Our Summer Season starts in just 5 weeks! It will be here sooner than you think, and we still have space for YOU!
Find the CSA application and information below.
Join us for a fabulous season of food and farm fun!
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When we noticed rabbits working their way down the rows of pea plants, Cosmo took matters into his own hands and went after them with the air rifle. Don’t worry—clean shots. And no more peas are disappearing!
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Green Garlic
• Pea Shoots
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Arugula
• Mizuna
• Sorrel
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Carrots
Spinach
Green Onions
Finally, the rapini and other brassicas have finished, in a glorious explosion of yellow. The bees enjoyed the flowers, but now they are in the process of being disced and plowed into the soil. We will be getting that spot ready to plant the cucumbers and summer and winter squashes next week.
That brings us to “Slump Week”, that awkward stage of spring when the overwintered crops have come to an end, but the spring-planted crops are not quite plentiful to harvest in great abundance. So, the shares are light this week, but we’re doing the best we can. We checked on the spinach and carrots and they are coming along, just not quite big enough—probably just another week or two.
The first potatoes are popping up, reaching for the warm sun!
There is some exciting news though! Thanks to amazing weather, we were able to get the potatoes planted on time and they are poking up—I can’t wait to have new potatoes! I took a chance and planted a few rows of green beans along with the second planting of peas, and they also popped right up. The u-pick area is started, and with the early flowers, peas, beans, and cilantro and dill are up and growing. The season is off to a great start. Beauty is due to calve in the next week, and we are so anticipating the first of the calves, as well as the delicious milk that comes with the calf. Juniper is due in June, and Dulce is due in July with her first, so we will have bouncing calves to enjoy all summer.
The first planting of beans is up! I don’t know when I have ever successfully planted beans in the first week of May. 50 days to green beans!
We had the pleasure of hearing Michael Pollan speak on Monday night at Benaroya Hall. I had never been there before, but I’m going to have to go again to hear the amazing pipe organ. At any rate, he had a lot to say about food, and about cooking. One perfect quote was “The microwave is the Ayn Rand of kitchen appliances. It’s every man or woman for themselves.” In his new book, “Cooked” he is emphasizing food preparation and eating together. I can’t wait to listen to the whole book! But when he was emphasizing eating together as a family, and pointing out that the dinner table is where children learn the art of conversation, I laughed out loud. How does that happen, I wonder. At our table, the “conversation” is usually focused on Guinea Pigs, shooting rabbits, or planting, and it is NOT usually civilized.
We still have many spaces available for the summer, so if you know anyone who might be interested in joining our Summer CSA, forward them to us!
Have a great week!
Our first early planting of peas is coming along. Happy that we planted in the Easter dry weather window, we should have peas at the beginning of our Summer CSA season—mid-June!
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Green Garlic
• Pea Shoots
• Baby Turnips with Greens
• Swiss Chard
• Beet Greens
• Fresh Thyme
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Arugula
Radishes
Carrots
Green onions on the left, green garlic on the right. Fork in the middle of the road.
What exactly is up with this weather? Yesterday it was 85°, finally today it has cooled to the 70°’s, which is still warm for May, but at least it’s reasonable. We were in a pickle—so many things to plant out, mostly the 30,000 or so onions—but it was just too hot. If we had started planting, even with water, we would have lost many to the scorching heat. We couldn’t put out baby lettuce, broccoli, or anything else either. It’s just too much of a shock to be thrown out into that heat, and only an inch deep in the soil.
And so we wait.
But we are planting our next round of seeded crops—spinach, arugula, carrots, beets, peas, fava beans, other greens. I even gambled on a patch of green beans. We don’t need to worry about them rotting in these temperatures, and if they work, we’ll have green beans in early July. We never even attempt to plant this early, because it’s too cold and wet and we would lose them to rotting. We may even be planting cucumbers and squash next week, and that would be a record date as well.
Our first planting of radishes is coming along under the protection of fabric tunnels. The tunnels keep the root maggot flies and flea beetles out.
Our farm interns, Dan and Kerri, have settled-in, and we couldn’t be happier. They both fit in well with our farm and our family, and we are excited about the coming season. More stories will come, but for now they are learning the ropes and quickly becoming invaluable.
Shawna and Duane have put together another spring produce cooking video, which is linked below. This time, they are using Pea Shoots (and other spring veggies) to make a risotto and a delicious salad.
http://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=5EM0rjb51q0&ns=1
I also have to share a dish I put together tonight for dinner. Dan picked a few handfuls of pea shoots and baby turnips. I cut off the turnips from their leaves, halved the larger ones, and sautéed them gently in butter. When they were caramelized and tender I removed them and squeezed two oranges into the pan, with the pulp. I reduced the liquid a bit, added a dollop of honey and a splash or two of rice vinegar, and some salt and pepper and cooked it down a bit more, until it was syrupy. I cut the pea shoots and turnip greens into bite-sized pieces and tossed them together, then tossed the turnips in the “sauce” before I poured it on the greens and tossed it all together. It was SO tasty. (And it was delicious with the cheese ravioli and pesto, and baked salmon that we had with the greens.)
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Green Garlic
• Pea Shoots
• Baby Turnip Greens
• Siberian Salad Kale
• Broccoli Raab (Rapini)
• Claytonia (Miners’ Lettuce)
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Green Onions
Arugula
Radishes
Big changes are coming this week, and I’m not just talking about the beautiful sunny weather. Our interns arrive Thursday, and so we’re busy preparing for them. They will be living, working, and learning here for about six months, before going on to their next adventure. We will get to know them soon, and we hope you will too.
After Thursday, planting will begin in earnest. Our many thousands of onion transplants are eager to be planted, and we are anxious to get the next round of seed in the ground.
For now, just enjoy this recent video put together by Shawna from Sweetriver Photography. Duane is making a delicious frittata from Rapini, with the help of some bacon and cheese, and lots of fresh spring eggs.
We will have more to share next week. Enjoy the sun!
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The Japanese turnips planted in February are looking lovely. Weeded, watered, and ready to grow! They need to be thinned, and they’re tasty and tender, so enjoy raw or gently cooked.
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Pea Shoots
• Baby Turnip Greens
• Siberian Salad Kale
• Broccoli Raab (Rapini)
• Swiss Chard
• Beets
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Green Garlic
Green Onions
Arugula
Radishes
Dinner tonight is pretty tasty. I picked up some clams at the West Seattle Farmers Market yesterday, so they’re just simply steamed. I also sauteed a little onion, put in a heap of pea shoots and cooked them down a bit, then added some créme fråiche and tossed the works with a little pasta. Not bad—a satisfying spring dinner.
If the weather would just warm up a few degrees, the green garlic and green onions would zip right to harvest size. They’re just barely growing! And soon, we’ll have more. The carrots are getting weeded. I know everyone can’t wait for those.
The mouse carefully dug out these zucchini seeds and nibbled out the meat inside, leaving the shells for me. Surprise! Replanted and covered with plastic domes for protection, round two.
It’s a pesky kind of time right now. Rabbits are digging out the germinating peas. Not just nibbling, but actually digging them up. The normal level of rats (always present around here, thanks to the feed mill down the street, and the nature of having a farm) has recently exploded, and we have a mouse in the greenhouse that has dug up all the cucumber and zucchini seeds I started. Tiny little paws working hard to pull those tasty nuggets out of the flats.
Teaching the little dogs to dispose of rats. Here is Mario with his first dispatch. What a good boy!
Did you know that a female rat can produce a litter of young every month? The nests we’ve been finding have averaged 10 babies—that’s 120 babies for EACH female. Very quickly, a farm can be overrun by rats. We don’t use poison though. We are working on training our smaller dogs, Mario and Luigi (Corgi/Jack Russell mix) to catch the rats. Here is Mario with his first catch. The cats are good at getting the babies, but not the adults.
An unusual thing has been happening over the last month or so. Typically we don’t have eagles down here, or ravens. We have plenty of different hawks and lots of crows. We don’t see the bigger birds until we go up the hill to Enumclaw. But, for some reason, they’re moving down here. We are seeing three bald eagles, off and on. Luckily they’re not bothering us, but they’ve done significant damage to the neighbor’s duck flock. We have been graced by pieces of duck dropped upon us from the heavens.
Ravens and crows don’t like to share territory. They are cousins, and live at the same position on the food chain. Maybe it’s a feud from way back, who knows. All I know is that when the ravens show up, the crows disappear. And that isn’t all a bad thing.
The crows get pretty thick around here. Hundreds squawking and flocking around. Stealing eggs, pulling up plant tags, digging up germinating peas and corn. Pulling garlic cloves out of the ground. Sometimes we can cover crops and prevent damage. We’ve successfully hung curtains in the chicken house to keep them from flying in and stealing eggs right out from under the hens. They also like to grab baby chickens–definitely not nice, and hard on the bottom line.
So, given the choice we’d rather have a pair of giant ravens than 100 pesky crows. It has been interesting though. The crows send out one emissary to harass the raven, presumably to drive it off. The raven mocks the crow, who flies back to the flock and they send another messenger. This one dives repeatedly, nearly striking the raven, now sitting on top of the chicken house. The raven takes flight and the crow and raven engage in a battle to rival military jets, even incorporating barrel rolls. We cheered! Then, again, retreat and send another crow. This time the raven has figured out that there are eggs lurking under the chicken house and picks one up in its’ mouth and settles down to have lunch. What makes a murder of crows more upset? Not much.
And so it went on, all afternoon. The ravens took turns being harassed, but I’m guessing they enjoyed tormenting their little cousins. And we enjoyed looking up talking raven videos on YouTube. Did you know they could be trained to talk, like a parrot? Amazing. But you don’t want one for a pet. They are flying two-year-olds.
This one says “hello” and “hi”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFXU7o0fYII
And this one says more! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GusdG_SSWw
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Tree Swallows are a sure sign that spring has arrived. They are truly a great thing for our farm.
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Kale or Collard Greens
• Spinach
• Kale Broccolini x 2
• Broccoli Raab (Rapini)
• Salad Mix (mostly baby lettuces)
• Sorrel
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Green Garlic
Pea Shoots
Baby Turnips
The weather may have changed, but the rain didn’t start until we had a good stretch of ground planted. Peas, radishes, turnips, carrots, beets, arugula, mizuna, yokatta-na, salad, spinach, dill, cilantro. Like I said, a nice space is now planted and *well* watered. Because, by the time the gentle spring rain was done Sunday night, we estimated that at least 3 inches had fallen. That’s what we call a soaking. But April Showers bring May….food!
Lillibet delivered 10 healthy babies. I love checking-in and finding everyone happily nursing with a contented mama. And then I quietly sneak away…
Last week, we waited somewhat anxiously for Lillibet to deliver her new litter. The calendar said Easter Sunday, my estimate was for Wednesday, but she finally brought them into the world Friday morning. 10 beautiful babies. I take no credit, she’s an amazing mother.
Cosmo jumped in the car with me to run to the post office and pick up these little fuzzballs. It’s hard to believe it will be only 8 or 10 weeks until they are ready to eat. This is the start of healthy, happy meat though.
Monday, we picked up our first batch of fryer chicks for the year. These will be ready to butcher in June, so if you haven’t reserved your plump, juicy fryers yet, be sure and get yourself on the list. There are a few not spoken-for, and there will be more in the months to come.
Kerri and Dan, our interns for the summer will be arriving in two weeks, which should be just in time for heavy planting season. The potatoes will arrive this week, onion transplants next week, and then round one of transplants in the greenhouse will be ready to go out. Bring on the warmer weather, because we’ve got so much to do!
We are still hoping to fill about 50 CSA subscriptions. If you would like to join us, or if you know someone who would like to join us, please don’t delay! Summer will be here before you know it, and our summer season starts in just 9 weeks. We would love to share this great upcoming season with you!
Late breaking news is that the first Tree Swallows arrived today! There must be 50, swooping and diving over the rapini patch, picking-off flying insects. They are a great thing for the farm because they can make a serious dent in the insect pest population. I read reports that they can eat 60 insects per hour—that’s around 25,000 insects per month, per individual! Next time you’re complaining about mosquitos, bring in the swallows! The orange-and-black Barn Swallows haven’t returned from the south yet, but they will be here soon and hopefully will be taking up their nests in the cow barn again.
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April Fools’ Day, and the ladybugs are out, looking for nectar to feed on until they mate and lay eggs. The arugula is blooming.
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Collard Greens
• Spring Onions
• Kale Broccolini
• Broccoli Raab (Rapini)
• Brussels Sprout Broccolini
• Salad Mix (mostly baby lettuces)
• Claytonia (Miners’ Lettuce)
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Green Garlic
Spinach
Pea Shoots
Baby Turnips
I think we can agree it’s been a fairly mild winter. Not really any snow to speak of, no ice storms, and really, not as much rain as we’re used to getting. One of the drier winters in a long while, for sure. However, it was still an incredible surprise to hit 70 degrees on March 31, and the days leading up to that sunny Easter weren’t too shabby either.
We usually put in a big planting of all the different kales in early fall. We harvest the leaves through the winter, but the sweetest reward comes in the spring, when we have lots of these delicious broccolini to pick.
All that warmth and sun is glorious, and it sure makes the leafy things start a-growing! All of the overwintered brassicas shot up their flower stalks, yielding tasty rapini or broccolini (depending on their family). All can be lumped into the same broad family, whether they are the flowers of cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, or turnips. The turnip and mustard side of the family produce the bitter type, but the kale/cabbage side of the family produces sweet, tender little stalks that are delicious roasted or sautéed. We have been eating some form of them every night now.
The extra brightness also brings the chickens into full-swing egg-laying mode. Just in time for Easter! They start up the cackling at 5:30, and are at full peak around 6:30am. Their production is up to around 7 dozen a day, so if you’re in need of eggs, make sure and grab some. Let me know if you need an egg punch card!)
The young hens, or pullets, are getting so close to laying. We’re finding 2-4 eggs per day, but in another month they should be up to 4 or 5 dozen a day.
With the stretch of sunny, dry days, we’ve been able to get a lot of ground ready for planting, including the new cow pasture. Tomorrow we will be able to rest a bit, having peas, fava beans, arugula, mizuna, salad greens, kale, chard, spinach, beets, carrots, turnips, and radishes planted.
We’re anticipating picking the greenhouse spinach next week, and the beets, turnips, and carrots inside are coming along nicely. Spring is delicious!
(Photos in this post courtesy of Shawna Smith, Sweetriver Photography)
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Baby spinach plants. These are inside the big greenhouse, where it feels like May, instead of chilly March. We’ll be eating spinach around Easter.
The spring equinox is upon us. March 20, the day when the length of day’s light equals the time of night darkness. We’ve already noticed: weeds and pasture are greening up and growing; the hens have gone from their 10 eggs per day in February to 5 dozen a day today. And that will only increase in the weeks to come. Our 125 mature hens should be laying about 7 dozen a day by June. The young flock will start laying any day, and they should contribute another 6 dozen a day by the time they are all matured and laying well. We remind ourselves that yes, the plan was to have more eggs this year.
2013 marks 15 years of farming on 78th Avenue. That’s enough time to work through a lot of problems, and still encounter new ones to solve. It’s also enough time to develop some pretty serious routines. Our pattern for the year is well-entrenched by now. Spring is sudden and chaotic, summer is full of long-days and abandonment of routines, fall is for re-establishing routines and planning for the dark season, and winter is for winding down and resting.
Spinach seedlings in the greenhouse, newly cultivated. Planted February 25, they are just getting their first true leaves March 15. We will probably be picking these sweet babies by Easter.
Winter will be over any day now. We thought it was over last week, but here we are, surrounded by rain and chilly air again, so clearly, it is still…winter. Mike started working up ground to get it ready to plant, Teo has the greenhouses clean, and I’ve got them planted. The cleaning continues, the soil preparation continues, and the planting eases in while the supplies arrive in a trickle. But, one of these days soon, the cold air will stop and it will be—suddenly spring.
Red Raab-in! Spring is here! We sampled the first overwintered turnip Rapini, or Broccoli Raab for dinner! These red ones are pretty bitter, but the sweet ones are just days away from being ready.
Then, while we try to maintain order in the family—making sure homework gets done and mealtimes and bedtimes are enforced, and the kids take a bath once in a while—the true chaos arrives. Suddenly, baby chicks arrive, baby pigs arrive, and baby calves are born. CSA deliveries start, farmers markets open, and the harvesting begins, while we frantically try to keep up with planting schedules and surprises. And…routine.
Daylength increases bit by bit, straining to accommodate the workload that increases exponentially. Then suddenly, we have a gorgeous day and realize that it’s 9:00 and we haven’t eaten dinner, and it’s a SCHOOL NIGHT! But hey, it’s ok because we got all the squash planted, right? (Tell that to the teachers.) We wonder how long it is until summer vacation from school. How much easier it will be when that day arrives. Not only will be kids be able to help out a little more, but we can have a more flexible daily plan. Free-choice grazing for food makes for easier parenting. I’m sure I read that in a parenting book.
Our honeybees in early March. The girls have been out foraging on willow and hazel pollen since February, and they’re finding nectar somewhere as well. Pollen feeds the babies and nectar gets turned into honey. They won’t bring home pollen unless there are babies to feed, or at least eggs being laid. So, it’s a good indicator that there are queens in the hives, without having to pull out all the frames and examine them on chilly days.
Teo announced that he is getting married in June. He’s a really wonderful guy, and we are so happy for him. He struggled to tell us that he would like a couple days off after the wedding, and he doesn’t usually work on Sundays anyway, so it’s really only two days off. We were puzzled. Of course he can have as much time as he wants—he’s getting MARRIED! Besides, we reassured him that it will all be fine because by then our two fabulous interns will be entrenched and used to our routines.
We are so excited to not only have extra hands to help with the workload, but also to be sharing what we have learned with young people who want to continue farming on their own. They will arrive in late April, and we have purchased these charming vintage accommodations for them. Thank you, Craigslist! We have a few weeks to refurbish the interiors, but really they are only lacking showers, which will be installed shortly. Everything else works.
Aside: If anyone out there is skilled in basic RV shower installation and grey water plumbing, we would be happy to TRADE FOOD (veggies, eggs, meat) for LABOR. We are pretty generous in our bartering, so please sally forth with your offers. It would be a huge help for us in these chaotic times.
