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…)

Hi Folks,

It was another week of mild temperatures and the rain that was predicted fortunately did not amount to much. The fields are still very soggy and I am a bit worried about how I will plant my cover crops and prepare the beds to plant next season’s garlic crop. There is not much rain forecasted for the next ten days and the breezy conditions are helpful in drying out the ground so, hopefully, there will be a window of opportunity soon. (more…)

Hi Folks,

It’s been a glorious week of sunny weather and mild temperatures. Our fields are finally beginning to dry out although there are still a few wet spots about. While daytime temps have been balmy it is getting chilly at night and clear skies mean strong radiative cooling. (more…)

Hi Folks,

I guess I spoke too soon last week about dodging a bullet, as the scattered storms of the week brought us another 5 inches of rain. The creek did once again rise and form a lake in the field with the brassicas, drowning a few more plants on the edges of the previous inundation. While I enjoy bird watching, I am not happy to see ducks swimming and egrets wading in my fields. (more…)

Hello Everyone,

We seem to have dodged a bullet this weekend as the heavy rains predicted did not materialize. We received only about a half an inch of precipitation as opposed to the 3-5 inches forecast as possible. We’re not completely out of the woods yet, as there are still a few days of scattered storms and showers ahead. (more…)