planting

We've been busy. The weather has been nice, but windy. This is my seeder widgit. 3 Earthway seeders connected with thread rod. I use this to plant almost everything. So far, we have sown carrots, beets, chard, radish, salad, peas, and garbanzos. Anyway, it's a pretty good tool, once the quirks are understood.

Here's Ted, transplanting cabbage and broccoli soil blocks. Once the beds are tilled out, I hitch up this roller-marker and till again. Then it's just putting blocks in the holes and irrigating. We put out 800 cabbage and broccoli this morning, which is pretty efficient for us. Onions and leeks are on deck, time to get them in the soil.

let it rain

Time to irrigate. Last summer Ted and I put in a much better system. Now we have microsprinklers and driptape instead of the old aluminum hand lines. The water is very even and far more gentle than from the big impact sprinklers. I have thought to write a gangsta rap about how our farm be kitted out with them micro sprinklers, how the air look like it be rainin diamonds. Aside from our hoes, I can't think of much more that would fit well in the genre.

potatoes

It felt like summer for a few days, except for the wind, that is. The soil is warming up quickly and we are probably out of the killing frost time. Our soil goes quickly from mud to dust this time of year, which makes me feel perpetually behind.
Most of the potatoes were planted yesterday. This year we have several new varieties and twice as much space devoted to potato. I've taken some soil samples and tested pH in this field and our bottom field and have interesting results. The main garden soil is defined as "Billyridge gravelly sandy loam" whereas the bottom is "Peoh silt loam." Billyridge has pH of 7.5 with many rocks from golf ball to softball, Peoh has pH of 5.5 and it is hard to find even a small stone. Potatoes like some acid, so, I've amended the Billyridge with elemental Sulfur this year. The bottom field I'll leave as is.

wild turkey

I've been hunting turkeys instead of writing this week. The ridges surrounding the canyon have a lot of turkeys. I would hear 3 or 4 each morning, from every direction. So, the other morning I was up there in the dark, hearing turkeys. Soon enough, I was very close to a small flock, 2 or 3 toms, still roosted. Oh, if you didn't know, turkeys roost in trees. I didn't know it would be 60' or 70' up. So, the toms get to gobbling, one after the other. I made my best turkey hen chirp, they gobble back emphatically. Wait a while, chirp again. I hear one fly down and start to come up the ridge toward me, gobble. Then he pokes his head up to peek. Gobble gobble. Anyway, we're having turkey tonight.

a little greenhouse

We have a little greenhouse. Pretty much it, really, the kit went back together easily. Oh, we woke up to snow again. It melted by 10 that morning. We have had the 50 degree swing most of the week, mornings in the low 20's and 70's by early afternoon. The soil is warming up though, and nice to work. Planted peas and greens yesterday, hopefully radishes, turnips, and kale today. Potatoes, onions, leeks, and shallots need to get into the ground soon. Spring is fun.

CAUTION: CUTE KID PICTURE AHEAD

Baby geese and ducks are fun. We're trying them for the first time this year. They should make a great addition, with geese grazing grass and small weeds and ducks eating slugs and cutworms. We also have a few turkeys and somewhere around 50 baby chickens. I hope to avoid repeating last year when we lost all of the chicks to coyotes. With any luck, we'll have one of our turkeys for thanksgiving and a goose at christmas.

40hp lullabye?

Leif likes the tractor. Today we're discing the field we'll plant our grains. It is too bad, really, that there isn't more tractor work to do. Soon enough we'll be planting oats, barley, corn, winter peas and dry beans in this field. Just hoping to kill a few more weeds in the meantime.

my alarm clock

Alpenglow at sunrise. I pretty much always wake in time to see the stars hide from the sun. About a half hour later, first light hits the high peaks. The dawn chorus now has more birds than I can count, with more arriving each week. The tree swallows and rufus hummingbirds showed up this weekend. In a month, I'll be watching for the female hummingbirds by the compost. Every spring I watch them catching small gnats or fruitflys. I suspect she must have a nest of chicks or needs extra protein to make eggs. There is just so much going on in the morning, sleep seems irreverent

thanks Ted

It is always nice to come back from vacation and find things better than at the leaving. Ted came back to help again this year, and will get college credit for the slivers and blisters this time. That's Ted transplanting greens. Today we are starting on the new greenhouse project. I would recommend everyone find a Ted, things happen much faster.

the garlic woke up

While we were away, the garlic popped. It was planted last October, then mulched with hay, and spent all winter growing roots. Once the soil warms a little, garlic takes off. This past week it snowed every morning, and the garlic keeps growing. Yesterday we woke up with a new 2", so I said to hell with it and went snowboarding. Garlic originated in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan and India, a climate similar to ours with hot and dry summers and cold snowy winters. Olde timey wisdom says the robins will get snowed on 3 times before spring is here. This year they showed up with 6" still on the ground. From now on, I'll call spring once the garlic feels 3 snowfalls.

vacation

We went on vacation. Florida is funny. The beach was nice, when it wasn't brutal windy. Leif watched the kite fly up and over the condos after the string broke. I let the surf pound the crap out of my while "surfing." -I think it was on one of the knee-deep days at Stevens. Canoeing in the Indian river is full of excellent nerding. Stingrays fly out of the sand, porpoise chase fish in 2' of water, and so many birds. Pelicans, egrets, loons, eagles. Yeah, pretty much nerding. Oh, watch out for Sea World, you're better off in the lagoon.

It is still snowing. Usually the snow has melted in the valley by now, but we still have 6 inches on the ground. On the upside, about 6 feet fell at Stevens Pass in the last week or two.

One way or another, spring will get here. Many of our crops need an early start we can plant them out as well established plants once things have warmed up.

The top photo is a tray of tomatoes, below celery.

We start most of our seeds in soil blocks. Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, celery, and some flowers in 3/4" mini blocks. They germinate very quickly. Once the cotyledons have emerged, we move them into 1.5" blocks.

Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, pac choi, etc) start in the larger blocks, planning to get them into the soil in a month.

We had a cold week again. A little fresh snow at the beginning, then clear and down to 6 degrees at the farm. Days warm up quickly though, it was 50 degrees inside hoophouse at 11am when this photo made itself. Outside temp, 20. Once the frost has thawed from the salad, it's ok to cut, as long as it doesn't freeze when you take it outside.

2009 CSA

We are currently accepting down payments for our 2009 season. 30 shares will again be offered, starting June 5. Two drop-off locations are available this year at Sage Mt. Natural Foods and Just Plain Grocery. Or, come out to the farm to box your own share and watch your food growing. I hope to make the brochure available for download soon.