Sometimes people need a good reminder of how things used to be. We could speed things up with tractors or increase our yield with a few chemicals, but when it comes to making good whiskey, some things just can’t be rushed.
A good team of mules are hard workers. Sometimes they’re slow, sometimes stubborn, but dedicated to getting the job done.
This is the second year we’ve teamed up with the Middle Tennessee Mule Skinners Association to disc our organic corn fields. Twelve teams came out Saturday and helped make farming look easy. The field they disced will become the corn that makes our authentic Tennessee Moonshine.
If you missed this year’s discing, be sure to come to our grand opening Saturday April 21 for free mule wagon rides, tours and Moonshine tasting. You can also catch a performance by the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. And if the timing is right, we’ll have a few bottles of Shine for you to take home a genuine taste of this unique Tennessee experience.
Every Saturday in April, a few of our friends with the Middle Tennessee Mule Skinners Association are bringing their human care takers out to the farm to disc and plant our first organic corn crops.
The weather couldn’t have been more nice up on the mountain. Here’s some video from yesterday featuring the hard work of five mule teams belonging to Andy, Buddy, Terry, Mike and Doug. Here’s more in photos:
About every weekend in April, a few local mule teams from the Middle Tennessee Muleskinners Association will give us a hand discing and planting 7 acres of organic corn on the farm.
The Farmer’s Almanac said moon phases favor May 3 – May 10 for planting corn in Woodbury, TN. Some tell us to wait until the the oak leaf buds are as big as a squirrel’s ears, but after this weekend we can’t stand to wait any longer.
Nature has its way of telling you when it’s right. It’s an old fashioned way of doing things up on the mountain, but it gets the job done.
Our t-shirts are here! Celebrate Spring Planting 2011 with a t-shirt from our online General Store, or email John Whittemore (if you can’t catch him in town) or call him 615-971-4925.
These shirts are made in the USA and screen printed in Murfreesboro, TN. They commemorate this year’s Spring planting of our first organic corn with some very special help from our friends and neighbors at the Middle Tennessee Muleskinners Association.
We’ve got an awesome local crew working on this 1,900 square feet building that will soon become the distillery’s stillhouse #1.
This stillhouse will allow us to test formulas and processes, train people, host meetings and workshops and serve as transition space for the main facility. Stillhouse #1 should be complete in April. Right about when it’s as uncomfortable as it can get to cook a batch of moonshine should be about when we’re ready.
Sometime before the stillhouse is built it’s planting time on Short Mountain. It takes a farmer’s instinct to know just the right time to plant and good old American muscle to get it done. We’re 19 days away from Spring, and there’s about 7 acres of organic corn we’ve got to get planted if we’re going to cook it this year. Wait until you see the mule team we’re fueling up to plant our corn.
