sutton023

The horses here are now an established part of the operation.  They do tremendous - skilled - mowing, pruning, and brush clearing for us; in both the hazels and chestnuts.  They're almost the only reason we CAN harvest chestnuts these days; if we had to mow and clear by machine and hand, we'd never get it done.  Seriously; we've tried.  Yes, you have to manage moveable fence; get them water, and manage them off season- but the work is considerably less than the money and time needed to use machines. Plus; horses reproduce; tractors don't.  That was one of the original arguments back when tractors were replacing horses as primary tillage technology- but it was pushed off by- cheap fossil fuels, subsidizing manufacture and the entire system.  Yes, yes, fracking has solved our peak oil problems- until, of course, it doesn't.  Meantime- there is a human and natural benefit to the horses.  Tractors, with very few exceptions, do not totter up to you and...

With all the cold, cloudy weather this spring (feel free to do a search on "record May snowfall in Minnesota"), the plant growth in our solar-heated greenhouses was very slow during April, and part of March and May.  The little tubelings are picking up the pace now, but we probably won't start shipping tubelings until the week of May 29; about two weeks late. They're just not quite ready for the hardening process we put them through to get them tough and ready for your field planting. This is one of the results of our commitment to sustainable production– we do depend on current sunlight for our heat and power, and sometimes that does slow things down. Thank you for being a part of this nature-connected enterprise!