm population is growing in the new "wrym" house, eating away at some well composted cow manure and making terrific castings all the while increasing my worm stock. Unfortunately we will not have enough worms to supplement the farm income with fishing worms this year, but by next year they should be going well enough to supply as many fisherman as will make the trip up our long driveway, to the farmers market and to the stores we supply.

The chickens are laying very well. We are getting close to 35 eggs a day. With the new chicks on the way this fall we will have to focus on improving our chicken house design. I'm really glad we have a good bantam population, they seem to be very good garden helpers, turning compost for us and digging out root maggots.

Out in the forest the Ginseng rootlets are just greening up and preparing for their emergence in the next couple of weeks and morel season has started though I have yet to see any grow from my kits or stumble upon any wild ones, though a good friend of ours has already found several.

We are expecting a load of well composted chicken manure in the next day or so which we will work into the ground in areas where high N. content is necessary.

Today I seeded a number of Morus Alba (white Mullberry seeds) as well as some very interesting wild white blackberry types and red flowered types.

The two remaining Salvia Divinorum plants are soldiering along and making shoots along the nodes which in a few weeks we will use to propagate our new army of plants.

Sometime shortly I need to take the time to build some bean tepees for pole beans.

In the next few days I'll cut my seed potatoes and prepare to plant those along with several Brassica plants as well as maca seedlings.

I'll update with pictures soon! Tonight I rack and bottle Snozzberry wine!

Very excited that spring is back! I'll be even happier when it's time for heavier planting of crops.

For those interested in whats available on the farm at the moment, we have brassica seedlings on sale at 3 for two dollars and alpine strawberry plants potted up in one gallon pots for $10.00, we also have farm fresh eggs (white, salmon, brown, green, bantam and large size) for $1.75 a dozen.

We will be selling produce, eggs, plants, seeds and worm castings at Crossroads store in Pekin coming shortly. We expect baby lettuce, radishes, and mesclun mix by the end of April!

If you live locally and are interested in our products feel free to contact us or stop by the farm at:

Bishop's Homegrown
5604 S. State Rd. 60
Pekin IN 47165
812-967-2073


In other news the Homegrown Goodness message board is moving along nicely and we are preparing to release a new paper documenting the future of Hip-Gnosis seed development here on this blog. The paper will detail some of the work we will be doing with various food and flower crops this season as well as the announcement of our first official seed circular this fall.


Our good friends over at Brambleberry Farm finally got a web-site as well, be sure to check it out, they have a great selection of fruiting trees and shrubs and run a diversified and self sustainable market farm in neighboring Paoli Indiana


Lot's of stuff going on within the U.S. and world government and economy, too much to keep up with posting at the moment, but I'm sure I'll be back with commentary soon enough, until then be sure to check our www.prisonplanet.com

1 comment:

Ottawa Gardener said...

Well I wish I lived locally as it would be great to meet you (as well as sample your produce). When I have more land than I do now, I'm hoping to start some mulberries as well. Sounds like things are really getting busy around your house. I'm elated to finally have my hands in the soil again.