AAhhh, February. I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. It's a time of promise. A time of hope and high aspiration. A slight sense of spring in the air, with wildly flucuating days and times within the day itself. One moment can bring sun and a sense of warmth and growth and ten minutes later it can be snowing and blowing thirty. mmm, wind, my least liked weather. It wears me down quicker than anything and to hear things banging and flapping around annoys me to no end. At times it appears the Gods are toying with our emotions. I'm personally happy to see the month coming to an end. March will be in like a lion and out like a lamb before we know it.
Playing God.
Unfortunately, not everything works as we hoped it would. Taking seed sowing for example. Some of those nice days lure us into a sense that we really have the upper hand and we boldly put our seed to soil. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has her own plans and she's used to getting her way. She's busy gardening as well. Sending thousands of weed seeds to do the things they do best.. grow. When we are busily prepping our beds for plant out, we are at the same time creating optimun conditions for weed germination. The greenhouse beds that I had meticuously spaded, weeded, raked and sowed were completly taken over by an eager crop of chickweed. It puts a farmer between a rock and a hard place. You know the weeds are going to win, but it's hard to think about starting over. You can see your babies in there too and you know they want to grow as well. The ultimate deciscion all rests on the harvesting though. If the rows are not set up properly it's impossible to cultivate. If you can't cultivate, yes you may get a crop but the time it takes to work around the weeds as you harvest makes it a laborious and frustrating task. so the deciscion was made. TERMINATE and re-start! Yikes.
Turning lemons into lemonade.
It's not such a bad thing to be in the grenhouse on a snowy February day in your shirt sleeves, sweating up a storm as you spade, weed, rake, and form new beds. Actually it's quite rejuvinating. We need the space anyway to put out our quickly maturing plug trays of lettuce. They have a couple of more weeks to go before they are ready and this will give time for the new beds to sprout a new flush of weeds. Right before we transplant we'll hit the beds with a flame weeder and this will give the lettuce a big jump so it can out compete the weeds. Playing God has it's advantages sometimes.
It's good to be flexible this time of year. It's hard not to chomp at the bit but you have to be patient. I like to keep a list of indoor and outdoor projects at hand so I can be effective no matter what the weather is. I'm not in charge of the weather and I know from experience I'll come up on the short side of the stick if I fight it. Today looks like rain, You know where I'll be.
Keep well friends,
Farmer John
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Things are taking shape around the farm. Mostly greenhouse work right now. especially sowing of plug trays. lots of lettuce in particular but also some herbs like chervil and parsley and of course the first early tomamtoes. Everything is germinating well and i'd say we are a little ahead of normal. I also was able to get a few things sown direct outside like peas, fava beans, spinach and asian greens. All of the greenhouse beds are planted as well mostly in greens but i do have a bed of peas in as well. Im trialing a couple of new items this year. One is micro greens which are basically baby baby asian grens. they are very delicate and ultra gourmet. It's the only legal crop I know of besides culinary herbs that sell by the ounce. The other crop is popcorn shoots. They are grown in flat trays and look like wheatgrass. They are very sweet and are used for small salads and garnishes. It's a little fu fu, we'll see how it works and if anyone is willing to pay the high price.
The tomatoes are up and I am shooting for a mid March transplant date. The hope is that we woill have ripe tomatoes in June. that would be a first. We normally don't see the first harvest beginning until early July.
CSA
Well, we were doing pretty good for awhile. Now it feels like someone shut off the water. If you follow my blog and are planning on joining, now is the time. I'm a couple thousand dollars short for the month on Feb. Hopefully we'll get a flush of sign ups in the next week or two. March is the critical month. It's typically the hardest time of year we have. Looks like this year will prove to be no different. Tons of outflow, while the income just trickles in. April normally see's the tide begin to turn but only a little.
Bittersweet is the word that comes to mind. On one hand it's an exciting time of year. a few sunny spring like days here and there. New beginnings and everything is poised to grow. On the other hand it can be brutal. Rainy, windy and cold. No money, pressure to succeed and grow to the best of our ability. Pressure to hire a cohesive crew. Pressure to make sure everyone is happy. Sometimes I just have to ak myself (why am I doing this?)
Head down, do the work that needs to be done. try not to be pissy. Carry on, It IS worth it.
Farmer John
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We've received a total of 10 CSA sign ups to date for a total of $2600.00 for an average of $260.00 per share. The consistency has been good. I'm hoping we can hold onto the momentum. Thank You and please keep em coming. It really cheers me up and keeps me going when I go the mail box a find a new sign up.
What else is going on?
Things are beginning to take shape here. I started sowing plug trays in the greenhouse this week. lot's of lettuce and the first early tomatoes. I'm growing a couple of new items this year. Micro greens, which are grown in flat trays and are nothing more than babyshoots harvested at the first true leave stage. This is a gourmet item that is popular in finer restaurants. They have a quick turn around and sell for a premium price. They normally sell by the ounce. I've always considered micro greens to be a little on the she she side for my liking but they could be something we offer in the spring when normal gourmet greens are harder to grow.
Another item that I'm fairly excitited about is baby popcorn shoots. They are pre sprouted and thickly sown in trays and look very similar to wheat grass. they are very sweet and tender and are used for small salads and as a garnish. We'll see if we can make a market for them. They are very seldom seen. At least they are fun to grow.
The new seeder I mentioned in an earlier post has arrived and I have been using it to sow plug trays. It took a few flats to dial it in but it's a brilliant tool. It turns a slow, monotonous, tedious and lengthy process into a fun, fast and efficent event. Could be the best tool we have. It's one of those things that make you feel smart. It reitterates the point, don't be afraid to spend money on things that streamline your operation. Sometimes us farmers balk at spending money on gadgets. I'm happy to say this is a tool and not a gadget and it appears to be worth it's weight in gold.
This brings up a sore subject. Sometimes I've fallen for a tool that looks like a good thing but turns out to be nothing more than a widget. A couple of years ago, organic farmer extrodinair Eliot cloeman came out with a tool line offered by Johnny's seed. I purchased a couple of his items. One was a greens harvester that lays claim to be able to harvest 100lbs of greens per hour and the other was a very serious looking six row preciscion seeder. Sadly I've found both of these tools to not be tools at all. In fact They are toys. Grrr, shame on you eliot for putting you're good name on them! That's about $500.00 down the toilet as far as I'm concerned. I'll stick to my $5.00 harvest knife and my $100.00 earthway seeder thank you very much. The earthway seeder by the way happens to be one of the most well thought out, ingenious tools ever made. It works in all types of soil conditions, is easy to operate and quite efficient for what it is. This tool in one easy operation, makes a furrow, plants the seed, covers the furrow and packs the soil. It has interchangable plates for various seed sizes and can also be used to side dress your plants with fertilizer. Not bad for the price. One day I'll step up and buy the $15,000.00 tractor mounted preciscion vacuum seeder, but for now I'm sold on the earthway. The Johhnys six row seeder is dangerously close to accidentally falling off the truck or being run over by the tractor. Live and learn.
I've been in the greenhouse's alot lately. Most of the overwintering crops have been turned under and new crops re-sown. I have some nice spinach that did overwinter. It got a little weedy but that's all been taken care of and should be harvestable in a couple of weeks.
The outdoor greens are recouperating from a rough winter. Even the kale struggled. It's all looking pretty good, should also be harvesting from these in a couple of weeks. Turnips and cabbage are on. Some pretty nice looking radish's too.
Spring clean up continues. The fence is almost completly repaired. I have a few other maintenance items and a couple of dumps runs of junk and the farm will be getting back to normal. It feels great to getting back into the swing of things.
Ciao,
Farmer John
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It's really nice to be up early before the sun rises. With the dawn coming earlier everyday, it gives one time to reflect on the coming days of spring. In the last few mornings I have heard the birds chirping away. A sure sign spring is on the way. Something I think we are all looking forward to.
We have a total of six CSA sign-ups in for a total of $1850.00. Thats about a $300.00 average. Not bad. I would like to keep that momentum up. I have goal of $3000.00 for the month of February. That works out to about ten new sign ups. You can do it Orcas! We'd be about half way there if we could pull it off.
Things are getting done around the farm and at our satellite locations. I've been able to get beds prepped and sown in the greenhouses. Unfortunately some of the things I had hoped would carry over into the spring were damaged beyond saving by the freezing weather. Getting greens in now will minimize the production gap.
I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the brief dry spell we had and get some beds prepped for plant out. I like to use what they call stale bed technology which basically means prepping the beds and then letting the first flush of weeds greminate. Once that has happened we can go in and flame weed the tiny weeds and then direct sow or transplant the intended crop. This step greatly reduces the intial weed pressure and lets the plants get a strong foothold prior to the first hand or mechanical cultivation, depending on the weather and soil conditions. getting an early jump on having those beds formed will allow me to plant a bit earlier.
My first order of seeds just arrived. Always exciting! I'll begin sorting and planting as fit. Some of the first seeds to go in the ground (besides some of the hardier greens) are peas and fava beans. I'm experimenting with the first round of peas being sown direct into one of the greenhouse's. I normally reserve this space soley for greens but pea tendrils make an excellent addition to salads and are a lovely garnish on their own. It's a gourmet product that commands a high price ($12.00/lb) so I don't mind experimenting. The trickiest part of sowing early peas is keeping the rodents and birds from eating the seed. Peas are like little sugar nuggets. Sometimes I feel like the birds are just watching and waiting for me to plant so they can gorge themselves on a special treat. Folklore says to plant your peas direct on presidents day. I've sown them as early as January 31st. We as garners and farmers can sometimes be a little over zealous. I normally plant peas in succession each 30 days. That second sowing normally comes on just a couple of days behind the first. It's all in the weather and soil temp.
I installed the heated germination bed in the proagation greenhouse yesterday. This is a system of electric wiring buried in a sand box that brings the temprature up to around 72 degree's. It's amazing to see how fast things germinate on the table. We use a propane hot water heater to warm the water so the temprature doesn't plummet every time we water. these two items are the only source of external heat we use. It's a very economical set up.
it's all so exciting,. (to me anyway) Hope you all can enjoy and appreciate what goes into the early season start-up. I certainly enjoy sharing the experience.
Keep well and go Colts!
Farmer John
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Here's an update on our CSA membership drive. Mailers have been sent out to all of our contacts. They've just been out a week or so. We've received one renewal and signed up two new accounts for a total of $800. Not bad but certainely I was hoping for more. This is a common problem. I always get a few sign ups right off the bat. Last year I think we went the whole month of February without a single sign up. I can't have that scenario again this year. So I will continue to push and put it out there. The good thing is that so far the average sign up is just over $250.00. If we got our 50 sign ups that we are shooting for that would put us in right where we need to be. The down side is that people tend to procrastinate and send in their money later in the spring. Kind of defeats the porpuse of operating as a CSA farm. We need money now:)
I have seed orders on hold until we receive the money to pay for them. That's a critical item but only a small picture. I need about $1,000 just to get my first initial order. I am trying to place orders with split ship dates to spread out the expense. I have to have potting soil to get started. This one has to be paid in cash all at once. It's about $800.00 plus $100.00 for fuel/ferrie and an entire day driving to pick it up and returning. I just ordered my new flat seeder. There's a $1,000.00 right there. It all adds up fast. Our deer fence was badly damaged by falling branches and trees from the earlier storms. A good portion of it will require total replacement. At least $2,000.00 just for materials. There are other items I need but seed and soil are obviously the basics. Please get those sign ups in foks! We really need the operating capital to move forward.
Frost damage... It looks as if most of the greens in the hoophouse's were damaged beyong saving. I'll be turning beds and re planting this week. It's a bummer. It's going to set us back on our february deliveries. This time of year we're looking at about 12 weeks from sowing to first harvest on greens.
Weather... Everyone's all freaked out because the Farmers Almanac is calling for another snow storm for February. I was watching the weather report from the U.S. Farm Report this week. Ironically western washington is about the only place in the country right now with decent weather. Looks like we are indeed going to get another Arctic blast around the beginning of the month but only for a couple of days. Our 90 day forecast is for above average tempratures. this would be quite typical weather for an El Nino year, in which we normally see a warmer second half of the winter. Anything could happen. The reality is that the forecast's are only accurate for about three days out, so to say we are in for another storm or good weather is mere speculation. It will be what it will be.
The chickens are starting to lay again. Sure is nice. The eggs are far superior to anything available at the market. Our free ranging ladies are happy and enjoying the spring-like weather, fresh grass and worms.
It's good to be motivated again. Lots of clean up going on and that makes me very happy. This is a lovely time of year when the weather has been like it has. It Looks like I will be able to get in the fields for some field prep this next week. That would be really nice and help us get a jump on planting the early stuff like peas, favas and greens.
The days are getting longer by a couple of minutes a day now. It makes a big difference on how much can get done in a day. It's just dawning here right now. Time to get out there, It's going to be a big day. It's pizza day too! Yeah baby!
Take care,
Farmer John
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