Hi Everyone,
In this update:
1. Where did that come from (flooding in September)?
2. The high cost of transportation
3. Julie’s last Tuesday
4. October is subscription month: we want your application now!
5. Our Potluck
6. Fall CSA
7. Thanks to members for “talking to the public”
8. Farm Chatter
1. Where did that come from?
I’ve often told people that floods don’t just sneak up on us—we always know when they’re coming. Well, on Friday morning when I left the farm at 6:00 AM heading for Carnation and saw the “road closed” sign at the golf course, I could only think maybe a tree was down over the road. I hardly slowed down as I passed the sign. But I came to a screeching halt when I turned the corner and saw water over the roadway as far as I could see. I was in an absolute state of shock. Yes, we had a little rain on Thursday. But it was the first rain in almost a month! Well, like it or not, understand it or not, there it was. I went back to the farm, and by the time it got light, I could see that yes, indeed, the river had come up (15 feet!) overnight, and we were in a stage-three flood alert.
So this was our first-ever September flood. It was an unusual flood, as it was totally a “mountain event” (many of our floods are “local events,” some—the worst—are both at the same time), but not the kind of “mountain event” we usually have. Usually a “mountain event” is a snow melt. This was just a mountain rain. I heard that it rained up to seven inches overnight, and obviously that was enough. Because it didn’t rain down here, the water passed through very quickly. Normally, 25,000 CFS (cubic feet per second) of water at Snoqualmie Falls, which we had on Friday morning, will not only inundate both ends of our road, but also the entire farm—we need chest waders or a boat to get from the house to the barn! But Friday, the water passed through so fast that just the ends of the road were under. We couldn’t get in or out, but the farm stayed dry—mostly.
We felt bad to have to cancel pick-up on Friday, but what could we do? The water did drop pretty quickly in the afternoon, but it was at least 4:00 before anyone could come in from the south, and much later before the water receded to the north. I’m glad that we were able to get the message through to almost everyone, and that almost everyone (of the almost everyone we got the message to) was able to come in on Saturday to pick up their share.
Until two years ago, we’d never had a flood even in October. But now, September. I don’t know if having an early flood like this increases or decreases the odds of having another flood in October. It could happen. With only one other flood having ever occurred in October in recorded history, it seems likely it won’t. But if we get heavy and prolonged rains, and especially were it to get cold enough in the mountains produce a snowfall (that could warm up and melt suddenly), it could happen. If it does, and if we have to postpone or cancel a pick-up, we’ll call on the morning of pick-up and let you know.
2. The high cost of transportation.
An article by syndicated columnist Froma Harrop (picked up by the Seattle Times on September 28th) catalogues some interesting statistics from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The new buzz term is “food miles,” which is the number of miles food travels from the producer to the consumer. With the proliferation of free-trade treaties a great deal of our food is produced in third-world countries and then transported to the US. The numbers I’ve always heard are in the category of 2,000 plus miles on average for the food we eat (those, obviously, don’t apply to us during our Summer CSA!), and the Leopold center is saying the numbers are much larger than that. As we all become more conscious of our dwindling supplies of oil, we see how important it is to try to develop local agriculture. It may be that because a Peruvian laborer will work for one dollar a day (living in poverty), even with the high cost of transportation, their produce can be marketed in the US more cheaply than “local” produce. But how do you put a price on the depletion of non-renewable resources? How do you put a price on the impacts of global warming which we believe is increased by using fossil fuel? How do you put a price on the “cost” of the diminishing of local US agriculture that occurs in part because of the exploitation of third-world farmers?
In a survey conducted by the Leopold Center, consumers were asked this question: Would you rather buy something that is locally grown with some pesticide use, or an organic product of unknown origin? Most consumers said they would pick the locally grown with pesticides. Isn’t it nice to have the option of getting both locally grown and organic?
3. Julie’s last Tuesday
Last Tuesday was Julie’s last for this CSA season. She’ll still be here on Fridays and on weekends throughout October. But in her pursuit of a BA from the University of Washington, she’ll be in classes on Tuesdays. I know she didn’t get a chance to say “good bye” to everyone last Tuesday, so she wanted me to say it for her in this newsletter.
Julie’s been here so faithfully on our pick-up days for many years now. We’ll especially miss her during the busyness of October Tuesdays. But as much as we’ll miss her here, we’re very pleased to see her persevere in her education. I know it’s “just a piece of paper,” but it does open doors and I’d hate to see her stop this close to getting it!
4. October is subscription month
Maybe you wonder why we ask for members to subscribe for the following season in October. Well, next June is not a good time to find out that either your CSA membership is going to be twice as big or twice as small as last year! March is not a good time to find that out either. It’s during the winter that Wendy and I put together the seed order, and we do that based on how many memberships we think we will have. And by the end of February, we start working full-time to prepare the soil and begin spring plantings. It is very helpful to us to do so in confidence that we have a good idea of the size of our membership.
So, this year we are asking that at least every one of you (more if possible) sign for next season. You can do that on-line or on hard copies of the application in our market. Our web designer (and maintainer) has made it very easy to register on-line. Just go to the web-page, select “CSA Applications,” and you’re almost done. If you’ve signed up on-line before and your browser cookies are enabled, your address will appear. It’s easy and quick. The only thing you can’t do is make a $100 deposit online (though you can make full payments online), but you can send the $100 in via check after filling in the online application. It’s also easy to fill out the short application form in the market, so take your pick.
Now don’t take this wrong, but it is more important that we get your application than that we get your deposit (this is especially true of our returning members). Not having your deposit in hand is not a reason for not signing up! You can give the deposit to us anytime—and if you forget, we’ll remind you. But we really need to know if you’re “on board” for next year, and the way we know that is to have your application in hand. So, please, do it now.
5. Potluck
We had a great group of members out for our “solstice” potluck. (I have to put “solstice” in quotations, since even though we call it a “solstice potluck,” it occurs on the occasion of the fall equinox.) The “work party” this year ended up being an edamame shucking session—with lively conversation abounding. With all the chatter, I was thrilled to find that when the dust had settled, we had twelve pounds of seed! To put that in perspective, this year we planted two pounds of seed (I couldn’t get more) at a cost of over $50. So I’m thrilled to have twelve pounds of our own seed for next season. That amount ought to serve a membership of about 1500 members! It’s time to start recruiting!
In addition to the work, we enjoyed a wonderful meal (we’ll always remember the Romanian contribution!) and a fun hayride just at dark.
6. Fall CSA
You all know, I hope, that we are down to four more weeks of our Summer Session. I also suspect you all also know about the Fall/Winter/Spring CSA we do during the “off season.” Many of you have already signed up for the Fall. So, if you know all about it, just jump down to the next topic. But for those who might not know, here briefly is what we do.
During the off-season we still have a CSA. But it differs from the Summer Session we’re doing now in three important ways:
You can learn more about the “off-season” CSA by clicking the Fall/Winter/Spring CSA Sessions on our web site.
7. Thanks to members for talking to the “public.”
It seems lately that we’ve had a lot of “reports” that go something like this: “My neighbor is a member of your farm, and she’s always talking about it. I just stopped by to see for myself . . .”, and “I stopped by the farm and one of your members was telling me about how things work in your CSA.”
Wendy and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you telling other people (and even people who are just “wandering” around the farm) about the CSA. You are our best (and only) advertisers, so keep it up, and please accept our heart-felt thanks. I think you all know we’re not getting rich doing this. But we enjoy it and believe in it, as many of you do. There is always a turn-over in our CSA and in all CSAs. So we need to be making new contacts. We’re too busy farming to do much “marketing,” and thankfully you all have taken care of that for us. As we are in our subscription period, please let your friends and neighbors know that now is the time to sign up for next year. Thanks!
8. Farm Chatter
Some people think the life of a fisherman on a small boat must be a lonely one. Well, maybe it is, somewhere. But I fished in Alaska on a small boat for a quarter of a century, and I was never lonely. The radio was an incessant source of chatter. It was usually about fish—Where are they? Who caught what? Where will they be at high water? Why can’t we find them? And on, and on. But there was one situation in which the radios went completely silent. It happened almost every year at some point, and that was the point when the biggest part of the run hit. It lasted just a couple of days, but for those days, everyone was on the fish, everyone was in the stern of their boat, hands busy, picking fish as fast as they could. And we all enjoyed the silence.
I was thinking about that because I’ve gotten a little behind in my resolve to get an update out every other week. It’s been a kind of silence (maybe you’ve enjoyed it!) brought on by “busy hands.” The boxes have been bulging, and we’ve been working hard to manage our harvests. I hate to say this, because I always wanted to be able to grow good melons and cantaloupe, but I was pretty glad to see the end of this season’s crop! It was a lot of work, but we’re pleased to have had a good crop, and to have done a better job than ever before of managing the harvest well.
Speaking of melons, I’d like to say a little about our “trials.” No, I’m not talking about trials as in “hardships,” I mean our variety trials on melons, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. A part of me wants to say that most of the trialing was for naught. But that’s “not” really true; finding out what doesn’t work here is also learning something. The most dramatic success was with the eggplants, where we came up with two of our 20 varieties that have been very solid producers. We only did ten plants of each, but with 75 of each of these plants, we could produce all the eggplants we need. By the way, Wendy is putting together a “demo” for eggplant that is easy to do, and might change the minds of some of you who think you don’t like eggplant, or don’t know what to do with it.
The melon trials yielded a lot of interesting varieties, but only two watermelons that we will put into “production” next year. Interestingly, one of the varieties has just now ripened, even though it was planted with the rest. I don’t know of any other late-ripening varieties, so this should be interesting to try a lot more of next year. Peppers have been really fun to experiment with this year. We have a really hard time getting peppers to turn color, whether red, yellow, or purple. One exception is a “Bulgarian Carrot” that went to a beautiful yellow. It’s got a bit of heat, and it’s gorgeous. We also did a purple “Marconi” variety that made it to purple and has good flavor. The ancho variety we did this year was awesome, but I think we’d need to do some cooking demonstrations to show some of us how to use these. The Jimmy Nardelo was no trial—we planted about 150 of them, and will most likely have them around for the rest of the season. We are going to be giving samples of these. They continue to get sweeter and sweeter, and they get more and more red. Yum!
Anyway, that’s enough for “trials.” A trial of a different kind has been our winter squash. I’m not quite sure what happened, probably a variety of things, but this year just isn’t going to be one with our usual, bodacious supply and strong variety of squash. We will have some—in fact we’ve already harvested hundreds and hundreds and have them curing in the greenhouse. And there are some more in the field that weren’t ready to harvest yet. But by and large, I’m disappointed. I think next year I’m going to plant them earlier. My strong suspicion is that we transplanted them too late, that they didn’t get enough water (they weren’t well-enough established when the dry heat of summer came) and consequently they just didn’t produce. It takes a lot of greenhouse room to plant them, and I think the problem is/has been that they are competing for space with the melons. But next year, we’ll direct seed them earlier, and start them the same day in the green house. We don’t get great germination from direct seeding (though the plants that do take by direct seeding do better), but we can fill in with the transplants. Will someone remind me of that next year?
This is an exciting time to be an organic farmer. The reasons to farm organically that once seemed so lofty, idealistic, and, shall I say it, “impractical!!” are now starting to seem otherwise. Hard scientific evidence is finally on the table demonstrating the health impacts of non-organic foods on our children, and many more studies are underway. People are recognizing the value of regional foods and of local agriculture. The almost obscenely disgusting façade of the US cattle industry is being unmasked not only by diseased animals, but by growing public awareness of the truth about factory feed lots. Along with that is the recognition that just maybe devoting tens of thousands of acres of prime farmland to mono-cropping for cattle feed is not a good utilization of resources, neither here nor in third-world countries that starve their own people to provide pastures for US destined cattle. It’s exciting to see so many people so excited about eating the much healthier animals raised on grass. Somewhat analogously, it’s good to see growing interest in alternatives to unsustainable utilization of fossil fuel. In our own valley, for example, over the last three years we’ve been the only farm in our area to use bio-diesel. But this November there is a conference being held here to help people make the transition (I’ll be speaking at that conference).
On the less-than-encouraging side is the fact that major food corporations, aware of the success of organic foods in the market place, are lobbying congress to water-down organic standards so they can “jump in” without changing the way they do business too much. Many of us saw this coming a long time ago. Right now it’s being proposed in congress with the full support of the Bush administration. That’s a little discouraging, but for myself, I’ve long doubted the efficacy of “top down” regulation. Trying to evoke change from the top only seems (to me, at least) to demonstrate how vulnerable those on the top are. I suspect, for example, that our congressional representatives may successfully resist the current assault on national organic standards. But I think eventually they’ll fold. That may sound pessimistic, but remember that we still make DDT in America (and export it to the same third world countries from which we buy our vegetables!). In the long run, I believe not in our leaders who can be bought and sold, but in our families, in parents who want to do the best for their kids, and who know in their hearts that there is a Tao of agriculture, there is a Tao of nutrition, and that these have precious little in common with modern agribusiness. I think that those parents, like so many of you, will continue, and in even greater numbers, to vote for truly organic production—and that not so much in ballot boxes, but in their commitment to local organic farmers. I guess I want to believe that in spite of the triviality normally associated with the little jingle “it’s the real thing,” people who see the “real thing” will recognize it and choose it.
I’m out of time for this. I often find myself saying at the end of an update something like, “thanks for your support of the farm . . .” But it occurs to me now that that language is a little sloppy. I don’t want to sound like a purveyor of produce. I am thankful for all of you; but, I hope, not more thankful than you are for us, and for the many, many other organic farms/farmers like us. That we need each other is a greater truth than the lesser truth that we need you, or that you need us. So, we’ll just leave it at that.
Erick and Wendy