Over the last two days, we have had some unique visitors on the farm. There’s a group of Canadian geese hanging out in our multispecies cover crop. If you look closely you can see them in the distance. The kids and I can’t remember ever seeing them this time of year, but maybe our memories are poor. It makes me wonder if there’s something in that mix that is attracting them.

This is our first year experimenting with cover crops, and I am really liking what I am seeing. I shared in a previous post that we planted a mix of 13 different open pollinated seeds that are supposed to increase mycorrhizal fungi (critical in producing nutrient dense grain). Unfortunately chemical fertilizers have been found to kill off these good guys. It took a little work talking my husband into this mix, because it contains sunflowers, and sunflowers don’t go through the combine. Please don’t ask him about this experience. Ha! The sunflowers are excellent for getting zinc back into the soil, and I couldn’t find another plant that would do that. True to my word, I went out and dug up all the sunflowers that got into our oat/pea mix so he won’t have trouble when he combines them. When I was out digging weeds in the 22 acres we bought this spring, I found several mushrooms (a good sign that the cover crop is working). I might get a little too excited about this kind of stuff!

When we put the layers on this cover crop about two weeks ago, their egg production increased by 20 percent and they are leaving some of their feed that was raised organically. They had previously been on good quality, green, lush pasture so with that fact and as hot as it has been the last two weeks, Aiden and I have been really surprised. I have done a lot of research on open-pollinated, ancient grains and the more I learn and observe, the more I believe it’s the way to go. Lord willing I will share more about my research as well as my own observations in the future. Do you source nutrient dense, local food? We love to hear from you!