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
Monday, December 6, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wrappin er up
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
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
Friday, November 12, 2010
Down To Two
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
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
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Killer Weather
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
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
Friday, October 22, 2010
Progress Made
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
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
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Well Now
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
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
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Keepin On
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
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
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