Winter solstice! Love it. Days are getting longer from here. Our winter crops are hibernating now, but soon (six weeks) they'll be off and running again. As will we.
It's nice to have a little break where the pace is not so damn hectic but as always there is a flurry of activity happening on the farm. Finishing up the barn is big on the list. It's coming, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We start working on the doors next week. Soon I'll have a closed in building to do shop work in. Yaahooo!
There's a ton of other projects to do. Fencing is a big one. Having to replace a large section that was damaged last year. Still getting hammered by the deer. They topped off my artichokes and took out a whole bed of parsley last week. Filthy beast's! Look out bambi.
Lot's of planning going on. Seed catalogs are coming every day providing lots of inspiration. Right now just thinking. Thinking about previous years success's and failures, new ideas, experiments and techniques. What's going where, when and how much of this or that to grow. New varities, old favorites, best tomatoes, peppers, what not to grow. How to make it all work better with less work. Just thinking.
Planting too. It's time to plant another round of salad crops. Spinach, tat tsoi, mizuna and arugula. What the hell, might as well sow a flat of tomatoes too. LOL, I'm such a sucker. I try it every year, always without success. The June bearing tomato remains a quest. But you never know. I might get lucky one day:)
Have a great solstice. It's all down hill from here.
Farmer John
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Hey there friends. Just came across a new show coming to the food network by Jamie Oliver AKA The Naked Chef. Jamie is one of my favorite celebrity chefs. His recipies high-light the simplicity of food. His new show is called Jamie At Home. He will be cooking meals that are directly harvested out of his own garden. It should be really cool. You can get more details by going to foodtv.com or to Jamies personal site www.jamieoliver.com. Check it out.
For those of you who don't know. We have a link to foodtv.com through this web site. Go to the harvest section and simply click on any of the high lighted crops we grow. It will take you to a menu page with hundreds of recipies for that item.
We are wrapping it up here for the year and taking a well deserved rest. Still lots of behind the scenes work going on. For those of you on our mailing list, you will be receiving a news letter shortly. Also included will be the new sign up sheet for this years CSA program. Most of you have small carry-over balances from this year but we are hoping that you will up your balances. We count on having this early income so we can purchase our inputs like seed,fertilizer,misc supplies etc. I'll be sending the letters just after new years. Please help us out by sending in your payments ASAP.
Keep well and have a safe and happy holiday season.
Farmer John
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The cold snap has pretty much brought things to a halt here. The lovely salad greens we have been producing have mostly gone away with the repeated nights of temps in the 20's. I have a few greens in the greenhouses but not enough to sustain any kind of regular schedule. I still have a few potatoes in storage and the cabbage and kale in the fields is still going strong and the romanesco cauliflower is holding it's own but in a very limited quanitity. So things have finally come to a halt and it's now time to take a break, reflect and begin planning for next year.
How did we do? I don't have all of the numbers in front of me yet but thanks to a strong late season I think we did alright. Since we had a longer season the pace was a little more sane this year allowing me to take a step back at times. So from a personal standpoint it was very good year.
The subject of why I farm has come up in several conversations recently. It's not the easiest question to answer and being asked makes me re-visit some of the core beliefs that led me to the farming lifestyle. There are a number of reasons here are a few. I enjoy living my life with intent and striving to be more self sufficient. I like to eat and eat well. I enjoy cooking and love having an endless bounty of fresh produce to experiment with. I enjoy the complexities of farming and like being challenged. I like that it is a very diverse way of life, no two days back to back are the same for me. I like growing food for others to enjoy. I like that it nurtures my soul and provides me with a feeling of self worth. I like that is philanthantropic. I like that is tangible and hands on. Farming is my way of making a differnce in the world and especially in my community. I appreciate that others enjoy the benefits of something I have created. I like being entruprunual. I like to watch things grow. Basically I'm captivated by the complexity of the wholeness that farming captures for me.
That's all for today.
Take care,
Farmer John
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Last night we were graciously treated to a wine tasting / dinner pairing at one of our restaurants we work with, The Inn At Ship Bay.
Nice treat, Thank you geddes and Marianna! The wines were from Patricia Green cellars in Yamhill County Oregon. I have to admit I'm in no way a wine afficiando but I do appreciate it and I love how a great chef can pair food with wine. The duck with foi gras, red wine / plum reduction and candied leeks was to die for and the lamb chops paired perfectly with the earthy pinot's I also really enjoyed meeting Patricia and learning a bit about her wines and farming adventures. I don't often think of wine makers as farmers but you can't have wine without grapes and the grapes must be grown and how they are grown is totatlly reflected in the wine. So from a growers standpoint this was a really interesting tasting. We were tasting pinot noirs from three different years all from the same vines. Each were distinctively unique as the growing conditions were different each year. Of course there are many other factors as well I just found it interesting. We also tasted wines of the same vintage grown in different soils. I was not aware that soil types varied in the Willamette valley. Volcanic vs. ocean sedimentary. The tastes were surpisingly unique. The sedimentary soils contain more minerals as the land was once covered by sea producing a more complex flavor. It brings up an intriguing question for me and that is how can different soil types affect the taste of vegetables? We actually amend with trace minerals and I do believe they affect the way plants grow as well as their flavor.(this is a topic worthy of many conversations we may get to at a later time) Since we farm on different sites I can attest to how plants react in diffent soils and growing conditions but I'm not for sure if I could really detect a taste differnce like you could in the wine. We might have to have a beet tasting!
Another thought I had was you gotta have a lot of juice to be a grape grower. (pun not intended) It takes acerage, time, patience, faith, dedication and apparently a whole lot of money. Patricia's vinyard is about 60 acres. Small or large depending on your view. Close to a couple of million dollars just to aquire the land and existing vineyard. I have no idea what equipment cost's are or what type of labor force you need but I know it's alot and you hav'nt even put out a a case of wine yet. That takes guts. So here's to you Patricia! Thank you for coming to Orcas Island and sharing your private library with us. It is good to be alive.
Keep well my friends,
Farmer John
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Here we are aproaching December and life on the farm remains busy as ever for this time of year. Inventory and sales are stronger than normal and our weelky deliveries have been very consistent. Things will begin to slow down as a few of the commercial accounts we deliver to begin to close down for the winter.
Salad green production has been a highlight. A combination of mild fall weather, good timing and hardy variety choices has given us some of the nicest greens I have ever seen. The trick to growing through the fall and into the winter is to have good timing in the sowing and pick varieties that can withstand the colder tempratures. The idea is to get the greens to harvest size prior to the lower light and freezing tempratues set in. We grow the majority of our winter greens outdoors due to fact that we simply don't have enough space in the greenhouses to meet our harvest demand. So the other consideration is to plant to the needs of your expected harvest. Winter greens are for the most part a one time harvest crop. Generally speaking, six weeks on either side of the winter solstice you will see only minute if any regrowth at all. Other times of the year we may expect to get two or more cuts from one sowing. That said, we sometimes may get a second cut in mid February but normally the greens are so weather stressed at that point they will just bolt as soon as the weather turns. So the reality is that we are simply holding and harvesting crops this time of year as opposed to actually growing anything. This year we are seeing some growth. I would say a little more than normal. Certainly not enough to sustain multible harvests.
All good things come to an end? at least in the context of this subject anyway. We are just about at the end of those nice greens. I have backup successions in the greenhouses and we are actually still transplanting into newly prepped greenhouse beds as I write this. Some of this may be harvestable in the next month but for the most part, the greens that are just going in will be harvested in February. The challenge with the greenhouse's is having enough space to grow the quantity we need. We could wipe the greens out in just a couple of harvests. We just have to make it through December. We take January and the first part of February off. This is when I write seed orders and finalize the over all farm plan. We are back at full speed by mid Feb resuming commercial deliveries (hopefully!?) and mostly sowing flats for transplant and gathering our supplies for the upcomong season. So out of an entire year we are producing and delivering for all but six weeks! Not to shabby.
While I was looking up an item for this article I came across a couple of interesting factoids. At this time of year as the sun rides low in the sky the suns rays have to travel twice as far to penetrate the earths atmosphere. I did not know that. Also if you get a chance, google the Greek goddess persephoni. As we are in the persephoni months it is an interesting read. Another interesting factoid came from KUOW"S weather guy Cliff Mass. Puget sound's foul weather climax is pretty much right now. Historically this is when we would see the worst weather of the year and then things would generally be on the upswing. I've lived in the PNW many years and I was not aware of this. Interesting and inspirational. Kind of like when the days actually start getting longer again and it stops getting dark at 4:30.
Today is the 1st of December It is snowing and all is well in my world.
Keep well,
Farmer John
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