Hello Everyone,

It’s been hot and dry here at the farm. We had only a passing thunderstorm on Sunday- what I call a nuisance rain, because it only served to chase us out of the fields and did not drop enough precipitation to do the crops any good. The forecast gives us a 50% chance of rain on the 4th of July; keep your fingers crossed! (more…)

Hi Folks,

It’s been hot and dry here on the farm; not a good combination. The storms that passed through on Friday dropped only about a quarter inch of rain. They began with strong winds and hail, which fortunately abated quickly. (more…)

Hello Folks,

Here I am again at the end of a 14 hour day trying to get out my late update! I intended to write this morning after consulting with my lead worker, but my day spun out of control and I never got back to my desk. We got two ailing tractors up and running again but left a pickup truck broke down by the side of the road. (more…)

Hello Folks,

We have arrived at the week you’ve been waiting for, when your investment in my farming endeavors begins to pay dividends. I truly appreciate the faith and confidence that the members have in the farm. My crew and I have been working hard these last 3 months and now you will begin to taste the results. (more…)

Now that you have your stock up share, how do you keep it edible if you don’t want to refrigerate everything? If you don’t have a root cellar, and my guess is few of us have one, can you leave it all in the garage or is it safer in the basement?

There is a good amount of information out on the web, but a fairly concise report from Ms. Hillers, an extension food specialist at the Washington State University (Google the article “Storing Vegetables and Fruits at Home”), offers some insight into not only how to build a root cellar (perhaps a “fun” project for the family?), but what conditions are best for which vegetable. (more…)

Hi Folks,

The final share of the season is not as bountiful as I would have liked, but we have done our best under difficult conditions. The lettuces and spinach that remain in the field are very small, so we are sending 3 small heads of lettuce and a bag of baby spinach. We also have a fair bit of red or purple mustards which I thought might be useful as a garnish for your holiday tables.

The share for this week will be:
Several small lettuce, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, tatsoi or other mustard, baby spinach, butternut squash, Japanese or white sweet potatoes, and something purple!

Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!
Farmer John

Hi Folks,

We are coming into the home stretch, with only a few more deliveries to be made and the final markets of the year. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be almost done with this season. Every year has its own particular challenges but this year has certainly been the most difficult that I have experienced in my 15 years of farming. (more…)

Hi Folks,

Well, there just doesn’t seem to be any limit to the kind of crazy weather that Mother Nature can throw at us these days! We got about 14 inches of snow from the storm and experienced two nights of frigid temperatures; 19 degrees last Sunday night. The low temperatures did the most damage; the snow actually protected most of the shorter crops, insulating them from the extremely cold air. (more…)

Hi Folks,

With the exception of some heavy rain on Thursday, the past week of weather was more or less beneficial. The temperatures remained balmy and the winds that followed the rain have helped to dry out the fields a bit. We still have some very soggy spots in the fields, making it a challenge to plant the winter cover crop. (more…)