I spoke to one farmer who said they could fulfill my order, but not for at least another few months as the cows were still in pasture. I put my name on the order list and proceeded down the market, when I saw a heaping pile of gold!!!
Okay, it was a pile of cow manure in the back of a pick-up truck being sold in burlap sacs for $3/bag or 4/ $10 by a 4H club from the Barriere area. This was such luck - I had been wondering for the past few weeks where I might find manure sold by the truckload. The club kindly delivered eight bags of manure free of charge, emptying each bag into the garden. They were quite happy to have sold a bunch of manure, and I was doubly happy to have it delivered to my home, without any packaging.Eli was asleep in my arms not halfway through the market, having brought home a nasty bug from daycare (which later got ahold of my intestines, resulting in half-hourly trips to the bathroom for 3 days). I didn't get a chance to "steak-out" any more meat suppliers so I will be back to the farmer's market next week. Until then, I will be busy planting our garden for a summer (and hopefully fall and winter too) of home-grown goodness.
great post, i'm glad you've found some local meat to purchase!
ReplyDeletebe sure to mix your manure with some other materials (those that are high in carbon --aka dried leaves, newspaper, etc) because, though it's not as high in nitrogen as other manures, it has high levels of ammonia which can burn plants!