Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Patience Is A Virtue
Most of the farmers I know in this part of the world are feeling a little tried right now. Most of us have been set back or at least delayed a bit with the inclement weather. I don't normally get too excited or upset about it. I can't change it so I whats the point? However, let me just say... I'm ready for a return to our nice PNW spring weather! Farming is and has been on hold for the last week or so. The greenhouses are full full full. We are out of flats. We have tons of stuff ready to transplant but it's been too cold. We hit 25 degrees last night. Thats not really abnormal but worrisome when you have greenhouses full of tender annuals like peppers and tomatoes. I'm scared to go look. Last year we had a hard frost on April 20th. We lost quite a few toms that night. So this is all normal.
Hopefully we'll see some warming by the middle of the week and we can crank out some beds. That'll give us space to re sow more flats of whatever we need. It's time for flowers, more broccoli, lettuce, herbs and I'm at least starting to think about cucumbers, squash and beans. What about corn? If we do it, I'll start it in flats. Not for sure we have the space but boy is it good.
All in all we are ahead of the game. We've been making deliveries for a few weeks now and biz continues to pick up. The Farmers Market starts in one Month! We'll be ready, bigger and better than ever. We were on it when the weather was dry in February. All of the things we put in are doing pretty well. (even though they are not thrilled about this weather)
We have starts for sale. All you have to do is drop us a line.
Ok, So I just went to the greenhouse to take a look. Tomatoes seem to be fine. Broccoli is frozen solid. It may be OK. We'll see later.
Time to roll,
John
Hopefully we'll see some warming by the middle of the week and we can crank out some beds. That'll give us space to re sow more flats of whatever we need. It's time for flowers, more broccoli, lettuce, herbs and I'm at least starting to think about cucumbers, squash and beans. What about corn? If we do it, I'll start it in flats. Not for sure we have the space but boy is it good.
All in all we are ahead of the game. We've been making deliveries for a few weeks now and biz continues to pick up. The Farmers Market starts in one Month! We'll be ready, bigger and better than ever. We were on it when the weather was dry in February. All of the things we put in are doing pretty well. (even though they are not thrilled about this weather)
We have starts for sale. All you have to do is drop us a line.
Ok, So I just went to the greenhouse to take a look. Tomatoes seem to be fine. Broccoli is frozen solid. It may be OK. We'll see later.
Time to roll,
John
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Web Stuff
Well..... Inclement weather here. Slows things down to just performing the neccessary tasks at hand. Watering, feeding the chickens, harvesting etc. I am feeling so good about working ground when we had the chance. At least we have things in the ground! We have beds waiting to be planted as soon as the weathe permits. The greenhouses are beyond full and at maximum capacity. Its just a waiting game now. Personally, I'm going to the city.
This akward weather pattern looks like it's going to be in play through about mid April. Hold on!
So, Let me update you on some info on our website. www.maplerockfarm.com Check out the links page. There are links to some other farms out there who are doing similar things as us. Interesting. We often share tips, stories and offer up encouraging words to one another.
Make sure you check out The Weather Cafe. Rufus is right on the money. Most of the other weather sites are unpredictable. I use the Victoria BC weather as my daily forecaster. We are pretty much the same. Seattle weather is completly irrelevant for the San Juans.
Are you looking for a new recipie for fresh produce? Go to the Harvest Page on our site. Click on any of the highlighted items and you will be directed to the food networks recipe listings for that item. It's slick and I'm afraid little known and seldom used. Since you are reading this, You obviously are in the know and aware that we actually have a website! Many people don't. Please tell your friends and send them our way.
You can easily download our CSA membership form from the sight as well. All of the details on our program are on the site. We are still looking for members. We are way short of our goal this month (unless we get a whole bunch of sign ups by Monday) I know many of you have helped us put the word out. Thank You! Please don't stop. We need everyones help right now.
Big thank you to John Clancy for the article in the paper about supporting local farms. Thanks John!
Thats all for today. Enjoy the rain/snow and have a cozy day.
John
This akward weather pattern looks like it's going to be in play through about mid April. Hold on!
So, Let me update you on some info on our website. www.maplerockfarm.com Check out the links page. There are links to some other farms out there who are doing similar things as us. Interesting. We often share tips, stories and offer up encouraging words to one another.
Make sure you check out The Weather Cafe. Rufus is right on the money. Most of the other weather sites are unpredictable. I use the Victoria BC weather as my daily forecaster. We are pretty much the same. Seattle weather is completly irrelevant for the San Juans.
Are you looking for a new recipie for fresh produce? Go to the Harvest Page on our site. Click on any of the highlighted items and you will be directed to the food networks recipe listings for that item. It's slick and I'm afraid little known and seldom used. Since you are reading this, You obviously are in the know and aware that we actually have a website! Many people don't. Please tell your friends and send them our way.
You can easily download our CSA membership form from the sight as well. All of the details on our program are on the site. We are still looking for members. We are way short of our goal this month (unless we get a whole bunch of sign ups by Monday) I know many of you have helped us put the word out. Thank You! Please don't stop. We need everyones help right now.
Big thank you to John Clancy for the article in the paper about supporting local farms. Thanks John!
Thats all for today. Enjoy the rain/snow and have a cozy day.
John
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Brrrr.
It's a might chilly out there and a tad windy. Uggh. The wind wears us all out. The sound of plastic flapping in the wind from a cloche gone south is especially annoying. We'll be taking that down today. Nice try. I just dont have the patience for plastic things in the field.
The good news is we started potting up toms yesterday. We have more to do and as I'm taking stock there's a little man in my brain saying "you better plant more tomatoes" I think we will. I'll check to see what we have left for seed but I'm thinking Stupice. This is a nice, early, productive, open pollenated tomato. Nothing fancy by any means. An old dog if you will. Always there and reliable. Good flavor and a nice size too. Not too big. Consistent producer when others fail in our fickle maritime climate.
Direct sowed more radishes and turnips yesterday too. We are harvesting the first sown radishes from the greenhouse right now. They are lovely. I'm experimenting with the turnips. Basically mixing three varieties together with the thought that as we harvest the early ones (hakurei) it will act as the thinning harvest for the bigger ones to size up.
Experimented with the cultivating tractor yesterday as well. Its a little too wet to do much ground work but we really needed some bed space so I set up some S tines minus the points onto my tool bar and drove through some previously tilled sections to cut the furrows to transplant into. It actually worked great. The wheel tracks rough in the paths and we wind up with a wider/more effiecient use of space bed at 48" Might be onto something here for the future.
Looks like shaky weather for the next week. We'll work on indoor stuff.
Keep well,
John
The good news is we started potting up toms yesterday. We have more to do and as I'm taking stock there's a little man in my brain saying "you better plant more tomatoes" I think we will. I'll check to see what we have left for seed but I'm thinking Stupice. This is a nice, early, productive, open pollenated tomato. Nothing fancy by any means. An old dog if you will. Always there and reliable. Good flavor and a nice size too. Not too big. Consistent producer when others fail in our fickle maritime climate.
Direct sowed more radishes and turnips yesterday too. We are harvesting the first sown radishes from the greenhouse right now. They are lovely. I'm experimenting with the turnips. Basically mixing three varieties together with the thought that as we harvest the early ones (hakurei) it will act as the thinning harvest for the bigger ones to size up.
Experimented with the cultivating tractor yesterday as well. Its a little too wet to do much ground work but we really needed some bed space so I set up some S tines minus the points onto my tool bar and drove through some previously tilled sections to cut the furrows to transplant into. It actually worked great. The wheel tracks rough in the paths and we wind up with a wider/more effiecient use of space bed at 48" Might be onto something here for the future.
Looks like shaky weather for the next week. We'll work on indoor stuff.
Keep well,
John
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Spring Things
Things are getting more busy here everyday. Yesterday, after our orders were filled and delivered, we spent most of the day in the greenhouse's. We actualluy pulled out all of the side tables and forked under the beds before they were to become a tangled mass of weeds. We direct sowed the new beds with arugula and a mustard green mix. We'll get a harvest or two off of those and then they will be incorporated as green manure prior to transplanting a heat lover like eggplant or peppers. Looks great! So nice to see clean beds instead of weeds.
We also continued our transplanting. A little everyday makes it not such a daunting task. On the docket for today is some early morning tilling. Trying to capitalize on this dry spell and get a few more beds made to transplant into. I think we have some golden beets that are ready to go. We'll also start potting on tomatoes today, always a monumental day.
No time to tarry, Keep on.
John
We also continued our transplanting. A little everyday makes it not such a daunting task. On the docket for today is some early morning tilling. Trying to capitalize on this dry spell and get a few more beds made to transplant into. I think we have some golden beets that are ready to go. We'll also start potting on tomatoes today, always a monumental day.
No time to tarry, Keep on.
John
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Spring!
Spring is here. We're all happy about that here. The weather has turned a little wetter but the days have still been pretty sunny. It's amazing to see how fast things are growing now. Especially in the greenhouses. You can tell a noticable difference sometimes just overnight. We'll be having the first of the french breakfast radishes next week. They are inetrcropped with onions that we sowed in the fall and overwintered. The shelling peas are coming along nicely too. With those we have cilantro and chervil intersown. There is also four beds of Asian greens that are just coming on and just in time. We terminated the beds in one of the other greenhouses that we had been harvesting our overwintered lettuce from just as the new crop was coming on. Timing is tricky this time of year. We are OK for now but a gap in greens is imminent. We just transplanted new lettuce starts indoors but are mostly waiting on outdoor greens next. They are up and have just had there first cultivation but are out at least another 30 days. I could speed them up if I covered them with remay but as most of you already know, we stopped using floating row covers a couple years back. I get a lot of curious responses from other growers on that one. I just don't believe in using all of that pertroleum based product that winds up in the land fill at some point. We do just fine without it. It does work though. I also hate chasing it down wind the wind blows it off the beds!
We've been transplanting outside beds also. Mostly with salad green stuff. Swiss Chard, Salad Kale, Bok Choi etc. We have some nice broccoli that is going out today. I'm going to heavily mulch it with hay to protect it from the elements. We just put in the first round of potatoes. Just a couplle of 200 ft beds. It's early for potatoes but we are doing a little different program than normal. We are growing them in hay mulch. We did'nt even bury them. Just plopped them onto the ground and covered them with about eight inches of hay. Main crop will go in later like mid june after we open up some more ground. Not new ground, but they'll go in one of our plots after the peas and favas come out. Speaking of favas (my favorite veg) We just planted about 40 lbs of seed in our very worst soil. I'm hoping its and edible cover crop situation. I simply broadcast the seed and tilled it in. I'll undersow it with vetch after they get established. Hopefully we can just cruise through the plot and harvest.
Outdoor sowing continues as we see fit. We have alot of stuff in the ground already. Peas and Favas are up on our other sites. Just planted turnips and more greens yesterday. It' time for more rads too.
Soon we will start potting up tomatoes. They are looking healthy, just putting on their first true leaves. I have most of them under lights right now. We have several thousand started, I'l do one more sowing just because I'm a belt and suspenders kinda guy. Peppers and tomatillos are up and doing well as are the eggplant. These are all heat lovers and need a little extra love. I covered them last night (with remay) just in case it got really cold. We lost a bunch of stuff last year on a very cold night. It lokks like it did'nt get that cold though. Frost but not too hard.
Space will be an issue frome here on. Hopefully we can just crank it all out and stay on top of it all. Weather may set us back if I can't get into the field to make beds. It's looking good so far though. Really good!
That's what's happening here.
Keep well,
John
We've been transplanting outside beds also. Mostly with salad green stuff. Swiss Chard, Salad Kale, Bok Choi etc. We have some nice broccoli that is going out today. I'm going to heavily mulch it with hay to protect it from the elements. We just put in the first round of potatoes. Just a couplle of 200 ft beds. It's early for potatoes but we are doing a little different program than normal. We are growing them in hay mulch. We did'nt even bury them. Just plopped them onto the ground and covered them with about eight inches of hay. Main crop will go in later like mid june after we open up some more ground. Not new ground, but they'll go in one of our plots after the peas and favas come out. Speaking of favas (my favorite veg) We just planted about 40 lbs of seed in our very worst soil. I'm hoping its and edible cover crop situation. I simply broadcast the seed and tilled it in. I'll undersow it with vetch after they get established. Hopefully we can just cruise through the plot and harvest.
Outdoor sowing continues as we see fit. We have alot of stuff in the ground already. Peas and Favas are up on our other sites. Just planted turnips and more greens yesterday. It' time for more rads too.
Soon we will start potting up tomatoes. They are looking healthy, just putting on their first true leaves. I have most of them under lights right now. We have several thousand started, I'l do one more sowing just because I'm a belt and suspenders kinda guy. Peppers and tomatillos are up and doing well as are the eggplant. These are all heat lovers and need a little extra love. I covered them last night (with remay) just in case it got really cold. We lost a bunch of stuff last year on a very cold night. It lokks like it did'nt get that cold though. Frost but not too hard.
Space will be an issue frome here on. Hopefully we can just crank it all out and stay on top of it all. Weather may set us back if I can't get into the field to make beds. It's looking good so far though. Really good!
That's what's happening here.
Keep well,
John
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Happy St. Patty's Day!
Hey everyone! Matt, A mrf CSA member posted a comment in the form of a recipe for the Melissa cabbage that's on right now. Matt, I love it -sounds delicious. You had me at the porkchops. It was perfect timing being that it's St. Patricks day and all. Also I thought it would be great to see some other recipes posted. Tye and Barbara, if you're out there I would love to hear how your Irish fest turned out.
I'll start it out with a recipe that my partner Katie B. came up with loosely based on her interpretation of corned beef and cabbage.
This recipe was based around ingredients that we just happened to have on hand and also some cozy PNW Sunday weather. (I'd have her do this but she's busy making butter right now.)
She started off by dry roasting four good size beef short ribs from Coffelts farm. (grass fed and local) for a couple hours at 350 degrees. Then oven braised in a broth made from the drippings plus a couple cups of broth. Sauteed onions, celery and carrot were added and the pot was placed back in the oven at 325 degrees for another two/ three hours. Basically what your going for here is more of a broth texture rather than a stew. Season to taste with salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf.
These particular cabbage are quite small but their over-wintered flavor and texture is quite complex and sweet. Katie simply peeled whole leaves of cabbge into the pot about ten minutes prior to serving, plated into a large bowl with broth and a big serving of the short ribs. Damn baby! Serve it with an ice cold beer poured into a frozen mug. Life is simple, life is good.
Eat well, drink wisely and don't forget to wear your green
John and Katie
I'll start it out with a recipe that my partner Katie B. came up with loosely based on her interpretation of corned beef and cabbage.
This recipe was based around ingredients that we just happened to have on hand and also some cozy PNW Sunday weather. (I'd have her do this but she's busy making butter right now.)
She started off by dry roasting four good size beef short ribs from Coffelts farm. (grass fed and local) for a couple hours at 350 degrees. Then oven braised in a broth made from the drippings plus a couple cups of broth. Sauteed onions, celery and carrot were added and the pot was placed back in the oven at 325 degrees for another two/ three hours. Basically what your going for here is more of a broth texture rather than a stew. Season to taste with salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf.
These particular cabbage are quite small but their over-wintered flavor and texture is quite complex and sweet. Katie simply peeled whole leaves of cabbge into the pot about ten minutes prior to serving, plated into a large bowl with broth and a big serving of the short ribs. Damn baby! Serve it with an ice cold beer poured into a frozen mug. Life is simple, life is good.
Eat well, drink wisely and don't forget to wear your green
John and Katie
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