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Might be the earliest melon year yet (we’re patting ourselves on the back for trying two successions of melons this year) & putting up the first 4 tons of hay!
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Hi Friends & Farm-ily,
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Whooie! What a weekend. Full of excitement, appreciation, long- hard working days and even some clouds (THANK GOODNESS). On Friday it was a calm, cool day and we were able to put up the first 4 tons of hay for the winter. We were a touch sore on Saturday but come September (once we reach the last of our 24 ton order) we should be in tip-top pitching hay shape. A wonderfully cloudy start to the weekend also meant transplanting crops (without them quickly turning into sadness), seeding fall turnips, rutabagas, storage carrots etc and weeding and trellising more comfortably than ever before! When you’ve worked through extremes suddenly the slightest change in weather (i.e. slightly lower temps) can broaden your perspective and appreciation!
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Lovely cherry tomatoes are getting their rosy blush, peppers are popping’ and seeding for the Fall!
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It feels like it’s been summer for a long while so it’s hard to remember that we’ve barely just begun! As we head into the harvests of summer, it’s got us thinking about how the C in CSA stands for many things: commitment, culture, community etc… what does the C in CSA mean to you? For our CSA, the community is at its core and we thank you all for your appreciate, encouragement and enthusiasm. We hope you are all feeling lighter, brighter and inspired in the kitchen. We wanted to extend our humble thanks and say ‘thank you for supporting our small farm!’ By committing to the 28 week CSA season you are investing in so much more than vegetables… you are investing in this farm, your two farmers and are helping to keep the dream alive: to provide the best possible food for our community so that they in turn can live happy, productive and healthy lives. By supporting the farm you are making this small part of the World a better place for generations to come.
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Pumpkins are taking form and so are the summer raspberries. Gloucester is always kind to help out in anyway he can…
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And on that note, in 8 weeks of harvest we’ve distributed 17,640lbs of produce to all of our wonderful members (and we haven’t even had our heavy end of summer/early fall CSA boxes yet)! Let us all be thankful for the bounty this year, the fertile soils of the Willamette Valley, and the farmers who love to toil the soil. ‘Tis a place of bounty and beauty where we can successfully grow a large array of produce that we should always be grateful for (we know we are).
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Big plump maters are just hanging from the tomato plants and the flower garden is buzzing with bees!
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There are so many amazing seasonal changes happening in the garden as of late. Melons are sizing up, pumpkins and winter squash are taking form, peppers are plentiful, tomatoes are getting ready to explode, beans are forming…. the summer palette is about to begin! As the box transitions out of Spring and into Summer we can look back and appreciate all those luscious, mildly spicy greens, first roots plucked from the soil and the cool brassica crops like broccoli and cauliflower. The carrots keep coming and the maters are ripening one by one everyday. The pepper plants are full of fruits and we look forward to them all turning red, orange, yellow and gold. The gods of cool-er weather are even blessing us with a week of 80 degree days and we will relish in a full week of “milder” temps.
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Baby bush beans are taking form, the squash keep coming and the sunsets are fiery and warm..
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We continue to do our best in taking care of ourselves! Maintaining a 40 acre property, 4 acres of cultivated veggies, 20 acres of pasture, a business, a small herd of beef cows, 2 dozen pigs, 100 chickens, etc sure does keep a few farmers busy. This season has got us thinking and talking a lot about continuing on the path of working smarter, not harder and we are hoping a few new ideas that we’ve come up with will help to make that happen. At times decisions and plans may seem daunting but when we take a step back and we allow ourselves to process and to be inspired it is then that we feel that we can do better. It helps having someone to bounce ideas off of all the time and neither of us could imagine doing this with anybody else…. So at the end of every busy day there is that!
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Speaking of smarter, not harder… we feel like a bunch of big kids playing with giant hoses this past week when we were getting the waterwheel set up in the pasture. In the future we are hoping that the waterwheel (which pumps water from our spring fed creek and irrigates the pasture) will help to offset rising hay costs so we can keep them on grass longer and not have to supplement feed before the Fall/Winter. With the drought and the hot weather folks are having to feed their cows hay starting in July and August. Part of the reason why we were able to purchase this property was that there was 10 acres on the south side of the property – where the creek and the tualatin meet – that floods out every year. It floods out anywhere from January until mid-March. This is also the area on the farm that stays green the longest (in the pictures above).
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The gift of good land. To another farmer this may seem like unarable land but for us it provides many things, a very important riparian buffer, a sanctuary for birds, beavers, martins and other wildlife, and this time of the year, possible forage to rotate our cows onto. We are thankful for the dynamism that this property has to offer as. To one pair of eyes, it may seem as though this property is not nearly as productive as the perfectly flat piece of land, but to our eyes it allows us the freedom to utilize the property the best way that we can, to get to know it with time, see it through with the seasons and to work with it.. not against it. It has so much more to offer than we could have ever thought and we truly look forward to seeing how it evolves over time.
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Rosie is seriously the most amazing mama pig. She’s due in September and we’re thinking the winter squash might be ready to cure before that! #crazysummer
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We hope you all have a great start to the week! Here we grow Week 9!
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All the best,
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your farmers
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Jess & Brian
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dirty hands, clean hearts
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working hands farm 
