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Get ‘em while they’re hot!!

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Welcome New Year!

Ah, Western Washington in the winter! Months of gray, drizzly days Soppy, spongy soil, Rainboots and umbrellas. We have come to know these days all too well! This winter has been a little bit different (but aren’t they all). The winter came on at a snail’s pace. Dry skies and little rain fall carried us through the holidays. I even saw some bulbs making an appearance and trees budding in early January. It was almost like spring was around the corner already. I had to keep reminding myself: “It’s only January. Anything could happen.” And it sure did.

The winds of the foothills had already done some damage to one of the greenhouses, stripping off the plastic and buckling both end walls. We knew this repair was manageable and praised the Lord that the plastic was not ripped and the second greenhouse was still in one piece.

Then, this past week, winter made a fine appearance in the Pacific Northwest. Growing up in Wyoming I am always excited for the snow and can’t get over how people make such a fuss about it. After many years I am learning…it’s much different than the high mountain winters of Wyoming! The snow fell, it fell and fell. It was so beautiful! Matt was diligent about going out to the greenhouse to knock the snow off of the plastic so it didn’t tear under the load. He even shoveled what seemed like tons of snow off of the barn roof where the incline is shallow and the overhang is long.

After days of snow, and about a foot and a half of accumulation, the rain returned, freezing rain at first. This made the roads terrible (as I’m sure many of you witnessed). Matt was not able to get to the greenhouse as soon as he would have liked and hoped against the worst. By the time he got back to knock off the snow load, only two of the trusses and sustained damage. The snow also caused one of our start tables to collapse. This just reiterates our need to have more structure on the farm.

Matt spent the day today, along with the help of a friend making repairs to the greenhouses. We are hopeful for this coming season. We have been making amendments to our planting plan, schedule, lining out seed orders and adjusting our goals. The anticipation is almost overwhelming as we look forward to our second season.

Check back often for updates about what we’re doing and information about our CSA program! Until next time…

Blessings!

Where Do We Go From Here??

Some of our lunch on the farm

Everyone always says the first year is the toughest. We came into the season knowing this. We have had some good weeks and some bad ones. Nothing would have prepared us for how it has gone though. After having one of our biggest weeks for sales only 2 1/2 short weeks ago, we now find ourselves without much to harvest. It has been pretty slim pickens all summer, due mostly to the poor growing condition of our soil. Now, the plants seem to have had enough. The plantings we have done in hopes of a fall harvest are not going to make it in the heavily acidic soil that is a result of numerous years of Christmas tree farming on our lot. We never would have imagined that our season would be drawing closed so soon.

During one of our harvests

So, our mind is set on preparations for next year. We are bringing in fertilizer (aged horse manure) and will be putting down lime to till in with it. This will help give nutrients back to the soil while raising the pH level for next season. Then, we let the ground sit for the winter. We are trying to determine whether or not to plant cover crops, which also help to replenish the soil.

We have spent hours already on planting plans and crop rotation schematics for next year (and the years to come). As we look forward to next year we are very excited. We know that it is going to be a much better season since we will already have some of our infrastructure in place, have a jumpstart on our soil prep and can begin planting earlier in the spring. We hope you are all excited as well!

To our CSA members. Please do not fret! We are saving the remains of what is growing in the field for you! We will make every effort to ensure you get the produce you have paid for. We appreciate your business and your faith in our first year experience. We hope it has been, and will be, a blessing to your home and that you will partake next year again!

Still smiling after a hard days work

Soil Sampling

Every farm is different! Our experience in the past several years has helped us develop techniques and a knowledge base about farming. However, each place you try to farm will have it’s own, unique list of perks and challenges. When we began our farming endeavor (way too late in the year) this year we knew it would be tough. The cool, rainy weather was enough to keep our plants in the greenhouse too long, stunting their growth. Then we had weeks of cool weather to slow the already small plants from growing rapidly. The seeds we direct seeded seemed not to be germinating well and growing slow…we easily blamed this on the poor weather too. Well, we weren’t wholly convinced about this theory. Something just seemed wrong!

We had discussed having soil sampling done to see how our mineral content and pH levels looked several times. Matt began researching the subject and found that many of the problems we have been encountering can be caused by an imbalance in the pH of the soil. So, off Matt went to Lowe’s to buy a soil testing kit. He showed up back at the house with five Ziploc baggies containing soil from different areas of our farm.

A pH of 7 is neutral. As the number decreases the pH becomes more acidic, where an increase is more alkaline. Most  plants prefer a somewhat neutral pH between 6.2-7. Of course, there are plants that grow better outside of this range, but this is a good rule of thumb. There are natural ways to alter the pH of your soil by adding soil ammendments such as compost, lime, ash, etc. While looking into this a bit Matt found that pine needles can be used to make soil more acidic. Pine needles?!? What?!?! Our farm has been a Christmas tree farm for years….pine needles it had seen many!

So, I set to work testing the samples Matt had brought home. I tested each one for pH, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. our suspicions were confirmed as we found that almost all of the areas we are farming has a pH well below what is ideal for growing. Drat! To top it off a lowered pH makes minerals in the soil less available as well. Well, this explains a lot!

Now, our first question is…just how accurate are those home testing kits? Also, the kit doesn’t provide us with an accurate pH, just a range. So, I think we’ll be looking at getting some professional soil sampling done. This will be a new endeavor as we now have to figure out how to fix this problem. Luckily, things are still growing…even if it is at a slower pace than we would like them to be!

Some You Win, Some You Lose

It seems like it’s been an eternity since we planted our tiny little tomato seeds back in March. Through repotting, transplanting, pruning and trellising I have longingly watched these beautiful vines, wondering when I could finally sink my teeth into the first juicy morsel.

Josiah in the greenhouse- July 24th

Heirloom tomatoes are a prized delicacy in our household! This year we had big dreams when we planted a whopping 600 tomato plants consisting of nine different heirloom varieties. I could just taste the colorful burst of flavors each time I thought about them!
Tomatoes are persnickety little plants, especially in our cool, moist climate. In fact, few people bother attempting growing them since they usually do not fare well in the Pacific Northwest due to our cooler temperatures and prime conditions for fungal growth.
Late blight is a common problem in our area. It is a fungus-like organism which is found in the soil. It effects all parts of the tomato plants and causes them to turn black, wither and eventually die. By the time the tomato plants show signs of infection the plant has been sick for days and has likely spread to others around it via spores. This kind of problem is detrimental when plants are tightly spaced-as in our greenhouses!
Our plants are divided up between two greenhouses. The first has always been covered. The second has been a work in progress. Sadly, the plants in our second greenhouse spent too much of their lives in the field, uncovered, getting wet and splashed with dirt. The end result: late blight- and a lot of withering, black tomato plants!

Late blight on tomato plant

Last week we took on the task of removing all 300 tomato plants from the greenhouse and disposing of them. As we took out the tomatoes I couldn’t help but feel a great sense of loss!  To make matters worse, the blight has now begun spreading into our second greenhouse (only feet away from the other) so it is only a matter of time until the other half are lost as well. I guess that’s one of the hardships of being a first-year farm…lessons are learned the hard way!
The good news is that the greenhouse has already been replanted. Seedlings are emerging from the peas, green beans, salad mix, spinach and mustards we planted as we anticipate a fall crop. I’m sure we’ll learn another lesson here too. It seems like there’s one around every corner!

Count Your Blessings!

What a busy place the farm has been lately! It seems like our days are filled with rushing, rushing, rushing to get as much done as we can! This is definitely the busy time of the year.

Greenhouse Going Up Over The Tomatoes

We are pleased to say that we have erected our second greenhouse on the property! We were blessed to have a few donors who were a direct answer to our prayers (Thank you, thank you, thank you!!)! When we planted about 600 tomato plants in our field and only half of them fit into the exsisting greenhouse we were acting on faith. As many of you have learned from experienced, or heard around the block, tomatoes do not like our Pacific Northwest weather! Blight is a common problem in our area and one of the biggest culprits is the rain. Unfortunately, we have not had the driest weather this summer (to say the least!). We have had some casualties but we are hoping to save the remaining tomato plants in hopes that they will bring forth a bountiful harvest of ripe juicy fruit!

Josiah Helps to Harvest Collard Greens

In the meantime we have been harvesting what limited amount of produce we have ready. Red Russian Kale, Lacinato (dinosaur) Kale, Georgia Collards, Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, French Breakfast and Pink Beauty Radishes, Tall Green Purslane, Mini Greek Basil, Kohlrabi, Salad mix and a variety of lush, beautiful head lettuce have made their way to market and home deliveries! We are watching everything else grow…slowly…hoping it has time to mature before our meek summer comes to an end…Beets, Carrots, Broccoli Cauliflower, Celeriac, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Summer and Winter Squash, Herbs, Onions, Green Beans…

We have also been blessed with a few willing souls to help us- four different farm volunteers have made their way out to the farm and gave of their time! Yes, we gave them a little food for their troubles, but it is small change compared to the help they were! It is amazing how much faster things can get accomplished with an extra set of hands, even for just a few hours. So, we would like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH George, Aimee, Ben and Jesse! Come back anytime!!

Direct Seeding in a Mulched Bed

Matt has been having some fun experimenting with his JP1, Jang Seeder. We have been trying to figure out how we were going to manage growing salad mix with a no-till system. Sadly, we have not had the best of luck with our salad mixes this summer. This is Matt’s most recent attempt. The bed shown has been mulched for about a month. Matt removed the mulch and hand weeded the few stragglers. Next, he seeded the bed, leaving the seeds on the top of the soil. Mulch was then re-applied thinly over the seeds and a floating row cover put into place. The mulch should help to keep the seeds moist and in place. So far, they seem to be growing well. Very promising!

We know that this farming season has been rough, but we are counting our blessings with the many strange happenings everywhere else! Heat, flooding, droughts, tornadoes…  I’ll try to remember that the next time I’m in the field, in the 55° rainy weather grumbling about how miserable the summer has been!

Tisk, tisk! How dare we not Blog!

The head lettuce is looking great! This one is a "Joker" variety

I know, I know!

Richard roofing the barn

You guys have been wondering about us haven’t you! We apologize for going so long without an update! Our plug-in for our computer died and we had no way to plug her in. I finally convinced Matt that we HAD to fork over the cash to buy a new one! There are great things at stake here!! Anyway, we are back online and I’m sure you are dying for an update.

Hmmm…where to start…

Well, with the help of Matts brother, Richard, we were able to complete the lean-to on the south side of the barn. One small step in the big project ahead of us, but it is nice to see progress of any size.

Our tomatoes, being long overdue to be transplanted finally found their way into the field the first week of June. We transplanted them and hoped for the best as we could not afford to build greenhouses over them yet. Initially we placed slitted row cover over them to keep them warm at night and keep the rain off of them. Unfortunately, the plastic didn’t allow for much growth and we had to figure out something else quick. We ended up tearing down our start house and erecting it over half of the tomatoes instead. The other half remained under the row cover for another week or so and are now open to the elements until we can afford a second greenhouse. The plants are looking healthy and growing well, with blossoms and even a couple setting fruit! Mmmm!! We can’t wait!

Planting the tomatoes

We also went out of town for a week in June to attend the graduation of Deidre’s sister, Danielle, from Massage therapy school and to visit our former farm home, Battle Creek Gardens. It was a nice whirlwind of a visit, but leaving our farm here for a whole week was not the best idea. Fortunately we had some family to help out some…still, our veggies suffered and we felt it set us back a little.

We are in a constant battle to stay on top of farm tasks! Weeding, mulching, watering, starting, planting, mowing, harvesting…our latest plight is to cover the vegetable beds in mulch. This is no small task with hundreds and hundreds of feet of bed that need to be weeded first! Placing natural mulches around the plants has several benefits. It can help to reserve the moisture in the ground, helps protect the plants from heat, the soil from erosion, decrease some pest problems (such as flea beetle damage), minimize weed growth and can return nutrients to the soil. There are disadvantages to mulching as well, but we are hoping it will be a good fit for our farm! We are learning more every day.

View of some mulched beds with tomato greenhouse

We have been praying for volunteers to help us on the farm. It is so much work for two, sometimes three, of us to keep up with! If you know anyone who is interested in volunteering and getting some free food in return, please send them our way! In the meantime, we will keep on doing what we’re doing. Things are growing!!

Balancing Farming with Life

Our apologies for taking so long to post an update! It seems like there are never enough hours in the day to get things done, especially in a new venture. Matt has been working on a construction project outside of the farm which is demanding much of his attention and Deidre is still in nursing classes for a few more weeks. We are looking forward to being able to focus more of our time and energy on farming!

Our Starthouse with Salad Mix on the Right

Our First Market: Everett, May 20th

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We are pleased to inform you that we attended the Everett Farmer’s Market last week. We apologize for not letting you all know in advance! We were not expecting to be in attendance, but with much coaxing by the market manager, we relented. Our pickings were slim: radishes, salad mix, mustards, arugula and tat soi. We had a great time meeting new people and selling what produce we had. Our plan is to attend this Friday market for the rest of the summer and add other markets as we can.

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Hadassah Helping Transplant Kale

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Our field is finally dry enough to plant/transplant into and we have placed as many of out starts in the field as we can! So far we have transplanted Napa & red cabbage, beets, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, red russian & lacinato kale, collards, celery, onions, artichokes, multiple types of lettuce, fennel…I’m sure I’m missing something, but you get the drift. We have much more to transplant, including cucumbers, summer and winter squash, herbs and so on.

Installing Water Line

We have been slowly completing projects on the farm. We finally have our water line in and no longer have to tote an 800 foot hose from the neighbor’s house to the greenhouse to water! How refreshing for us and the plants! We still need to do some work backfilling the ditch and hooking up outlets for our wash station, but all in due time.

Our next big project is to get a second greenhouse up for our tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. We desperately need to get these transplanted so we are hoping to get this done soon.

Another pressing project is the wash station. Now that we are going to market we need to have an efficient system for cleaning and packaging our produce. For now, we can manage, it is difficult to know what to do next. But we all agree that planting and weeding take precedence! We wouldn’t have food if we didn’t.

We look forward to meeting you all and sharing our passion for food with you! Thank you so much for your support!

See you soon!

Moving into the Greenshouse

Sunday was an exciting day for us. We were able to move many of the starts into the greenhouse and out of our outbuilding at home. The greenhouse will be a much happier environment for the plants. Additionally, we have a little bit of room back and can start turning off some of those grow lights that like to suck electricity.

Matt and Elaine worked at getting the tomato plants transplanted into the 4 inch blocks so they can have a little more room to spread out and keep growing.

Deidre and Sammy moved the starts onto the new tables where the can get lots of water and sunshine. Hopefully this will be a very temporary home for them and we can move them out into the field soon. Everything hinges on the weather as the ground MUST dry out some before we can till and work it. Here’s to farming in the Pacific Northwest!

Taking Advantage of the Dry Weather

Onions, Leeks and Artichokes on their way for transplanting into the field.

Friday was the driest day we have had so far in April. The field is still very wet, but our plants were aching to get into the ground. Matt took the tiller out and luckily did not get stuck in the mud as he prepared the beds for planting. Sammy came out to help us once again. Our plan was to plant all of the artichokes, leeks and onions. We got most of them transplanted before the sun went down on us.  All we have left are the Walla Wallas.

Artichokes are the first to make it into the field

Earlier in the week Matt’s project was to build some tables for starts in the greenhouse.The tables are 4′ x 8′ and have a side around them. They are lined with plastic so we can bottom water the blocks that the plants are growing in.  The tables are also furnished with a set of pvc hoops that help to add extra heat insulation while we are still having cooler temperatures overnight. These tables will soon be home to many tomatoes!

Newly built tables and hoops for the greenhouse

We are looking for people who are interested in helping out at the farm. We could use all of the extra hands we can get so please let us know if this interests you!

Blessings!

Deidre Transplanting onions