Maple Rock Farm

Away We Go

2012-01-23T18:53:00.000-08:00

Here we go peeps. The 2012 growing season is under Way. Seeds and supplies are coming in everyday and we are pretty much moving forward with some kind of proccess being made each day. We're still harvest a bit here and there and keeping the store open once or twice a week.

Still hobbling on the crutches but hopefully coming off of them very soon. I actually find out this week from the Doctor how its looking on the inside. Feels pretty good though. I'm seriously hoping for good news here. I'm getting pretty antsy. I'm seven weeks out from fusion surgery.

I've had quite a bit of time to devote to the farm plan, things are looking pretty organized. It's all coming together. We have a few things coming up in the greenhouses but its mostly a blank slate right now. We'll be firing it up here pretty quick. We've been puttering here and there a bit. Jay made up some potting soil today, we'll be seeding in flats here by next week.

We seem to have erradicated our rabbit issue but not before they completely wiped out one whole greenhouse full of lettuce. Just as a side note, the rabbit braised in mustard and creme freche over wilted Asian greens is to die for.

We've had a few CSA renewals come in and are counting on more. Would like to see it hit a new level this year. We need it. Seems like most everyone I talk to is just treading water. We're all ready to swim.

Consolidating fileds this year. Dropping one site entirely but expanding another. We're basically down to three. I'm looking forward to that for sure. Hopefully next year we'll be down to two.

Alright, thats a peek at whats happening. More to come later,

Farmer John

Why We Farm

2012-01-17T04:14:00.000-08:00

People often ask me how I got into farming. Well.... When I was growing up we alway had a big garden. Some of my first food memories came from that experience. I can remember especially what real tomatoes tasted like and other great things too like sqash, beans, strawberries, scallions, radishes and much more. One time, when we were visiting Oklahoma, where my parents are from, we had a meal at my aunt Dovies. It was wonderful, fresh black eyed peas, okra, yellow crookneck squash, big fat slices of tomatoes with salt and boiled potatoes. this was all right out of the garden and I even remember helping pick all of that. I was maybe nine or ten. Of course I didn't know then just how influencial that trip would be on me but it might be the first time I recall liking vegetables. Don't get me wrong, I'm no vegetarian by any means. We raise hogs here occasianlly and there is nothing better. It's not uncommon around here to have beast on a stick in one form or another. (one of my other passions is cooking with live fire) Lately, the rabbits have been mighty tasty.

The jist here is we like to eat and we like to eat well. There's just nothing like being able to have the best of the best available to cook with and having lots of it. One thing you'll never see at our home is a lack of good food and hospitality. We really like sharing what we do with our friends, family and neighbors and farming dovetails with that pretty well. So many of my fondest memories through my life revolve around food. My mom in particular was a big influence on the way I cook today. Mostly southern influenced comfort food. The other big influence is from my wife / partner Katie. She's a slightly more refined cook than I am and more inclined to use a recipe, in fact, her forte is being able to spot out a great recipe. She's very good at coming up with standards that we use in our everyday cooking. Here's a few of our seasonal favorites.

Green garlic pesto.. We make this from the whole adolescant garlic. Just chop it up and give it a whiz in the cuisinart with a nice olive oil and a little salt. Jar it up in small containers and pop it in the freezer. We keep one in the fridge at all times and use it daily.

Sambal.. Katie use's her friend Ming Tsai's recipe. It's basically red jalapeno's with lots of garlic and reduced in rice wine vinegar. Food wouldn't be the same around here without it. Seriously awesome.

Tomato paste... Homemade, it resembles nothing of store bought. Lightly cook a huge pot of toms, run the whole thing through a food mill to remove seed and skin. Reuce on the stove for a couple hours then pour onto sheet pans and bake for about three hours at 350. Stir in a little olive oil. Jar and freeze. we again use this one daily, it's unreal.

There's so much more but we'll leave it there for today.

Keep well friends, we're enjoying a nice snow day here. maybe we'll make chili!

Farmer John

End Of An Era

2012-01-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

I've written about my grandpa here before but I've just been thinking about him alot lately. Mostly because I'm laid up and enjoy watching history programs. His name was John Gideon Anderson. he was born in 1872 and died in 1956. I didn't come along until 1963 so unfortunately I never had the chance to meet the man. He had a section of land in Roger Mills county close to Meridian in western Oklahoma. I'm not for sure what year he arrived there but apparently he came up from Texas, must have been the early 1900's. He was a cowboy in his earlier day but took up farming and was the local blacksmith in his area. I know from stories that the Anderson farm was a place where people congregated. Farmers would bring their plowshares to grandpa for sharpening and I'm sure he fixed all kinds of other stuff too. He was a pretty jovial guy and was pretty good on the fiddle. I reckon he liked to take a little moonshine here and there and take a chaw or smoke a pipe. Grandma Mitty was a happy person who always took in a stranger and I think was pretty widly known as being a real good cook. She often cooked for the farm hands during the harvest. I know she'd go out and round up and butcher her own chickens and grandpa I heard could eat about a dozen biscuits in one sitting so I bet she could make e'm tasty. My mom was born there in 1917. She's still alive and doing pretty well for someone in their mid 90's. She was the last of six kids. I am the last of five. I was born 91 years after o'l John Gideon. That's a long time. Wish like hell I could have spent some time with him. It's all history now. We still have the farm in the family, not much going on there these days other than gas and oil drilling. Used to be a right lively place. Times are changing but I still have the history. My sister Paulette is real good about keeping the past alive. I appreciate the fact she has all the knowledge and is passing it on. It may all seem like such a long time ago but then again, not really that long at all.

I'll post some more stories later, thanks sis.

Farmer John

Yah Te Hay

2011-12-23T03:20:00.000-08:00

Hola Compadres and Happy Holidays. Recovery from ankle surgery is coming along fine. Sutures are out and x rays show that everything is looking about as well as it can. I still have one ugly looking foot. It's More ugly on the inside than out. So much for beauty being skin deep. I'm house bound for another 5 weeks or so before I can start to put any weight on it.

It's solstice. Love it, cant wait for the return of light and long days. Very excited about farming this up-coming season. Things are already shaping up and we can't hardly wait to get into the fields. Not that we've been out of the fields. Well I have, but Jay has been out there several times a week. Still harvesting for our farm store, restaurant and grocery store accounts. it's been a phenominal fall season. Everything coming out of the fields right now Tastes so good.

The good thing about being down right now is that I have lots of time to plan things out for next year. Seed catalogs are starting to arrive dailyand we're planning layouts and strategizing on what we're planning on growing. We're still expanding at our new site and are working on eventually having all of our production at one site. It takes a while to get a field into production. Anyway, Lots of behind the scenes action happening and we're stoked, things are coming together smoothly right now and spirits are high.

Lots of good energy out there from prospective young farmers. Things are shifting in the right direction it feels. Seems like this is the time we've been waiting for.

Happy new year y'all.

Farmer John

Take care,

Farmer John

I Got Screwed

2011-12-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

Literally... Back in the day, 1996 I took an ugly spill out of bounds at Mt. Hood while snowboarding and did some serious damge to my lower right leg and ankle. After a 5 hour surgery to put it back together and another year of recovery I was doing OK. Recently It's been acting up so I had a specialist take a look and was told I would need surgery. So I had it done this last Friday. I'm out for the next 12 weeks recuperating. Basically they had to fuse my lower joint as it was super arthritic and bone on bone. They cleaned all that out and put a big ass screw right through the bottom of my heel, up into the joint, I have to stay off of it so long because it has to knit together just the same as if I had broken a bone. There were a couple of other issues they handled as well. So hopefully I'll be able to get around much better and without the pain.

Luckily I'm my own boss and can get the time off! I'll be back in the field come early February which is right on schedule for what we normally do. Until then there is much indoor work to be accomplished. Farm plans, seed ordering and organizing are just a few things we're working on this time of year. Were still expanding while also trying to keep a hold of what we're currently doing. We have some fertility issues to address and we'll have more fencing to build and more ground to work up. We're trying to consolidate our efforts into our Stonebridge site which is where we're doing most of our production these days. It's kind of an evolving proccess for us here and we're still adapting. We'll get there soon.

I'm a little tipsy from my meds and the page is getting fuzzy, better sign off now.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Change

2011-11-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

Everything is changing. So many people moving on right now. good people, young folk mostly, headed for distant horizons and unknown opportunity. Many of these people I have been friends with for years now and have seen them grow from greenhorns to experienced farmer types. They've become fixtures in our community and It's almost as though I've begun to take it for granted that they would be here forever. I"m both happy and sad for them leaving, maybe even a little jealous. I understand, this is a hard place to make it. Opportunities are limited both on the job and social front. I wish all of you well. Go forth and conquer. Spread your knowledge and youthfull enthusiasm. the world needs you.

We'll have a couple less farmers at the market next year. You could argue thats good for our business. You could also argue it will make our market less vibrant and not quite as quaint as its been. We'll see, I think it's up to us to keep it lively and diverse. Hopefully more cool people come on island and participate in our market. We could us some new blood.

It's November and we are still farming. We've had a great fall. the weather has held in nicely and we're still harvesting lots of beautiful produce from the fields. Without question, this is my favorite time of year. Absolutely bountiful. In addition to our normal sales, we've been making weekly deliveris to the food bank. We're dropping of about 200lbs a week of assorted produce. We'll keep it up as long as we can.

Not too much changing here at the moment. Wrapping up one season and looking forward to next year already.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Fall Frenzy

2011-10-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and we are as busy as we get. Harvesting great quantities of produce out of the fields right now. Market traffic has slowed a tad but our great loyal customers are allowing us to harvest as much as we can. We've been maiking weekly deliveries to the food bank as well. thank you to all who have contributed. Wholesale sales have remained fairly strong but we'll see a big drop this week I'm guessing as fall sets in for real. Weather is looking stormy for the next couple of weeks.

besides our normal harvest/market and delivery schedule, we're working on getting everything put to bed for the winter. Still sowing a few last minute fall/winter greens but most fields are getting cover crop after we complete harvest. We just wrapped up our outdoor market season and next week we move indoors to the Oddfellows hall for the remainder of the month. It was an OK market season. I have not tallied up the numbers but I know we're down a little from last year. In my opinion the market in general was a little quieter this year. One can only assume it's due to the economy. Price perception could be a factor. If you shop with us you've noticed we have not raised prices in a while. Some specialty items will always be more at the market. Because they are special and can't be obtained at the grocery they of course will be at a premium (like vine ripened heirloom tomates for example) Other than that though our prices are competitive with Island Market. We sell product there as well now which makes it more convenient for folks to buy local.

We are closing in on some more infrastructure projects too. This week we should have water flowing from the new well at our Stonebridge site. Also installing a curtain drain around the new greenhouse which we are just putting the finishing touches on today.

So, you can see we are pretty busy here. Just two of us on right now which makes it even more interesting which is just how I like it. We have an open house/farm pizza night this week on Friday afternoon/evening. No shortage of things to do for sure.

I'll post some new pics soon.

Keep well and thanks for following us.

farmer John

It Is Not Fall

2011-09-14T05:39:00.000-07:00

Lets not rush it here. Last night I actually came home a built a fire in the woodstove. It was'nt really cold out but it definately felt fall like. If nothing else a good chance to check out the stove and make sure it's in proper working order. Soon it will be lit and pretty much burning 24/7 til May. Just two days ago we had maybe the hottest day of the entire year. Nothing too unusual for this year as there has been no rhyme or reason to anything it seems.

Despite the weirdness, it's actually shaping up to be a pretty good year for us. The tomatoes have really kicked in and have been just great. Good production and great flavors. Some of our old favorites like Paul Robeson, sungold cherry and stupice have out-performed as always. Some new varieties this year have also done well . Arbrason, mountain crest and persimmon are earning permanent slots in the line up. The highly touted and expensive "Temptation" turned out in my opinion to be more hype than go. You never know about toms. It's always fun to try some new varieties and we'd never find favorites without experimenting. Tomatoes are my totem veg.

Lots of other goodness happening now too. A little later for us this year than normal but none the less, the summer bounty is here. I think all of the farmers in the northwest are hoping for a long and mild fall season, I know we are. We have late sowings of peas, squash and many others that we are hoping will hang on into October. Lots of late fall and over-wintering varieties in the ground too.

Some fields are getting wrapped up and cover cropped for the winter as mature crops are harvested. Actually hoping for a little rain to help the newly sown seed to germinate. We are still sowing a few things, winter greens, over-wintering carrots and beets and more.

That's all for now, time to roll.

farmer john

Big Week

2011-08-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who lent a hand last week, We were able to get a lot done. Another big couple of weeks around here coming up too. Lots of transplanting and sowing which also requires quite a bit of tractor work to prepare new beds. Weeding, watering and cultivating is also big on the list. Add to that a busy harvest and market schedule and you've got yourself a full plate. I'm feeling pretty good about where we're at right now. We have our work cut out for us but we're on it. Not a lot of time for goofing off though.

The weather's been much better. A little cool in the night but toasty in the day. Tomatoes are coming around. They'll be full on soon. I'm expecting a short timeline for harvesting but there's lots of fruit on right now. Lookin good. Potatoes have been great and we have lots more to harvest. It's been a bright spot this year. We'll be cover cropping as we go. Just waiting for a little rain to sow the seed so we can do it without irrigation.

Thats all for now, returning to bed!

Farmer John

August

2011-07-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, here we are already at the end of July, It's been a busy, scrambled year for us here. A year where we appear to just be finding our groove. Consistently we've been about 30 days off of normal due to the poor weather we experienced in the spring. But alas the tomatoes are starting to ripen and things are growing well in the field. Other Summer crops like squash and cucumbers are coming on too. Hopefully with any luck, we'll have a long fall/winter season. Most of what we are doing right now is efffectively planning for just that. Lots of newly sewn seed in the fields and this week we'll be busy transplnting seedlings into the fields. This has been a year that has given us experience that hopefully we won't have to fall back on in the future. I've talked to many of the old timers and they all say they cannot recall a year like this. So This year has been different that what we were hoping for and I'm hopefull we don't have another like this but am confident we can ride it out and perservere if we do. The one lesson I have learned is that consistency pays and try not to beat yourself up too much over issues that are out of your hands. Patience and a positive attidude basically. So enough is enough about lamenting the tough year. It's time to move on. We've got work to do!

Farmer John

Rockin

2011-06-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

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

Still Frosty

2011-05-12T05:28:00.000-07:00

May 12th; Heavy frost this morning after a very rainy day yesterday. Quite unusual. After looking at a satelite pic it is all quite clear. basically a huge front passed us with an unstable cold trough following. Unfortunately there's another one coming right on the heels of this one. We were drying out fast too and I was feeling hopeful we might get a break. Not to be.

This is starting to turn into a situation and not a good one at that. Maybe we should use remay?:) I'm not even sure what to do at this point. We have alot of things to direct sow and alot of things to transplant but only a very small amount of space to do anything. Germination has been so spotty so far this season so I guess I'm leaning towards transplanting but that will make us short on some crops later in the early summer. Conundrum. Still we have it better than most other places in the country right now so I can't really complain too much.

One good thing is we basically finished our fencing project this week. Just a couple minor details to attend to and we're there. Next, we'll focus on wrapping up the new greenhouse. It's still quite wet at the site and I have a little more tillage to do. We have some drainage issue's we need to address there but I think we can get a handle on it. I'm shooting to have the project completed by the end of the month. This house is getting planted out in Tomatoes and there's no way I'm putting them in before June 1st so the timing should not be an issue. This is going to be a late tomato year but we will have them.

I think the big thing for us right now is to just carry on and not get too excited about the weather hype. It'll come around eventually and we'll have a great year when it's all said and done. Definately a slow start. Hopefully we'll have a long fall.

That's it for now.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Are We There Yet?

2011-05-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

Or more aptly, "Dont Make Me Turn This Car Around!" We've had a couple of nice days here and there and things are drying out faster between storms but mostly it is still very wet and the soil has not really warmed up much.

We've experienced quite a bit of "failed" germination. This is new territory for me. Normally things pretty much pop out of the ground. We cant even seem to get a decent stand of radish's going. Yesterday, We made the deciscion to wipe the slate clean and start over. This meant taking out about 6 beds of salad greens. They just did'nt look like something we would want to put our name on. Bummer? yes, but I refuse to put out second rate product. We'll be re-sowing today. Greens, beets, rads etc. As much as we have room for. That is still the biggest issue, lack of dry growing space. We did get a few more potatoes in the ground yesterday as well, about 3,000 row feet. German Butterballs, Red Thumb Fingerlings and Satina's. We still have a couple hundred pounds of seed to plant. Where is it all going to go?

We need to get our sunchokes in too and a we have hundreds of flats that are ready for transplant, perhaps our eyes are too big for our stomach? Strawberries? We don't have the new ones in yet. Same story, no space. It may be too late?

Market starts on Saturday. We'll have a little produce and a lot of starts.

Still working on infrastructure projects. Had to take a break due to wetness and other pressing issues.

Dawn is here, oh look, it's raining again! Yay!

Keep well,

Farmer John

Sheesh

2011-04-28T05:48:00.001-07:00

Enough already on the rain. There is possible snow in the forecast for today and it's pouring right now and about 40 degrees out. Looks like another indoor day. We'll just keep potting up toms and sowing flats in the greenhouse's today. Late start, long lunch and quit early. Might as well take advantage while we can.

We're all ready for our plant sale/open house this Saturday. Just hoping the forecast for "mostly sunny" prevails. Come on out if you're on island and take a look.

Not alot else to report at this time. Perpetually stuck in this No season thingy thing.

Take care,

farmer John

Looking Good

2011-04-20T04:21:00.000-07:00

This Saturday and next we are having our annual open house and plant sale. We'll have lots of veggie and flower starts for you garden and fresh pizza coming out of the oven and some live music from the boys in Spoonshine. Looks like the weather is going to hold and might even be sunny! Come on out and see what we've been up to.

One good thing about having an event like this (or company) is that it motivates you to tidy up. It's a good thing. We've been busy mowing, weed wacking, weeding and spring cleaning in general. The property is looking good. I love it when it's all spiffy. The only bad thing is we've spent all of outr time here on the home farm and are neglecting our other "in-proccess" projects like building fences and finishing up the greenhouse. It's OK, things are still drying out there anyway.

We've been building new green house tables this week too, something I've wanted to do for a long time. the new ones are way more space effecient than our current system. I think they'll work better too because we are using a mesh top so the roots coming out of the bottom of the flats can air prune which may be more important than I know. They also just look nice. This will be an ongoing project as time and money allow. We need about 40 of them. I've got the proccess down to about 30 minutes per bench and they cost about $30 each in materials. Hopefully we'll get at least ten years out of them.

Fields are still too wet to work so it's another big week in the greenhouse's. We moved about seventy flat's to our "showroom" solarium up at the house for this weekend's sale so we have a little more room for more flats. If it stays dry, we may be able to transplant on Friday? Needless to say, we're pretty backed up and we need to get some plants in the ground. Honestly though all the plants we've transplanted to date are not growing too fast, it's just been too dammned cold and windy. We're gowing to continue to plant the same as normal, eventually things will pop.

We've been making a few deliveries these last few weeks. Slowly getting back into the harvest/delivery schedule. Market starts soon! May 7th, Hope we have produce:)

That's the news from here, hope to see you this weekend.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Working Around The Rain

2011-04-14T04:08:00.000-07:00

The weather is still giving us fits. It almost dries out, then comes a big rain and puts us right back to where we were. This has happened time and time again. I beat it yesterday by about 5 minutes and was able to chisel plow some of our tight ground at the home site. Certainly not dry enough to till but the chisel plow travels beneath the soil without disrupting too much. The "chisels" ride about a foot deep and break up the hard soil below. This can help open up chanels for the water to pass through more readily and can let some air in. I'tll be some time before we can really do much tillage at this spot. Glad we have the diversity of multible plots to farm on.
That said, we're at a stand still everywhere else right now as well as far as tillage goes. We are planted out on every plot that will allow. Things will have to dry out before we can do final tillage and bed shaping. So for now we're back to sowing flats in the greenhouse's. Over the last week we have been able to plant out quite a bit so at least we have a good amount of space available. We're also potting up plants that need to come out of trays and go into a bigger container. That's the theme for April. Yesterday we started this proccess for the tomatoes, always an exciting time. We have about three thousand plants to pot up.

Speaking of tomatoes brings up a concern we're having. Clearly it's setting up to be a difficult year for tomatoes. What's potentially going to set us back is the delay the rain has caused in tillage of the new greenhouse. I have made one pass and not been able to get back in. It takes about five or six times to get the soil roughly workable. We'll have plants that need to go into the ground before the site is ready. Waying our options, the easiest solution may be that we go ahead and pot them up in to one gallon pots rather than the standard 4" pot. This could buy us some time. Other options include changing our planting plan and put the toms in the greenhouses here at the home site or grow them in grow bags. Considering we've never successfully grown toms in containers, option two seems like a big gamble. The one gallen pot option takes more soil and creates space and handling issues but could be the easiest way in the end. We'll keep you posted on that one. We may have similar issue's with other crops like squash.

So the rain and cool weather is making our lives a little more difficult and we are ready for sun as are most people I know. It'll come. Trying not to get too worked up about the things I can't change.

Keep well,

Farmer John

In Between

2011-04-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

We're just farming whenever the weather will allow us to do it. Yesterday was a good day, despite the coolness we were able to get a few beds transplanted out. I don't know how they'll do but we just have to get going. Some of the stuff we put out earlier looks OK and some looks stressed. Beds we direct sowed like a month ago are spotty. Some are up but not growing. Some failed. It should be dry enough today to re sow. We'll keep sowing in the grennhouses's too just to have back up stock if things fail. Fickle. We really need some heat. At least we've been keeping up on lots of little projects here and there. We were able to do a nice Kale harvest too. It actually looks and tastes great. Nice and stalky, very sweet. It's my favorite time of year to eat kale. I like it better than broccoli. It is still very wet everywhere but the short term forecast has it being dry for the next couple of days. With any luck at all we'll be able to get a few more beds worked up but I'm not holding my breath. After today we'll have all of our available space planted out. From here on out we are at the mercy of the rain gods. Please be kind. We gave out daffodils in town yesterday too. It was fun. I just needed to do something good. I'm sick of all the bad news. And most importantly it was a good day because Katie said yes when I asked her to marry me. Keep it real, Farmer John

Double Down

2011-03-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

Our annual plant sale / open house now has two dates. We'll be open on Saturday April 23rd and the following Saturday April 30th. Come on out and take a look. We'll have the pizza oven fired up and lots of other good eats. Live music by Spoonshine from Anacortes and of course, lots and lots of plants for sale for your garden. Come on out, have a good time and help us kick off our season. This time of year we are busy bees here planting and getting ready for the season. The weather has been very difficult this year but despite that, we are making progress. We have a few things in the ground outside in our driest areas, peas, fava beans, greens, radish's, potatoes, garlic, leeks and kale. We have a few beds ready to sow and will probably be on that as soon as the weather dries out a bit. It's still on the cool side for things to pop but waiting is difficult. We can still transplant in the rain and are doing so as the seedlings in the flat trays mature enough to go out. We have our greenhouses all planted out and also filled with tables to accomodate the flats. We really need to get some things into the ground soon just so we can make room for all of the potting up thats getting ready to happen. This is our last chance to get any last minute equipment maintenance and setup done. Mowing season is basically here and we're ready to cut some grass! We have alot of new tools and another cultivating tractor on line this year. Our newest and most exciting addition (for me) is our new Jang tractor mounted multi row seeder. We can sow three rows at a time now without having to walk a country mile to do it. Some would consider this a luxury. I see it as just being effecient with our time, plus I have been having problems with and old injury to my lower leg and ankle and frankly it's getting harder to walk comfortably so being able to sow without walking back and forth three to six times up and down a 2oo ft bed just makes sense. I'm scheduled to have surgery on it this winter but for now, anything I can do to reduce my walking mileage is a good thing. Until recently, one would have had to pay around $10,000 to get a decent tractor mounted preciscion seeder. The Jang's are a nice option for about a third of that. We've been using a single row unit for a couple of years now and I really like it. We've made good progress on the greenhouse and have done the intial tillage. I'm waiting a bit longer to put the endwalls and cover on so I can have full easy access with the tractor. We're shooting to plant out around mid May. It's pretty wet at that site so we would like to see it stop raining and dry out. Fencing is in progress and we are working on it as time allows. That's all from here for now. Thanks. Farmer John

Potting On

2011-03-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

Potting on has begun. This is the process where we take the small seedlings from the cell trays they were propagated in and pot them up into a larger container so they have enough room to grow and establish a vigorous root system. Not everything has to be potted up, some things like lettuce for example get transplanted right into the field from the tray. Yesterday we were working on Artichokes and will be again today. Kale will be next and then followed by anything that has at least one set of true leaves. Potting on buys us some time in a year like this when it's cold and wet and a bit harsh for transplants yet. Despite being cold, we have a hard time working the fields when it's as wet as it's been (ie: twice as wet as normal) We almost had a window this week until it rained a half inch the night before last. Back to square one. The fields are as wet now as I have ever seen at any time. Although potting up has it's benefits, there's a downside too and that's space. Every plug tray turns into at least three flats of 4" pots. If the greenhouse is already full of flats and you're tripling the volume where does it all go? You cant just put flats on the ground because the roots will grow right through the trays and also the slugs will get you, plus you want the plants elevated for the best light and maximum airflow. So we have benches built in the greenhouses, lots of benches. Basically we make benches out of just about anything we can. Eventually we run out of space and things have to go in the ground somewhere.

Wire worm control: Recently, we planted a row of potatoes in one of our greenhouse beds. Yesterday I did a ilittle sneek peek to see what was happening underground. Not much, the spuds were just starting to sprout but they are just filled with wire worms. Every one I pulled out had three or more worms sticking out of them. I don't know what to do. Let em go as a trap crop and just chuck em worm and all? Pull them out now and plant something else? I'm open to suggestions here folks, Your guess is as good as mine but I'm leaning torwards option two.

We also got the layout done on our new fencing project yesterday. Now I can put in the corner post's in and start banging in t stakes. The greenhouse is also coming along albeit slowly but it's so wet after all the rain it's easier to let it set for a few days before we get back in there. The clock is ticking. I'm going to have to hurry if I'm to get beds ready for tomatoes. Speaking of tomatoes, they are up in the flats and just thinking about setting true leaves. We'll be potting those on shortly as well.

I was able to beat the rain on Friday and run the rotovator through a large portion of the new field. I had plowed this field back in the fall. I tried discing it at first but got frustrated that it was going too slow and switched over to the tiller which was quick and effective. This is the first of many passes with the tractor. I would like to say this seems to be the way to go when breaking new ground. Plow in the fall and hit it with the tiller in the spring. It's fast and not as hard on the tiller as going directly into the tough sod.

We have plant starts for sell now and will be having our annual plant sale/open house in April. We'll check the weather before setting the date but most likely the third Saturday. Market is just 7 weeks away!

Keep well,

John

Crapola

2011-03-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

Every year for the past several it appears that our spring weather gets more challenging to work in. This year has been worse than previous. It's very wet and the soil is cold. We've had a couple days above 50 but I can't recall more than a couple of days where we had sun and we're currently in a windy stretch. Even the crops in the greenhouses are just setting there. Nothing is really growing yet. Quite frustrating.

My frustration however pales in comparison to what's happening in Japan. It's so devaststing. My heart goes out to the peolple. I can't stop thinking about the videos of the tsunami encroaching on the land. It looks like this was a large agricultural area. Lots of fields that looked like they had either just been planted or were about to be. Hundreds of greenhouses. What happens with that land? It seems it would forever be contaminated. What happens with all of the trash and debris? How many farmers died? The nuclear issue? What a mess. So sad.

Things and times are changing without a doubt. Are you ready? I keep running this scenario through my head of how we would handle a similar situation. We'd be better off possibly than most folksI guess but really would we be? We'd lose our house but hopefully not our land. we have no earthquake insurance so we'd be paying for something we do not have and would suffer other great financial difficulties. Our economy would at best temporarily buckle and our paper assets would plummet. Hell who am I kidding, we'd probably go down the toilet. It would'nt really matter. Values would change, things that really matter would come into immediate focus. The health of our family and friends foremost and their continued well being and survival. we'd be cutoff from the mainland. No supplies, food, fuel etc. Hopefully we would all be together with our families, but perhaps not. A loved one, especially a child off island for a sporting or school event, that would suck. It's all heavy stuff to think about but I think we all know we should be thinking about it in very honest and realistic terms.

For the weather, ehh, it'll come around, the wind will stop, the sun will shine, plants will grow and all will be well. Hopefully we'll live our fragile existence with intent, dignity, respect and hope for the future. We've got some issues peeps, wake up calls can work to our advantage.

Keep your powder dry,

Farmer John

FAT Tuesday!

2011-03-08T05:02:00.000-08:00

Fickle weather as per standard for the season. Nice yesterday, rainy today. We got off to a good start for the week. Hoops are up on the new greenhouse and we just need to install some bracing and the purlins and then we can start the ground prep. The forecast is looking pretty stormy in the short term. Hopefully not so wet that we can't till up the sod. We're as little under the gun time wise here, we should have it ready to plant by May 1st ish. We'll make it, we can cheat it a little bit if we have to. This house is getting tomatoes that are to be direct grown in the ground. If we have to, we can heavily amend each hole with compost and plant into that. We could even go as far as mulching the beds with black plastic to help break down the sod and eliminate the weeds. I hate to use plastic though and it would be hard to convince me to do that.

Fencing materials are being delivered on site today as well. 1500 ft of it. We have no shortage of projects.

We also spent a few minutes cleaning up one of our other sites. We'll be no-till planting a few rows of fava beans there today. The rest of it may get a quick cover crop before we plant it out to artichokes and leeks.

Indoors, we're taking a little break. We have lots of starts in flats and we are letting a few days go by before we resume sowing on any scale. Spring is funny, seeds sown mid March may actually out-perform seeds that were sown at the beginning of the month. So what happens is that you get a big batch of flats that all need to go in the ground about the same time. It's a recipe for failure, especially in a wet year when you may be limited on how much ground you can actually work. Things are looking good though, mucho germination. In the mean time, on our rain days we can be building tables in the greenhouses for flats to sit on and be getting ready for the next round. Some things have to be potted up into larger pots and that requires massive amounts of table space. We really need another hoophouse just for flats.

Outdoors, we'll be sowing beets and carrots probably next week and have a couple rows of potatoes going in on St. Patty's day.

The shop is busy too. Spring maintenance and tooling up for the season. It never stops.

On the business side we need some help. Most of our early CSA customers have renewed and paid (thank you!) Normally March and especially April are our most difficult months. We still have room to take on more members and could really use the income. To be completly honest with you all, our CSA income is not anywhere close to what it should be. We operate as a CSA because it's really the only way we can make it but we can't make it the way payments have come in this year. I realize times are hard and I know we can do a better job at promoting but I can't help but feel frustrated. I know for a fact people love what we do and appeciate that such great food is available from the Orcas farming community. We need people to come to the plate and become members. Farming is my sole source of income, I make no regrets for that decision and full well know it's a hard row to hoe. I see what my fellow farmers on the mainland are doing and it makes me just a little envious. Some operations operate soley as CSA's and have a waiting list for people to join. You do the math, 100 members at a $600.00 pre paid share. That works, why can't we be doing that here? Currently we're at less than 10% of that which in my opinion, does not work. I know people are getting hit up for money all the time and money is tight for alot of people, but it's not like we're looking for a hand out here. We're proud of do. We offer a real product and a valuable service to our community. We want to share that and we want to make a living while doing a good thing. Please tell a friend about us.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Planting

2011-03-04T04:21:00.000-08:00

Just started our first outdoor planting. Yesterday we popped in some Fava beans and today we'll do peas and some of the hardiest spring greens and probably a bed of radishes. It's still pretty cold out and maybe a little early but probably OK. If it fails we'll just do it over. Most of our fields are still a little too wet to do do much work in but we have a couple of drier areas we concentrate on this time of year.

Also experimenting with planting a spring cover crop mulched with hay on a really wet area that my fall cover crop failed on. It's way to wet to till so I think we'll broadcast seed and simply cover the area with some spoiled hay and see what happens. Hopefully it'll germ and grow quickly and we'll mow it, disc it in and plant out that field in June. At worst we'll be adding organic matter to the soil. Looks like crap now though, at least the hay will make it pretty. Interestingly, I've never done spring cover cropping before and am interested to see how it will work. Thanks Blue Fox Farm for the idea.

Still working on the new hoop house at our new site. We'll have it up by the end of next week and begin tilling the area to prep it for planting. Time is running short. We've got about 60 days to get beds prepped and ready for tomato transplants. That's not long as the sod takes a long time to decompose. It'll be a little rough the first year but doable.

As soon as the hoophouse is up, fencing begins. It'll take us a couple of weeks and then we'll be up and running on this new section. We're putting in fruit trees in shortly and prepping the new field for a mid-summer planting. This is where our fall and over winter crops are going so We have a little time to get it nice. Regardless, we have our work cut out for us. The lazy days of winter are gone.

That'll do for now. Take care.

Farmer John

22 degrees

2011-02-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

22 Degrees with snow on the ground, windy, snow in the forecast and temps dropping into the low teens tonight. Jeez. Some might say this is typical but I've not seen it like this before. We can't even think about watering in the greenhouse as the lines are frozen solid. I may have to hand water from the house to keep things moist if it even matters. We may just have to start over. No big deal if we do, we're not that far down the road and this is always the risk you run by starting early. Always. I don't mind, the snow is beautiful, I actually hope it snows more so I can take the kids out "tractor tubing". I just hope it passes and we're done with it. It's only fair we have some weather as practically everyone else has had their share this year.

Speaking of weather, do you ever stop to wonder how it affects you. I'm not talking about seasonal light disorder or the blue feeling a dark gloomy day provides, I'm talking a direct hit on your wallet. I was speaking with the produce buyer at the market yesterday, he informed me that every single region they buy from has had a problem with the weather. Mostly frost issues that affected AZ, CA, FL, Mexico and even Chile is having a cool wet fall. The result is a very high price and a lower quality product. Iceberg lettuce is $3.99 /head and celery is about the same. Supply and demand free market capitalism is alive and well.

Talking about supply and demand, what about oil? If you're not paying attention folks you're headed for a big surprise. It comes down to one word. Uncertainty. Turmoil in the middle east has the ability to erase any kind of uptick we've seen in our economic recovery. Even if the Saudi's step up and fill the gap from Lybia, the government and oil companies will use the loss of production as an excuse to jack the price. I paid $4.23 for Diesel yesterday. My prediction is we'll be at $6.00 by July. If that happens You're going to be hearing the phrase "double dip" alot. At least we still have it at the pump. Anyone remember 1974? All of sudden, these topics that the dooms dayers always seem to rant on and on about have at least a decent chance of becoming reality. We're a very small farm. We do lots of field work by hand but we do rely on machinery to do daily tasks of keeping up production. No fuel? way less food! Hire more people you say to take up the slack? hmmph, from what labor pool? and labor is the real cost of farming. If you think $4.00 is expensive for a head of iceberg lettuce just wait until oil becomes more scarce and we've chased all of the migrant farm workers out of the country. You'll be lucky to even find a head of lettuce. Hiring labor to replace the effeciency of mechanization is not feasable unless people really want to make a change and work for minimum wage or better yet, barter labor for food and I certainly would'nt count on that. Americans are lazy and don't like to make sacrifice or have the desire work too hard. We are a nation in decline and it's a damn shame.

What are you going to do? Start a garden? make a pledge to support farmers in your area, use less fuel? All good things. Hopefully things will work themselves out. Hope... We always have hope.

Keep well,

Farmer John

2011-02-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

Snow

2011-02-23T04:19:00.000-08:00

It's snowing...if you can call it that. Us west coasters don't really have a clue to what snow is compared to the east. Normally by this time of year, our threat of snow is greatly diminished but I've seen it snow in May too. They're calling for a few inches but the real issue will be the low temps (teens) and the high winds coming out of the fraser river valley. Brrr. Honestly I'm just not in the mood. (whiny west coaster!) We'll be on hold for any outdoor projects for a few days. That's OK we have stuff we can do inside.

We've started constructing our new hoophouse, we'll pick back up when the weather gets better. It should go fast. We'll move on to the fencing project right after we finish the hoophouse. It's going to be a busy month, in addidtion to our infrastructure expansion, we'll be busy in the greenhouse growing starts for the field as well as plant for sale. We'll keep you posted for our annual open house/plant sale in April.

We have our prop house full of newly sown trays right now. Things are germinating and coming to life. Soon it will be lush and verdant. It's about time for us to move into a larger prop house. We need about twice as much space as we have right now. Maybe next year.

That's about all there is going on for now. A slight lull in the action. Enjoy the snow!

Farmer John

Rock and Roll

2011-02-15T05:01:00.000-08:00

It's mid Feb and we're off and running. Within a couple of days we'll have our prophouse filled with flats of newly sown seeds. This first sowing is all hearty type stuff. Lots of brassicas, lettuce, spinach and chard. We might even kick out a few flats of flowers. We do have a few beds of direct sown greens in one of our other hoophouse's that are just popping up. Shortly we'll be sowing tomatoes and peppers. I like to wait a bit longer on those so they don't get leggy before it's time to put them in. We have an empty 100 ft greenhouse to plant this week as well. Just need to finish the bed prep and we can get it planted. We normally use this house for toms but are not doing so this year. We'll probably grow some peas and perhaps fava beans in there along with some small quantities of a few other things.

It's good to get going again. Patience tends to run low this time of year and we're all antsy to get growing even though we know sometimes waiting is the best solution. Weather is fickle at best and the intensity of the sun is still low but growing each day. We're gaining 3 minutes of day right now. Things will start growing quite fast once we get a litlle sun energy happening.

Outdoor planting on the heartiest crops can begin for us as soon as things dry out a bit more. We have beds ready to go for peas, favas and a few rows of early potatoes as well as some greens like spinach and arugula. Our garlic is all up and looks awesome. We have a few things that made it over-winter but are pretty beat up. Hopefully we'll see those things rebound and put on some growth. After a harsh winter like we had they may just bolt, it' s too early to tell.

Anyway, lots going on, time to get the kids up and ready for school. more to come soon.

keep well,

Farmer John

Taking Stock

2011-02-03T02:11:00.000-08:00

Goodbye lazy month of January, Hello February.... Welcome to 2011. Yesterday was Imbolc, half way between winter slostice and the spring equinox, the celtic beginning of spring. I consider it at least that but also it's the end of the that 12 week period in which not much happens. If you will notice, things are just beginning to grow again, albeit slowly, but this changes rapidly as the suns intensity increases. Imbolc signals the time when we tie up loose ends. We welcome the coming light in anticipation of another growing season. Soon the real spring begins and we'll be sideways busy. So in real terms... sharpen your tools now boy.

Ahh tools, the quest continues. Finally found the cultivating tools I've bee searching for that fit on my old Farmall Super A. Great news, this stuff is getting hard to find and the tractor is worthless to me without it. So we'll finally have a second cultivating tractor in the field this year. Also finally purchasing a tine weeder. This ones been on my list for awhile now. We'll be able to cultivate "in row" between the plants with this one if it works properly. Also a great tool for stale bed farming, where we prep the beds prior to planting and let them set for a few days then run a tine weeder, rotary hoe or flame weeder through prior to planting. We can wipe out the first flush of weeds that way. We can also blind cultivate with the same tool. Blind cultivating is hitting the bed just before the seeded crop comes up. These are techiniques that can save us vast amounts of time and labor if done properly at the right time. My tool wish list is long and always getting longer. Alot of things we can find used but some things are either very specific or in high demand and therefore sell quick when they do come up. You have to be quick on the draw and having a pocket full of cash does'nt hurt either. Some tools on the list now are a manure/compost spreader, potato harvester, disc harrow, basket weeder and my big rotovator is on it's last leg and needs to be replaced as well. We need a van too.

We're just starting to sow this week. The freezing temps set us back a couple of days but nothing worth noting. Very soon we'll have the hoophouse's full of starts destined for the field. Lots of other projects getting ready to happen as well and we have some system uprgrades and maintenance as always. So really for us, winter is over and we are firmly on the road to another year of growing. I'm pretty fired up about it and looking forward to big year. I have some lofty goals set for the farm this year, perhaps a little too lofty but I'm hopeful to hit the mark. As long as we do our best, grow nice produce, pay our bills, and put a little in the bank I'll be happy.

The weather is looking like it's going to gives us a break here. We should be dry enough in a few days to at least work our dry spots and get some beds prepped to plant out our earliest crops of peas, favas and hardy greens. Usually you're better off to wait a bit but we'll see what it looks like. Regardless, I can't wait to drag some steel through the fields. Can't ever get enough of that.

Thank you to those of you whom have renewed your CSA memberships. We really appreciate and need your support. Please keep them coming, it's our only source of farm income until we start the market in May.

Thanks all and keep well,

Farmer John

Back To Business

2011-01-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

Holidays are over and were at the first Monday of the new year and it's back to business as usual. Contrary to what you may think, January is actually a very busy month for us. Mostly planning and setting up for the up coming season. Seed orders are being compiled and will soon be submitted. We're getting ready to fence in a new section so we'll be planning and ordering materials for that as well as ordering and installing a new greenhouse. Still looking for one more person to work on the farm this year. We have a little more ground under cultivation this year. We'll most likely be a little short on labor but we can probably get by. I'll just have to work a little harder this year. That's OK. I'm getting fat anyway and could use the exersise. Lots of other projects happening too. Still repairing flood damage and other maintenance chores along with cleaning up some outdoor storm damage stuff.

Once February hits we're pretty much working full time again. Not only working on infrastructure but actually sowing seed in flats in the greenhouse that are destined for transplant into the field and doing some field work in our drier spots. Coming into the season well prepared and with a clean conscious of not having alot of un-finished projects hanging over your head gets us off on the right path for having a successful year.

2010 actually turned out to be our best year ever and it feels like we're on the right track. My goal for this year is to up our volume, increase fertility and reduce our overhead. Pretty much the same goal as always. Make this year better than the last.

Stay tuned in. Lots of good stuff happening this year.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Bring on the light

2010-12-23T04:27:00.000-08:00

Happy solstice! Always a good feeling to know we're on the "right" side when the days are turning longer. As with most farmer types I know, we generally acknowledge this to be mid-winter even though ofiicially it has only just begun. In about six weeks, we'll be back full force seeding in the prop house and getting ground ready to plant as it dries out enough to work.

Time to kick back now and rest if you can. I'm working on chores around the farm right now. Flood damage repair and lots of clean up and organizing. One project always leads to another. Feels good. I guess getting more organized will be one of my resolutions. Regardless it gives me something to do right now during the down time. Too much time sett'n round taint no good.

Thinking about farm plans and cruising seed catalogs. Always looking for something new and fun to grow. We'll be placing orders soon. This is a good time to reserve your potato seed and strawberry slips. We have a pretty good reserve of seed on hand. Probably don't need to order too much. That's a good thing for sure. First order will be for tomatoes. I promise I'll cut back my selection every year but I never seem to be able to. I know my favorites though. We do sell plant starts in the spring so I have a nice selection for that but there's really about 12 varieties that work for me. I do want to grow more romas this year as I have been using them to make my own tomato paste. It's the most wonderful stuff I've ever tasted. Tomatoes are my totem vegetable. I like to wait til late Feb and into early March to start mine. You get a happier, better timed plant. We normally can't put toms out until the end of May and having a big ol leggy plant by then is not really what you're looking for. I do know of one farm in Skagit that plants toms the day after Christmas. They normally have ripe toms on the vine in May! Very impressive and very high input operation. I prefer to grow within the natural season. It just makes more sense to me. I only eat them when the're in season except for the ones I put up. There is no going back to crappy store bought toms after you've had the best.

Sometimes I do sow salad greens at christmas if I have the space. You can wait and sow later and still wind up with the same harvest date. We shoot for March 1st but normally it's not till mid March before our first cut.

Still have some bulbs to get in the ground. Daffodils, garlic and shallots. It's getting later than optimal but probably OK. This is the first time I've done daffs so I'm not really sure.

Happy Holidays to all,

Farmer John

Flood!

2010-12-16T02:52:00.000-08:00

What's a farmer do in the winter? Well, these days we're dealing with flood damage. Not as one would expect from the torrential rains we have recently experienced but rather from a faulty plumbing installation on a bathtub. Extensive damage upstairs and down but we have a handle on it. Call it a forced remodel. At this point the plumber is denying any responsibility, we'll see if he comes around. From the sounds of it, I doubt it. Other islanders have been awesome. Thank you's to Joe Goodrich of Rainbow Carpet and Upholstery care for the Gratis inspection, assesment and reccomendations and to John and Katie Curlett of Northstar Drywall for their generous offer to put us back together. This is perfect example of islanders helping islanders. This is not really what I was hoping to be dealing with right now and certainly not in my financial best interest. The joy's of home ownership.

What we should be doing, besides resting, is putting together next years plan. I have most of it in my head but need to transfer some solid plans to paper. I'll be the first one to admit I'm not always the best at this. It's an important step even though plans often change mid stream due to uncontrollable situations. Having a map to start from is always a good thing. I've been thinking alot about varieties, "what are we going to grow?" We'll add some things that did well and drop a few that didn't work out so good. In particular, I'm thinking about our shoulder seasons, especially fall/winter. This is the time of year to think. I think about everything that will make us better. I'm not afraid to implement change or try new techniques as long as they have been well thought out. There's always more than one way to skin a cat and getting stuck in your ways can set you back in the long run.

Despite our flooding set back, I'm still excited for next year. Basically the plan is simple; Grow more food!

Keep well,

Farmer John

Another New Acre

2010-12-06T05:12:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate to take advantage of the relatively dry conditions we've been experiencing and was able to break ground on another acre of land. This is at our Stonebridge site where we already have one acre in production. This site has very nice sandy loam compared to most of the other sites we farm which tend to be more on the clay side. I plowed the new layout with a mold board plow and will let it set for the winter and partially decompose the inverted sod. I'll come back when conditions allow and knock it down and level it out with a rotovator, then chisel it and re-till as neccessary to fully incorporate and decompose the sod. This proccess takes awhile. This particular site is being prepped for our fall and overwintering crops next year. We'll begin planting it out in late July through September. It should just be ready by then. We'll probably get a round of summer cover crop in first, something like buckwheat. While the time goes by we'll be getting ready to build a fence to enclose the area from deer. Unfortutnately we can't grow anything without deer fencing. It's an expensive proposistion. Fortunate for us, the land owner buys the material in exchange for us putting up the fence. It's a workable solution. The owner gets a capital improvement and we get a fence. We'll also pull a soil sample and see what kind of ammendment might be neccessary. My assumption is we'll be adding lime and of course our "Perfect Blend" natural fertilizer.

Speaking of soil tests, I'll be pulling samples from all of our fields to see where we're at. I have a pretty good feeling we're on the right track just by the way the crops have been looking but as plants grow they use nutrients and we want to keep up on our fertility management We'll most likley continue with our current program but it's important to know as much as you can about your soils and trends. We definately have some improvements to make. One of those being the making and addition of more compost. It's forefront on my agenda and I'm hoping to do a better job. We need some equipment to do this. As usual money is tight and it' a challenge to purchase all of the equipment we need. That's one thing about farming, it is an equipment intensive operation. I wish I had about $20,000 to spend on equipment. Some folks would scoff at this notion and say you could do it by hand. True, if we had enough people who had the know how and gumption to get it done. But the reality is that farming is labor intensive. Labor is expensive and anything you can do to mechanize your operation makes for a more efficient operation. Personally for me, effienciency = sustainability. I can't do everything by hand and would work myself to death or burn out trying to do so and then where would we be. Certainly not sustainable. God am I'm sick of that word! Nothing is sustainable if it's not financially viable and is overly laborious for the people running it. Don't get me wrong. What we do can be sustainable in a manner. It's just an over-used word that's thoughtlesly used.

Time to roll,

Take care,

Farmer John

Wrappin er up

2010-12-02T05:03:00.000-08:00

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving gave us an unusually cold spell that really put a damper on the end of our season. We recorded a low temprature of 9 degrees and had wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Not the most favorable conditions for surving if you're a broccoli plant. All of our beautiful salad greens perished as well as all of our remaining rootcrops. Fall sown fava beans... gone. Beautiful rainbow chard... toast. Interestingly many things did survive. Crops that were still quite small made it through OK. Chervil, cilantro, parsley, spinach, lettuce all made it with minimal damage. Most of the kale came through OK. some varieties proved to be more hardy than others. The most hardy being White Russian and Dwarf Siberian. The least hardy being Fizz, Lacinato and Red Russian. The're alive but will take some time to recover. Over-winter sprouting broccoli came through without a blemish and most of the cabbage looks OK.

So although it's a bummer, you have to remind yourself that these kind of things can and do happen. We had had a very mild fall and we mostly capitalized on that. It's a learning experience. The only thing I would have done over is simply to have harvested more before the storm hit. Oh well, Easier said than done. At this point it's "there's always next year"

We will be harvesting some kale today and we have a few hundred pounds of french fingerling potatoes in storage. Not too bad but there's always the feeling in the back of your mind that you could have done better. And that's exactly what I think about this time of year. What can we do next year to make it better? When your doing this you have to recognize and live up to your short comings and weakness. Not always the easiest thing to do but an exorcise well worth the time. We all like to think that just because we did it, it's great. So not true, unless you're a tunnel visioned narccisist. There's always room for improvement.

The only thing with this is to not beat yourself up so bad that you go into a state of depression. Which is hard anyway when you go from having a busy harvest/work schedule to being cooped up inside for a few days watching all of you hard work die in the wind. It's good to remind yourself of all of the things you done that did work. Look back on your success and all that you have to be thankful for (which is alot). Healthy, happy, in love and surronded by general awesomeness. It's all good baby.

Keep well friends,

Farmer John

Down To Two

2010-11-12T04:42:00.000-08:00

Just two more markets left for the 2010 season. We still have a nice selection of produce left and my only concern now is that people come out and shop. We could use a couple of good weeks here to stay on top of things and maximize our sales for the year. Bills still continue to come due even when we're not making money. ( I hate that ) Feeling pretty good about how things went this year and already excited to start next year. We have our crew lined up already and we're going to hit the ground running. I have big ideas ( as usual ) for the new year. Lots of variety, more eclectic items, and more successions on some of our key items.

For all that is good I am trying to address our problem areas as well. The big one is continuous availability on salad greens. We always fall short right in the heat of the season and it seriously costs us thousands of dollars in lost sales. It's more of a planning issue than anything. There are other issues at hand, but planning to have the space available at the right time and planning the plantings out at about every seven days is a major part of it. Heat, water, pests, appropriate varieties, weed pressure and allergy season are other important factors to consider as well. Making this work is my main priority. We have other issues to address but this is the biggest and that's where we'll start.

I think part of being successful is being able to look at your short comings in an authentic manner. We all like to think that just because we did it, it's great. That's not always the case and being able to see, acknowledge and correct your short-comings although sometimes difficult is a neccessary skill to have.

Our experience in selling to the grocery store is turning out to be quite positive. In my opinion the exposure we are getting far outways the lower price we are receiving for the product. So many people are commenting on it. It's something I'd like to pursue more in the future.

That'l do for today. I have a busy day. Market harvest in the morning and an off island journey starting at noon. Crazy. Come see us at the market!

Farmer John

Killer Weather

2010-11-04T04:19:00.000-07:00

And I mean that in a good way. It's the first week in November and we're still working in the fields in our shirt sleeves. It was a balmy 59 degrees and sunny yesterday. Awesome, I love it. espescially when I was late getting our fall and over-winter crops in. Most of it is looking good right now and at least has a chance to make, although we have just entered the "12 week no grow zone" This is the period six weeks on each side of the winter solstice that not alot of growth happens. The Sun is riding lower in the sky each day and even when it is sunny the intensity of the suns ray are waning. So you can't expect too much right now. Just wait though, as soon as February comes around and we start getting some nice days, life will begin to return. Pay attention to what is happening in your garden. This is a good time to observe mother nature and learn by mimicking her. We'll take this nice weather any day of the week. Winter is coming and everyones all chatsy about how this is going to be a rough one. Only time will tell. I think we're ready for anything. Bring it.

Although we get a break from the farmers market this week it will return for the next two weeks after that and then we're done. We are still making restaurant deliveries but this is rapidly slowing down too. We are still making deliveries to the grocery store though. This is something new for us and so far it's working great. We've been delivering kale, swiss chard and parsley. It's great advertising for us and more people are getting our product because it's more convienient.

That's a pretty good topic you know; Convienence. It's a weak link for us. You have to make it easy for the consumer to buy your product if you have any hope in succeeding. There are more people that don't go to the farmers market than those who do. Reach those people and then you have a whole new market to sell to. We all talk about competition amongst ourselves and how the island can only support so many farmers. All I can say is head down to the ferry landing any given morning and you'll see about ten semis a day come off from America loaded with fuel, food and other supplies. That's our competition. Well that and our own brains and boxes we put ourselves into. Our number one job on the marketing side of things should be figuring out and implementing ways to make it easier for our potential customers to become our steady customers. Selling to the grocery store is a pretty good start.

I've been thinking alot about our operation here and how we can improve. There are alot of areas we can do better at and I'll be thinking about that this winter but the bottom line is we need to grow more food. We can't expand if we don't have the product to offer. I'm confident we could sell what we grow even if we added another five acres. We are missing sales every day due to fact that we don't have the product. It all sounds real easy on paper, implementing is a whole other story.

I'm headed off island today. hoping to get in a cou quick farm visits. My favorite!

Kepp well,

John

Progress Made

2010-10-22T05:26:00.000-07:00

Colder mornings, shorter days and tired farmers are making it a little more difficult to get all the things done that need to be done. We are getting there though. We got a good chunk of our garlic in this week. Four 220ft beds of garlic, Each bed has three rows, so that's about 2600 row feet and we still have about that much to put in. We basically ran out of space. I'll have more beds prepped by Monday if the weather holds through the weekend. We're planting Susanville, Nootka Rose and Red inchelium which are softnecks and then Spanish Roja which is a hardneck.
Obviously hoping for a good garlic year. We had a nice crop this year despite loosing about a third of our planting to rot due to excessive spring rains.

Most of our open space has been cover cropped and now put to bed for winter. We'll be finishing our potato harvest soon and geeting that ground tilled and cover cropped too. The best potatoes for us this year turned out to be the Russian Banana Fingerlings. Nice yield and good quality.

Today is a market/restaraunt harvest day. It'll be a long one and the forecast is calling for showers through out the day.

Kids and fam are up. gotta roll,

Keep well,

John

I

Well Now

2010-10-14T05:05:00.000-07:00

A nice change in the weather forecast for the pacific northwest. Mild and dry conditions prevail into the forseeable future (another three days at least right?). Regardless, yesterday was brilliantly brillant. Our fall and winter crops are very much appreciating the sun, Maybe my late planting of broccoli will work after all.

Things are looking pretty good. We made our first delivery of Kale and Chard to the grocery store (Island Market) this week. I don't know for sure, but this is the first time to my knowledge that the mainstream grocery has stocked local produce. We are also delivered to Orcas Homegrown Market. This is a good thing for us. It helps keep us busy as things are trending towards slowing down. It also keeps our name in front of people; marketing 101. My goal is to make at least one delivery per day. Does'nt matter how big or small, just one a day.

Sales at the Saturday indoor farmers market at the Oddfellows Hall have been robust as well. Lots of folks showing up with the sole intent of buying local food. It's awesome and the variety has been stunning. Lots of goodness! If you hav'nt been, do check it out, It's worthy.

Lots of field work happening. Mowing, tilling, ripping and cover cropping mainly. This nice weather sure makes it pleasant work. I was able to collect a large pile of leaves yesterday and formed up a new compost pile. I love making compost heaps with the tractor. It's always time well spent.

We'll be making a final tomato harvest here real soon. I would like to get the green houses cleaned out and planted with our winter lettuce transplants. Perhaps I am too late but it's hard to take out the toms after putting so much effort into them. Obviously we want to maximize the harvest, especially in a lack luster tomato year like this one. I say lack luster somewaht with jest. Although they were late, the harvest actually turned out to be quite substantial. We still have very nice tomatoes on hand and have more than we can sell at market which is quite perplexing. We sell our heirlooms at $4.00 lb. This is about $2.00 less per lb than the market and we still bring boxes of them home. That works for me though, I turn them into the most delicious tomato paste you have ever tasted. (Yes paste, not sauce) I guess it's not that big of a surprise we don't sell out. Honestly (and I will definately take crap from the other growers on this point) I think tomatoes are over-priced. In my world they would all be $3.00 lb and people would stand in line to buy them and we would sell twice as many and everyone would be happy happy.

Oh well, I'm still happy anyway. Are you?

Keep well,

Farmer John

Keepin On

2010-10-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

October is here. Things are slowing down now for sure. Still tons of product coming out of the field, just fewer customers. A tad bitter sweet. I'm tired and looking forward to a slower pace but I still want things to keep rockin. Honestly I like it when things are chaotic and cranking. It keeps the energy up.

Our Saturday markets are now indoors at the Oddfellows hall from 11:00 til 2:00. I love the Odds. Oh sure it's harder to set up because we have to haul evrything in by hand but it' got a good feel to it and people do come out to buy. I also like the shorter time frame. In, do our business, and out.

No shortage of farm projects either. Still harvesting three times a week and doing lots of field/tractor work. Getting cover crop in and setting beds for garlic. At our driest site, I am ripping/tilling and setting dry fallow beds that are essentially non cover cropped so we can get a jump on early re-tillage and sowing of our early crops in February such as peas, favas and greens.

Loving the new tractor. It's opened the doors to a whole new system. Dammit, I should have stepped up along time ago. The John Deere just runs circles around the Cub Cadet and having the wider stance with the R1 ag tires is the only way to go. Of course now I'm looking at some new implement purchases. One being a mechanical transplanter and the other being a potato digger. It's non stop but those two implements would help us out tremendously.

Time to go. i gotta finish the market harvest and load the truck.

Keep well,

John

Harvest Moon

2010-09-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

It's Fall and I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It was and continues to be a very busy year. This weekend marks the last outdoor farmers market of the season for us. It's the last of 22 weeks. Next week we move inside to the Odd Fellows hall. A welcome move but one that signals transistion into the season close. We stay there until Thanksgiving. I'm having mixed emotions. I'm tired and looking forward to a slower pace but I'm excited that things are going well and want to keep the flow going.

We're still pretty busy keeping up on things here. We've been prepping beds and direct sowing the last crops of the year. Things like arugula, and other assorted Asian type hearty mustards that we use for salad greens throughout the remainder of the year. Also a little spinach, turnips, both hakurei and purple tops and French breakfast radishes as well as a bed of ciopolini onions for next summer. I'll continue setting and sowing beds for another couple of weeks as long as the weather holds. Some of these act as an edible cover crop but we have also begun sowing our tradtional cover crops as well. I normally use the "soil builder" but it has alot of rye in it and I find that the rye is really tough to get rid of in the spring. This year I am using oats and Austrian field peas with some common vetch mixed in. I'm hoping that will work out better.
I also use fava beans as a cover. They don't always make it through the winter but if they do I do let them go to make pods for harvest which is a debatable practice. I also direct sow fava's again in February, the same time we sow peas and our first successions of hearty salad greens.

It's been quite rainy here, in fact so rainy that our pond has already re-filled. This is the earliest year I have ever seen that happen. The plants are responding nicely. The leafy greens like kale and chard are especially loving it. Simply put, they are spectacular. Our little island is quite verdant at the moment. What's not liking the rain is the strawberries. Between the yellow jackets and the rain they are all but goners. Our July 1st sown peas have come and gone. I'd call it a success. Not a huge harvest but a job well done. Deer broke through the gate this week and finished off what was there but failed to touch the other crops. (note to self: peas are an effective trap crop for deer) The pole beans sown at the same time will be harvested for the first time tomorrow. Could have sown those way earlier. Bush beans would have been a much better choice. The winter squash is looking good. Better than expected frankly and I'll be watching them closely for signs of rot with all this rain. It won't be much longer. Second succession of corn is just coming on right on schedule. Soon we'll be saying goodbye to our old friends squash and cukes. It's been bountiful and we will miss you. And of course lets not forget TOMATOES. You know, those funny gangly things in the hoop houses we've been doting over since Friggin February. It's not been spectacular by any means until this week. They are on. I have a feeling we'll peak this week and then they'll begin to wane faster than normal. Get em while there hot peeps.

There's lots more to tell about but this is getting long. I'll save it for another day.

Kepp well,

Farmer John

What Happens in September?

2010-09-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

I stopped in my favorite coffee joint (Enzo's) yesterday for refill and an aquantince says to me "well I guess your happy to be over the hump" At first I thought he was talking about the recession but quickly realized he was talking about the season. Ironically I had just come in from an early morning planting session. Most folks don't realize That we pretty much operate on a year round schedule. Of course things are slowing down but we still have lots of good weather left and late summer/early fall is a wonderful time of year to grow many things and of course harvest much of the later maturing and holding crops like potatoes and winter squash.

Yesterdays direct field sowing included mixed Asian salad greens, lettuce, chervil, cilantro and several beds of assorted mustard greens. I still have a few open beds and will put in spinach, spring onions, radish, turnips and more mustards.

We also still have lots of starts in flats that need to get in the ground and hopefully be sowing more flats of things that will wind up in the greenhouses's as the tomatoes come out. Speaking of tomatoes, they are actually coming on pretty strong at the moment. It might be a better harvest than I expected.

Trying some new cover crops this year. Tritacale, vetch and Austrian field peas. Nixing most of the rye as it is tennacious and hard to get rid of in the spring when we are trying to expedite field work to have beds ready to plant ASAP.

Time to get going.

Farmer John

Big Bad Son Of A Bitch

2010-09-12T06:19:00.000-07:00

Good news / bad news; Bad news is my Cub Cadet tractor broke down big time. I think the tranny went. Dealer quoted me $4,000 to fix so you know that means at least $5,000. I mean really have you ever paid what they quoted? The tractor only had 1500 hours on it and I had already had to do a clutch job at the tune of $2700.00. Long story short, I'm done with Cub Cadet/Yanmar.

Good news; I just took delivery of my new John Deere 4320 48 horsepower turbo diesel mfwd tractor. It is one bad ass machine. It was time to step up to a bigger/better tractor anyway. The new setup is going to change my whole operation to a more efficient platform. I'll now have the horse power to more easily break new ground and with the edition of a new 42 inch bed shaper, we'll be changing our layout scheme which will allow us to improve on what we've been doing. So it hurts to spend money, but in the end I feel like it's a wise business move.

Everything else is cruising along just fine. Sales volume has remained steady and production although is slowing is keeping up with demand. I'm still planting for fall and spring and have begun to cover crop a few areas. We have just two more outdoor markets and then we move inside the Oddfellows hall for the remaining markets up to Thanksgiving. So I'm planning to make sure we have product to sell. I have my fingers crossed on the winter squash and pole beans. Both could use a couple more weeks of summer. I' d say it's a 50/50 chance. They'll either make it or not.

Time to roll out, take care all,

Farmer John

Changes

2010-09-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Please note we are making a change on our phone system. Due to the excessive cost of keeping this line I have made a decesion to cancel it. Please contact us at 376-5994 or my cell at 622-6433 or contact us by e mail or facebook.

Thanks.

We are having a good year here on the farm but we are paying too much in expenses. My main tractor just went down and I am having to buy a new one so I'm super concsious about cutting back on excess expenditures. Although business has been good it is normal that we experience a gradual slowdown starting about now. The more we streamline, the more it enables us to keep our prices competitive.

Take care,

John

Hell Yeah!

2010-08-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

July has come and gone and we are celebrating the best month we've ever had by a long shot. It's been an interesting year from a growers viewpoint. We grew lot of specialty items this year and they have really set us apart. This has been a great year in the kitchen too. Lots of new recipes and can I just say how much fresh herbs can change your cooking! All in all, it's been an eye opener of a year. I'm seeing and hearing about alot of growers in our region having a challenging season. Feeling very thankful we are having a good year.

That's not to say we hav'nt had our challenges here though. Germination has been a constant stuggle this year. I've lost the last two sowings of beets. Hmmpf! We're going to have a big gap there and time is quickly eroding to plant again. Greens too have been hard this summer ( as always) and of course everyone wants whatever you don't have. It's all part of the game. So we're trying to keep the momentum and catch up on a couple of things. Some of the later stuff is coming on and replacing things that are on ther're way out. Bye bye favas, you've been real good to us this year and hello squash, cukes, tomatoes and potatoes!

Time to scoot. Keep it real peeps,

Farmer John

Foggy Valley Breakdown

2010-07-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

Fog in July? Unusual? probably not but I'm not sure if I recall ever seeing it. I'm sure I have but don't remember. Whatever.

Just heading out to harvest. Big day here and as always this time of year things are in tight demand. We have a little of a lot of things. Except Fava beans which we are entirely loaded to the gills with.

Oh tomato dear tomato, where art thou tomato. Lots of greenies just starting to turn. Two weeks from know we'll be in the schwing.

Lots of starts in flats ready to go and more on the way. Running a little late. Don't ye tarry, the sun is shining now is not the time to delay.

Off to the fields.

Farmer John

Whirlwind Of Weeding

2010-07-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

If you run out of things to do on a small farm there is always weeding to be done. We've been able to stay on top of most things. It's pretty much like the Golden Gate Bridge or owing a wooden boat. By the time you finish on section it's time to pick up where you started an re-weed from the beginning. Working v ery hard to not let things go to seed and to keep our crops growing un-checked from weed pressure. It's amazing just how fast they can grow. Especially challenging is keep the newley emerging beds cultivated so the crops don't just get smotherd in weed. I tried to flame weed a new block of beets last night but I think I missed it by a day. Eventually I chickened out and did not flame. (sorry boys I had you pull those drip tapes in vain) Now I'll have to resort to hoeing.

Some of our fall starts are ready for transplant and we are still sowing in flats to have crops ready to go in as bed space becomes available. Lots of direct sowing as well. This is the time to get in your beets, turnips and the like. We're planning for crops that will be ready for our indoor markets beginning in October. Sales can be strong if you have the product so we're trying not to drop the ball here. The hardest part about starting things in flats this time of year is to keep them properly hydrated. We have to water three times a day or else the cells dry out and checks growth.

All the while we must be keeping up on our market and wholesale account harvests. It's tricky at times to keep everything roling without having gaps in production. We're doing OK. As always and ironically, we seem to have a lull in the action this time of year. With the odd weather we've had, tomato and other heat loving crops like squash, cucumbers and such are behind a bit. Hopefully these things will kick in here real soon.

What we do have is alot of fava bean and sugar snap peas! It's been a very interesting year for me from a variety stand point.. We have a very eclectic mix of produce. As someone who enjoys cooking I'm pretty exited about things like radicchio, arrowhead cabbage, bulb fennel, fava beans and all of the culinary herbs. There have been some great dishes coming out of the kitchen. I don't care what anyone says, Grilled radicchio kicks ass! It also is a lovely addition to risotto.

All of this said, life is good. I feel like we're having a great year.

Take care peeps.

Farmer John

Holy bajole

2010-07-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

Farm sites are all looking pretty good. We've been weeding, weeding weeding. It's a constant battle. We're looking good for now, give it a couple of weeks. We had one spot that I had sown about six beds of beets into that just got swamped in weeds. There was no way to save them. I opted for the till, re-sow method. It's alot easier. I'll have to be more on the emerging weeds this time. Good call for the flamer. Some times the weeds seem to be more apt to germinate. If you believe in working within the astrological wings, perhaps timing your sowings to the times when weed pressure is lower would be a good thing. I actually am a believer. there have been times when I have worked soil and there was very little weed pressure. Life is all in the timing.

Speaking of timing, that means not screwing up the timing to make us run out of salad greens. I don't think I've ever had a year we did'nt have a gap and it looks like we're headed for one this week. I'm hoping to get the account orders filled but am afraid we won't have greens for market. Bummer. It won't be a long gap though and hopefully the only one we have.

I'm a little bleary eyed at the moment but all is well and we are having a great year. Lovi'n it!

Cheers,

Farmer John

Staying On Top

2010-07-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

Being a good farmer / gardner is alot about staying on top of the weeds. It's a non stop task. We've been on it pretty good this year. Using the tractor is a big help, espescially in the paths where in years past things have turned into a jungle. We try not to hand weed too much but last night I did get on my knees for about three hours clearing out a couple of beds of beets and fennel. A pain yes, but very much an instant gratification job. Weeding always make me feel better about me. We use hoes too. Especially in-row and between delicate seedlings. Hitting them early before you can even see them is a big benefit and helps us from losing things. If there's one thing I've learned it's to get the weeds before they get you. I'ts just a few minutes per bed with a hoe VS. hours on your hands and knees if you let hem go. Morale buster for sure. The quality of your crops is much higher with proper weeding as well. Obviously less competition for sunlight, water and nutrient. Plants will be leggy and weak at best if there is too much weed pressure. We try not to let weeds go to seed. We fail sometimes and pay a dear price. "one year seed, seven year weed" is very much a true statement. We hve a couple of weed ridden beds that we are trying to get a hold back onto by using buckwheat cover crop. My intent is to roll it down just prior to flowering and plant some fall crops into it. I'll keep you updated on how that does or does not work.

Fall gardners? Today is your day. This is the cutoff for sowing fall peas, beans, summer squash, cukes and corn. We will be putting in sugar snap peas and green beans today. Along with yes, you guessed it, more weeding! Also harvesting a ton of peas, Well, not a ton but hopefully a couple hundred pounds. Tomorrow we'll be harvesting strawberries for market and another couple hundred pounds of fava beans plus all the other stuff. Time to roll.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Water Works

2010-06-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Yep, Time to irrigate. Yesterday was all about the water. Most of the morning was spent on dialing in our greenhouse setups. We still have alot of work to install our new drip emitters on our grow bag set ups but it will be time well spent. We also pulled t-tapes on a couple of new sections we just direct sowed. As warm and dry as it's been, Ill go ahead and give an overhead watering just to ensure good germination. Overhead watering all of our beds at the home farm as well, except for the garlic which has already received too much water from all of the rain and is suffering from basal plate rot. Bummer. It was looking so good. It's not a total loss but we won't know till harvest, which actually wont be too long. Time is flying. not enough hours in the day.

Today is harvest/ delivery day for our commercial accounts and market harvest as well. I'm out at first light.

Cheers

Farmer John

Growing Local

2010-06-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

Well now look what we have here, my god man, is that the sun? We actually broke a sweat yesterday. Hallelujah! Everything in the field is loving it. Yesterday we noticed the first baby summer squash's on the plant. It wont be long for zucchini! Strawberries will be on next week they are loaded. Some tomatoes on the vine but mostly flowers. Corn and beans are growing fast and everything is looking good. I can honestly say our quality this year is about as good as I've ever seen. Feeling very proud of what we are taking to market. Despite being slighty off schedule from the weather we ar having a great year.

It's funny how one year can vary from another. Each year seems to have it's challanges and pay offs. One big change this year is that we are seeing a substantial increase in our commercial accounts. More restaraunts and our current accounts are ordering more produce. I think its safe to say it's a pretty clear indication of the economy which from my view does appear to be improving slightly. Traffic on the island appears to be brisk. Ironically, our market sales are down. Go fiqure. It's hard to tell what's happening for sure. Is it that we don't have strawberries and some of our higher volume crops on yet? Are people tiring of the market? It's hard to say. It feels like to me, we have less traffic coming through. I hope this is just a glitch. There are great deals at the market and a vibrant, fun atmosphere. Come on down!

With the sun comes respnsibility. Watering is a big issue and takes up alot of our time. We use mostly drip irrigation. Works great and uses less water. The benefits of being able to turn on a valve and water your beds far outways the hassle of laying drip tapes. It can take several hours to set up a field but this is generally a one time deal per crop issue. We do overhead water some things but then you become a slave to moving the hose. We're on the go most of the time and this becomes a more difficult issue. Easy is good. We like easy.

speaking of which, take er easy.

farmer John

Quiet

2010-06-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a whirl wind around here so no blog posts lately. It's kind of like the hush that comes to the table as folks begin to eat. Busy chewin, not flappin their jaws.

Market was dismal yesterday. Not for sure what happened. Beautiful day, lots of produce but not too many people. Things will improve as more product comes on. We had baby arrowhead cabbage yesterday and next week will be the first broccoli and fava beans. One thing I'm seeing and need to keep in perspective is that since our CSA members shop off our table at the market and we have increased our membership we need to bring more to market to satisfy the demand and still have enough product to keep an appealing display and have enough product on hand to allow us to maximize our cash sales. I've found that once your display starts to look depleted sales decrease. We can sell a hundred bunches of radishes but those last six never seem to leave the table. Marketing is a bigger deal for a small farmer than most of us realize.

We've been trying to stay ahead of the weeds. Good weather for pulling thistle but not as good for hoeing and tractor cultivating. Just a little too wet. We've been planting out about as fast as we can. The wet weather has slowed the field prep down so once again (as always) we are short on space. I will say that even though the weather has set us back a bit it has also helped us. I like the rain and so do the crops. Everything is just beautiful, so verdant and full of flavor. Water truly is the vehicle that delivers the nutrient to the plant. It's obvoius after a period like we've had that we probably don't water enough during our normal conditions.

Sunday morning is over, time to work a little.

Ciao,

Farmer John

Ass Whooped

2010-05-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah Daddy's all round for the Opalco crew!. Their bucket truck and skilled staff saved the day. What an amazing vehicle. Big thanks to Pat Plaister from Clearview tree service too and Mr. Ted Emery, and also to the Maple Rock Farm crew for covering for me for the market harvest. You guys all rock! Could'nt have gotten the job done without all the help. Thank you. Actually we did not finish the job but at least we got all the branches off and chipped and now we just have to knock down the stubs. Feelin like I had a little kharma in the bank on this one. If i had had to cover the cost on this one it would have been close to $3000.00. Seriously, Thank you to everyone.

Today is market day. Lots of great produce and beautiful plant starts. It's looking like you could put your toms out now. It's a liitle cool yet but we'll be going for it here next week. Classic case of tough love farming. Live or die. We've brought you this far, now your on your own. Don't baby your plants too much, they'll never make it in the real world. Hmmm just like kids.

I'm outta here peeps, se you at the market!

John

What's The Haps

2010-05-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

Today we are having to clean up a big mess that the windstorm left us. Three good size (50 footers) cottonwood trees toppled and are precariously perched in a group of smaller trees. This mess is all hanging over my walk-in cooler and power transformer and meter box. Not a project I'm looking forward too. But a Huge thank you to our power co-op OPALCO for sending out their crew and bucket truck. We'll make short work of it and not die in the process.

On top of that it's market harvest day. The variety is slowly increasing. We'll have salad greens, braising greens, rads, turnips, spinach, kale, chard, arugula and some beautiful adolescent head lettuce.

Hopefully we can get in a little field work too. There is lots of ground prep happening and transplanting and sowing continues. We mostly have the tomatoes installed in the hoop house's and hopefully the weather will settle down this next week and we can put in the outdoor toms. We'll be transplanting summer squash this week and we are sowing winter squash in pots now for transplant. We could sow direct but we simply are out of space at the moment. I've just tilled under a good bit of ground but it needs another 30 days before its ready to go.

Anyway, It's all good. Things are pretty much on schedule. Trying not to forget to keep on schedule is sometimes harder than it sounds. Always, there is so much to do. Along with harvesting, maitenance and field prep there is sowing, fertilizing, weeding, cultivating and keeping all of the tools, tractors and vehicles running not to mention paper work and keeping the cash flow on the positive side. I love it. Definately I have the best job in the world!

See you at market.

Farmer John

Schooled

2010-05-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

The crew and I attended a Farm walk this week at Hedlin Farms in LaConner WA. It's always a pleasure to see what other folks are doing out there. Over the years I can honestly say I have learned more from observing other farmers operations than any other activivity. Basically I walked away from this last farmwalk with mixed emotions. One, I realized that I have so much to learn. Two, I have learned alot.

I especially enjoy seeing larger operations. Size is subjective I suppose, the Hedlin's are farming about 400 acres. Much larger than us but not what I would call a big farm. Anyway, theres always something to learn from the bigger operations, especially in the tool dept. I was watching their crew transplant with a mechanical transplanter. uuhhhh, I will be buying one of these. No brainer, kinda makes me feel stupid for not already having one.

Very interesting greenhouse operation and racking systems. Tomatoes especially. They already have ripe tomatoes! So I don't have an inkling to do what they are doing there but definately saw a couple of tricks of the trade that we can apply to our operation.

Back at the grind here. We have have alot to catch up on, especially field work now that things are finally drying out a bit. We're getting the water flowing everywhere too. It's still cool out there but it's season on!

Take care,

John

Thank You

2010-04-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all of those who came out to our open house and plant sale. Despite the fickle spring weather we had quite a good turnout. The music was great and the pizza's were hot out of the oven all day. The bisquits & gravy did not suck.

The weather's been quite a bit cooler this year and I don't think folks are working in their gardens as much as they were trhis time last year. Sales were off just a bit from last year. Maybe we'll do another one soon? I don't know, It's an awful lot a work. I went to bed at 7:00 PM that night and did'nt get up til 7:00 AM the next morning! Thats a lot of sleep for me as those of you who follow my blog regularly will know.

Farmes market starts this Saturday. We will be having starts at the market. For produce we'll have greens, radishes, turnips, bok choi, onions, broccoli and brasing mix. Hopefully the weather's going to get sunny and warm one of these days. Things are just kind of sitting there right now. Come on sunnnn!

I;m not sure what we're doing here today? we still hav'nt put those strawberries in so that just may be our project d'jour.

Time to get to work.

Farmer John

Things That Run

2010-04-17T05:04:00.000-07:00

Alright! All four tractors are running. This is a rare moment around here folks. Hold your breath and count to ten. If nothing breaks it should be OK for a least a couple of weeks. Im moving equipment and tractors to my satelite farm plots. this week. Trying to at least have some implementation at each site so I dont have to haul as much stuff around. Brilliant if I can keep them running, thankfully my mechanic Cap'n Barb loves to work on old equipment. We've also been busy re-setting up water pumps and laying drip tapes. It's hard to believe we are already irrigating. Thats the way it goes, wet wet wet then the palnts need the moisture. Water is key. I say it every year but this has been a tough spring. I'm looking around and wondering what we are going to have for market. I'm hoping things kick in here real quick and have a major growth spurt. before the first of May. I can tell you everyone I know who is a grower is ready for some warmer weather.

PLANT SALE AND OPEN HOUSE.

Saturday, 4/24 we will be hosting our annual plant sale and open house. We have a beautiful selection of veggie and flower starts ready to be planted. I'll have the pizza oven fired up and be offering a few other baked goods, maybe even some good 'ol bisquits & gravy for the early comers. Doors open at 9:00 and we'll go till 5:00 I'm hoping we'll have a little live music this year too. Hope to see you here. This is the kick off to our selling season. Come celebrate with us and get us off to a good start.

This was a big week for transplanting. Our new field at Stonebridge dried enough to prep and we have been busy seeding and transplanting. So far we have in cabbage, broccoli, onions, chard and kale. Strawberry starts are here and we may have them in by monday. Three 225' beds, three rows per bed at 8" spacing should be about 3,000 plants. We also have 10 beds direct sown to various greens, beets, carrots, radishes and turnips. We 'll have a couple more beds for transplants and then the remainder of this one acre field will be planted into potatoes. perhaps next week. It looks beautiful.

We are in the greenhouses alot this time of year. Basically potting up starts into bigger pots that are destined for market or transplant. It's just about time for us to sow winter and summer squash and cucumbers. We start ours in 4" pots and they get transplanted around mid to late May. Going big on winter squash this year. Look for us in the fall for a harvest fest.

That's all for now, I'm going to slip outside for dawn patrol.

Keep well,

J

A seriously kick ass day

2010-04-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

Alright so things havn't been exactly ideal in the weather dept but despite that, we are getting some things in the ground. Our friends from Doe Bay Resort came over yesterday and layed down a steady beat of transplanting, sowing and potting up. We got more down in one day that we would have done in a week and had a great time to boot. Awesome! Thank you friends.

We transplanted two beds of sugar snap peas and direct sowed another four beds as well as four beds of favas. We also transplanted a 150 ft bed of salad greens and potted up several flats of tomatoes and a few artichokes. Nice, It feels so great to get things in the ground. It's still cold and windy and we even had a hail storm yesterday but these are all hardy plants and should do fine. We'll be putting in more just as soon as space comes up.

We'll also keep sowing in flats in the prop house. It's time for more lettuce, broccoli. artichokes, basil, onions, peppers and a few other things that I'm sure have slipped my mind. We could start sunflowers now and very soon we'll be sowing winter and summer squash and corn. I normally sow corn in flats even though they say you cant. It works fine and gives us a good jump. I also sow it direct in the field as the soil temp comes up. We grow Hookers Black or at least thats what I think it is. We got the seeds from sydney Coffelt of Coffelts farm. She's been growing it for many years. Great corn. Short stalk and always produces. Pretty colors too. Starts out yellow, turns purple, then black.

I have not looked at the forecast yet but hopefully it's calling for warm and dry? We'll be seriously busy very soon .

All the best.

Farmer John

Spring Has Yet To Sproing

2010-04-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

It's 39 degrees and raining sideways. The forecast is calling for mixed snow and rain with ice pellets. That's a new one for me. We've been flumoxed for weeks now with getting into the fields. Finally, yesterday, in the frigid driving rain I was able to at least make a few passes on one of our new field and shape a few beds at the home farm. I still need to lime and fertilze though and now it's wet again so I just have to wait a bit longer. We have been able to get a few things in he ground and I did direct sow a few beds a couple of weeks ago but Theres just not much happening. The ground is cold and dank and just not condusive to growing. It'll turn soon though and we'll be on our way. First market is in a month.

We have been harvesting a few things from the farm. We have some beautiful radishes on right now and the Japanese turnips will be on next week. Salad grren are gorgeous but in short supply as they are all coming from the greenhouse's. Actually the first round is done and we are flipping beds and transplanting with new greens on a rotating schedule. Tomatoes will soon be occupying that space but for now they are content in their own pots containers and enjoying the warmth of the grow lighs. They could go in the ground right now and we may pop in a few but it's pretty cold still, my intuition is to wait a bit longer.

Fortunately we have been able to make a little space by transplanting but generally speaking we are busting a the seams. The greenhouses are full with flats and as we begin potting things up into bigger pots, one flat turns into three so it can get out of hand quick. It seems I can never have enough table space.

Despite the cool weather things are looking great. In all honesty this weather pattern is completely normal and something we deal with every year. As farmers with deadlines we sometimes become impatient or frustrated when the weather does'nt cooperate. It is what it is, you can't fight it, better to just chill. In a couple of weeks it will be a faded memory.

Our annual plant sale is coming upon us quickly, Saturday April 24th 9:00 til 5:00 Good times, plants, pizza, music, it's all good.

Take care friends,

Farmer John

New chickies and Onions

2010-03-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow will be a big day for our new chicks. They'll be headin out to their new diggs in the new chicken tractor. Hopefully all will be well; it's a tough world out there with eagles, hawks & coons and things. I hope we win.

Today we'll be planting out onion sets... about 5,000 of them. Sounds like more than it is. Two varieties, Ailsa craig and Mars red. We have lots of others that we have started here from seed that will be ready for transplant real soon.

It's looking like things will dry out this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and get some ground worked up. We've got starts that are ready to go out, just waiting for space.

Sending prayers and positive thoughts to Vern Coffelt.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Pulled out and pulled over

2010-03-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a funny day. I had to pick up my trailer from a field that become wetter than I had anticipated and I pretty much stuck my truck in the mud up to axles. Thankfully I have triple A and within an hour I was back on the road only to be pulled over by the sheriff because of an un-readable licsene plate on my trailer. Please...... Do you think this is really the best use of of your time and my tax dollars guys? I guess if you can't catch Colton you gotta go for the easier targets.

Farmer John

Cruise Control

2010-03-13T03:36:00.000-08:00

All is well on the western front. Things are right on schedule as planned and there are thousands of happy plants in the hoop houses growing more and more everyday. The only problem at the moment is that we are rapidly running out of space to put flats. The green house tables are full and we are sowing more every day. Building tables seems to be a recurring and un-ending task for me. Hopefully the weather will ease a bit here in the next week or so and we'll be able to start transplanting outside. I don't use row covers any more so I tend to wait for better weather to start putting things in the ground. It works for me, We still manage to have the first greens each year and I don't waist time and money fiddling around with keeping remay on the field during our frequent wind storms and I'm not filling the dumpster with piles of old torn up petrloeum based spun polyester. Grandpa Gid never used it and thats good enough for me. That said it does work wonderfully, it cuts maturity time by a third and keeps out unwanted pests.

There is alot to be done right now but it is also a time of moderation. Human nature is to just plow forward. However this is a fickle season for a farmer and one must work within the confines of the hand mother nature deals. We try to space our sowings out not only for succession purposes but for prophouse management and insurance reasons. for example I like to space my tomato sowing out to at least three or four seperate sowings spread out over about a 45 to 60 day period. I start some early in mid February, another round about the first of March, another Mid March and again around early April. This insures I have a wide selection of plants at variuous maturities to select and sort as plants we keep for the field and plants that go to market as starts. It also spreads out our potting on workload so We don't have to scramble as hard. One also has to take into consideration inclimate weather. One year we lost several flats of tomatoes overnight due to an unexpected hard frost. Luckily I had back up flats already sown. Ironically, even with the spread, all of those tomatoes seem to begin ripening at the same time. You can't really fool mother nature, at least we can't. If we had lots of money to throw at it we could grow tomatoes all damn year if we wanted to. I happen to be a seaonal farmer who believes in growing and eating with the seasons and not using heat and lights to push things to grow beyond their means.

We're about six weeks out from the first farmers market. It'll be here before you know it and we'll be off on another seasons journey. This time of year I like to take a step back and evaluate the progress and to re check some of my earlier planning thoughts. We are off to a great start this year. Things are coming together better than they ever have. This has the potential to be an amazing growing year for us, not just the plants but the whole farm in general. I'm trying to be a better manager, farmer and leader. I'm hoping to add to the equipment arsenal this year so we can add to our effieciency and grow more produce using less hand labor. We also have some new competition this year and that inspires me to be a better farmer. We also may have the opportunity to buy a neighboring parcel that could really change our scene. All in all I'm pretty pumped up. This just feels like it's going to be a good year.

Take care all.

Farmer John

Starting To Look Like Something

2010-02-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

Things are taking shape around the farm. Definately looking like something is happening. Primarily in the hoop houses where we have at least a couple hundred flats growing. Nothing too major, lots of greens, herbs and aliums. No tomatoes or peppers yet, but soon. I like to hold off just a bit. If you plant them too soon then they just get leggy and in my experience you'll wind up harvesting at the same time whether you planted them in January or March. I suppose if you are using lights and heated greenhouses you could have them sooner but at what cost? It's not really what I'm into. There are plenty of other crops that fit the natural seasonality.

Deliveries have picked up and the over-wintering crops that made it through are looking good. I'm seeing things wanting to bolt sooner than normal and many of the plum trees are in full bloom right now. Our record warm February has us at least two weeks ahead. Even the grass needs to be mowed already! The weather for Early March is looking closer to normal ie. cool and wet. Still, I'm planning on a warm spring and hot, dry summer. This time of year can be difficult emotionally speaking. Mother nature teasing you with warm sunny days then the next, cold, windy and wet, as if the sun never did or never will shine again. You just have to be patient. Lots of talk on the streets between garders and farmers too. What are you planting? and so on. It's hard not to get too excited. Proof positive I still love my job.

There is also just a ton of work to be done. Firewood as always (next years) lots of clean up, fence building, repair, equipment maintenance, spring tillage and more. We have a new batch of baby chicks and so they'll need a new spot to reside. I'll need to move the coop soon and give them a new area. Might have a new round of piglets in soon as well. It's a busy life but good life.

CSA: Thank you to all of our returning members. renewals have been very consistent this year. In fact, almost daily. This is good not only for the money side of things but for the ego as well. (people actually lke what we do enough to pay for it?) All kidding aside, thank you. We really need cash flow this time of year. March and April are normally a very difficult months to cover and often there is a lag in CSA renewals and new sign ups at that time. I think because the people who really get it send their payments early and then for a majority of others it's not on their minds until spring is here in full force. So Thank you! I am grateful for your support. We are off to such a great start this year, I'm hopeful for an amazing season. Please do spread the word. If you like what we do, please tell your friends and neighbors and urge them to become a member.

For all of you home gardners out there. Keep up the good work and don't forget us when it comes time to buy your starts. We will be having our Spring fest/plant sale at the farm again this year probally around the third week in April. Last year was a blast and great success. This year will be even better.

Take care,

Farmer John

What's happening at MRF?

2010-02-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

Well, lots. The greenhouse is practically full of flats filled with starts. It's always so exciting when the first seedlings emerge signaling the start of a new season and another notch in the belt of the promise of a good farming year.

Focusing this year on streamling operations and keeping detailed records to determine the true cost per crop of what we grow. Increasing the bottom line by tightening the belt on expenses as opposed to continual growth. I would like to see an increase in sales but that will not be as important as cutting back on expenditures.

This year feels like it holds much promise. The weather has been mild an I'm going with the predictions of a warmer than normal summer. We'll perhaps grow more heat loving crops than in years past.

Seed orders are just arriving and things will be ramping up quickly in the next couple of weeks.

We still have openings for the next earth to plate dinner on the 27th. Give a shout if you would like to come. Cost is $50.00 per plate plus gratuity.

More to come later.

Take it easy,

Farmer John

We Have A Date

2010-02-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

The next Earth to plate experience will take place on Saturday February 27th at 6:30 PM. We're about half full right now and this event will sell out fast so please contact me ASAP for a spot.

Wow! Can y'all believe this weather? Beautiful... we are truly blessed. I just about have the propagation house filled with newly sown flat trays. Looks great. Just yesterday I noticed the first new seedlings of the year ( baby Chard ) One of the other greenhouses has been direct sown with spring greens and is just starting to germ as well. Also some of my overwintered salad greens out in the field that looked like had been killed from the December frost are actually recovering and looking like they'll make it. There's a decent amount of food in the field right now. I have just begun harvesting again after a few weeks off. It's good to be getting back into a groove. There is alot to do this time of year. Lov'n it!

Keep well,

Farmer John

Secret supper # 1

2010-01-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

Last night we held the first of a series of farm to fork dinners. We had about 20 guests and featured our farm raised Mangalitsa pork. It was truly a delightful evening and everyone had a great time and he food was delicious. heres the menu.

Appetizer: Crispy Mangalitsa bacon wrapped water chestnuts.

Starter: Maple Rock Farm winter foraged mixed greens served with hand crafted multi grain rolls.

Main Course: Roasted leg of Mangalitsa (fresh ham) served with garden fresh broccoli, braised cabbage, grits and red eye gravy.

For dessert we had kabocha sweet squash cheesecake with a bourbon sour cream topping.

I really had a fun time doing this and am happy that a long standing ambition has become a reality. My goal is to provide great food created from what we and our friends grow in a unique setting to create a food memory that will last a lifetime. We'll be doing more dinners soon. You can e mail us if you would like to be on the list.

Keep well,

Farmer John

This little piggie goes to market

2010-01-23T03:43:00.000-08:00

We slaughtered our last two hogs this past week. It all went pretty well. Those guys sure are wooly this time of year. Scraping them is no small task. It's about a four to five hour job to get one in the cooler ready to be cut and wrapped. Mostly done, I need to cure my bacon and grind a few pounds for sausage and I'll be done. I've been nibbling here and there. They sure are tasty.

It's been a busy January. Getting a few folks re-upping their CSA accounts for the season. Nice to see a little cash flow. The school lunch went well and all sights are now set on the first farm to fork dinner we are hosting on the 30th. We booked up in about two days. I will have another scheduled in a few days. I think we're onto something here. I'm very excited.

With the warm weather I should be out there planting some things. Just havn't worked up the gumption yet. Soon, I promise. Seed orders will start going in this week. I have some seed remaining from last year which will help keep my cost down. I also have three tons of fertilizer on hand and will not need to purchase any this year. Thats a fairly substantial cost for us that we don't have to worry about. Cost cutting is a big theme this year. We've got a few things to rein in on for sure.

Our internship posistions are filled and it looks like we have a great crew set for this year. I sometimes have returns from the previous year. This year it's a clean slate. Looking forward to the promise of a fresh start.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year.

Keep well and thanks for tuning in.

Farmer John

Post #100

2010-01-13T04:05:00.000-08:00

Seriously this is my 100th post. It seems with the coming of facebook, myspace, twitter and the like that blogs like this may fall behind. People are perhaps not nto a longer post. I'll keep them to the poignent.

There is seriously alot to do right now. Feeling those mini waves of anxieital rush. Seeds to order, seeds to sow, farm plan to write, farm clean up and organize, maintenance and getting equipment ready to go, pigs to slaughter, fences to build and mend. finalization of intenships This is supposed to be my down time isn't it. Ahhh no rest for the wicked. Don't forget to paint the bathroom dude.

CSA mailers just went out. Tha's always a good feeling. I hope those of you whom are existing members and or are becoming new members will realize the importance of sending in your payments as soon as you can. We've got alot on our plates this year that is going to require a continual flow of cash.

The first farm dinner is set for the 30th of this month. I need sixteen people to make it happen. We'll be featuring the Mangalitsa hog we raised. For those of you in the know, a rare treat indeed. This may well be the first and last time we have them. The breeder of the Wooly Pigs has moved to Iowa and it's unlikely it will be cost effective for us to get piglets from him in the future.

Also, next week I'm cooking at the school cafeteria. Beef stew, grandma's mac n' cheese, coleslaw and applesauce. Cost is just $5.00 and I'm hoping to serve 400 lunches. I need your help to hit that mark. It's happening on Thursday the 21st from 11:30 till 12:30ish.

Ok there we are short and sweet as promised. Take care all,

Farmer John

Iron Chefs In The White House Garden

2010-01-05T05:37:00.000-08:00

Did anyone see Iron Chef on Sunday? The secret ingredient was anything from the White House garden. They also were using naturally grown pork, chicken and turkey raised within a 100 mile radius of DC. Pretty cool. A marketing coup deluxe. Someone was very much thinking ahead of the game on this one. Hats off and my utmost respect to our first lady. Mrs. Obama... you rock and thank you for starting a garden.

The best part was seeing the garden. Now I've seen a lot of gardens and this might be the nicest first year one I have ever seen. Everything looked healthy and verdant. Beautiful fennel and the sweet potatoes looked perfect. Really nice!

I noticed online that the garden only cost $200.00 start. That's my only problem with it. No one starts a garden for that sum and how much were the care takers paid to maintain it? I wish they would just give the real dirt here. If I am wrong and the garden was tended by amatuers I'd be very surprised but happy.

Anyway, way cool in my book.

Farmer John

Happy Solstice

2009-12-22T06:23:00.000-08:00

Yeah daddy! Soltice is here and the days are getting longer. Almost ironic that it's the beginning of winter but also the time at least for me to beginn thinking about farming again. In these prts you can normally count on six weeks on each side of the soltice where's there's not much growth happening. So even though its the start of winter we'll be starting a new season in just over a month. So now is the time relax, reflect and plan for next year. There's always something to do. Seed orders go in in January and mapping ot next years arm plan is in proccess.

Some good news here is that the hard freeze we had a couple weeks back really didn't do as much damage as I had first thought. I am very happy to report that the fava beans are alive and the broccoli took a minimal hit. Greens are gone but thats OK. They'll be back soon enough.

Happy holidays to all.

Your farmer

John

CSA For The Holiday

2009-12-17T05:43:00.000-08:00

Who would'nt enjoy receiving a Maple Rock Farm CSA share for a Christmas gift? There's Plenty of time left. Give someone you love a great and meanigful gift. Minimum amount is $100.00.

OR... I'm also offering the food bank Match again. I'll match any contribution of a CSA share that is to be donated to the Food Bank by 50%. Last year we delivered over two $2,000 in fresh produce on this program.

Happy holidays everyone,

Your farmer,

John

Last Nights Supper

2009-12-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

Last nights dinner was more symbolic than fancy. What was special was that it represented the last fresh harvest of the year. We normally go a bit longer into December but the cold snap we are experiencing has most of the fresh veg in the field looking a little less than desirable. Some of it may come back as the weather moderates but alot of it is gone. The real success was the kids liked it.

For the main course we had tenderloin of Mangalitsa. Wow! Best ever. So simple to make too. I used a dry rub and seared it off and finished it low and slow in the oven. Awesome. We also had artichokes, fresh steamed cauliflower and baked potatoes. I came up with a new bread recipe too. Savory whole wheat with kabocha squash mixed in. It was fantastic. We have alot of winter squash and this was a great way to incorpoate it. I always make lunches for the kids to take to school. When they get sandwiches I like to use home baked bread. The prefer it and it's not all pumped full of crap. Normally it's a white bread but I was thinking of something different and more nutrtious. They loved the whole wheat/kabocha. Theres nothing like fresh bread served hot right out of the oven slathered in butter and honey. It definately takes me back to my mom Novella Steward and her great wheat bread she made when I was a kid. Yum!

The weather has brought things to a halt here. Very cold but beautifuly sunny, crisp and clear. The down time is allowing me to focus on getting the year end news letter written and planning things for next year. In January we'll be hosting some farm dinners here. The idea is somewhat similar to an underground supper club. Great food shared with friends family style. It's something I've wanted to do since the day I've started the farm. Just never been able to pull it off in the summer due to the lack of time. It had never really occured to me to do them in the winter but it's the perfect time. Cozy atmosphere, good food, friends new and old gathered around the farmers table. I think it's the scenario for a food memory you'll never forget.

I'll keep you posted.

Your Farmer,

John

Farmer Porn

2009-12-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

This time of year most farmers are just wrapping things up from a long productive year and don't even want to start thinking about next year yet. Then the seed catalogs start showing up with all of their sexy, glossy photos of new and heirloom vegetables and titilating descriptions expounding all of the virtues of each and how and why we should grow them. I must confess I am weak. Oh lord I try to be a good man but every year I fall to the temptations of the evil. Take tomatoes for example. Over the years I have grown hundreds of different varieties. I have just a handful that have proved themselves worthy and I vow to only grow those chosen ones. Yet when I start making orders I start to stray and add a few here and there and then all of a sudden I have 30 varieties and a justification for each one of them. Then later as I'm dumping out flats of tomatoes into the compost pile a strange feeling of guilt, possesion and self reasoning sets in. "Why didn't I just stick to the ones I know do the best"? "Why did I order so many"? "Shouldn't I be giving these to someone"? "Better too many than not enough right"? Right. The subsequent harvest confirms my kmowledge, my trusted varieties perform as always. Some of the others do well but are generally lack luster. Note to self: "don't grow that one next year" Yeah okay, but what about?

In my own defense. I would have never discovered my favorites without succuming to temptation. So as the catalogs appear and I begin to plan out next years crops I'll try to restrain, but I know I'll cave a some point. It's okay, I can justify myself, It's who I am.

Your farmer,

John

Flog; It's all about the food

2009-11-30T06:15:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving dinner this year was a special one. We spent the day gathered with friends, new and old of all agesThe food spoke for itself. All in all a lovely day.

I had made a commitment to try and use as much local food as possible. The idea was not to obsess about it but rather to come up with a list of possibilities and go from there. I'd say we hit 99%.

The turkey was from Jones family farm on Lopez Island. The star of the dinner was a ham I cured from one of our Mangalitsa hogs that we had recently slaughtered. This was my first attempt at making my own ham. It was awesome. The only thing I would do different next time is to inject brine into the center of the ham at the beginning to insure proper penetration to the center We also incoropated the bacon into several dishes including a cabbage/celeriac/fennel slaw with homemade aoili. For apps we made bacon wrapped water chestnuts broiled off in the wood fired oven as well as fresh local oysters on the half shell and enjoyed a large pickle platter from some of the items we had put up earlier in the season accompanied by hand made farmers cheese. For veg we had fresh Maple Rock Farm brussel's sprouts, broccoli and a fall forage salad mix with the last of our fresh tomatoes. One big hit was the onion pie. Made with copra onions from Orcas Farm, and also included some of the Mangalitsa smoked jowl bacon. I use a spring form to make this one so it stands tall. It's rich and delicious.

I think the best thing was to share all of this with friends and good cheer in an un-pretentious manner. Good friends, Good food, good times.

I bid you well,

Farmer John

Jowl Bacon And Split Pea Soup

2009-11-15T06:43:00.000-08:00

It was a good day, starting with bisquits made with lardo, smoked jowl bacon and eggs. Nothing fancy right. Just some good ol southern influenced soul food. The jowl meat is truly off the chain. Side by side of the bacon it is really it's own thing. Similar to regular bacon but quite distinctive. It has a European name but I cannot recall what it is. It does'nt matter, It's just good.

Katie fired up a couple different soups for the day. The first was a classic french onion soup made with Coffelts Farm beef broth and onions grown on island by George Orser at Orcas Farm. The other soup was split pea made with the pork stock and ham hock. This is all what one my call peasant food which in m opinion is the best food on the planet. Unpretentious, authentic cooking using on hand, local ingredients. It's what I would call living close to the bone or what others would perhaps say as living high on the hog. Anyway you say it, it's all good. It is good to be alive.

We're pretty much in pork heaven here right now. I smoked the jowls and a litle bit of the bacon. I have a cheapo smoker but it works quite well. I used all alder wood just by using that as the wood for the fire. It's a bit heavy sometimes but good if you dont over do it. I took everything to 150 degrees. I'd like to try some fruit woods that may create a less intense smoke flavor. I aslo have the to be ham in a brine soultion. Another few days in the brine and then I'll lightly smoke it and finish it off in the oven. Looking forward to that. It's all fun. I'm a newbie in this department so its all experimentaion. It never hurts to have a chef as a friend. Thanks Geddes for all of your help and guidance. My cooking skills are getting kicked up a notch.

Today? rendering some of the leaf fat I think. I'll be using some of the lard to make pie dough for holiday pies. We're swimming in pumpkins, apples and all kinds of other fruits and berries that we put up earlier in the fall. I'll make a few pies and tarts and pop them in the freezer for later use.

I'm hoping to host a few farm to table dinners here this winter. Hopefully that will come to fruition so We can share some of the goodness with our customers. I'll keep you posted.

Keep well,

Farmer John

This Little Piggy Goes To Market

2009-11-13T06:19:00.000-08:00

We slaughtered the first of our two mangalitsa hogs a couple weeks back. Very interesting to see how these "Wooly Pigs" differ from the regular swine we have raised in past years. The obvious difference is how much fat they have. The fatback on this guy was about two and a half inches thick! Wooly pigs are famous for their high quality fat and I was perhaps a bit sceptical in the beginning but after working with and tasting the meat I a convert.

Yesterday was spent smoking ham hocks and bones and making copious quantities of stock. I also proccessed the scrap into ground pork. This was the first real taste of the meat I have had. Highly impressive. Without question the best pork I've ever tasted. The flesh is such a beautiful red color and the texture reminded me of a sushi grade tuna. Just fabulous.

Geddes Martin from The Inn At Ship Bay dry cured the bellies and jowls for bacon. The flavor is exceptional. The bacon is mostly fat but it's different than any bacon you'll see at the market. It goes translucent as soon as it heats the pan. The flavor is clean and the taste again, is out of this world.

I also rendered a pan sized piece of fat and wound up with four pints of high quality lard. We had around six pounds of leaf lard. I have not rendered that yet but I can't wait to do so and of course we're going to try some whipped fat! I'm especially looking forward to bisquits made with the lardo and a big pot of split pea soup made with the stock from the smoked bones. The smell in our house right now is delightfully one of pork fat.

My chore for today is to de-bone a large fresh ham and get it into a brine solution to cure so we'll have a nice ham for thanksgiving. We always have a big crowd at thanksgiving. We always eat fresh and seasonal and this year will be extra special using the mangalitsa as a critical componet to many of our dishes.

Time to roll. Take care all.

Farmer John

Winder Down

2009-11-07T06:34:00.000-08:00

We are rapidly coming to a close here. We have just one more farmers market after today. We'll be about town selling when the weather permits and supplying the local restaraunts for the next six weeks or so and then it's a wrap for the year. Not that the work ever stops. People ask me all the time what I do in the down time. There is not much of a slow time these days! It's always something. January is a slower more contemplative time. Lots of planning for the upcoming season and soliciting custumers for our CSA begins. Keeping the cash flow up is priority # 1. CSA dollars are what allow us to continue bringing Orcas Island a wide selection of locally grown produce.

For now we're just trying to keep as much product flowing as possible. There is still an amazing bounty coming from the farm. Believe it or not we still have some lovely tomatoes. Never have I seen the quality continue this far into the season. It's awesome. It's helped pick up some slack on our failed crop of potatoes (bummer) It's not often we get skunked but it does happen. It's a classic example of why we are diverse in the crops we grow. Other things we are bringing to the table right now include cabbage, beets, celeriac, leeks, salad greens, braising greens, turnips, brussel's sprouts, broccoli, swiss chard, kale, collards radish's and celery. We have a handful of winter squash but it is mostly done. Wish we had planted more.

The days are becoming shorter and the weather can be challenging. Yesterday was a little rough. Not so much the weather but just tuckered out. Therefore it is getting light and I must go finish the market harvest this morning. Stay tuned. I'm a better blogger in the winter months than I am in the summer.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Fall Rush

2009-10-13T05:40:00.000-07:00

The rains are coming and that means lots of last minute details to attend to. Getting the grenhouses battenend down, stocking firewood and getting in the last of the cover crop and overwintering crops in. This week noted the first frost of the season. Not a killing frost but enough to remind us that winter is definately on the way. I'm actually looking forward to the rain. It's been a long, hot, dry season. Plus I'm just looking for an excuse to sit inside and watch it rain and contemplate the season and begin the planning process for yet another year. I'm still commited as ever to providing fresh and local produce

Our pigs are sizing up and I'm beginning to think it's getting close to slaughter time. We'll give them a little longer and see how they do.

Garlic is in and we are just beginning to take tomato plants out of the hoophouses and replace them with lettuce. Once again, just an amazing tomato year. I'm probably a little late for the lettuce but how can you just rip out a healthy tomato plant you've nurished for damn near a year? I can't, besides, the greenhouse's are great and all for growing winter crops but the reality is they are so small relative to what we actually harvest that it just does'nt make that big of a difference. Our outdoor plantings of winter hardy greens are much more practical and provide us with a much longer/larger harvest.

Although we put in our fall and overwintering crops slightly late this year, they are doing well and looking like they will produce. Broccoli will be on soon followed by cabbage and other misc. brassicas. Hopefully my late sowings of greens and Hakurei turnips will make it. I'm also sowing peas and fava beans for spring harvest. Just as a side note, we have been harvesting some nice sugar snap peas that I sowed on July 1st. Note to self, do that again next year only more.

Time to getty up. Biscuts for breakfast!

Farmer John

Yo!

2009-10-06T04:39:00.000-07:00

Wow! The weather this week has been wonderful. Looks like a change is on the way soon though. The rains cometh. I'll be pushing to get firewood in and under cover this week. Daily routines on the farm continue but things ar definately slowing down. Our reastaurant accounts are ordering less as their volume begins to slow down. The Farmers market has now moved inside to the Oddfellows Hall. Traffic seems to me like it's a little slower this year but we are actually up from last year. Same time last year sales volume is definately slipping. It's too early to determine if it's a developing trend. We'll just keep pushing to bring as much to market as we can. Part of the slip has been on our side. Deer ravaged our strawberry and potato fields causing a major shortage in those crops both which are in the top five sellers. I personally dropped the ball on salad green production (our premier crop) It was just so hot this summer it was hard to keep it rolling. Once you fall behind it's hard to catch back up. All is well for now, hopefully the weather holds long enough for the newly sown greens to come to maturity. It appears that most of the fall broccoli and cabbage crops will come to fruition. This time of year you can't really count on anything until it happens. It is all weather dependent.

This week will be the last of the summer squash, cucumbers and outdoor tomatoes. They had a nice long run and I am happy for that. Best tomato year I've ever seen and the cucumbers as lowly as they may seem reigned as kings this year. I'm shocked at how many we sold. I'm leaving the indoor toms in for a bit longer. They have tons of tomatoes on them and seem to be continuing to ripen. The end will come soon. With that we will be officially be in fall crop mode. Lots of root crops, beautiful fall greens and winter squash and hopefully a few lingering tomatoes that have ripened off the vine.

That'll have to do for now. Thanks to you all for helping us have another great season.

Keep well,

Farmer John

"What we have here is a failure to communicate"

2009-08-28T04:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry... It's been a damn long time since I've posted. Just too darned busy. Ironic, this is the time when there is the most to write about. It's been a busy summer obviously. This years dry, hot conditions have provided us with the best tomato crop I think I've ever seen. Gorgeous! Paul Robeson is STILL my favorite tomato ever. Lovin the black cherries and of course the sungolds as always are complety off the chain.

The pigs are growing nicely with the exception of our full breed mangalitsa. He's still alot smaller than his buddies. The biggest of which is about 180lbs I'd guess. Before too long we'll be having a hog roast. Can't wait.

The season is beginning to feel a bit autumnal But it is still clearly summer and the bounty is on. Changes are in store soon. Just five more outdoor markets before we move inside for the fall. Sales have been good at the market. I think we are up a little for the year. Wholesale sales are off a bit due to the economy. Overall I think we're doing OK. It's been a bit of a turbulent year. Could be better, need more space.

The new land we are working this year has potential but not much progress has been made on the water situation. No water.... no farm. The potatoes I put in there showed promise in the beginning. Not enough water and then having them ravaged by the deer pretty much nailed the coffin shut. We are harvesting some potatoes from there but the yield is terible and there is heavy wire worm casulty. We'll try that next year under an improved situation. ie, a fence and irrigation and a different location in the field away from the neighbor.

We've had deer issues in the strawberry field. It's an ugly story I'm tired of telling. In short there are no strawberries and there will not be until next year. Nuts!

That'll do for now. Just easing back into a blogging routine. More to come on a "regular" schedule.

Farmer John

Back At Market

2009-05-07T05:42:00.000-07:00

The Farmers market returns for 2009. Saturday was our first market of the season. We had a great day. Sales were brisk and the energy was great. Considering all of the wierd weather we've experienced this spring we had a nice selection of produce. Lettuce, Asian greens mix, baby bok choi, radsish's, Japanese turnips, braising greens and kale tops. We also had a wide variety of plant starts available. Plant sales were good which was nice because there is strong competition for starts at the market. We had alot of return customers who have been with us for years. Thank you, we appreciate your business.

Me moved our location from the village green to the street this year on a temporary basis while the newly sown grass is taking hold on the green. We all loved the new location and so did our customers. The energy was like a stree fair; and the street is free! The board has my vote to move and many others feel the same way. We are all more than tired of the county bullying us around with the outlandish rate hikes and cavalier attitude. They should be happy to have us there. I hope we move just to be able to give it back to the short-sided, money hungry parks department.

It's been a rainy week. We were able to get in most of the potatoes before it came down. Still have 15 rows to go. Just waiting for it to dry out a bit. The rains been nice, perfect transplanting weather and thats what we're up to. We put in six beds of brassicas yesterday ( broccoli, cauliflower and kale) Six beds left in brassicaville, there's more broccoli ready to go today. Pea trellis's are up on the earliest peas. we'll continue installing as needed. Lots of potting up going on and still sowing indoors and out. Getting ready to run out of space soon. Strawberries will be here today. A little late I know but given the weather and other events I just hav'nt been able to get the new beds prepped. This rain will set us back a couple more days perhaps. It's hard once market satrts to get everything done as it takes out two days of the week. One for harvest and one to do the market. Oh yeah and everything needs to be mowed. And.... weedy! when the sun comes out they will explode. Get the weed arsenal ready!

So much to do. When and how will it all happen?

Farmer John

Open House A Huge Success

2009-04-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came out Saturday for the open house/plant sale. We were busy all day from 9 til 5. It was great for folks to get a view of some of the happenings around the farm, have some pizza and grab a flat of starts for the home garden. It's been awhile since we've had a plant sale. I used to do them we first started the farm. Not many people came out as people didn't know who we were or what we were doing. Now after we've been in business for eight years, people definately know us and we have a great reputation for offering high quality and reliable varieties of plant starts in addition to our fresh, local produce. It's a very satisfying feeling to see the success of something you've started from scratch. So a big thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years.

Now its back to the business of getting plants in the ground. The broccoli and cabbage we've been hardening off all week is ready to be transplanted. It's at its prime and looks great. We'll be starting up with the irrigation now too. It's actually quite dry out and the new transplants need a good shot of water to survive. We've got lettuce going in the ground this week too and maybe some onions as well along with chard and anything else that is ready. Things are ramping up in general. It does'nt get too much busier than it is now.

Obviously lots of ground work happening as well. The potato field is just about ready and I need to get to the new strawberry field prepped as well. It's a little later than normal but the weather is later so I'm not too worried. But no time to tarry. Oh, and don't forget to keep up with the potting on. Lots of little plants that want to be big guys:)

Time to get going here.

Have a good day,

Farmer John

Potting up

2009-04-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

Greenhouse's are bursting and as we pot up from flats to 4" pots we need even more space. Fortunately some things are begining to go out into the field but realistcally it's a still too cold to be putting most things out. Some of the starts we put out last week are definately in shock and don't look too happy. They'll recover but it's really not optimal. So more tables we will build and hopefully the weather will continue to improve.

We have a few orders for starts that we have been delivering and a few flats going out today so that will help. Hopefully we'll move a bunch on Saturday for the plant sale/open house. Gorgeous starts this year. Absolutely stunning but they must now go. We'll start haredening off broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower today. I have nine 150ft beds prepped and waiting. I'll hit em with the flame weeder just prior to transplant to knock out the first flush of weeds. Brassicas grow fast and tall and generally out compete most of the weeds. This is good because I was bad and let some weeds go to seed in this space last year. Bad farming technique for sure. "one year seed... seven year weed" It's true, trust me, been there done that.

April is a wicked month in many ways. Fickle weather, taxes, lousy cash flow and the final push for last minute supplies makes for extrodinarily challenging days Basically we're beyond broke and have been hoping for a few CSA memberships to show up. I know times are tough and I'm not complaining, I've been impressed by how well we've done to date. But... there has been a big lag in sign ups this month. It's normal but we could really use a cash hit right now. If you're out there and reading this and you hav'nt yet signed up but you've been thinking about it. Please do it now. ( I know I sound like the pledge rcruits on NPR ) but this is how we make a living and would like to continue doing so. To do so we need your help by becoming a member.

Market starts the first Saturday in May. We'll be moving this year for the first month due to the fact that the new grass is not yet able to be walked on at the village green. We'll be set up on the steet at Prune Alley. It'll be interesting. Maybe it'll spark some type of permant foundation for moving in the future to escape the excessive charges the county parks dept has levied on the market. I know I'm not alone in my opinion of wanting to tell the county to shove it. Whoa partner better stop there, thats a whole nother story.

Take care,

Farmer John

Plant Sale, Farm Tour & Pizza

2009-04-17T04:32:00.000-07:00

Join us on Saturday April 25th for our plant sale and farm tour. We have a huge amount of plants ready to go for your home garden. It's a great time to see the happenings of early spring on the farm. A peak into the back door as it were. Also I'll have the pizza oven fired up and will be selling gourmet wood oven pizzas. Come one come all. Have a pizza, take a tour and grab a flat of starts for an instant garden of bounty. We'd be happy to accept orders for custom grown flats as well.

As a side note, we are in need of plastic trays (Anderson Flats) and 4" pots. would love to recycle if any of you have any.

What else is happening? Alot! Its planting time. I'm working available ground and prepping beds as fast as the conditions will allow. Much of the ground is still too wet to work but we have managed to get in a decent amount transplants and have direct sown crops in our drier areas. We've been making restaurant deliveries since the end of March without a gap however, if the outside crops don't produce soon we'll have a gap. we really need some decent weather and it appears to be on its way.

The new potato field is coming along nicely and should be ready to plant by the end of the month. I'll be dry cropping these and growing them without the protection of a deer fence. we can normally grow potatoes without a fence. It's a risk though. The earlier you put them in the better as their are more attrative things for the little beasts to eat than potatoes (which are technically posinous)

Endless potting up these days. Thousands of starts coming out of trays going into 4" pots. Space is at a premium and the greenhouse's are bulging. As the weather turns these will be going into the fields. Hopefully many of you will be relieving us of flats at the plant sale!

Looking forward to seeing you all for a day of fun.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Weather Turning!

2009-04-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah baby, it's a little cool right now and will be that way a bit longer but warm WX is on the way! We'll get this show on the road. Lots of plants in the greenhouses ready to go out. We'll have a big push next week to get them ready for transplant. Things are drying out and I'm working fields as the're ready. Space is always an issue but we're on top of it thus far. This past week I was able to direct sow about 19 beds of various items. Now we just need a little decent weather and we'll be off.

Market is coming up fast. I'm thinking if we get good weather we'll have a decent amount of produce. We'll have plant starts too (along with everyone else).

We're trying to get a jump on that one by hosting a farm tour/plant sale at the home farm on Saturday April 25th from 9:00 til 5:00. You'll have the very best selection of anywhere that day. I'll have the pizza oven fired up and will be selling pizza's too! As always you can ask us your gardening questions, we'll be happy to help. It'll be a fun day, hope you can make it.

Still accepting CSA memberships. If you want to support a local farm by becoming a CSA member, this is it. The time is now. April is a brutal month for a farmer. Cash reserves are zero and the bills still coming in with no end in sight. Things will begin to normalize in May but for now we've got a big hurdle to jump to make it through April. Please join us.

Take care friends,

Farmer John

Dude, Get the boat

2009-04-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

Geez, First day of April was a doozey. First we started out with some rain which then turned to about an inch of snow and the just went back to steady rain all day and most of the night. One of those days when you just try to move forward and not let it get you down. We just went to the green house and potted up all day. Today will be the same but with a little less rain. I'm feeling fortunate that we have a at least a few outdoor beds planted out. Yesterdays rain will keep us out of the fields for a couple of weeks at least.

Despite the lousy weather will be making some deliveries today. Not much. A few greens, some radishes and turnips. Just trying to eek things out without coming up short for later deliveries or the first maket. We''l be clearing out a couple of beds in one of the hoop houses. we'll turn them under, re-shape and re-sow and hope we get a turn around harvest in 30 days for the first market? It's right on the edge. We might miss that timing by a week or so. It depends on the weather. The other option is to let the greens we cut, re-grow and come in for a second cutting. It works but there is a lot of chickweed in the beds. Chickweed actually makes a nice touch to the greens but the problem is it may start to bolt and then it's funky and takes way longer to harvest the greens. I like a clean slate.

I'm short on time today, gotta roll.

Take care out there and keep your powder dry.

Farmer John

Things Are Growing

2009-03-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hooray! We're starting to see things turn to normal. Been harvesting a few greens from the hoophouses. Radish's and turnips are close behind. Starts in the greenhouse's are showing new growth daily. Soon (perhaps this week) we'll start potting up out of trays into pots. This is alot of what we do in April. We have bee transplanting the first sowing of lettuce into the fields and soon other greens crops will follow. We try to put as many things out as possible without potting up but some things just do better geeting the extra growth within the confines of the greenhouse. The heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers absolutely require being protected through at lest mid May.

I was able to get a few outdoor beds worked up and sown last week. sure feels good to get some seeds in the ground. I sowed Spinach, salad mix, rads, turnips, beets, peas, fava's and I'll be getting ready for an early sowing of potatoes. The main crop will be going in a litle later. Still breaking ground on the new potato field. I'll have to till it a couple more times to break down the remaing sod and get a fine seedbed. Should be ready by the end of April. Already it feels like we'll be struggling for space. where is it all going? Strawberry starts will be here in a couple of weeks. I'm not even for sure where there going yet. Better figure that one out pronto!

All in all I'd say it's going well. We made our first restaraunt deliveries last week. Hopefully we'll be able to keep going without a gap. Market starts on May 2nd. It looks like we'll have a pretty good showing.

Home Gardners need starts? We have em. Anything you want. You will also be able to buy our starts from ACE Hardware starting soon. Because of the late start this year. There will be a tremendous amount of competition for plant starts at the market from all of the other farmers. We will be having open house's at the farm prior to market opening. Maple Rock has the largest supply of plant starts on the island. All of our starts are of the highest qualities and we sell only varieties that are proven for our climate. If you are looking for something extra special. Call us, it's not too late to accept custom orders.

And Finally, We still have CSA sign ups available. Membership has slowed way down. Are you out there? Call or e mail if you have questions or the easiest way is to go to www.maplerockfarm.com and download the membership form and send it in with your check. We need you. We hope you need us as well. We want to be your farm.

That's all for now. Take care and keep well,

Farmer John

Fluky Weather Continues

2009-03-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

I was out for a few days. Looks like things dried up a bit but then by mid day yesterday it was raining again. I did get a little field work done. Not as much as I would have liked. I really need to get peas and fava's in the ground! Oh well, Things will come around soon I hope. Until then, it's greenhouse work. Lots of trays being sown right now. It's filling up fast and we are just squeezing things in where ever they will fit. That translates into lots of potting on and transplanting. Thats a whole other issue. Very soon the first sown brassicas and tomatoes will be potted up into 4" pots. That means your taking one tray and turning it into three or four and sometimes even five trays. As we are cramped for space now, we'll be even more cramped for space when that process begins. Timing is key. Fall behind in this process and your starts get root bound and become stunted. As the weather gets nicer, many things can start to get transplanted. For example, right now here are about 50 trays of lettuce ready to go out. The weather's been so crappy I'm just holding them a bit longer before they go. There are another 50 a couple weeks behind that and so on and so on. We transplant all of our lettuce even in the summer. It just works better when we have a little control over the germination conditions. Anyway, you get the picture. Get it up, grow it till it it's ready, put it out, first cut in aout 30 days. Simple right? Usually, but you never know for sure.

We'll be working up a few beds for transplanting lettuce into today. These were rough shaped with the tractor a while back when we had a dry spell. We should be able to rake out the weeds and let them set for a few days before planting. As we rake we'll bring up more weed seed to the surface that will quickly germinate. If we wait a week or so we can come back with the flame weeder and knock out that first flush, then transplant. It works well.

So those are things in my imediate world. It's going to be hopping around here real soon. We have alot to do to get ready. Soon we'll be starting summer squash and cukes!

I'll try and post some new photos this week.

Take care,

Farmer John

Oh My Is It Wet

2009-03-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started out with rain, turned sleet, turned snow, turned rain then sunny, cold and windy. Typical late winter weather that toys with the farmers emotions. Any field work is out of the question for quite a while. The ground is saturated. This is setting up to be late starting season for sure. I know the other island growers have not had the chance to get anything in the ground yet. We don't even have our peas or fava beans in. Maybe we'll start some in flats for transplant. Laborious but doable.

The good news is Spring is only four days away and we are up to about twelve hours of daylight now. It's a good time to think and get any small nagging indoor projects out of the way. Soon the weather will break and having a clear mind and an open schedule will be a big advantage because things will need to happen fast. This is the third year in a row we've had very similar condidtions. This year appears to be even more difficult. I think it's what we have to prepare for. It's hard though. People are antsy for the good stuff and they want their greens now!

Today will be a greenhouse day and hopefully get in another case of onion sets and leeks And of course.. paperwork.

Take care,

Farmer

HR 875

2009-03-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

Go to www.organicconsumers.org to sign a petetion in opposistion to this bill.

Aye! We Be Planti'n

2009-03-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Another "one day window" was taken advantage of yesterday. After sevearl days of freezing temps and a day before several days of impending rain,we were able to get in a planting of onion sets and direct seeding of a few beds of greens and early root crops. I also got in another round of tillage on the new potato field. Nice timing on that. It was just barely dry enough. We're supposed to get about 10 days of rain so I would'nt have been able to hit it again for quite awhile. I'm breaking new ground there so it takes quite a while and several passes with the tiller to break down the sod. I want that field ready to go asap as I intend to dry crop the potatoes and want to take advantage of the spring rains for irrigation.

Yesterday was the first chance to use the new Jang seeder. I'm impressed so far. OK so it's a little intimidating switching from a system even though imperfect but yet I know works to a completely new set up. It's quite a bit more complicated than the Earthway and I'm only able to use an educated guess on what rollers and settings will work best until I have some experience. So yestereday I trialed several different settings. We'll just have to wait and see how it worked. I'm hopeful that this tool will dramatically change our world. No more thinning? Doubtfully but less would be acceptable. Anyway, It just feels great to have some things in the ground. I've been feeling a little behind so this helps.

I'll post more details later. Gotta roll for now.

Take care,

Farmer

HR 875

2009-03-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Good Grief! This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I'm not going into details today but do a google search and check it out for yourselves. Our good ol buddies at Monsanto are waiting on the side lines to completly control our food source and put small farms like MRF out of business. Like we don't have enough to do already so now we get to fight legal encroachment on our livelyhoods. Perfect! That's exactly what we need right now. If this one passes we're probably done. The fight is on. You know the drill. We do have a voice but only if you take action. Please write your representatives and tell them you are oppsed to HR-875. Tell your friends to get involved. We can stop this if we take action. This is on a fast track. It's possible there may be a vote without debate in as little as two weeks!

In other news it's business as usual. The weather is at least being consistently terrible for farming. The fields have been frozen solid for days and it looks like rain is coming. This will be a late starting season for sure. We don't have anything in the ground outside. The greenhouses are full of trays. Lots of things up and things germinating daily. It's starting to look like somethings happening. Perhaps we'll get some onion and leek sets in today? Hopefully I'll be able to direct sow some greens, peas, radishes and favas here in the next couple of days. Cross your fingers.

So off to a frustrating start. It's all part of the game. Once again it's where patience and experience payoff. Focus on the big picture. The bill will fail, the weather will warm. It will dry out and rain only when we need it to. CSA checks will arrive daily and my accountant will never call to ask for more money. The greens will be lush, strawberries plump, tomatoes full and ripe. Deer will never break in if they do they will not thieve. People will be nice.

Take care and action,

Farmer John

75th Post

2009-03-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

This is my 75th Blog post. Thanks to those of you who follow. I've really enjoyed chronicling the activities of the farm. I'll keep writing. You keep reading.

Time is creeping up on us. The time changes on Sunday, spring is just two weeks away and the farmers market opens in seven weeks. Seven weeks... We hardly have anything in the ground. It's been wet and a little too cool to plant in my opinion. Sometimes it's better to wait. I's hard but I think the end result is better even if you're a few days later at harvest. After this next system rolls through I'll direct sow the beds that are ready to go. We may see snow here over the weekend.

If you recall there I have made mention many times this year the situation of the honey bees. The experts were talking about the almond pollination and how healthy the hives would look after their winter break and long travels to California. I saw a program on the BBC yesterday in regards. Unfortunately it does look like they are still seeing a good deal of colony collapse disorder. We are at a tipping point. There is still no one answer. Most of the scientist are now saying it's a combination of everything. Envioronment, travel, stress, monoculture cropping, gmo, etc. We are asking the bees to do alot within an unnatural set-up. Hope for the best. The one bright spot I can see is it appears at least on Orcas more people are getting into bees. It's a difficult, but worthwhile and fascinating hobby.

Lots of farm clean up going on. I'm getting ready to add to the chicken flock so Im re-doing the coop and run and we are getting pigs again this year so I have a new pig pen going up. We're going to try one of the wooly pigs this year along with some others. The're a european pig, higher fat content but with omega 3 fatty acids. Supposed to be divine. We'll find out. One thing for sure is they are cute. You can check it out at www.woolypigs.com.

The prop house is getting full. Adding flats daily. Going to need to move into one of the other hoop houses here soon. Things are looking good. It's so nice to walk in and see new life happening right before your eyes. I'll get some new pics up soon.

Soil tests are back and I have begun ammending fields as neccessary. Things are looking fairly normal as expected. Really interesting to see the numbers and critical to know how and what to ammend with. also It's nice to see the history and evolution of the fertility increase over the years. I feel like we're on the right track there.

Should be nice today. Cold but sunny. Colder through the weekend. Planting Tuesday!

Farmer John

Tool Time

2009-03-03T03:09:00.000-08:00

You all Know about tools and guys right. What is it? Why do we lust over them so. I for one am always on the lookout for tools. Mostly tractor implement stuff for me these days; especially if its old and usable and will work on one of my vintage tractor set ups. Don't get me wrong, I like shiny new tools as well. Yesteday I finally got around to ordering a new seed. I fiigured it was time to step up to the plate and stop using the ol stanby $100.00 twenty year old earthway and get myself a single row Jang ap-1 preciscion, hand push seeder. I'mpretty stoked about it. The whole reason you by a tool is to make your job easier and more efficient right? Well if the Jang works like most people say it does we will all but eliminate hand thinning because this is a preciscion seeder and that means as opposed to just laying down a trail of seed as the earthway does, the Jang places the seed at the interval you dial it into. This will be especially helpful with crops like beets, carrots and onions where in the past we had lost sowings or dimminished yields just because we could'nt get to the thinning in a timely manner. (the truth hurts but sometimes it happens) Anyway, It's a trick looking tool I hope it works. If so, I'll be seriously looking at the tractor mount units they offer. Very reasonable compared to the other seeders available. So for about $700.00 to my door I will have a tool that should pay for itself in increased yields and lower labor input not to mention they are much more economical on seed usage. Now that works in my world.

There are other tools I could use, It's on a wait and see basis. Money is tight right now. Sure would be nice to have a fertizer spreader. It could also double as a cover crop seeder. (I prefer multi-tasking devices.) Still looking at a disc and generally can't believe I don't own one. I use my big roto-tiller in lieu of and it has worked well for all of these years. Having a disc would perhaps be a little faster but more importantly just another arrow in my quiver for having the right tool for the right task at the right time. Another smaller 4ft tiller would be nice, I have my eye on a used one in good shape. Oh and don't forget the combine!

Trying a new recipe for seedling mix these days to and so far I'm liking it. Basically I make my own mix as opposed to buying it bagged from an off island source. It saves money that I can apply to additional soil ammendment. Its a mix of rotted/composted cow manure with some hay residue, leaf mold and course building sand for drainage and texture. I throw in a couple of scoops of 4.4.4. for every 8 cubic feet. I mix this all up and run it through a 1/4" screen. I normally have used peat moss in the past. I'm trying it without this year for a few reasons. It's expensive, a non island source, it's acidic, it's hard to wet and it dries out fast in the shallow cell trays. Some people like to use perlite. I have in the past, it's OK I don't like working with it. You are supposed to wear a mask when you use it to avoid inhaling it. I think the sand is a reasonable substitute. It works fairly well. Your first question is what about weeds? There are a few but generally it's not a problem. To me the cost savings is worth it. We use tons of seedling mix and potting soil and I can use it freely and copiously this way without feeling funny about seeing four dollars fly by everytime I open a new bag. Plus I don't have to make an all day trip to Tacoma to get the stuff. Again, it works for me.

Time is sneaking up us. Just eight weeks till the first farmers market. Holy moly!

Take care,

John

Let's Go!

2009-03-02T03:38:00.000-08:00

Well hell, all of a sudden here it is March 2nd. I was feeling mostly on top of it all until yesterday it hit me of all the things there are to do. Yikes mister! I gotta get some seed in the ground and those 2 cases of onion sets that came on Friday need to get in the ground and to do that I need to go fertilize and rake the beds out and oh shit!!! what about the tomato plants...... I said I was waiting till March 1st this year no matter what, well that was yesterday! ahhhhh.

Ohhhh, sorry...... sor, sorrry. Thats how my manic side functions at times in the spring. Slumbering days of feeding the woodstove and reading seed catalogs and dreaming of this year being the most kick ass ever are over. It is time for action, not that there has'nt been action but March brings it on just a notch higher.

It's wet outside and looks like it'll be wet for awhile. I have beds ready to go so thats good. Main focus for the next couple of months anyway will be greenhouse work. Lots of sowing and shuffling flats around, table building, lableing, watering, potting up, transplanting etc, etc. Making space for things to go into will be a challenge as always, hopefully it'll dry out enough to get more beds made before it all hits at once.

I'm trying to re-think things this year. Planting different crops and taking into consideration the harvest times to avoid any gaps in production and to offer a wider selection throughout the course of the year. Spreading production out makes our lives easier and gives us a sane course to run on. That means getting some things like potatoes in the ground a little sooner which will allow me perhaps to dry crop them so I can avoid the expense and hassle of irrigation. Harvest time comes sooner and fills a void and the remining spuds can get harvested as we go as opposed to all at once in October. Thats one idea anyway. Anything I can do now to plan for a smoother harvest pays greatly when summer rolls around. I Just cringe when I feel like we run short on product in the summer. It happens and when it does it's a blow not only to profit but to ego. I do take it personally so good planning now can really pay off, literally. How can it be so hard? All you gotta do is scuff up some dirt and throw the seed in the ground and come back and harvest right? yeah! lol. Don't screw it up dude.

There's alot to write about. I don't want to make it a long one today. Come back soon and we'll talk equipment! yes..... the real reason we farm.

Take it easy,

Farmer John

What's New?

2009-02-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

A little snowy today. Nothing major, Just a dusting. Thanks to Rufus at the Weather Cafe we saw this one coming for days. His forecast was spot on. All of the other guys (you too Cliff) did'nt see it until it was upon us. I was hoping to direct sow some of our outdoor beds but decided to hold off until this system passes through. Because of the Weather Cafe forecast I was able to get some beds made. Now that it has rained it will be awhile before we can get equipment back in the field. This happens almost every year. It's a good time to be watching the weather so you can hit these micro windows of opportunity. This year they were few and far between and were "one day" opportunities. We are fortunate to have about 20 beds ready to roll.

So days will be spent in the greenhouse starting flats to be transplanted later. Check out the calendar on the web site and you can see what is being sown. I've made a deciscion to hold off on sowing tomatoes until at least March 1st. I normally go a little earlier but it seems to work out all the same in the end. Start them too early and there is not enough light and you wind up with a spindly albeit sometimes big plant. I'll take a shorter, stockier, healthier plant any day over a big ol spindly thing. Most important, it all gets down to the varieties that do well here. The pacific Northwest is not an easy place to grow toms. Trust your farmer when buying your plants. We have alot of experience with varieties that perform as well as ones that don't.

Hopefully more people will be having home gardens. You might think this is an odd thing for me to say since I make my living selling vegetables. The bottom line for me is I think it's a big part of the overall solution to begin to turn the tide from decades of dissconection of our food sources. Overall it's good for us if there are more home gardeners. People get enthused about eating better and eating local. That want to buy starts from local growers who know the ropes and lets face it. You can't grow everything, so people will still buy from us. I'm a perfect example. I buy stuff that I don't grow from my fellow farmers all the time.

We are still taking CSA memberships. We seem to be down to a trickle. Happens every year at this time. Late February and March always seem to fall off. Unfortunately It's our toughest time of the year. This year will be hard going into April since we lost our overwinter crops.

That'll do for now.

Keep well,

John

Daily Factoids

2009-02-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

Farm Census: The 2007 farm census is out. The number of US farms is up by 3.5%. This is mostly due to an increase in small farms like ours and really large operations. More farms is good right? Yes but there are some disturbing trends. The average cost of land went up to $1900 which is about 55% higher than it was in 2002 and 95% higher than 10 years ago. (damn wish we could buy land here that cheap) There's a re-occuring trend of go big or get out happening. Growers need to spread the cost of equipment and capital investments over larger acerages to reduce the per-unit cost of production. An offset of the higher cost of land is the fact that the market value of ag products increased by nearly 50% over the last five years. The average age of the farmer continues to rise and is now at 57.5 years old. Younger farmers are not taking up the slack fast enough. In 2002 the average age was 55. A fact that more directly relates to a farm like Maple Rock is that we are part of a fast growing movement of farms that markets specialty crops. Organic farms grew in number from 12,000 to 18,000 between 2002 and 2007 and sales more the quadrupled from about $400 million to $1.7 billion. This is due to organic farms becoming more effiecient and acquiring more expertise. Nationally the number of farms who sell dierct to the consumer increased from 116,733 to 136,817. Here in Washington the number of farms went up 9% to 39,284 from 35,939 in 2002. The average size of farms decreased by 11 percent to 381 acres. Maybe this would be a good time for congress to kick down some of the stimulus package to help young farmers get a foothold in the Ag biz?

The Data above was obtained from The Capital Press.

Weather: The oddness continues. This has been the driest mid January thru mid February period on record in 117 years. Since we've been keeping a record. But... We had large amounts of precipitation in December and early January so it is less pronounced. Oddly, I only had one day that was dry enough to be able to do some field work. Often we get a break in February that will allow a few days of getting on the ground. So it's still pretty wet now. To complicate matters, forecasters are now saying that we maybe shifting out of our La Nina into an El Nino pattern that will likely cause us to see severe draught conditions this fall and into the winter of 2010. This is global climate change in the works. It's going to be a big challenge for growers in the future.

For those of you whom received my newsletter you will recall the situation about the bees and the almonds. As it turns out California is experiencing a serious draught and it looks as though many of the almond growers are deciding not to go for a crop this year. Apparently they need to irrigate and there is just not enought water? The Bee guys on their forums are not saying anything about CCD but only making reference to not as many hives being placed and having lots of difficulties getting bees across the border into California. The almonds are in bloom now so you may start to hear something.

Legal Battles: An Important case against Monsanto's roundup ready GM sugar beets is set to be argued in April. One of our seed suppliers is a plaintiff in the Case. Frank Morton, owner of Wild Garden Seed in Oregon is having his livelyhood threatened by the GM beets. Frank produces seed for chard, table beets and other vegetables in the willamette valley. The Gm beets can cross pollinate thus forever contaminating the true seed and ruinning Franks business. the biggest problem here is that the GM seed was planted on the sly for the last two years. Fortunately the judge in the case denied the petition for Monsanto to join the lawsuit and a precedent was established in 2007 in a similar case against the USDA regarding GM alfalfa seed.
We'll have to wait and see what happens. We send all of our best to Frank and good luck. It's hard enough to make a living as a grower and to have to add the stress and time of a lawsuit is aggrivating and sad.

And Last but not least. To the asshole that stole my daughters snowboard off of my front porch. You suck and I hope you enjoy the special seating section in hell.

Take care people it's a crazy world we live in.

Farmer John

Fearing The Unknown

2009-02-12T02:50:00.000-08:00

It seems most people are fearful of the unknown. I know I am. I like having the feeling that I know I'm in control of my own destiny. For the last few months there has been less than solid ground to stand on and nothing appears to be as it was. I'm Not just talking about the economy, I'm relating to all aspects of life on earth from the weather / climate change to geo-politcal events to everyday life in own little micr-cosims. Relying on what once was is pretty much out the window.

The view from the window in my world, it appears that things are starting to normalize a little, (or at least I am starting to adjust to the uncertainy) Work is starting to re-appear, CSA memberships seem to be coming in at a steady click but most importantly it's what I'm hearing our members and customers say. Of course people are worried. Many of them are under or unemployed and have a miriad of other random concerns but there appears to be a pattern forming and that is that more people appear to be thinking about keeping their dollars in their community and are seeing the importance in and are thankful for the work we do. I have had so many wonderful conversations with folks lately whom have been so supportive and encouraging. It's helped me define the good from the bad. We all understand times are tough and going to get worse before they get better but there is a sense of hope rising. In some ways I think this is all good in the long run. Of course it's painful but if you can look past all of the gloom, these are days of great opportunity.

Agree or not, many of us are being challenged on a level we have not experienced before. We are having to be more creative just to secure our own existence. Thinking outside the box is the new norm. I'm hopeful and I am seeing that our community is becoming stronger with all of this and hopefully we'll stay stronger when we pop out on the other side. This is the time to lend a hand up. Small gestures now will go a long way into the future. Be an islander.

This all translates to each of us in our individual lives. Ask yourself how you are adapting (or not) For me, I am stepping up production to grow as much beautiful, nutritious food as possible. I am encouraging those whom are enclined, to put in their own gardens. It's an easy way to start to make a difference. Do a community service project or help a farmer for a day. Anything you do will make Orcas stronger and you'll feel good too!

Rah!

Take care,

Farmer John

Breaking Ground

2009-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

Watching the weather paid off. The fields had dried out just enough to get on them and I was able to do the initial ground breaking at our newest site Stonebridge. I'm breaking sod so my plan here was to run a big rotovator through one time to break up the top layer. I'll go back as the weather permits and make another couple of passes. I'll make a deciscion at that point where to go from there. Most likely I'll run a chisel plow to bust up the deeper soil and hit it again with the tiller to make the final seed bed. This field will be potatoes the first year. I find that starting a new site with potatoes normally works well for me. The cultivation and hilling all done by tractor is a convenient way to get the field into good shape for the following year. I'm trying to get them in by may 1st. Potatoes are sensitive to forming nice tubers in chunky soil so I'm hoping this early start will give enough time for me to get the field in good shape by then. Fencing is the the next step here. We'll be starting that project soon.

The beds in the hoophouses I direct sowed on January 23rd have germinated nicely. Just under two weeks, thats normal for this time of year. Hopefully we'll have some sunny weather coming up and we'll be harvesting in March. I have one more house to plant out. I'd like to get some radish and salad turnips in, and of course more greens. I'll be on that soon.
Also I'll be sowing flats in the propogation house starting this week. I'll be starting with lettuce.
Also have one more bed of garlic to get in. I know it's later than most people are accustomed to but we did this last year and it worked brilliantly. No rust or botritus and we had a nice crop just slightly later than normal. We did get some of our stock planted out in October.

So here we are, one more time, another season begins. It's going to be good year.

Take it easy y'all,

Farmer John

Lets Go

2009-02-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

Here we go. Getting closer to starting back up in earnest. Just trying to ease back into some sort of normal schedule and tackling at least one item on my "to do" list each day. There is no shortage of things to be done. Just the opposite, It's actually overwhelming. Without my list I would'nt know where to start. Picking one project and seeing it through from start to finish offers a much needed sense of accomplishment this time of year.

I'm feeling optimistic and excited about the up-coming season. Even though there is a looming sense of the "unknown" hanging in the air, I am confident and planning on growing more food than ever before. The one thing I'll be paying more attention to is spreading the harvest out and growing an even wider array of fall and overwintering crops. The fall indoor markets have really helped us out with late season cash flow.

For our early season cash flow we have to rely on our CSA sign-ups and renewals. The difficult part of this is that it's basically a passive sale. I am waiting for people to sign up. I can market the service, advertise and talk it up all the time but at a point it is simply out of my hands. So we wait, and waiting is hard. February, March and April are always rough. It's a challenge to keep up the enthusiasm some days. But we must.

Seed orders have been showing up. Fertilizer order is ready to ship. Potting soil is ready to go. Trays, flats, pots and all the neccasary accesories are cleaned and set to go. We're ready!

Keep well,

Farmer John

Sucker Window

2009-01-24T04:42:00.000-08:00

OK, I fell for it, I admit it. It's late January but the weather the last few days has been most spring like. Cold, frosty nights and warm, sunny days. I've been taking the opportunity to do some clean up work in the greenhouses. Re-installed the hot bed in the propogation house. It's a simple design. Essentially an 8x12 table lipped with 2x2s. Heating cables are placed and covered with sand. It heats up to about 72 degrees and makes an ideal environment for germinating newly sown flat trays. One thing led to another and the weather was so warm I decided to go ahead and prep some beds and sow some seed. I put in an Asian greens mix. I know it's early and it may fail but really whats there to lose. The earlier cold snap we had killed all of the greens that would ordinarily over winter allowing us to start making mid February deliveries. So why not try it. In reality I'm just mirroring nature. Often times if you walk around in February you will notice quite a bit happening as far as plant growth. If you have things that have gone to seed they will sometimes make an appearance and begin to grow. It only takes a few nice days for these hardy plants to take foot. By the end of the day today, I'll have two of the three greenhouse's sown. It feels great to be back outside accomplishing something and getting some fresh air. My strategy this time of year is to take it easy. Just do a little bit each day and before you know it you can look around and see that you have made a dent.

The first round of seed orders have been placed and will be arriving anyday day now. I'll be sowing flats of lettuce, onions, leeks and other hardy crops by next week. I'll have the prop house full before you know it.

This is the time of year when I really keep a close eye on the weather. Many times we get a nice long dry spell (like the one were having right now) that will allow us to get a little field work done on the drier sections. It can make a big differnce in early production if we can hit it before it rains again. If you miss that window it often does not dry out again until spring. We need a few more dry days, Ive got my fingers crossed.

We have a new piece of land we'll be breaking ground on this year. We're calling it Stonebridge. It's big, twenty plus acres of farmable land. Just getting ready to start the fencing for the first phase which will be just over an acre. We'll be putting in potatoes, winter squash and pumpkins there this year. Its a big endeavor and there is much to do. It's all in the early stages of planning but this is an exciting project and a huge step forward for us. I can't wait to get it up and running.

CSA sign-ups are trickling in. Thanks to all of you who have sent yours in. Please keep them coming. We have alot of outflow right now with no end in sight.

That's the news for now.

Keep well,

Farmer John

Harder but easier

2009-01-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took a trip cross island to go check out an old International combine that we have the opportunity to use if we can actually pull off a grain crop. As it turns out and as expected, it's a bigger restoration project than I am capable or willing to take on. But The good thing is I finally got to meet Mr. Thurman Bond. He and his brother Joe who unfortunately is now deceased came to Orcas Island in 1946. We had a nice chat talking of the similarities and differences between now and then. In those days Joe and Thurman were mostly substinence farmers. They ran a few dairy cows, sheep and about 300 laying hens. Just enough to get by on. Back then going to town was a bigger ordeal than it is now. The easier way to get their eggs and cream to market was put them on the mail boat that went to Friday Harbor. They could also get sundries and medicene sent over on the return trip as there was no drug store on island then. Pretty simple actually and a whole lot more isolated but more tightly knit hamlets. People depended more on each other than we do today. Most people had some type of farm operation happening.

Today, Some parts of our lives are easier and some parts are overly complicated. Farming has all but vanished and most pople could'nt survive a month on their own if the shit really hit the fan. Situations change and things have recently made a dramatic change. Lot's of people losing their jobs and everyday the news seems to get worse. Farming seems like not such a bad idea. People whom used to think I was crazy are now asking me for jobs. As Thurman Bond said to me yesterday "at least with farming if everything goes to hell in a handbasket you won't starve." Yeah maybe... until the bank shows up to take the whole thing away because you can't make the payment. There are two weak links my system. First is expenses are too high and return is too low and secondly I'm just one hearbeat away from the whole thing collapsing. That's the way it's always been I suppose and I reckon it's the same for most folks. Life is tenuous. I try not to worry too much about it.

Anyway, we going to grow more food this year than we ever have. We need farmers and farmers need eaters. I hope they come to the plate. (pun intended)

Take care all,

Farmer John