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Always a good reminder!

It definitely makes it easier. As you first start using it you’ll want to do a small section and check to see how evenly it is dispersing the seeds so you can make any needed adjustments before you get too far in!

Sort of. You can cut the greens off a young onion, but it will slow their growth. If you pull the entire onion bulb out, then nothing will continue growing. You would want to take into consideration the onion variety as well. Most onions sold as scallions or spring onions will never develop a large bulb, but the greens will get woody if you let it grow too long. I would recommend growing two different varieties, each with a different purpose.

I bet the gizzards would be good mixed in with your onion and liver too, but I would try to cut them up a bit smaller so they cook at a similar time with the rest of the organ meats.

@@theforbesfamilyfarm thanks for the reply. Do you know anything about using kidneys. She bagged those up also

@@MagiaErebea028we don’t typically save the kidneys, so I’m not as familiar with the best uses in the kitchen. Have fun experimenting to find what you like!

We only got about a quart of milk, so we’ve stopped milking the yaks and have a Jersey dairy cow to produce all the milk we need. It would separate a little bit, but we didn’t get much cream. It’s delicious meat, but found it wasn’t the most efficient use of our time compared to milking a Jersey!

Compost is our primary amendment. We also have a vermicomposting system, so we will often incorporate worm castings into the soil as well.

It is from Burns Cowboy Shop in Park City, UT.

I’m so glad it was helpful! I know it’s made a difference in the quality of our produce.

It's really up to your own taste preferences. Since they are being pickled and then processed in a water bath canner, they can be eaten immediately. Many people recommend waiting 1-3 weeks so they can develop a stronger flavor, but it's up to you!

Great question! The reality is that we sometimes find ourselves watering at all of those times, it just depends on how busy the day is. But, best case scenario is watering in the morning before it starts getting hot. This allows the plants to stay hydrated as the heat comes on through the day. On especially hot days, we sometimes have to add another watering late afternoon. We generally try to avoid watering in the late evening because the water sometimes sits on the plant’s leaves over night which can cause disease. That said, we’ve been forced to water late in the day on numerous occasions and it isn’t the end of the world. Better to water in the evening than force plants under heat stress to wait all the way until morning.

Thanks for the response Linda, and great questions. The curtain holders are okay, but they do bend sometimes. We’ve found standard clamp grips from the hardware store work just as well, so we use a mix of those and the clips that came from Farmers Friend LLC. Yes, we often keep both sides up, especially through the summer months. And, we’ve actually found it is best to keep both sides up on windy days because it allows the wind to blow through the tunnel without catching the plastic as forcefully. Basically, if it is windy we try to keep them fully closed or fully open. Worst case is when one end is open, allowing a wind tunnel to develop that rips the plastic on the other end. As for the plastic migrating to one side, the best solution we’ve come up with is to secure the plastic on the end bows with wiggle wire and channeling. If you have a long tunnel, there’s still a chance the plastic can shift in the middle, but having the ends secured helps a lot.

Thanks! They help extend our season quite a bit!

Mrs. Betty and I are planning on constructing one for The Ole Church 5 Acre Homestead! We are having difficulty finding Cattle Panels???

Hi Chris - it really depends on the temperament of the particular animal. We only have one yak that we've really been able to milk. She's very grain motivated, so she'll stay still as long as we have a bucket of grain for her. We haven't tried a hobble on her because I think she would flip out and potentially hurt herself. As much as possible I would get them used to you handling them, leading them with a halter and touching their belly before they even have a calf. Good luck!

Let us know what you think once you try it! This is one of our favorite methods!

I’m glad you found it helpful. It’s one of our favorite ways to prepare chicken!

We’re out in NE Utah near the Flaming Gorge. It’s pretty beautiful!

Sensible suggestions. There are definitely more expensive seeders on the market with various design innovations to make the equipment more ergonomic. For instance, BCS walk behind tractors have highly adjustable handles, allowing you to walk beside or behind the equipment. The Earthway is affordable and works well on for small scale operations, but it definitely lacks a few of the tricks other systems offer.

We use a few different strategies to help us keep the beds clean. First, over the winter we will often put a tarp over the garden beds so that in the spring when it warms up the weeds will begin germinating, but the growth will be stifled, so it makes it very easy to pull them out when we take the tarps off. Second, we try to mulch in as many places as possible so there is more of a weed barrier there. Third, we try to be more diligent in weeding (our stirrup hoe is our favorite tool for any crops where we have good spacing between them) particularly in the beginning of the season as plants are just getting established.

@@theforbesfamilyfarm Thanks a lot for the answer. I wonder what mulch you use?

We look forward to seeing you then too! With all our cold weather and snow this spring, everything is off to a super slow start, so hopefully we'll have something in July. Fingers crossed!

That is all very true in our experience as well!

Thanks for the question. Our tunnels have generally held up very well in snow. However, we did make a few upgrades because the purlin strap was insufficient against our winds. We replaced the strap with a rigid purlin (same material used for the bows) and we added wind braces on the ends. These upgrades seem to have done the trick. We get a lot of snow, so for some of our new tunnels we got the “gothic” design, which supposedly sheds snow more effectively. That said, all of our tunnels (old and new) shed snow pretty well and we’ve never had any collapse. The extra head room in the gothic tunnels is nice though.

Direct sowing is definitely possible. For alliums propagated with bulbs (i.e. garlic or shallots) direct sowing is the only way to go. Here are a few considerations. First, alliums are generally long season crops. So, climate needs to be taken into consideration. We live in the mountains and have a very short growing season, so anytime we can get a head start in the nursery, it tends to pay off when the cooler days of late summer arrive. Second, weed pressure is a significant challenge with alliums. If you’re going to direct sow, then you need to have a well organized weed management plan, especially early on in the plants’ growth. Finally, one benefit to starting with transplants, even in bigger operations, is the extra time you create for crop rotations. If you start the plant for 30-60 days in a nursery, then that is 30-60 days you can be growing something else in those garden beds (whether it be short season crops like salad greens or radish, or a cover crop to add fertility to the soil before the heavy feeding alliums). Hope this helps, and thanks for the question!

@@theforbesfamilyfarm I've been experimenting with direct sowing of leeks and onions. Thus far my only success is Tropea cipollini. And yes the trick is going to be getting them through the weed pressure. Do you think fall or spring sowing is better?

@@dominiccarpin5651 it again depends on climate. Fall planting is definitely a good way to get a head start before the weed pressure increases, as long as you have enough time in the fall to get them established before frost sets in.

These are 14’. We now have 7 of them. Our beds are all 30” wide, and we find that whether we use 14’ or 16’ we can only fit four beds per tunnel. The only thing we gain with the wider tunnel is wider paths. Because the narrow paths work okay in our context, we find it a better use of space and more economical to use the 14’. On our newest tunnels we added the 16” riser kit from Farmers Friend LLC, which does make the space feel a little more comfortable to work in.

They are really interesting creatures. We often refer to them as the hippie cow cousins!

@@theforbesfamilyfarm When I use to raise cattle they would go through 2 to 3 tons of hay each winter. How do the yaks handle winter feeding, and what type of feed do you use? Keep up the great content!

Nordskov Studios Yaks tend to be pretty hardy in the winter and are good foragers. While we still feed them a grass and alfalfa hay, we typically don’t need to begin feeding them as early as our angus cattle. And they eat about a third less than the cattle.

@@theforbesfamilyfarm Thank you for the information. Keep it up!

It’s always a learning process! Just add lots of good organic matter. 😊

Paula Frey we make a lot of our own compost and our goal is eventually to produce enough for all our garden needs. In the meantime, we buy 60 cubic yards (a full semi load) from a Utah-based composting company to supplement our own supply.

Bryan Axtman thanks. The crockpot is easy too, although we usually end up with too many bones to fit in for one batch!

Kelly Strampe sorry we’ll miss you next week!

Thanks! It's been great to finally get some fresh garden produce in our kitchen again, and we're excited to start sharing it now that market season is getting into gear.