Milky Way Farm 2018 Newsletter #1

Welcome to our very first newsletter here at Milky Way Farm!! Since making the move from our old farmstead on Plank Line, we have been very busy settling in to our new location at 484872 Sweaburg Rd., just south of Woodstock, ON. Please visit our website to find out more about who we are, and what we do. Link here: https://milkywayfarm.ca/

We recently made a portable rickshaw style coop for our new laying hens (seen above), and have been enjoying the taste of fresh pasture raised eggs.

The property has been a hobby horse farm in permanent pasture for the past 30+ years, so it will require a bit of work to turn the pasture into the semi-permanent raised beds we will be growing on for the 2019 season. Part of our plan to terminate the perennial pasture grass includes laying down large plastic tarps (silage tarp) in order to kill off the grass, without the use of any herbicides, or repeated tillage. This is in an attempt to preserve the soil structure, and retain the organic matter in the decomposing grass and roots. The process takes about a month during the heat of summer, or a few months during the colder seasons.

We have also been hard at work planning for the 2019 season. We have big ideas for our first full season that include a building a new permanent greenhouse, digging an irrigation pond, converting a storage shed into a veggie wash station and cold room, planting perennial herb and orchard windbreak strips, and designing the layout of the farm property to best use the small space we have. Our entire property is only 4.5 acres, so every square foot counts.

So far it only exists in map form, but we will keep you posted on the development of these projects as they progress.

Farm layout showing growing bed blocks with orchard windbreaks in between fields, greenhouse, and pond locations, with the veggie wash and store station in a central location.

This past week we have also been back to the old farm to harvest our garlic planted in the fall of 2017. In total we pulled around 2100 bulbs, half of which will become our planting stock this fall. The other half will be available for sale when we start attending the Woodstock Farmers Market in January of 2019. Look out for us there at the market next winter, or contact us directly if you would like some garlic sooner.

This hardneck variety is called Music, and is drying nicely in the shed.

Stay tuned for more updates as our preparations continue, and please let your friends know about us on social media! Fresh, local, ecologically grown vegetables will be available all-year long from Milky Way Farm in Oxford County starting in January 2019!!