Category Archives: Uncategorized

>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:

>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:

>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Green Garlic

>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Green Garlic

>

>One aspect I’ve always enjoyed about farming is the opportunity to make a fresh start every day, as well as every growing season. This is especially true after last year, in which it felt like every day we were just barely hanging on and getting by. I just found this quote, credited to “The Duke”, as in John Wayne, but I don’t know if it’s from a particular movie.

“Tomorrow is the most important thing. It comes in to us at midnight very clean, it’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. The hands may end up stained with blood and sweat but they are the hands of hard work. The hands of hope. I hope those hands are strong enough for the tasks that lie ahead.”

It sure feels like spring lately. What a beautiful February we’ve been having. Chilly at night, but what beautiful sunny days. As a mom, I couldn’t have hoped for better weather for a week of school vacation—Presidents’ Week. At least I could force the kids to play outside for the afternoons. It’s hardly even been a struggle. I also couldn’t have hoped for better weather for farming. We’ve started getting ground worked up, and I ordered seed potatoes and onions to be shipped next week. With a bit more luck, we’ll have the ground ready this week and be planting on time, for a change. (The ideal time for potato planting is March, but usually it’s too wet to plant until April. Last year because of the rain, and the May snow, we didn’t get planted until June–much too late.)

Today we planted the big greenhouse full of salad greens, so that we can start our spring shares with tender greens. Mike put down fertilizer and lime, and rototilled it in, softening the soil into a nice seedbed. It was actually hot inside, and the humid air was full of the warm, delicious scent of dirt. We’re working on the two smaller greenhouses so that we can get some early peas planted. There should be time to get the peas grown and picked in time to set out the tomato and pepper plants in May. I’d also like to fill a greenhouse with sweet potato plants, but we’ll have to see how that goes.

The blue herons started coming home last week. Several pairs have returned to the trees down the street, and two pairs (or four of last year’s young) have returned to the trees above our house. No sign of nest refurbishing or building yet, but they are noisy and we are happy to have them back.

>Please don’t get excited, thinking this means we’re picking vegetables again. The new season begins way before we pick anything. I’m going to try and keep up to date with how we prepare for a new season.

I started ordering seeds, finally, just what’s necessary. I usually like to get them all ordered in January, but we didn’t have enough cash reserves to do that, so I’m doing a little at a time. The tomatoes, celery, artichokes, and some herbs are on the way. A little early cabbage and cauliflower, and the onions. These are things that need to be started now to be ready for planting out in April/May. I am determined to have onions this year, and we’re getting it done. One of our subscribers works for the Auburn School District, and they have a horticulture program. Gina offered to start plants for us in their *heated* greenhouses, and I will gladly pay someone for that privelege. We don’t have heat in our greenhouses, so we really can’t start anything in February—it freezes in there at night, just like outside. And we can’t justify the cost of heating them ourselves.

The parts for our broken greenhouse arrived yesterday. We decided to replace the flatter “quonset” hoops with the pointy “gothic” type this time because they’re stronger. I don’t want to replace it again next year, and it will be worth the extra money.

We sold our big cow to a wonderful family in Snohomish, and we’ve now moved the remaining cows to the farm side of the street, where they live in a cozy tent with a night light. We’re working on barn construction estimates now, and hopefully we’ll have one by summer. (FYI, we’ll have one calf in July from Juniper, and another in September from Beauty.)

The building permit for our house has been approved, but the septic system hasn’t, so we’re still waiting. We can’t actually get the building permit until we have the septic permit. It’s been 16 weeks since we submitted the application. King County is requiring us to put a sprinkler system in our double-wide, previously-owned manufactured home. Apparently it’s not enough to have the fire department just minutes away and a fire hydrant across the street. It baffles me, but I also have to find a contractor to do that job, and find the $$$. We found an electrician, and were happy to find out that we brought enough power to the farm to power the house and everything else 10 years ago. I remember spending a lot of money then, so that was a relief. I was prepared to spend thousands hooking up electricity. I am looking into solar panels too, but that will happen gradually after all the initial house costs are past. The house has a huge gas stove with two ovens—today the propane guys are coming to give us an estimate for that.

During Presidents Week, when the kids are out of school and there are no school buses to drive, we will be purging our garage and hopefully those dark corners of the house where things hide. We will actually be moving in the near future! Time is running out before we are busy with farming, so we want to get it done as soon as possible. I’ve been collecting paint chips, looking at flooring, and thinking about curtains too. It’s so exciting to be moving to the farm!

>We’ve finally had to bite the bullet and face the fact that we really don’t have enough left in the field to justify everyone making a trek to pickup produce. It makes me sad to stop before our season has been fulfilled, but there you have it. It’s just not out there.

Now we will begin the big clean-up for the new season. There is all kinds of work to be done–hardly a vacation. The tractors need to be worked on, the fields need to be readied for new crops, and we haven’t gotten our crop planning done yet for the new year. Where to put all the different crops, how to plant just a bit differently in anticipation of a bad spring again. One of the first projects will be to increase our greenhouse bench space so that we can get more transplants started in case it’s still snowing in May.

It looks like we will have the building permit soon for our house, then we can get working on the renovations and preparations. Hopefully we will actually be moving in March or April. Who knows how long it will take to get it inspected though, if the permit has taken almost 6 months. We shall see. It will be much nicer living on that side of the street, I can say that. It will be much easier to work outside and leave the kids in the house. 5- and 6-year olds really don’t need to be outside from the crack of dawn until dusk, and they don’t want to be out ALL the time. It will be simpler and less stressful without a busy street between us.

Thank you again for all of your undying support through this unusual year, and we hope for a much better one to come.

New president, new home, new growing season. An entirely fresh start.

Shelley, Mike, Della, & Cosmo

>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
Winter Squash (while it lasted)
Carrots
Turnips
Baby Bok Choy
Cabbage
Brussels Sprouts

We are definitely near the end now. We thought we had two big bins of squashes left, but when Mike was getting the farmstand ready Wednesday, he noticed that they had all rotted. Even the best ones have a rotten spot that will spread quickly. So, no more squash until next year.

We will load everyone up with carrots and greens though and get through this week. Next week will be our last of this dreaded winter, and we will just do what we can to make it worth the trip.

At least with the squash out of the garage, we can start going through everything in there and purge to get ready for moving across the street. There is no garage over there, so we definitely need to pare down. It won’t be long now until we start working on the house.

>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
“Acorn” Winter Squash
Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes)
Brussels Sprouts
Carrots
Collard Greens
Fresh Thyme

Now that the snow is gone, it looks like we’ll get to deal with lots of water. We don’t exactly flood here, but the water table rises considerably once the ground is saturated, so we have a lot of standing water and mud. Sticky mud that is great in the summer because it has that elusive sticky, slippery consistency that is great for making pies, or throwing at your siblings, or rolling in on a hot day. Not that I personally know, of course, but I can tell by the way the kids behave with it. But in the winter, it’s a sticky mess. We constantly cover it up with wood chips, which are brought to the farm for free. The tree-trimming companies use us as a disposal site, you see, so we get all kinds of chopped up trees and bushes. Sometimes we even get a free garbage can, or piece of rope, or a sign that says “flagger ahead”. Really, the chips are what we want, though. Steady applications of wood chips keep the pigs and cows high and clean, but it’s hard to stay dry in the heavy rains. As long as they have a clean, dry place to sleep, we’re doing ok. It’s a challenge right now.

This is the first year we’ve had Trumpeter Swans visiting. I’ve seen them every winter in the Skagit Valley, big flocks of what seem to be white geese gleaning the fields. But they’re not geese, they’re swans. Just before Christmas I noticed them flying—hmmm, what are those white geese with black faces and legs?” I thought to myself. Then we saw them in the old Smith Brothers pasture on 277th. They were swans! What a beautiful thing. We’ve also recently seen them hanging out with the Canada Geese in the big field off of Orillia Rd./212th St. Keep an eye out!

I met an interesting man on Sunday morning. I heard a lot of shouting from what sounded like our neighbors place. After I finished my chores I went to investigate. I figured I’d find a coyote invading their chickens. But, what I saw instead was a man with two small hunting dogs. I stood and watched for a minute to see if he had a gun (it is hunting season). What I saw instead awed me—he held out his arm and a hawk landed on it! I’ve always secretly wanted to be a falconer, so my jaw dropped. I proceeded on and realized there was another in the bushes, very wet.

As I approached, the bird flew off. The man’s name is Lou, and he’s very hard-of-hearing. But we chatted and he told me that he had been hunting rabbits with the dogs and birds. (I cheered internally, because the rabbits are getting thick down here.) He has two Harris Hawks, which are not native here. He bred them in captivity, one was 4 years old, and the other about 7. He casually flopped a chicken head against his arm, signalling one of the birds to come to him, which she did. She was beautiful. I invited him to bring his birds, and friends with birds to hunt rabbits. Then he said that their “club” had been training their various raptors to hunt pigeons. Immediately I started thinking about how safe our peas and corn could be this spring. “Yes, please come back, use the gate, park in our parking area!” Not only are they amazing to watch, they could be so helpful! They have a hard time finding places to hunt with the birds, so he seemed receptive. I hope we get to see them in action soon.

Not much survived the icy weather in any condition for picking. The Swiss chard, bok choy, and chicories, and kales all “survived” but the damage to the big leaves is extensive, and when we peel it all off, there’s really not much to eat. So, we will wait for them all to grow new leaves. Of course, we still have 8-hour days, so it will take a while. Probably not until March or April will there be any significant growth. We do have lots of other crops, like cabbage, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and turnips. I hope you like those, because that is what we will be generous with right now.