Hi Everyone,
First I have to say how sorry I am that I haven’t gotten a newsletter out in, well, it’s been a while. Our wonderful vacation to Alaska took us away for a week. It then took two weeks to get caught up for being gone a week (it would have taken a lot longer than that had not Julie, Jacob, and Francisco done so well in our absence). Then our computer was down for a week. Oh my. It’s been such a good growing season that I haven’t been able to do my traditional amount of whining about crops not coming in, so I guess you’ll just have to endure my putative reasons for a noticeable lack of news letters. But, then, what would you rather have a lack of: vegetables or newsletters? I thought so.
In this update:
1. Fall Solstice Potluck and “play day” (AKA “work day”).
2. When you have your friends pick up your share for you . . .
3. The Goof-Proof policy
4. The wheat’s in the bins!
5. Parking Issues
6. Beef and Pork, almost on the table
7. Weekend help during Pumpkin Season
8. Farm Chatter
9. The “Sustainable Network”
1. Fall Solstice Potluck and “play day” (AKA “work day”).
The weather change last night reminded me that Fall Solstice can’t be far away. I suspect we’ve got a little more summer coming, but I’m certain that Fall Solstice will arrive on the 22nd of September. Since the 22nd is on a Thursday, and since the weather gets progressively worse the further into September you go, we’ll be having our Solstice potluck on Saturday the 17th.
If you’ve been here before for the Solstice potluck, I’m sure you’ll want to come back. If you haven’t been yet, you ought to come. It’s not really a work day, but there are always some people (believe it or not) who want to come out and do something on the farm. We have usually built/rebuilt the hay maze in the barn on the afternoon before the potluck. This year we have a bunch of beans we want to shell for seed—that is a fun project that moms, dads, and kids alike can “work” on.
The afternoon pre-potluck activities will begin at 1:00, or whenever people care to arrive. These are not really related to the potluck, and coming to the potluck by no means “obligates” you to come to the work time. Most people can’t make it early, and we totally understand and accept that. We just hope you can all make it by five o’clock for the meal. You need to bring a dish that will feed your group or yourself if you come alone, plus three more people. You also need to bring a table setting for everyone you bring who will eat. We’ll have more details and a reminder in the next update.
2. When you have your friends pick up your share for you . . .
This is something we have to get in the CSA handbook (which is on-line, by the way). And because August is almost over (this is the month most people have others pick up their boxes for them), it’s probably a bit after the fact. But, when you have friends pick up for you, which we encourage them to do, please give them a quick run down about what to expect when they get here. It seems that many friends who come to pick up don’t bring anything to take the produce home in, they don’t know whether they are picking up a couples’ share or a family share, and some think that anything on the farm is fair-game for u-pick!
We really try to help your friends to pick up your share for you (after all, they are our best source of future CSA members!), but we have had times when people just didn’t know what to do, didn’t identify themselves as picking up for one of you, and ended up coming into the market with bags of “u-pick” corn, apples, and anything else that looked good to them. I guess the thing we need to say and emphasize is that when you have others pick up for you, please have them identify themselves to one of us. We can walk them through the process. Thanks!
3. The Goof-Proof policy
As I was harvesting melons today, I was reminded that I should be reminding you about our “goof proof policy.” It’s in the CSA handbook (which is on-line), so I’m sure you are all aware . . . but just in case.
We try our very best to harvest vegetables and fruit that are at their peak of ripeness, flavor, and nutrition. Sometimes we fail, and sometimes you only realize that after you’ve gotten home. If that happens, we want you to let us know the following week. We can’t guarantee mistakes won’t happen, but we can guarantee that mistakes will be corrected if brought to our attention. And we do.
This especially comes up with melons. They are notoriously difficult to determine the peak of ripeness without going “over.” We try hard, we really do. Today I picked out all 400 melons myself, and I was as careful as I could be. Even though I’ve done it many times, I still opened five or six random melons that I would have picked just to make sure. It happened that all the ones I opened were very good. But even so, I’m sure that some got by me. If you get home and find your melon to be under or over ripe, just let us know next week. We’ll replace it.
Another fruit that is sometimes hard to judge ripeness is tomatoes. It’s not nearly as hard as melons, but there are problems. One issue, of course, is that some people like their tomatoes very firm and some like their tomatoes very ripe. But if you find that the tomatoes you’ve taken are unusable, let us know. We want our members to be happy!!
4. The wheat’s in the bins!
It was pretty gratifying this year, both before and after our vacation, to fire up the 1940-something JD combine we bought last year and combine both winter wheat and cereal rye. Having never operated a combine before, I can tell you there was a bit of a learning curve. But I pulled it out the day of the antique tractor show, and it was like opening a jar of honey in a field full of bees. In minutes I was surrounded by more “combined” (I’m not a punster, but if I was I’d be pretty proud) years’ experience on old-time gadgetry than you could image.
That first day not even all the enthusiasm of the antique tractor die-hards (and their admirers) could make the wheat dry enough to combine—it needed another week or two. But we did get it fired up, into the field, and I was mentally prepared for the day when the wheat was actually ready, and I, all alone ventured out. There were certainly some break-downs, a lot of “plugging up,” and a few moments that if they had been filmed would probably be pretty comical to watch. But in the end we made pretty good strides at figuring out how the thing was supposed to work, and then nursing it along so it would work. In all we ended up with about four thousand pounds of winter wheat and also four thousand pounds of cereal rye.
I didn’t spend much time wondering what to do with the cereal rye. I’ve been buying it as a cover crop for years, and I had it in the grain drill the day after I combined it. Having so much seed on hand, this year I did what I have wanted to do for a long time—I planted cover-crop between my rows of pumpkins and winter squash. The problem with these crops is that they fill a lot of land that isn’t harvested until too late to get a cover-crop started. So this year I just planted them a little further apart (anticipating an abundance of seed from the combine), so that when I got the seed I could plant between the rows. The timing is tricky, since you don’t want to plant the cover crop too early (since you’d still be going through the rows weeding, not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t want the cover crop to compete with the winter squash), nor too late (since winter squash sends out runners that prevent a seeder from getting between rows no matter how far apart you plant them. Anyway, it worked perfectly for us this year, and we are anxiously awaiting seeing our winter squashes adorned with a pre-planted cover crop.
The wheat is another subject. We will certainly replant some of the seed, but we’ve had a member volunteer to hunt down a functional “grist mill” where we might have our wheat ground into flour. A mill has been found, and its owners (a preservation group) have expressed interest in the job. Details are being worked on, but you may be finding a five pound bag of flour in your CSA boxes one of these weeks!
5. Parking Issues
This note may be a little after the fact, but the parking lot has gotten very crowded, especially on Tuesdays lately. I just want to remind everyone that you are free to park your cars across the paved road in the big field. If just a few people could do that it would give us the room we need in our lot. Thanks!
6. Salad Bar Beef and Pork
Quite a few of you signed up expressing interest in our beef and pork. We have that list, but noticed that we didn’t have a place for phone numbers or e-mail addresses. So, those of you who signed up can do us a favor by e-mailing us now with a one-line message: “send beef/pork info.” Then we can copy what we have written and return it to you quickly and easily.
If some of you aren’t on the list, you can still sign up. But we are going to honor the order of the list we’ve taken. I’m sure that many of those on the list are just curious, and not really “buyers,” so don’t hesitate to send us a note if you would like to get in on our beef and/or pork. jubileefarm@hotmail.com
7. Week-end help in October
As we approach October and think of the many, many people who visit Jubilee Farm during that month, we’re reminded that we need a few extra people to help out—especially on the weekends. We’ve had some members help us before, and it has worked out very well, as they are familiar with the farm and what we are about. The pay isn’t great, but the benefits are incredible! If you have an interest, drop us a note at jubileefarm@hotmail.com. You wouldn’t have to commit to all day both days of every weekend—just whatever you could comfortably handle.
8. Farm Chatter
I just can’t tell you how pleased I am with the way this season is going so far. I’m not sure if we’ve been lucky, if it’s just been such a great growing season that we couldn’t possibly have missed, or if we are actually getting some things figured out. I need to be careful—pride still does come before a fall, and the image of Odysseus boasting before the Cyclops and Homer’s rendering of the results of that act is not to be forgotten. So let’s just say we’re being cautiously and gratefully optimistic.
There are always little things. For example, right now we’re being ravaged by crows that have eaten a great deal of the first rotation of corn. I usually scare them off with a couple of shots into the ground, but this year I haven’t even had time for that! One not-so-little thing was the garlic that was far from stellar this year. But some big things are going so well.
I think we are gaining in the battle against bind weed. Next year we’ll be reclaiming some land for crops. That land has been out of production for three years and intensively cover-cropped; the prospects of good fertility are high. We’re also noticing, I believe, the impacts of our commitment to use the rototiller as little as possible (using instead cultivating equipment, disks, and chisel plows). The rototiller is certainly easy to use. But other equipment preserves soil structure and the hence the populations of microbes without which the natural plant food necessary in organic production is unavailable. We’re seeing very vigorous plants among our recent brassica crops planted on soil that received no amendments and no fertilizer. Something I use as a gauge of fertility is the size that broccoli heads get before going to seed. In our field of broccoli we’re seeing enormous heads and almost no bolting, and that in spite of an abundance of hot weather that usually sends brassicas into seed-setting mode.
Something I meant to write about (and forgot until just now, else it would have gotten its own heading) is the experimental plot we did this year. It’s located just south of the grape arbor. There we have planted kiwi, several varieties of blackberries, 20 varieties of winter squash, 25 varieties of melons, 25 varieties of pepper, 25 varieties of eggplant, and our first-ever attempt at sweet potatoes. I hope you get a chance to get down and look at the amazing variety of these fruits and vegetables. This is working too. We’re discovering some varieties that we’ve never tried before that seem to work here, and that will find their way into our fields next year. Many are duds, but we’re also finding some gems, and we’re very pleased about that.
So in all, as we see fall approaching, the weather showing some signs of the change that is inevitable, the grass growing slower, the weeds growing slower, and the fall crops coming on—Wendy, Julie, Jacob, Francisco, and I are feeling pretty good about the farm. We’re also pleased and honored to share it with all of you without whom (along with others who have supported our farm in the past) this farm either wouldn’t exist or wouldn’t be the place it has become.
9. The “Sustainable Network”
I don’t often endorse organizations, even if I believe in their cause. But a friend asked me if I would put the following information, written by the Sustainable Network about their group, in our newsletter. It seems right to do this. I’m a member of this organization, and have been for a long time. I believe it has done a great deal for organic, sustainable farming in Washington, and that they will continue to do so. Membership is only $30 a year; in my estimation it is well worth it for anyone concerned about the survival and promotion of organic and sustainable farming in our area.
I notice they don’t have an address or phone on the information they asked me to print. How’s that for low-key? I’m sure you could get their e-mail address on Google if you’d care to join. I can also tell you they put out a very good newsletter.
A Message from the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network:
Fall Update and Membership Drive
Because you are a member of a CSA, you are already aware of the health and environmental benefits of well grown food. Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network is a non-profit organization whose mission aligns with that value:
To promote community environmental, social, and economic well-being by joining together and mobilizing residents and organizations of Washington in creating a sustainable food and farming system.
Toward this mission, the Network advocates on behalf of a uniquely broad-based constituency that includes family farmers and ranchers, natural foods businesses, agriculture and health researchers, health and nutrition advocates, environmental organizations, and individuals.
Since its inception eight years ago, the Network has built. Examples of its achievements are:
In this past legislative session the Network led an effective effort in Olympia educating legislators about the concerns of the sustainable agriculture constituency. The message was delivered loud and clear: Washington’s future is more secure with research and farming practices based upon sustainable and organic agriculture, rather than on more genetically-engineered crops and animals.
Please considering joining the Network. If your interests include well-grown, healthy food, supporting local farmers, and protecting the environment, then the Network is an important ally.
This year Network is working to secure $2.6 million in state funds for a comprehensive, innovative program for biologically intensive and organic agriculture at Washington State University. This program, dubbed BIOAg (Biologically Intensive and Organic Agriculture) will further establish WSU’s reputation as a visionary, forward-thinking national leader in support of sustainable and organic agriculture.
Erick and Wendy