Posts filed under 'flowers'
Abundunce
The exciting news this week is ripe tomatoes! We know you have all been waiting and waiting, and this is really just a small bit of the very first, still nothing to write home about; nevertheless, as some of you saw at this weekend’s open farm, the tomato planting is massive this year, so there will be no shortage of everyone’s favorite garden vegetable. Since things are just getting started, we will be picking off the cherry tomatoes for the next couple of weeks. After that, all of our farm pick-up members can pick from these every week at pick-up if they desire. Likewise, the cut-flower bed, a project idea that barely came together this year, is flowering nicely, albeit only a handful of varieties. Feel free to ask for help cutting some flowers to take home if you’d like, or ask our expert bouquet man, our oldest son Olorin, to pick one for you. Olorin has brought a small amount of cut flower bouquets to each and every farmer’s market this year, a business he has enjoyed and is considering expanding next year! Maybe with his help we will have a wider selection of flowers for the u- pick flower patch next year! And it is almost canning time; once the tomatoes hit full speed, we will let all of you know about extra picking for winter preservation.
Our main winter preparedness goals lie in the fields. We have been working overtime to be well prepared for our second season of continued harvesting through the winter. There have been bumps in the road these last few weeks. The potatoes that had looked so good this year are now showing signs of distress. We imagine that yields will still be good, but his high cost start up crop is always leaving us wanting more. The parsnips planting we tried everything we knew to get started still hasn’t germinated, four weeks later. Notoriously hard to start, we can only try again in the cooler weather, with
hopes of smaller parsnips in early spring.
But, the planting and planning is still more positive than not, especially for us, eaters who have come to relish the flavors of these coming crops probably more than even the ubiquitous fresh tomato. Not to say these summer flavors aren’t just right for this time of year. Simple, vegetable laden dishes are fast and filling on busy summer farm days, and being able to snack on so much, from cucumbers to tomatoes, simply out of hand in the fields is a blessing. And being in the midst of abundance does wonders for the soul. Zucchinis and cucumbers and tomatoes up to our ears, a sign of the graciousness of the earth to bear fruit, and reminder to be thankful for all that we do have.
Add comment August 12, 2009
August Rush
August is here, and all of a sudden the steady pace we have held to since spring’s crazy planting rush has picked up tempo again. We are in the thick of fall’s planting, which is a rush just like in spring, but feels even more like a race since we aren’t working our way towards warmer, faster growing weather where late plantings often play catch up, but rather towards the cooling down, the slowing down. Unlike most crops in the spring line-up, which are often going to be planted in succession anyways or want to be planted when its nice and warm so there is no hurry anyways, we have pretty clear deadlines on most of our last plantings of the year if we hope for adequate growth and sufficient yields to make it through the fall, winter, and early spring. So, there is a lot of clearing house right now, prepping beds, and general angst about whether it will all get done because we also happen to be in the thick of summer’s glorious but unrelenting fecundity. We felt like all we could do last week was harvest and water, demands of the heat and its boost in productivity all of a sudden in the fields. The weeds enjoyed a week of undisturbed growth as well while we were busy, but the farmer and our wonderful farm help managed to make pretty good mileage against those yesterday. Really, the fields at this point are the tidiest we have ever been able to manage, so that will be a boon as we push through this month, perhaps our busiest of the year.
But even this August rush isn’t all there is to come. Its bramble time, blackberries in the mornings. Sunflowers and zinnias, tomatoes too. Dark purple fingers picking bright orange and red and yellow, the colors of the height of summertime. As much work as there is to be done in what seems to short a time, being able to do this work, to be out so fully in this time of year, to notice every bit of it and to love it for its beauty as well as its hectic routine, it is all worth it, for a zillion reasons. The greatest of which, aside from our own personal pleasure in living this life, is sharing the bounty of these fields and this labor with all of you.
Add comment August 4, 2009
Summer love
I am sure that at this moment, we all have one thing taking up residence in our minds, filling in all the spaces between our many other thoughts, unavoidably resurfacing in the front again and again. And what could so ubiquitously bring us together in such grand collective consciousness besides the weather: it is hot! Not just hot, I guess, but HOT…at least hotter than we are used to; and really, hot for most everyone, except for those folks in the desert areas, where HOT, from my recollection, could be closer to 120 degrees than 100. That is the kind of heat that makes you sure your dog is going to die as you travel through. But still, heat is heat, and although I am not worried too much about the animals here, we do have to give them extra attention during these high temperatures. Salt nibbles out of hand for the goats, fresh mud baths for the pigs…the dog, with her furry coat, just digs into the cool ground and lays under the porch.
We, too, are pretty bothered and hot, feeling yet again the affects of poor insulation in an old manufactured home and not a lick of shade to protect the house on the south and west. The icing on the cake of this less than ideal scenario is that the west wall of the house is all windows, of course, so that the house dwellers can enjoy the wonderful view. Add to the pot a scant amount of opening window space and none of them set up for providing cross ventilation, and you have a recipe for an oven of a home. Still, as much as we curse poor house designs, we are never really ones to dwell on the back side of the hill. We aren’t really even all that bothered, just hot.
So, in this vein, I have been stewing a list of all the really great things about this heat, some jewels for us all to remember as we work and play and try to get some sleep in these next few really hot days, and the only somewhat less hot days to come. It is summer after all, and like any other season, it’ll come and go sooner than later. Every minute we have the opportunity to gain a memory to hold onto as things change, constantly change, and move forward, faster than I ever could have imagined as a child.
Top on our list of happy thoughts are that the plants love, love, love this heat. Granted, they were regularly well watered to this point, so that isn’t a consideration or worry for us or them. Instead, they have a lushness, a green, and a vibrancy this week that is just different. Not that they didn’t look beautiful before, and not that plants don’t thrive under our normally less than extreme summer temperatures, but I have a comparison point. After moving here from the hot summers of the Midwest, I haven’t really seen this kind of summertime boom in our garden. Really, it has more to do with the night temperatures than the day, and having this little heat wave, with nights barely dropping below 70 degrees…ooh la la! Plants primarily grow at night, using up the daytime to feed themselves via photosynthesizing. The summer plants love for the heat to remain through the night, and grow they are. This is something we will all benefit from! And although we won’t see it in this week’s harvest, we have harvested the first red tomato, a beautiful striped roma, and surprise of all surprises (for us anyways, since eggplant usually are the last summer crop to ripen for us) a single, gorgeous eggplant. The banana peppers, almost ripe!
Another thing we are thankful for…getting to take the afternoons off! What else can we do really? It is unbearable to continue field work, and unbearable to stay in our home (per the reasons mentioned above). And so we head out with drinking water and sun hats and find a place to get wet! And because it so very hot, we don’t even have to get into the water in that slow and cautious gingerly manner, we can run and jump right in! And when we do, the water, even in the creeks, is warm or cool, not freezing cold! It feels so good, better than any regular mid-temperature summer swimming could. And if
you are young enough or can get away at night, we actually have fit weather for night swimming! To swim on a hot summer’s night with the stars overhead…..lovely!
And as we hope to experience ourselves today, the heat we have here hasn’t left the Oregon coast cool and windy, but nice and warm, warm enough to let that cold ocean water scent your skin with its sweet saltiness even if you’re an adult. The smell of summer’s flowers lingers in this hot air, and maybe if you have a little child she will go out into the tomato patch and when you pick her up, she will smell just like tomatoes so you will squeezer her tight, the smell of a summer garden! And you will crave vegetables even more than you normally do! At least that is us, with scant an appetite
by dinnertime because of this heat, fresh vegetables are the perfect food. Cucumbers, zucchini or white Lebanese squash, cabbages, and steamed beets or blanched green beans all make simple and elegant vegetable salads with not much more than a nice vinegar and a quality olive oil, some fresh herbs, sweet cipollini onions or tasty scallions, and some local walnuts or hazelnuts or delicious artisan cheese for a little bit of protein. And after the 100 degree days simmer down to the mid-90’s, we are back to perfect outdoor grill dining, and nothing tastes like summer more than grilled vegetables!
So, dwell with us, in these joys of summer, heat and all. As I know I write about again and again, our lives are tied to the seasons with such intricately weaved strands that intersect with every little aspect of our lives here on the farm. I was always one for the seasons, they were so distinct where I grew up. By letting ourselves fully submerge into what makes each one unique, by creating and maintaining associations and memories, activities and foods for each one, it makes there coming and going all the more dear, and provides us with the beautifully complimentary pull of sweet and bittersweet,
loving and longing, for each in its own way, to accompany us through the days.
2 comments July 29, 2009
The fruits of summer
There have been a few times over the course of this last week when a look out the window has made us think we were dreaming. So many cloudy, gray mornings this week, and rain! A really steady, gray all over kind of rain that lasted more than the length of a passing cloud. It looks like Oregon out there this morning, not just
Oregon in the middle of July. The rain is great though, even when the timing is a surprise. There was so little rain this spring, and so much sun, a little seasonal switcheroo. A reminder, I suppose, in case we were beginning to forget, that weather is so unpredictable. It sure keeps us on our toes here at the farm, our constant companion.
A rain like that which fell on Sunday is such a blessing in the middle of summer. Combined with the afternoon’s sunshine-y heat, the moisture and warmth are so great for all this growing. Still, another week spent watching flowers bloom (in mass quantities, might I mention) but still not fruit reminds us that patience is a virtue, however anxious we get. Our take on an old adage is that a watched plant
won’t grow…or something like that. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, all of our summer crops have been blooming for some time; still this week, it is just the summer squash that is ready for harvest. We’ll take it. As leery as the farmer was to put in as many summer squash plants as I urged him too, they are delicious to me, regardless of the ensuing insanity that they will lead us too! This first flush, picked on time, the perfect size, tender, delicious, ready for the grill, or for pizza or to be roasted or to be tossed with pasta and olive oil…so good!
The other flowers, the ones that will not fruit, but are planted just for the fun of it, are finally making their way towards the sky. Their late start was a bummer, but it looks like members will be able to begin picking bouquets if they wish about the same time they begin to pick their cherry tomatoes…soon!
We are busy ourselves, visiting other farms to pick berries. First strawberries, not too mnay. Then some cherries, a bit more. Now we are working on blueberries, the tastiest and easiest to pick for the main berry picker (me); so I will spend many days (hopefully) picking these summer treats for later winter eating. Raspberries have been picked as well, and some blackberries will be had soon too. The wonderful thing is that from our own farm we have had enough strawberries and raspberries this year for the kids to eat fresh throughout the day. That means now most of what we go out to pick gets put away for the winter—a huge step in the right direction for us. We got fairly tired of apples by the end of winter this year!
And speaking of picking and preserving the fruits of summertime, I should mention that this Saturday Slow Foods of Yamhill County will be hosting a class at the McMinnville library about Dehydrating Fruits and Vegetables, from 2:00-4:00 for anyone who would like to learn more about this preservation method. We use it occasionally, and although I didn’t get any cherries into the dehydrator like I wanted to, we are drying raspberry fruit leather right now, and will likely dry some grapes later this year. Using any method of food preservation you choose, it is a great (and essential) way to enjoy the products of summer when the gray, cool weather isn’t just a fleeting reminder, a mere dream of winter. It is a way to continue to eat locally through the season that many farms take a rest, and to supplement your CSA harvests of those seasons, which will be full with yummy produce, but not with the many vegetables that have come to be favorites to many. Preserving them now will give you their presence in winter, without necessitating a trip from a warmer part of the world.
The clouds from this morning will give way to sun soon enough, and we will get back our warm July weather. Berry picking, jam making, freezing, drying, canning—all sure signs of summer. Likewise, potlucks and parties come along with the season. So, before it gets away from us, we are trying to nail down a date for our first summer open farm and member potluck. Hopefully we will have a plan by next week. We only managed to get one date together last summer, but with everyone’s various summer plans, we missed a few of you last year, and are aiming for at least two nights of coming together at the farm this year to make it easier for everyone to attend one or the other. So, soon we can all come together around some good food and enjoy the farm together before the long nights of summer slip by. We already notice it as the morning knocks a little later and the night falls almost an hour earlier, such is that circling of the sun!
Add comment July 15, 2009
Spring love matures (and so do the weeds)
As much as I knew it would come, being here at the end of the giddy stage of spring, when our farm (where landscaping has taken a second seat to things growing for the business) abruptly turns green after that splash of color, is still something like walking on uneven ground, that bumpy step a little jolting. Everywhere I look it is green, the green of grasses, mostly, and other weeds loving the warming up of the weather just as much as the rest of us. The fruit trees are done blooming, the spring bulbs and flowering trees too, even the early weeds have already blossomed and set seed (shudder). Thankfully we are able to leave the beautiful white and pink blooms of our winter arugula and black spanish radsishes along with the unmistakable yellow flowers of the mustards and turnips for a bit longer…the bees and my eyes need something colorful to feast on. But these blossoms too, begin to feel like weeds as they get in the way of working around new growing things.
As ambitious as early spring is with its newfound energy, the rising from winter’s slumber and slow going, the inevitable next step comes and its reality is not as flippant and full on as the sowing of a new year’s seeds. The season gets warmer, and the watering and weeding begin. That is what we did this weekend,; recovered beets and kohlrabi and carrots from the mat of other growth thinking it had found a nice place to grow too, freed some broccoli from the start of a dangerous relationship with the nasty bindweed, gave our bunching onions access to more light, and started on getting the grass out of the fava beans although their growth is vigorous enough to withstand sharing–we just don’t want the slugs having ladders to the pods which are now setting.
And this kind of work is more sobering than planting even when the sense of accomplishment is almost more fulfilling when you finish. Now our early spring love affair with a new season is tempered by what time brings. Just like any love affair, your vision at first is beautifully rose colored. Now that the first flush of petals have fallen, some of those irksome growing challenges are up for evaluation. There are still spots in the field where the difference in soil quality is fairly dramatic. There are still some broccolis buttoning (producing a small head before the plant matures because of stress from soil or heat?), still poor germination on our first planting of carrots, still flea beetles on the pac chois, and spotted cucumber beetles on the chard. Things are not picture perfect, for sure.
Still, the upshot is that we are seeing all of these things on a much smaller scale than ever before, and we can see that at least from the pest perspective, the plants are stronger than the damage they can do this year. Soon they will have outgrown the worst of it. Carrots are in the queue for succession plantings into July, and in truth the germination percentage on that first planting is close to 50% where we had 0% on our first planting last year (I suppose we are just pushing the envelope for carrots with that first planting anyways). We way, way, way overplanted broccolis because they are so fickle anyways. And at least after the main growing season comes to a close, we can clear this space and really work with it for soil improvement since we have a separate space for fall/winter plantings. That will make a world of difference.
So the season matures, we settle into its routines. We have the bulk of our spring planting done (which is why we took the last few days to weed, weed, weed). Most of the tomatoes, the eggplant, some more corn, and more basil…that is what is left besides things that are continually planted in succession. We won’t have another big planting push until July, so weeding and watering do become our main occupations, along with the all important harvesting! And even though all the early spring colors have turned to blankets of green over here, when we weeded the raspberries yesterday, our first year’s planting was vibrating with a steady bzzzzz! Many of those early flowers are working there way towards summer fruit, a feast of colors for the plate. And we planted all those annual flowers, a quick fix for more lavish blooms for us and cut flowers for all of you. And even the humble vegetable blooms that proceed the harvest are beautiful in their own right. It may be green right now, but just around the corner will be summer’s color show, one that holds steady and true into winter even though it doesn’t take our breath away quite like the first of spring.
Add comment May 20, 2009
