The days are just whipping by here. It's hard to even think about taking time to write an update. I'm off to an early start today though. There are many things to accomplish. Things are drying out enough in some of our wetter areas to finally be able to do some ground prep. Never have I seen the soil stay this wet this far into the spring. It's good and bad. The good thing is that the cover crop is flourishing and will provide a great benefit to the overall fertility of our sites. Another benefit has been that it has somewhat equalized my work load. Normally I'm scrambling to get everything tilled. This year it's been coming in stages, just concentrating on what can be done when it can be done. Although we have struggled with space and timing issues we are for the most part on schedule with demand. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed as we begin to dry out. Lots of ground work needs to happen but the bigger necessity is irrigation AKA (irritation). Man it would be great if we didn't have to water. It's a daunting task. Setting up and maintaing four seperate water systems can just be flat out to much to comprehend sometimes. As wet as it has been, everything that is planted out right now is screaming to be watered. We'll be running drip tapes and setting up systems starting today and running through the rest of the season. Yes, I'm behind.
There has been one other advantage. Since it's been wet, we have been sowing hundreds of flat trays in the greenhouse and transplanting into the field as space becomes available. This buys us a good thirty days but also adds hours and hours of additional labor to our schedule but the end result is stunning. When we transplant, we get a leg up on the weeding and the beds are consistently filled with plants that are easy to maintain and more importantly (especially for greens) easy to harvest. It makes all the difference in the world. On a good day when It's all working we can do greens at about a pound per minute.
We've had some tremendous harvest's so far. We took a hundred pounds of greens to market on Saturday. Unfortunately the buyers have not been there and the market has been way off from last year. We brought home 80 lbs. I have to admit it makes me wonder why I'm doing what I do. It's hard enough as it is and to bring home that much product is a motivation sinker for sure. Fortunately, we have a walk in cooler for proper storage and the greater portion of our business is to the restauraunts. I'll have that overage sold and deliverd by mid week. I am an optimist. You'll see me at the market again next Saturday with another hundred pounds. I know I might bring a bunch back, but sure as hell if I don't bring it we'll sell out. Most farmers are proud of selling out. I think it means you didn't bring enough product:) It's green leafy season folks! come and get em.
Happy Mothers Day!
Farmer John aka "the willow" Me bends but me does not break.
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Sometimes I wake up early, way early. Today 2:00 AM It can be a hard call. Coffee and stay up for the rest of the day or perhaps an early morning night cap and back to bed?
Coffee prevails today. I've been off the farm for the last week visiting my mom who just turned 90! Happy birthday mom.
There's alot to think about and alot to do. Of course there is no end of on farm projects and just tons of equipment to service and maintain. It appears that everything is fickle and likes to break right when you need it the most. So along with being a farmer you've gotta wear a few different hats when the need arises's. Today I'm a farmer, mechanic, painter, dad, boyfriend, I T tech, writer, cook, chaufer, band leader, counselor, garbage man, parts man and pyro technician. I love my jobs.
Needless to say it's busy. No way will I complete more than a few things on my multi-page list. Just pick a few of the more important items and try and move forward. Don't get stuck on a project that is a lost cause. If it aint workin move on to something else.
Hmmm. Maybe I oughtta re consider the beverage deciscion.
Keep em' rollin.
Farmer John
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Ding dang is is wet. It's hard to keep a positive attitude when the weather is working against you. Just about the time when things dry out enough to till, it rains. This has been a repeated pattern over and over again. We are very fortunate to have one of our satellite farms that has excellent drainage and has been able to worked. It's just about all planted out at this point so we are in a holding pattern of sorts.
Strategy? greenhouse's! Although it takes alot of extra work, we are just sowing as many things in the greenhouse as possible for transplant. That'll buy us an extra thirty days or so. It does mean countless hours of transplanting into the field. Oh well, time is one thing we have at this point. I can always rally the troops of friends and members to lend a hand of getting planted out.
The greenhouse's are just bursting at the seams. I've got tables of flats everywhere. It looks impressive anyway. One benefit of being delayed is that it gives me time to reflect and brainstorm on new ways to do things. I've been paying especially close attention to tomatoes. My quest for June toms just may happen. Yesterday I hand spaded, raked, amended and plastic mulched a bed in one of the greenhouses. I had some old wall o waters laying around that I put in place to warm up. i then placed my potted up toms inside the wall o waters. I'll wait for the soil to warm up a bit before I transplant them. I intend to have them in the ground by April 1st. These particular tomatoes are a variety called Stupice. An open pollinated extra early variety that is a proven winnwer here in the northwest. they are always the first to produce. I started these from seed in the greenhouse on a heat table on February 8th. They were then potted up into 4" pots and fertilized with liquid kelp and fish emulsion and placed under grow lights. The're about 5"s tall at this point and are very healthy with dark green foliage The earliest I've ever been able to get ripe toms is July 4th. I'm shooting for mid June with these. Time will tell.
Despite the weather, we are doing quite well. Harvesting about 50 lbs of salad greens a week from plants that have mostly overwintered mixed in with a small amount of new crops. Kale tops are just coming on. In my opinion they are the best tatsing broccoli around. They send out a succulent spear remaniscent of asparagus. Yummy no matter how you prepare them. They do have a short season and then the plants are pulled and thus open up space for the next crop.
It's time for carrots, radishes and beets once the soil drys a little and of course transplanting. If you want in on the fun, let me know.
Stay dry,
Farmer John
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Here it is almost mid month already. Time flys when you're having fun. We got the first round of lettuce starts in the ground this week. They were transplanted into beds inside one of the greenhouse's. They are taking well and will be ready for harvest in about 30 days. Transplanting takes alot of additional time as opposed to sowing directly into the soil byt this time of year it's the only way to assyre we'll have a harvest. It's also the only way to beat the weeds pressure. Lettuce grows slow at this time and by putting starts in you can at least get a few days head start on the weeds. It's amazing how fast the weeds come up though.
Like all of the other farmers in western Washington we are fighting the wet conditions right now. the farm plan goes out the window. Its a matter of taking advantage of the driest areas. Keeping a vigilant eye on the weather windows is critical to getting beds prepped for plant out. Sometimes we just have a day or so between storms to beds ready. Thankfully one of our satelite locations is very dry and we will have the entire field planted out by the end of this week. Mostly greens but also the first round of peas and fava beans which were so a while back and are just now starting to peep out. The propagation greenhouse is bursting at the seems and dozens of flats are ready to go. Again, timing is key. They can't stay in the trays too long or they'll become root bound and stunted. I'm confident we'll be able to get them in on time and then we'll have room for sowing the next round. It's a non stop shuffle.
The first sown ultra early tomatoes have been potted up into 4" pots and are happy under flourescent grow lights. They look the best I've seen. I'm shooting for having them transplanted out here in the next few days. The quest for June tomatoes is on! I've got my fingers crossed.
The first sowing of broccoli raab and gailan is looking good as well. They need a little more time in the flats. Hopefully we can make space for them without having to pot them up which takes hours and use's up a lot of valuable potting soil. It all depends on the weather and being able to come up with a dry area to set them out into.
It's all a push right now. This is the hardest time of year to get things growing and there is the added pressure of being able to have large quantities available early in the spring and for that first farmers market in May. Our customers are antsy and can't wait to have the first harvest. It's hard to be patient this time of year. It will come.
Looks like a rain day. Warm spring rain, my favorite.
Keep it real.
Farmer John
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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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