Where's Waldo?

Before the rain this Sunday, I went out to the farm to disk up some new land before the soil got muddy. I checked on the South field which is about 3 acres to see how the cover crops were getting along. The weather was gorgeous, I swear it was 70 degrees outside and the wind felt warm. It is only February, but I think we are headed into a warmer than usual spring.




The South field looks great, the Austrian winter peas are recovering from cold, dry January and the wheat is beginning to thrive. We chose peas for a winter cover in order to incorporate some nitrogen into the soil, and wheat to help choke out weeds. You can see in the photo that they are a thin green layer holding the soil together.





While out in the field I saw a little red speck in the thatch, and it reminded me of one of the virtues of natural farming. Since we don't spray any chemicals, all the bugs can thrive among our crops. While that means some of our produce will have some pest damage, the beneficial predatory bugs will keep it under control. Bugs such as this little ladybug beetle that was romping around in our peas. Do you see him in the picture? I guess it really isn't that hard to see a little red speck in a sea of green and brown. I guess if this was really Where's Waldo the ladybug would be crawling across a pile of fresh picked strawberries.

-Don