Rockin

There is a lot going on right now. Mostly working on getting planted out. We are finally working all of our land as things have dried out. By the end of the week we should have most of our plots planted out. Some transplanted, some direct sown. At this point we're thinking about our summer and fall crops. We have summer squash planted in one of our greenhouses that'll be ready for harvest next week. We have a second main sowing outside that's just in and another sowing planned for the 1st of July. Winter squash should be direct sown today and we'll have our new planting of strawberries in. It's late to be putting them in but we'll reap a nice late summer & fall harvest. Late seems to be the theme this year. We have alot of crops in the field slowly growing and just waiting for some warmer weather. The weather is still cool but it's been dry. We're irrigating most of our plots but not all. We have one plot of potatoes in a field that has no water source at this point so I'm hoping we'll get a little rain here and there. Irrigation takes us a good bit of time to set up and maintain, we often refer to it jokingly as "irritation" We use drip tape which works great but we are constantly setting and re-setting beds to take them on or off line.

Despite the slow season, things are looking pretty good in the field. You've heard me say many times by this point, that its been a difficult year. We're slowly working out of that and hopefully the slow start will soon be a distant memory. It's been making me feel quite introspective. What have we learned from the experience? How could we have handled it differently? What are we going to do in the future? The weather has been throwing us some curve balls in the last few years and I think it's a fair assesment to assume this is our new future. We're going to have to adapt. On the same hand I feel we're going to have to adapt to this new economy. Things are changing despite the fact our leaders are telling us we're out of the reccession and this latest down turn is only a blip. I'm seeing it a little differently here from my view as a small business owner.

Yesterday, we began sowing our earliest fall and overwinter crops. We'll be working at this for a bit. We're starting a little earlier this year to adjust for the cooler temps. Having product in the shoulder seasons is a big deal for us. It often represents our profit. Good planning and solid execution are key. Having some good fall weather is a bonus. It's safe to say all the farmers in the northwest are hoping for a long, mild fall season.

It's a new day out there, better get an early start.

Keep well,

Farmer john

The Tide Turns

The absence of any recent blog posts should be a hint that perhaps things are ramping up a bit. We still don't have a ton of product coming out of the fields but at least we have a decent selection of spring greens. Much of our field area is still too wet to work but should be dry by this week. At this time we have all of our dry beds planted out and are just waiting so we can really get planted. Honestly it's been a frustrating season. We're a good month off of normal and I have so much too do there is just simply not enough time in the day to accomplish all that needs to be done. Sales have suffered from our lack of variety and quantity. This weeks market was much better than earlier and traffic appeared to be normal.

Big news for this week was we got the cover put on our new greenhouse. We still have some work to do but at least we're covered and planted out. We filled this house up with tomatoes and basil. Looks good.

Outdoor sowings have performed poorly so we're still mostly transplanting. Soon we'll be direct sowing most of our beds. Potatoes are up and looking good.

So in general, not a lot of details, just hard work and persistence.

Keep well,

Farmer John