Pipes, covers, colors

Here on the farm is a blast. Especially when the wind starts a blowing. All the dry summer we use an irrigation known as drip tape. It lets out a drip of water every 4" and keeps the soil moist when the dry PNW winds are a blowing all summer long. Even though it may seem moist in the air, the soil dries out considerably. This method allows us to not help along the fungus and plant problems that occur with over head irrigation. It also allows us to save water. And believe it or not we need to save water. But I digress... The tape is a bit of a hassle to deal with when done for the season. It lasts at least two if not three but is so thin that it just tangles into a mess if not rolled. I got the great idea to just bunch it all up, all 17,000 feet of it and lay it out flat. I then laid about 45 fence posts across it all. I hope this holds them down for the winter or I will need to buy new spools of the stuff. Lets all cross our fingers that the drip tape doesn't cross itself into a mess.



Thanks to CSA

As the season winds down we want to give out a big shout to our CSA members who have supported us throughout the worst growing season in 3 decades! Yea and we hope you all have enjoyed your wonderful variety of veggies and they have nurtured your bodies and souls. We still have 3 more weeks left and you better like root crops and squash! Hope to see you all next year, just a few months away til spring share season...

Yehaw

The piggy named Spike loves to give rides. He actually enjoys when I get on his back. I think its like chiropractic medicine for him and all that wonderful tasty bacon he has to carry around. Mmmmmmm, bacon....

Fall Flavor

The season has been long and difficult. The worst in 2 decades I am told (depending on who you speak with). But we have harvested the winter squash and have hauled it into the greenhouse to protected it from the coming weather. Its not as huge as expected but at least we have some to eat in the months ahead.
We tore into 3 different varieties and the results are good. They have firm flesh and are sweet. Not as sweet as I had hoped or what I am used to but none the less very tasty. They cooked up nice in the oven, held their moisture and even got a bit flakey near the end. We ate them right out of the shells. Just a bit of salt and butter. Then we made a bit of bread and a whole mess of creamed squash soup.
We put in several varieties but the best ones are sweet meat, baby blue hubbard, and burgess buttercup. Unfortunately these are the ones that produced the least in our wonderful climate. As I have been saying all  year long, "there is always next year!"
We hope you enjoy all of them over the next few months...

The Government

We are Back! We took a hiatus from this blog due to some big brothers, i.e, the government, having an itch to scratch with our farm. Thanks to a new law put into action earlier this year we can now have apprentices come to the farm and learn all about the wonderful ways of farming without having to spend fifty thousand dollars to go to university. And besides they will get a better curriculum that has loads of hands on learning, eat way better food than in the cafeteria and not have to deal with their dorm mates. We will be growing the new generation of farmers right here on the island and it wont be conventional agribusiness. Nope none of that at all, in fact we will be teaching how to run a business that is small, sustainable, profitable, good for the community, good for the body, bring down the agribusiness giants kind of farming. If your Monsanto, ConAgri, or ADM and your reading this you should be very concerned. The era of behemoth, blue chip monopolies is over. Its time for the synergy of mind, body and spirit to control the food once again.