It is carzy here at the homestead as it is spring and planting is right around the corner. We have two new baby goats so ffeding bottles every four hurs and watching them play is our only entertainment. We also have a new pig, Wilbur, a 300 pound Hampshire boar. He was emaciated when he arrived but as put on about fifty pounds in ten days and is looking better each day. He get all the extra produce from the garden, 40 fresh scrambled eggs a day, daily baths, a nice pasture to root and nap in so he is in hog heaven. We are harvesting our watermelon radishes which grew as big as softball, truly I mistook them for turnips. We roasted some with turnips and carrots last night with some olive oil, garlic and sea salt and they were amazing. I am looking forward to planting and have been working on getting a seed inventory. We got the seed collection organized, mostly, thanks to Delphine, she has been a godsend this year!!! We are starting to move some of the beds ad refresh them and the rest with gorgeous composted manure from a loal farm we have partnered with. We look forward to the new season, I hope you will all come visit soon. 

Our woofers have been working like mad and have been hauling manure, emptying beds, feeding baby goats, going to classes, we attended an alpaca birthing program where we learned to assist with difficult births, it was amazing and we even had a lab where we could practice ientifying positions of the cria inside the mother and also to practice moving the amanimpulating cria to allow passage into the birth canal. It was an incredible experience and we hope to do more classes like that one. We held two classes here already this year, one was for spring gardening in Florida and other zone 9 areas and Delphone held another short class on seed starting as she is the queen of germination!

We madly labled and packed up 33 entries for the strawberry fest's canning anc baking competitions. We have several interns entered and even Bill and I and some friends got in on the action. We go tomorrow to se if we won anything. I am excited. I earned a grand champion ribbon last year with our chicken soup. I am hoping to do well but I drem of another pretty purple ribbon!!! :)

The dogs are getting a bit neglected with all the babies around but they have been spending time with the girls as they unload manure trucks. They seem to enjoy watching us work. I'm thinking "get off your butt and grab a shovel" but I am glad they are out in the fresh air enjoying being with us, I hope to start working them soon once the frenzy of hauling is over and we settle into maintaining the garden once it is planted. 

The market is going strong and we hope to see you all there the second Saturday of March. We will have eggs, veggies, greens and so much more. I made a fresh batch of laundry soap and hope to make some more soon. We made marmalade last week from our sour oranges and our intern Lisa made us a french rabbit dish for diner that was incredible. Always something interesting happening in the kitchen. Annelise and I made homemade noodles last week and she was amazed at how simple it is to make this tasty morsel from scratch. I do hope she takes it back to France and makes some in the future. 

Thats all for now. I will try and write again soon.