Last Updated on June 10, 2019 by Aaron von Frank
Hello again! Sorry we haven’t written in a while.
Unlike most of our articles where we share something educational/instructional, this article is simply an apology for our long absence. We’ve got a lot going on right now, so it’s been tough making the time to write good articles here on Tyrant Farms.
Susan the Tyrant has had an emotionally challenging year dealing with her mom’s death and her sister’s illness (cancer sucks) – in addition to trying to maintain her normal workload.
Our ducks like to keep us on our toes as well. See how swollen the underside of Jackson von Duck’s bill is? She decided it would be a good idea to eat a bee, which then stung her tongue. Thankfully, the swelling went away after 36 hours, and we didn’t incur a medical bill.
In addition to my normal workload, I’ve also been busy starting a new farm for Oak Hill Cafe, a new farm-to-table restaurant opening later this fall/winter.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I wake up at 5am for tea and breakfast. Then I meet Tindall (a brilliant and hard working intern from Furman University) at the farm at 6am to work on inoculating logs with mushroom spawn. We’re growing over a dozen varieties of gourmet mushrooms at the farm.
Stacks of inoculated mushroom logs starting to pile up at The Farm at Oak Hill Cafe. This pile is Lion’s Mane mushrooms. These logs came from the front of the property where oak trees had to be removed to make room for the driveway to be widened. Rather than send them to the landfill, we decided to turn them into delicious food!
Then I come back home at around 8:30am to help The Tyrant with morning chores: getting the ducks settled for the day, picking the massive amounts of blueberries and blackberries that are ripe now, making breakfast (second breakfast in my case), work plans, etc.
We LOVE summer berry season. Our plants are loaded with blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries right now.
Then we usually work on our computers from around 10am-7pm with about an hour workout break most days. We end the day by letting the ducks out to forage as we garden and harvest veggies and herbs for dinner. Then lights out around 11pm (ideally).
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I also wake up at 5am, but on those days I work with my partner, Chris Miller of That Garden Guy, along with Tindall, on the fruit/veggie/herb side of the farm for a few hours before it gets too hot (you can see a picture of Chris and Tindall working at the farm at the top of this art. Then back home around 11am, get cleaned up, and start the in-front-of-my-computer portion of the workday.
Save for ongoing groundhog problems, the farm is coming along beautifully. There aren’t many intensive, non-mechanical, no-till, organic farms out there, and – once it’s fully up and running – I hope the Farm at Oak Hill will serve as both a powerful educational AND inspirational tool for farmers and regular folks alike.
Oaxacan green corn growing at The Farm at Oak Hill Cafe. No bare soil here! We mulched these beds with leaves, which helps moderate soil temps, maintain even soil moisture, block weeds, and improve soil fertility.
Once again, please forgive us for our absence! We’ve had a lot on our plates the past few months, but we’ll be back soon to share knowledge and lessons we’ve been learning along the way. Something I’m particularly excited about sharing is how to create your own gourmet mushroom garden at home – coming soon!
So what’s happening in your life or garden? We hope you’re growing great things!
KIGI,
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