Author: Tristan Klesick

Posted on by

Keep Multi-Family Zones at Higher Densities and Preserve Farmland

A few weeks ago you received an action alert from farmer Tristan Klesick and I, asking for your help in telling the Snohomish County Council to not adopt changes to the County’s Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program. Unfortunately, the County Council did not listen.  Instead, Council’s decision was a missed opportunity and allowed exemptions for single family homes and townhouses from the TDR program, and preserving valuable farmland and local food sources.  

If that wasn’t bad enough, now the County Council is considering removing even more land and development from the TDR Program!

The County Council is considering reducing minimum density requirements in multi-family zones–even those multi-family zones around Highway 99 are perfect for transit-oriented, mixed use redevelopment.  This would allow for single family homes and townhomes in areas that are best suited for higher densities.  It would also remove more land from the TDR program, which would reduce opportunities for protecting critical farmlands in Snohomish County.

If the Council approves, we will lose opportunities for affordable housing near transit; we will lose receiving areas for TDR development credits to preserve farmland, and we’ll have further expansion of our urban growth areas into our rural lands.

That is a lose-lose-lose situation.  Ultimately, if the Council decreases densities in our Multi-Family zones, we will also be adding more and more cars to our roads creating more traffic nightmares, adding more pollutants into our air and water, and giving the developers exactly what they want…open season on our rural lands for more sprawling development!  And we won’t be helping our farmers preserve farmland!

Please CLICK HERE to send a message to the Snohomish County Council today to tell them NO to reducing minimum densities in our Multi-Family zones, and YES to keeping TDR receiving areas intact for these zones to help preserve farmland and local food sources.  

Our Council needs to hear from you!  They need to know that you want housing choices for all income groups and higher densities in the multi-family zones that will help jumpstart transit-oriented development.   We need long-range planning regulations that will house our growing population near transit and urban centers, reduce car trips that are polluting our air and water and clogging our roads, and save farmland from urban sprawl.

The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 15th!  Please CLICK HERE  to send the message before the hearing.  If you can, please attend the hearing and speak directly to the Council.

Thank you for your help!

Kristin Kelly, Snohomish/Skagit Program Director, Futurewise

P.S.  If you would like more information about how to support your local farmers and about Klesick Farms, contact Tristan by Clicking Here.

Join, Renew, Give | Facebook | Twitter @FuturewiseWA

Manage Your Profile Information | Unsubscribe by clicking here
Kristin Kelly
Email: [email protected]
Phone:
Address: 1429 Avenue D, #532
City: Snohomish WA 98290

Posted on by

Our New-and-Improved Shopping Site!

As of today, the online shopping experience at Klesick Farms just got a whole lot better! Try it out here! The first thing you will notice is that all of our pages now look like they belong to the same good food site, but there also have been a couple of other useful changes. Here’s a quick overview of what our site update means for you.

  1. Mobile-Friendly

Ordering your box of good or adding on that bag of apples while you’re on your phone just got easier. Shopping for your produce now works equally well on your smartphone, tablet or desktop.

  1. Simplified Checkout

With everything on one page while checking out your order, you can easily see all that is required to submit your order.

  1. Improved Order Management

On the view/edit orders page, all of your items on order are grouped by delivery date so you can easily see what is coming each week and change your delivery date if needed.

If you experience any problems with our site, please let us know!

Posted on by

Newsletter: La Conner Channel Lodge & Local Farms!

As a part of Klesick Farms’ strategy to grow, source and deliver more locally grown organic and GMO-free fruits and vegetables, we have teamed up with the La Conner Channel Lodge to have a fun summer campaign. Joelle and I consider the La Conner Channel Lodge our go-to get away. Sometimes it is in the middle of winter and other times it is in the middle of summer! With the all the craziness of life’s comings and goings, when I see a break in the schedule, I check with Joelle and if it works I make a reservation. We love that the lodge is beautiful, peaceful, serves a great continental breakfast, and that it is in nearby La Conner!

After the disappointing vote from the Snohomish County Council a few weeks ago, essentially caving to developer’s wishes (you can read more about it on our blog), I shifted gears and began working on a different  strategy. It is a simple strategy – deliver more fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms. If the County won’t help us preserve farmland, we will have to do it ourselves – one intentional bite at a time.  And with the La Conner Channel Lodge offering Klesick customers a chance to win a two-night free stay, it makes this strategy even more fun!

 

tristan-sign

 

 

How the campaign works:

♦ Refer your friends to a box of good. The more people who eat intentionally, the stronger our local food infrastructure will become! For each friend (or co-worker, or family member!) you send our way that signs up for produce deliveries, we’ll enter your name in the drawing!

♦ Buy more local food. Each week in our specials email, we’ll highlight one item grown in the Northwest that you can purchase for a bonus entry.

♦ Share about Klesick Farms on Facebook and Twitter! Be sure to tag us in your post, so we can see your post and credit your share with another submission! For an easy way to share, visit our blog and share the post titled “Preserving Food and Farmland with La Conner Channel Lodge.”

Posted on by

Preserving Food and Farmland with La Conner Channel Lodge

6/29/2015

Have you heard? You may have seen the exciting news in our weekly specials email, but just in case you missed it: we’ve teamed up with one of our favorite local vacation destinations to add some fun to our mission to support more local farms. We’re bringing you the opportunity to win a two night stay at the La Conner Channel Lodge!  Enjoy one of the Deluxe Queen Water View rooms. Relax with the sun kissed color palette, luxurious linens, fireplace, WI-FI, & gourmet continental breakfast!  Fir accents and slate flooring give the rooms a natural richness. And the best part? It’s only a short drive away!    

8Lodge Balcony View

 Here’s how you can participate in the sweepstakes, while helping to support local farms and farmland:

♦ Refer your friends to a box of good. The more people who eat intentionally, the stronger our local food infrastructure will become! For each friend (or co-worker, or family member!) you send our way that signs up for produce deliveries, we’ll enter your name in the drawing!

♦ Buy more local food. Check our weekly box menus. Each item marked with an asterisk is locally grown in the Pacific NW. If you order extra of that item, you’ll be directly supporting local food. Each week we’ll highlight one item grown in the Northwest you can purchase for a bonus entry. This week, choose local Rainier cherries to get your name entered into the drawing an additional time.
♦ Share about Klesick Farms on Facebook and Twitter! Be sure to tag us in your post, so we can see your post and credit your share with another submission!
Note: By entering the sweepstakes, you’ll also be entered to receive special offers and discounts from La Conner Channel Lodge. You can opt out of these any time. The drawing will take place after July 31th, 2015.
cherries

 

Posted on by

Preseving Local Food Options & Farmland, Part II

Week of June 21, 2015

Preserving local food options and farmland should not be this hard! The United States has been blessed with some amazing Natural resources like good Farmland, Forest lands, grazing lands, minerals, water and waterways. And since the day this country was founded we pushed west.  Forward Ho! Surprisingly?!?!?!, we reached the Pacific Ocean and no longer can push west.  So what are we going to do now to wisely use the finite natural resources we have been blessed with to provide a quality of life for generations of future citizens?

Farmers are like any other member of our communities. We have kids, grand kids, we have to go to the dentist and doctor, save for weddings and retirement. We also have to manage a large community resource called farmland. And in the last 20 years that management has included an ever increasing regulatory burden, otherwise known as additional expenses to run our farms. And the closer your farm is to the city it gets more complicated, and if you happen to farm next to a river and a city, WOW!

Given the County Council’s appetite to not use Zoning or TDR as mechanisms to shift the Development pressure away from our farms at the moment, we need a different strategy.

I think fair pricing, not price gouging is a part of the solution, but supply and demand drive prices. Having more farms selling to more local folks will keep food prices affordable and have the biggest impact on saving farmland today.

To accomplish this, each of us will have to be intentional. I believe small-to-medium farmers are the key to feeding our local communities. Literally, bringing a box of good to more people is the solution. I have intentionally positioned Klesick farms to play a larger part in feeding our local communities. We have moved to a new packing facility, we have expanded our delivery days and are working with more local growers to get more local food to our customers.

The solution is to have more of you! Yes more of you: customers who are intentional about supporting local farms. It is that simple: the more local customers, the more local farms. So preserving local food options looks like eating locally from local farms! We need more intentional eaters!

Look for information on Facebook and in your inboxes this week as we roll out a new summer campaign to preserve local food options and farmland.

 

Together we can make a difference!

 

Farmer Tristan


Posted on by

Preserving Local Food Options & Farmland, Part I

Week of June 14, 2015

Last week, Klesick Farms and you, our Good Food Community, teamed up with Kristin Kelly, the executive Director of Snohomish County Futurewise, and the Pilchuck Audabon Society to encourage our County Council to “preserve local food options and farmland.” In 2012 the County Council voted 5-0 to implement the current Transfer of Rights Development (TDR) program. Last week the Council voted 4-1 to essentially gut the TDR program and give the development community the “green light” to build more single family homes. So now the County Council has “caved” in to the developers’ wishes, meaning our urban areas will still receive most of the incoming population growth.

If the Council would have stood on their decision to support TDR, that growth would have still gone to our urban areas, but we would have been able to preserve, forever, thousands of acres of farmland at the same time. The Council, except Dave Somers, didn’t want to hold the line and require the development community to use TDRs. Council members Ken Klein, Terry Ryan, Brian Sullivan, and Stephanie Wright voted against TDR. So now Snohomish County residents will still get the extra growth, but the developers will get more profits and no farmland is protected. That is not a win-win; it is a windfall profit for a few landowners and developers.

Also, in 2012, Council members Brian Sullivan and Stephanie Wright voted for the TDR program. If they would have voted the same way this time or committed to stand with TDR, I wouldn’t have had to ask for your help. Ironically, Council members Brian Sullivan and Stephanie Wright were not running for reelection in 2012, but they are this year.

What really bothers me is the lack of integrity that exists in our political process. This change to the TDR program “came out of nowhere” and was timed to limit public participation and placed into legislation where there is no repeal process. Where is the transparency in that!

This week Kristin and I will be asking for your help again to send one final email message to the County Council expressing our dissatisfaction with their vote and a desire for more transparency in the process. Please join us in sending a strong response for the Council to preserve our local food options and farmland by implementing wise growth policies going forward.

Kristin Kelly and I both believe that the Snohomish County can balance the need to accommodate the future growth with protecting our farmlands. It is more than doable. Click here to send your response to the Snohomish County Council.

Respectfully submitted,

Farmer Tristan


Posted on by

Tristan's Letter to the County Council

Tristan is headed off this morning to talk to the Snohomish County Council.
Here’s the letter he’s bringing with him.

A huge “Thank you” to each of you who have responded so far. And for those of you who haven’t, there’s still time. Don’t wait, today, June 10th, 2015 is the close for the discussion. Add your voice to protect Snohomish County Farmland!

 

Good Morning, My name is Tristan Klesick and I am a local farmer from Stanwood. Before I begin, I wanted to say “thank you for choosing to be leaders”. Leadership is a rare commodity today and those who are willing to make the final decision are also rare.

I have been in the food and farming business for over 20 years and the last 15 years I have been involved with the TDR issue. The County has sent me to Maryland and California with then Councilman John Koster and Senior Planner Tom Niemann to study what worked and didn’t work in the TDR world. I was also co-chair of the Snohomish Agricultural Economic Development Action Team or SAEDAT.  The Current TDR program is a solid policy.

Local farmland is an economic driver that provides local, regional and national food, helps keep taxes lower, provides habitat and flood storage.

I appreciate the tension surrounding Amendment 13. This issue is important enough to me that I engaged my community of customers and asked them to help me preserve local food options and farmland. I sent an email to 8000 people on my list and posted it on my FB page. As of this morning, that FB post has been seen by over 20K people and shared over 225 times.

My customers understand that growth is going to happen, infrastructure needs to built, but preserving the ability to feed our citizens is equally important.

The current TDR program is a good start at managing that growth and also ensuring that local citizens will have local food.  Snohomish County needs the Development community to build the infrastructure to handle the growth and the TDR program, as it is, should also streamline that process for them. I understand that it is a new paradigm, but planning now to feed the current and future residents of our county is a part of that new paradigm.

This year I have seen the need for my farmland to produce more fruit and vegetables, because the local demand is increasing, but also because the “traditional” vegetable producing regions like Arizona and California are in major droughts. If things don’t return to somewhat normal precipitation, Snohomish County Farmland will be even more important to our county and this region.

My constituents, who are also your constituents, will want to hear how Council members Somers, Klein, Wright, Sullivan and Ryan voted. I will report back to them. I would love to report back to them that each of you led on the issue of managing growth and preserving local food options and farmland by voting no on amendment 13!

Thank you

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

Pre-Order Your Local Berries, Canning Veggies, and Herbs!

bulk produce 2015

 

For 17 years, we’ve been bringing the local harvest to you.

Each season, while the Northwest harvest is at its peak – we deliver it to your door!

How can you get your share of the local good? It’s simple. Contact us to let us know which of the bulk fruits and/or veggies you’d like, and we’ll put your order on our reservation list. When the harvest is at its peak. We will contact you before sending out your order, so that you can prepare for its arrival.

locally and organically grown

 

Please note, all harvest dates are approximate and are subject to the laws and whiles (and wiles!) of nature. 

  • Strawberries: Half Flat (6×1 pint): $24 – Available now!!
  • Harvest dates: June-August (note, some gaps in between harvests to be expected)
  • Blueberries: Full flat (12×1 pint): $40
  • Half Flats (6×1 pint): $22
  • Harvest dates: late June-August.
  • Raspberries: Half-flats (6×1/2 pint): $22.
  • Harvest dates: late June-August.
  • Pickling Cucumbers: Order as many as you need!
  • 5-lb. units. $7.50/ 5 lbs.
  • 40 lb. boxes. $50
  • Harvest dates: August-September
  • Dill: 1 bunch is a 2-3 inches in diameter. $4/bn.
  • Harvest dates: August-September
  • Green Beans:
  • 5 lbs. $15
  • 20 lb. boxes. $45
  • Harvest dates: August-September
  • Bulk Basil: available in 1 lb. units (about a grocery bag full). $8.50/lb.
  • Harvest dates: August

Click here to email us your order.

*Important note: delivery week for these bulk orders are determined by harvest dates. If you will be away on vacation during specific weeks this summer, please let us know so that we don’t schedule your delivery while you are away. 

These items are served on a first-come, first-serve basis. Availability may be limited. 

Bulk orders will be delivered on your regular box of good delivery day. 

Posted on by

Summer is Busy

Even if you are not a farmer, summer has got to be one of the busiest times of the year! From September to June the routine is fairly stable, but when school gets out – ALL BETS ARE OFF. Moms everywhere go from chauffeurs to program directors. Maybe the year ‘round school concept would make more sense in our post agrarian society?

Why do we send our children to school from September to June? Primarily because summer break was once needed to grow food, put up food, mend fences and cut firewood. A productive summer meant a comfortable winter! With the shift to a non-agrarian based calendar, maybe school should shift as well – just a thought. As a local farmer, a year round schedule would open more markets and more locally grown food could find its way into the school system. And that would definitely be a good thing for our children, local farmers and the health of our nation. Since that isn’t happening anytime soon, Klesick Farms and their band of local growers can save you some time by letting you skip at least one trip a week to the grocery store. This time of year, when the kids are running the asylum, time is definitely high on my families list.

Next on my list is eating well. I know you would think that eating well is more important, but truth be told, most moms (& dads) wouldn’t mind a little “me” time (just a little). Your box of good is almost as fresh as a garden (even I can’t beat a garden for freshness), and even if you have a garden, it probably wouldn’t hurt to supplement with peaches, melons, beans, cherries or other family favorites you aren’t growing.

For those of you who have chosen to skip the garden, Summer arrives every delivery day with your box of good. We make eating healthy – simple, fun and affordable. We do it all year long, and especially during the summer when we are showcasing the bounty of our local growers. A box of good is also convenient! If you love watermelon or grapes or basil, you can add that to your delivery every week and it will arrive at your door. Imagine, the next time you “go shopping” you simply pull out your phone, order what you like at klesickfarms.com and then we hand pick it, hand pack it and hand deliver it to your door.

I have been working with the same growers for almost 20 years, we know what we are doing and we like to do it. We like farming and helping you feed your family well is about as satisfying as seeing plump, juicy sugar snap peas or ripe red raspberries ready to harvest.

Enjoy your box of good, we enjoy getting it to you!

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

Please help me preserve local food options and farmland in Snohomish County

Dear Friends,

This is Tristan Klesick of Klesick Farms writing you today with Kristin Kelly, Smart Growth Executive Director of Pilchuck Audubon Society and Snohomish/Skagit Program Director for Futurewise, asking for your help with an important issue that will preserve our local food options and farmland, both today and in the future. 

We know, and I believe you will agree, that protecting farmland and helping farmers will ensure a healthy, local, and safe food supply for our county and region, as well as maintain a quality of life we all are thankful for and enjoy.

A few years ago our Snohomish County Council members made a very wise decision about the future of our growing county.  Growth is inevitable, but wise growth is the goal.  The County Council adopted a countywide Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program, which will give the development community the ability to increase densities in our urban growth areas to accommodate the future growth.  The developers would need to purchase a development certificate from our county farmers in order to get increased densities in parts of the county that are better equipped to handle more growth. 

Even though the TDR program was put together with an array of stakeholder consensus from farmers, the development community, environmental community and businesses, the development community no longer wants use the TDR program (to preserve farmland) for the increased housing density.

This is why we need your help!

We believe the current TDR program is a win-win for local citizens, developers, and farmers!   We (Tristan and Kristin) have spent years working on an equitable solution to preserve farmland.  We have shared our views on the proposed changes to the current TDR program, but sadly it is becoming apparent that we will need local voters to help us convince the County Council to not cave into the desires of the development community.

Help us convince the County Council that any change in our current TDR program is unacceptable.

Kristin and I have written an email to the Council and now is your chance to share your voice.  Please Click Here to add your voice to the discussion by sending an email the County Council before June 10th, when they reconvene for a public hearing.  You can add your story and your own thoughts to the email, urging the County Council to protect our local food options and farmland today and into the future.  

Also, calling your council member will help as well.  Just leave a message on their voice mail… call 425-388-3494.

Snohomish County Council District 1–Ken Klein

Snohomish County Council District 2–Brian Sullivan

Snohomish County Council District 3–Stephanie Wright

Snohomish County Council District 4–Terry Ryan

Snohomish County Council District 5–Dave Somers

Together we can ensure a bright future for our children. Click Here to send an email to the County Council today

Tristan Klesick, Klesick Family Farms

Kristin Kelly, Futurewise and Pilchuck Audubon Society

Posted on by

People Matter II

A few weeks ago, our family took a vacation/work trip to San Diego. I attended the Dave Ramsey business conference called The Summit while Joelle and kiddos hit the beach. For me, it was three powerful days of intense business encouragement. Of course, Dave and his team taught several sessions, but I also got to learn from John Maxwell, Dr. Henry Cloud, Patrick Lencioni and Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Oh my word!

If I could be so bold as to sum up three full days of sessions, I would have to say the theme was “Build Culture.” What a commission! I am pretty sure that every business owner there left with the encouragement to build their team’s culture. Why focus on culture? Because as a small business it is your competitive advantage and it is the right thing to do.  Most businesses focus on measurables like productivity, mistakes, sales per hour, etc. These are necessary, but they absorb a far greater percentage of the company’s focus. And quite frankly, it is easier to focus on something you can measure.

The benefits to building culture make the measureables more easily attainable. Why? Because it is your culture that accomplishes the goals of your company, when your team is treated with respect and valued, it spills over into how your customers are treated.

The other day I was talking with a friend, a local business that we both frequent came up and the conversation turned “south” quickly.  He had received poor and indifferent customer service, not once, but twice and now he won’t shop there and went as far as to say, “I don’t think the owner (he used his name) cares anymore.” I tried to defend the owner, but the lack of care extended not once, but twice, has turned my usually mild mannered, care free friend into a negative advertisement. Heart break .

From my friend’s perspective, the culture of that business has shifted. Building culture and maintaining culture is vital to the success of any business – it spills over into every area.

At Klesick Farms, our team is important and you are important. Our team can always accomplish more working together, so whether we are packing your boxes of good or delivering them, we are focused on making your experience with us friendly, efficient and enjoyable. We know you are busy and our goal is to help you and your family eat well and live well.

One of the best ways that I can serve your family well is to continue to build our team culture; to do that I have to get better as a leader (which is why I made the investment to go to this conference). I have to lead by example, continue learning, and also train and inspire my team to serve you well.

Thankfully for me, my team already wants to serve your family well!

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

People Matter

IMG_0040

Last week we sent an email to each of you asking for you to partner with us in our Neighbor Helping Neighbor program. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the big traditional pushes to rally around homelessness and hunger, but just because the calendar has changed doesn’t mean the need has changed. The volunteers who serve at the food banks are a part of the equation to solve this issue, but so are you. Your generosity in caring for local neighbors is also a part of equation. When we as people care for the physical needs of other people, what we are saying is that we want our neighbors to be whole.

IMG_0037

It is so humbling to get to serve the Klesick Farms community because “you get it”. You get that blessing others, caring for others is the right thing to do, and in the process, you too are blessed. Last week we sent 46 high-quality nutrient-rich boxes of good to eight different food banks. Your tangible generosity provided hope and nutrition to those less fortunate and inspiration to those who are on the front lines extending that hope and nutrition. Thank you.

 

Two weeks ago we were working double time on the farm to get potatoes, sweet corn, winter squash, and Maleah’s flower garden planted so that we could head off to San Diego for a Dave Ramsey EntreSummit business conference the following week. While in San Diego, I mostly sat in the conference and the kiddos enjoyed the sights and sounds of Southern California.

This conference was incredible: three days of practical business teaching perfused with a customer focus. Being in business is about serving people, about meeting a real need in your life, about partnering together to do something bigger than ourselves, and about building community. You and Klesick’s are doing this together through your support of our box of good.

IMG_0022

I used to farm with the Gentle Giants: Belgian draft horses, which are big, beautiful, and powerful animals. One Belgian horse can move 12,000 pounds – more than 5 times its weight – and two Belgians that are just randomly put in harness together are able to move up to 30,000 pounds. However, by working together they can pull and additional 6,000 pounds! That synergy is impressive. What is even more impressive is when you take a matched pair of Belgians that know each other, have worked together, and trust each other; this team, when it “leans” into the harness can move not 24,000, not 30,000, not 36,000, but they can move 48,000 pounds!

Together, you and Klesick Farms are like a matched pair of Belgian draft horses. Our synergy, created by a desire to feed our families good food and extend tangible compassion to others is as equally impressive. By working together, we are making a bigger impact in our local communities, in the lives of our less fortunate neighbors and the lives of the local organic farmers.

Together, we are creating something special!

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

The Story of Bandit and the Cows

Week of May 10, 2015

It never fails! No matter how much I plan, farming never seems to happen at a leisurely pace!  You spend all winter preparing, all spring dodging rain storms and waiting for the ground to dry out, and then when it does, inevitably it is either Easter or Mother’s day weekend! The nerve! One would think that “mother nature” could time the farming season to be a little more hospitable.

Actually, nature has a lot more things going on than farming. Spring time is an amazingly long season from crocuses to daffodils to lilac and apple blossoms. Nature has to provide a lot of food and shelter for all the other critters in our local communities and the Klesick Farm is as a welcome and hospitable place as they come. One of our friends just told me he saw a river otter traveling across the road by our farm! I’m thinking that this could explain why Bandit, our collie/lab puppy, has been hanging around the river more lately.

The other day when I was coming out of the house I about tripped over Chungo, the older lab, and Sapphire, the kitten, who were lounging around in the sun on the front porch! Now I always make the mental note of how many animals are out in the yard, so I start counting: 1, 2…where is Bandit? I start my usual whistle and call and wait. No Bandit. Usually, no Bandit means only one thing: MISCHIEF! A little more whistling and a little more calling and walking and as I turn the corner around the house, 3 football fields away I saw him!  He was running in circles around all 30 COWS! The cows had been here for a few weeks and today he finally discovered them.

Stephen and I head out to the cows to get Bandit. Oh boy was he ever happy to see us: tail a-wagging and tongue a-flopping. The next day I turned Bandit out in the morning and headed out myself an hour later. I started counting: Chungo, Sapphire, and…where’s Bandit? This time I skipped the whistling and calling and walked to the back of the house (Bandit is not the only one learning new tricks around here). As sure as my name is Tristan, I saw him 300 yards away. This time all the cows had moved to the upper part of the pasture; Bandit had 29 all balled up and there was one rogue noncompliant cow about 40 yards off the herd. Bandit was equally positioned between them with his head switching back and forth, back and forth looking from the 29 to the one.

All of the sudden, he bolted towards the noncompliant cow, moved him toward the herd, and then moved them all back to where they were the last night! That is some serious natural instincts. This time I get the breakfast bowls and start clanging them together. And Bandit comes bounding home, tail a-wagging and tongue a-flopping.

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

The Orchard, the Rain, and the Race

Week of April 26, 2015

I really enjoy being involved in my kiddo’s activities, so whether one is playing ball, running track, or at play practice I am “moving mountains” to make it to their events! And this time of year, when farming is pressing it literally feels like moving a mountain! I am sure most of you can relate! Who isn’t busy?! I find myself farming between games and practices and at night! I am hoping to get more peas in the ground next week in between rain events this and get a good chunk of potatoes planted. I remember thinking “Who needs headlights on their tractors?” A farmer who has active kids, that’s who needs headlights on their tractor!

Well the other night, Stephen and I had just returned from little league practice and as is our nightly custom, we wandered out to the orchard to check on the mason bees, blossoms, gold finches, sparrows and tent caterpillars.

I love the orchard this time of year; the trees are waking up and the blossoms smell incredible and look amazing. I love all the activity from the birds to bees. Stephen at the ripe old age of 8 has a good eye for the orchard and often beats me to our usual check points. Bandit our new lab/collie puppy (being a collie and being a puppy) is usually out ahead looking for moles, voles, or field mice while Chungo, our old timer lab, takes his time to get out with us. In fact more often than not, Chungo and I are traveling together and Stephen and Bandit are out in front J.

For this mission, the clouds were foretelling a wet adventure and we knew it. As the clouds were getting darker and filling with water, and as night was encroaching, the natural progression looked to be a downpour! We were busy hunting hard for those defoliating caterpillars, working to remove them from the trees, when one big drop hit, followed by another big drop and another until it was going to be a soaker of an event. Before us in the branches, there was one last caterpillar nest to pull off the trees, and then another and another! At last Stephen says, “My sweatshirt isn’t very good in the rain” and in an instant, he takes off for the house!

Since I have an equally strong desire to not get any wetter and also have longer legs, I was able to catch up and get back to the house first. Now, if truth be told, I had a little help here:  as soon as Stephen took off running, so did Bandit our mostly collie puppy, who quickly caught up to Stephen and then began to herd him towards the barn and not the house. VICTORY was mine as I arrived at the house first – marginally drier than Stephen, Bandit and Chungo!

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

Apple Blossoms

I love seeing blossoms on my fruit trees. It means that I have a chance to harvest fruit this fall. It means that there will be food for a whole bunch of pollinators like Honey bees, Mason bees, Bumble bees. Now, I just need them to show up! Of course if they do show up in droves, I will be thinning fruit like crazy because there are a bazillion flowers this year, and if all of them set fruit –WOW!

Ideally, from a farmer’s perspective, about 50% pollination would be great. It would take less time to hand thin and the fruit would be able to “size” up quicker! Hand thinning takes a ton of time and is very monotonous; however, thinning translates to larger fruit because there is less competition for the nutrients!

This year our neighbor is no longer raising Honeybees and so I am trying Mason bees. Mason bees (from all the information I have been reading) are excellent pollinators. The challenge with this spring is that it has been really erratic and the blossoms on the trees are out in front of the pollinators. It will be interesting to see how much fruit actually sets, based on the earlier bloom time this season.

In our pear block, the Kosui Asian pears were way out in front of the Conference pears. Normally, they are supposed to cross pollinate each other. It looks like the Bosc Pears will be blooming with the Conference pears though – something else that normally doesn’t happen. These last two might cross pollinate each other which rarely happens.  Farming!?!?!?!

It is the most beautiful and disheartening thing to see all the blossoms but not have pollinators out in force. As a farmer, I really have very little control of the environment. I can prune on time, I can fertilize, I can even plan for my neighbors exit from beekeeping, but in the larger picture, I humbly submit to you that my part is very small. I tend to roll with what nature brings me, I do plan and I will mitigate, but for the most part I am working with nature and its natural laws.

Really, no matter what I do and probably what you do, we shouldn’t put too much emphasis on our part, but do the best we can with what we got and leave the rest to the Lord.

May there be fruit to harvest this fall!

 

tristan-sign

Posted on by

Healthy Choices

Klesick Farms customer, Nancy, sent us a fun project that her 1st. grade daughter, Anna did on healthy food options. We love hearing how our Klesick boxes of good impact and inspire the families we serve for good, and wanted to share this with you!

Nancy writes:

“Every March our homeschool co-op on Camano Island has a “SHOWCASE NIGHT” where kids can show off talents on stage, projects they’ve completed or share knowledge they’ve acquired.

This year my 1st grader, Anna, did a project on “Healthy Choices”. We talked about foods as we shopped, we watched documentaries, she helped make some healthy meals, we learned some cooking basics, learned about what sugar does to your body and how it makes you feel, etc. We recorded all of this by taking photos and putting them on a display board. We also wanted to talk about the cost of healthy choices versus ‘junk food and fast food choices’ because some people argue it’s too expensive to eat healthy.

We gathered a number of unhealthy choices as well as ‘a box of good’ from Klesick Family Farm to show people two options. The junk food actually ended up costing more and we had to drive somewhere to get all of it. Anna had fun having people guess which was more expensive, the box of good, or the box of junk food. For those who guessed correctly, she gave them a fruit kabob which she enjoyed making – a yummy healthy choice, rather than a candy prize.

Each week, Klesick’s ‘box of good’ just shows up on our door step! It’s a healthy choice, because you can choose it when you aren’t rushed. When our life is harried and crazy running to sports, ballet, and various classes, we often make bad food choices. But, this beautiful ‘box of good choices’ arrives and helps you make a healthy choice without really even thinking. We included some of the other healthy choices that we love on her picture board display, like hiking, walking, spending time with people you love, serving others, etc. We’re glad that Klesick Farms is part of the healthy choices in our lives! My 8 year old son actually prefers vegetables to some sweets and I think the weekly routine of being delivered a ‘present’ of produce on our doorstep has really influenced this! It’s always so EXCITING to see what’s inside :)”

Hansen project2  Hansen project

Posted on by

Molly The Green Sea Turtle

Maleah Klesick wanted to contribute to the newsletter this week, and give Farmer Tristan a break! Here’s a story she wrote after learning about sea turtles and the impact our environment has on their life cycle.

Hi I’m Molly, a green sea turtle from Florida. I will tell you a little bit about myself. From the start I had to fight to survive, I think that many of my brothers and sisters got eaten by foxes or raccoons before they hatched. After I hatched I had minutes to get to the sea before I was eaten by birds and crabs. When I reached the sea the waves greeted me, in a not so friendly way. I will always remember this beach, in a couple of years I will come back to lay my eggs.

About 4 years later, I am full grown, being a curious turtle, I saw a fishing boat and floated a little too close. By that I mean got caught in the fishing line. I washed up on shore, my heart was in my ears, but luckily a lady saw me and called Clearwater Marine Aquarium. (C.M.A.) the volunteers got there a couple minutes later. They untangled me, put me in a stretcher and drove to C.M.A. I got my name after the lady who found me.

My cuts and gashes weren’t life threatening injuries so I was able to be released into the wild. My diet was mostly squid, capelin, and leafy greens, honestly though I preferred the greens. After fixing my injuries the C.M.A. staff set a date for me to be released. On July 26, 2014 I was put on a stretcher and was driven to the beach where I had been rescued three months ago and I was released back into the wild.

Maleah Klesick