May 2025 newsletter

The next fresh oil and fresh flour milling is scheduled for the week of May 19 2025.

The winter was practically normal with cold temperatures and snow through till April so the farming season had a very good start. The cold weather seems to have killed of a lot of my mustard weed and I may have killed some of the sunflower moths which hibernate in the soil. We were able to log with the horses in the late winter, cut firewood and haul and stack with the help of many visitors which was a lot of fun.

Last year I tried planting my oats in January since the weather had turned very warm. This was not a success as the weeds germinated and dominated the oat field which also happened to the spelt field. We had a a very poor crop of spelt and oats last year but the sunflowers did well with the crimped rye method I have been using to discourage the weeds.

http://matsfineoilsandflour.ca/Crimped%20rye.html

This year the horses have been very busy in all aspects of the farming from plowing, to discing to tine weeding. Just as I am getting old so are the horses so instead of just two horses pulling the plow or tine weeder all three are doing it together with Duke in the middle who has always been inconsistent puller but in the middle it evens him out.

http://matsfineoilsandflour.ca/Oats.html

Jim the horse had a difficult winter as his teeth do not allow him to grind the hay so we put him on hay cubes and Beet pulp. He lost a lot of weight in winter and then to make matters worse he got a bad case of mites which made him loose a lot of hair. Luckily the vet cured the mites and worked on his teeth. Today Jim is much happier without the mites and looks forward to his morning ration of hay cubes and beet pulp soaked in water to fatten him up.

And the spelt and rye I planted last fall are looking the best I have every seen. It has been ten years since moving to the farm and working to improve the soil.

Thanks for your support.

Mat and Dorothee