A little thank you to all those who have supported Portland CSA farms
As a hard-working, mostly human-powered farm, we put hand tools, crates, knives, jeans, flannels, bags, gloves, boots, wagons, watering cans, etc… to the test. So when we recommend something and share it with you folks you can be confident that it is simply the best of what’s out there. When selecting an item we focus on three things quality, style and sustainability. Today we are standing behind the Apolis Market bag. Apolis, which translates as “global citizen,” is a living and breathing social enterprise that equips and empowers people through opportunity instead of charity. Apolis co-creates products with manufacturers and directly allows the market to determine the future of each item we produce. It is a hands-on model to provide people access to opportunity. We call it “advocacy through industry.”
Many thanks to Aplois for their vision and their quality products. To learn more about Aplois click here
The sun is shining and the plants are growing. Everyday the farm becomes more beautiful and ever more enticing. The blue berries are forming their sweet fruits and the bees are mingling with the zucchini flowers. What does all this mean? It is CSA time ladies and gents! Here is a quick update to clarify delivery times and locations. If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to email workinghandsfarm@gmail.com or call (503) 804-1143
Northwest Portland:
- Day: Wednesday (first delivery is on Wed the 15th)
- Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm
- Address: 1120 Northwest Couch Street Portland, Oregon 97209 (Brewery Blocks)
Northeast/Southeast Portland:
- Day: Monday (first delivery is on Mon. the 20th)
- Time 4:00pm-6:00pm
- Address: SE Ankeny St. & SE 13th (near Old Wives Tales)
Lake Oswego:
- Day: Thursday (first delivery is on Thurs. the 16th)
- Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm
- Address: Blue Moon Coffee & Bakery 3975 Mercantile Drive, Lake Oswego, OR 97035
Lookin’ forward to seeing all of our wonderful CSA members next week!
Cheers,
Farmer Brian
It seems like the sun play tricks on Oregonians, pushing the rain and cold to the point where it has almost devastated all of our crops, but wait! Here it comes! 85 degrees and sunny straight across the board! wahoo, we are saved! and the stress subsides and we take a day to be creative, drink whiskey and dig a little. It’s days like these that make every aspect of life beautiful, on and off the farm.
regards,
b
Because good help is hard to find
I think you all can appreciate the newest addition to my farm, the American Felling Axe
“Dependable, versatile and with a rich and powerful history, the American Felling Axe is the quintessential woodland tool and an icon of American design and ingenuity. Every feature of this axe was meticulously designed by Best Made in New York. The Dayton pattern head is made from high carbon American steel and is drop forged in North Carolina by fourth-generation axe makers. The Best Made helve is lathed from Appalachian hickory and its elegant curvature and slender form factor ensure superior efficiency and safety. Every Best Made axe comes numbered with our documentation and guarantee, and a fitted, top-grain leather blade guard. This Special Edition axe will arrive in a hand-built crate with wood wool.”
Thank you Best Made and Best Made Projects for my new axe
Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum)
BY ROBERT HASS
All the new thinking is about loss.
In this it resembles all the old thinking.
The idea, for example, that each particular erases
the luminous clarity of a general idea. That the clown-
faced woodpecker probing the dead sculpted trunk
of that black birch is, by his presence,
some tragic falling off from a first world
of undivided light. Or the other notion that,
because there is in this world no one thing
to which the bramble of blackberry corresponds,
a word is elegy to what it signifies.
We talked about it late last night and in the voice
of my friend, there was a thin wire of grief, a tone
almost querulous. After a while I understood that,
talking this way, everything dissolves: justice,
pine, hair, woman, you and I. There was a woman
I made love to and I remembered how, holding
her small shoulders in my hands sometimes,
I felt a violent wonder at her presence
like a thirst for salt, for my childhood river
with its island willows, silly music from the pleasure boat,
muddy places where we caught the little orange-silver fish
called pumpkinseed. It hardly had to do with her.
Longing, we say, because desire is full
of endless distances. I must have been the same to her.
But I remember so much, the way her hands dismantled bread,
the thing her father said that hurt her, what
she dreamed. There are moments when the body is as numinous
as words, days that are the good flesh continuing.
Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings,
saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.
Here is a link to a blog that I have been fallowing for the last few weeks. I dig it and I think you will too. You are doing a great job Jess, love the photos.
Our CSA kicks off in three short weeks and all the plants are nearing maturity.
The Boy and I set up an archery range of the farm. It’s for those days when nothing seems to works like it should. Archery is a beautiful sport, it helps me to focus and to let go of those things I shouldn’t be holding onto. The bow is a hand-made ash and maple traditional long bow made by ‘Bear.’ Next step, find a friar and a band of thieves.
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
US Transcendentalist author (1817 – 1862)
It is always nice to wake up to the sound of a beautiful voice. It makes me think that things are more important than they were before the beautiful voice began to sing like all the sudden things are different and I am fully capable of fully dedicating myself to any one thing of my choosing. It’s a fine way to wake.
“If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, whoteams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not ‘studying a profession,’ for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
At Working Hands we believe in quality as excellence. We strive to utilize hand-made items that will stand the test of time. Today we are featuring Wolverine leather boots, a classic Stanley thermos and an Archival rucksack.
Here are a couple pics of the first things to come out of the garden. It has been a cold and wet spring and many farms seem to be struggling to fulfill their first orders. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I have the same concerns. That being said I am reassured by the recent string of sunshine. The plants are happy and they are finally growing with vigor. I have decided that we will be just fine and my worries of a late start are just worries and nothin’ much can be done about worries. That goes in the garden and out of it.
b
working hands farm 