It's hot out there folks. Its 4:00 Am and its 71 degrees. No big deal for most places in the world but for here it's hot. Siesta weather. We change our schedule here. Work in the morning while it's cool and knock off in the heat of the day and then come back out in the evening when it's starting to cool down a bit. We transplanted three beds of lettuce yesterday. Not an ideal day but that's when I had my crew scheduled and it's better to get the delicate starts in the ground as opposed to keeping them alive in the flat trays in the hot sun. We have to water them about four times a day. They really don't like conditions at all. This is the most challenging time of year for us to grow salad greens. We seem to be doing it.
We had just a bit of a dirth last week. Many things are coming to a close and the generally cooler conditions we've had have held back some of the more traditional summer crops like squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. They are all just starting to come on. We actually skipped the farmers market on Saturday and took the opportunity to get caught up on some field work. We just finished planting potatoes. We're only about two months late! That seems to be the schedule we've been on all season. We never have really caught up from the later than normal start this year. I feel like I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel though. I'm treating this time to be the start of the second part of our growing season. Back to the basics. We are busy sowing our fall and overwintering crops along with all of our regular sowings of main crops like greens. We pretty much plant on a weekly basis in order to keep up with having a consistent supply. Earlier this year I made the deciscion to go heavy on the salad greens and forgo some of our old standards. This appears to have been a mikstake. The greens market was saturated and we wound up feeding lots of product to the chickens. Bummer. It's safe ton say I overestimated consumer demand. It's all such a guessing game. It is what it is.
This season has been a struggle from the get go. Hopefully we'll see a strong fall season and be able to make up lost ground in sales. I have to be honest, I,ve considered throwing in the towel more than a few times this year. Ahh the romantic life of a market farmer. It aint so romantic folks. It's a lot of hard work for a short return. I have to laugh. There's so much talk of the importance of sustainable agriculture in our culture. We are soo not sustainable! It's a whole other subject. Bottom line for me though is I'm not quitter. Even though my accountant and practicle side are telling me I should be. I believe in what I do. I believe that my community will support me and my fellow farmers. I believe the people have a desire in quality, healthy food and knowing their food source. I believe in myself and my ability to work through the tough times. I believe, I believe. I believe...... I'll go sow some seed.
Keep well
Farmer John
[ add comment ]
| [ 0 trackbacks ]
| permalink
Yesterday we opened up the farm to the public for the annual Orcas in bloom garden tour sponsored by the garden club. The event was a huge success. We had about 250 visitors throughout the day. I have to admit I was a little nervous at first to have that many visitors. One the event got under way though everything ran smoothly.
I would like to thank the garden club for putting us on the tour and a special thanks to Diane Jordan and Ken Wood. They made it easy and comfortable. Thanks guys! Also a special thanks to Brad for cooking up the great pizzas in our wood oven. Everyone loved it.
The one consistent comment throughout the day was "you guys should open a restaurant!". Who knows, we may just do that. I've always dreamed of having farm dinners that feature seasonal farm produce fresh from the field. The pizza's are a great medium for that and they truly are out of this world. So we'll see what happens.
Anyway, It's now July. Time flys. We have some ground to make up recovering from our wet spring which has seemed to put us a consistent three weeks behind our normal schedule. Allergy season is over for me and I can begin returning to my normal pace.
Soon we'll be harvesting tomatoes and the other bounties of summer. We are still working on getting main crops in the ground. It's also time to get going on our fall crops. The dance never stops.
Happy fourth of July to you all. See you at the fireworks!
Keep well,
Farmer John
[ add comment ]
| [ 0 trackbacks ]
| permalink
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.
[ add comment ]
| [ 0 trackbacks ]
| permalink
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
[ add comment ]
| [ 0 trackbacks ]
| permalink
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
[ add comment ]
| [ 0 trackbacks ]
| permalink
Back Next
Maple Rock Farm Blog
Calendar
