We visited Howell Farm over this past weekend. It was Fall Festival weekend and it certainly felt like fall, with temps in the 60s. They harvest their wheat and spelt in July and store it until the first

weekend in October, when it is threshed. Threshing separates the grain from the straw and most of the husk that is around the individual wheat or spelt seeds. Spelt is an old-time grain, sort of a cousin to wheat. The farm grows spelt for animal feed and wheat for grinding into flour. There was also some plowing being finished up in the Hunter Rd. field, which will presumably be planted in either wheat or spelt in the coming weeks, after the field is harrowed to smooth it out. Farmer Ian did the plowing with Belgian team Chester and Jack. Sorry, I don't have a picture of them, but I DO have a picture of another team the farm used to have, Buster and Duke.

We got some new pullets this evening. They're Partridge Rocks, the mottled brown color-variation of the Plymouth Rock. A friend is raising them, so we bought 6 from her. She was able to catch 5 tonight, with one more coming tomorrow. (Chickens are easiest to catch in the evening when they go in to roost. They don't see in the dark very well.) We already have Barred Rocks and a couple of White Rocks, plus some Buff Orpingtons and Ameraucanas, but have lost a few over the past two years. The young girls are about 4 1/2 to 5 months old, so they should be starting to lay very soon, if they haven't already.
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