Author: Tristan Klesick

Those hot August nights came in June and July. If you are a gardener or have flower beds, your plants are a little stressed. And/or you have had a second job watering around the clock. Pay attention to your soil moisture, cooler days do not necessarily lead to no watering, but less watering.

Managing soil moisture is one of the hardest parts of farming. There are so many factors to consider. When to water, how to water, what stage the plant is in; seedling, young, mature, near harvest. Some plants do not like overhead irrigation, others love it. Some plants like a little water and others love to be wetter.

This time of year, watering the salad crops pays dividends.  They really benefit from more water than less. Tomatoes on the other hand, love to have their roots watered via a soaker hose or drip irrigation. A disease called “blight” can impact the nightshade crops and is often activated by overhead irrigation, which is why so many growers opt to grow tomatoes indoors. Outdoor or indoor tomatoes both have their challenges, but either way, watering the roots is the preferred method.

Since we are talking tomatoes, if your plants look anything like mine, they have a ton of green fruit and a few colored ones coming. Oh my, we are going to have a lot of tomatoes soon. Note to self, grow 500 plants next year instead of 1000! This year is a little tricky to manage the tomato crops, sunburn has been harder than normal. We usually combat this by leaving more foliage, but when you leave more foliage, you also produce more fruit. And more fruit means smaller tomatoes, but at least the sunburn is limited. However, harvest is delayed, and you must fertilize them more heavily and more often because the plants are bigger and full of more fruit. But it takes labor to thin 1000 tomato plants, and labor has been in short supply this year. 

Who would have thought that you must spend so much time thinking about growing tomatoes? However, the original point I was going to make is that at some point soon, it will be important to water the tomatoes less and also pick off any new blossoms that will not ripen before it turns cold.

Tomato plants are trying to produce as much fruit and seeds as possible so that their progeny can grow next year. As a farmer, I need them to produce fruit and then ripen it. Here lies the challenge. I need to decide when to introduce stress and send the plant a signal to focus on ripening the fruit on the vine and spend less time growing more leaves to produce more fruit. 

If this were after Labor Day, I would encourage all of you to cut back on watering and pick off some blossoms, but this year is anything but normal. 

What am I going to do? I am going to water less and encourage the plants to focus on ripening the tomatoes that have set fruit. 

Never a dull moment around here,

–Tristan, Joelle, and Box of Good Crew

This is the time of year when the weeds start to win out. Early in the Spring and Summer we have a lot of pent-up energy to get outside and get growing food. We spend hours planning during the fall and eventually that translates to hours of planting and then weeding and then harvesting. 

But when August rolls around, let us just say that the desire to weed has left the barn. Thankfully, we had a good stretch of weed free vegetables this year, but now the veggie patch, well I dare say, is a healthy mix of many different plants. 😊

I am not overly concerned about it, because at this point the weeds are not going to impact the growth of the vegetables since they were established, and most will be harvested soon. Weeding is important early when a crop is getting established, and the earlier the better! Thankfully both the weeds and the vegetables look healthy.

We are moving into our fall type crops at this point. In a more normal season, we would have planted a lot of winter vegetables, but with heat and lack of rain, we had to cut back on what to plant and focus our energies on nurturing existing plants. Thankfully, we have a large network of local farmers to supplement the Box of Good.

The Box of Good network is the backbone of what our family has created for the last 23 years. We love working with our neighboring farms and have built some great relationships. The beauty of it all is that each of the farms we work with excel at growing different crops. It often comes down to soil type and passion. We grow great beets, cucumbers lettuces and winter squash and another farm grows awesome leeks and kales or blueberries. Which means your Box of Good has the best of each of the farmers we work with.

It is at this point that my attention begins to switch from 2021 to 2022. Of course, our team is keeping an eye on all the crops still in the ground, but I am beginning to think about garlic plantings, compost and what types and where to plant our cover crops for the winter.

Farming is more akin to a merry go round, hopping on here and exiting there and getting back on here and as the seasons changes so does the work and its rhythms.

I am sure that I will look back on this year’s farm season and smile, while I am leaning on a hoe and wiping the sweat off my brow.

Thank you for supporting our mission to deliver food that nourishes your body and feeds your family.

–Tristan, Joelle, and Box of Good Crew

That brief rain we had last weekend was welcomed. We could use more, but I am still grateful for what we did get. 

I have to confess, I had resigned myself to warmer weather and no rain till September, so I haven’t been really paying attention to weather. I was thankful for the cooling trend over the last few weeks, though. As I look back on the days leading up to the weekend rain, I do remember thinking to myself, “My neighbors who are seed and hay farming had a sense of urgency about their work.” Now I know why. 😊

Rain can be helpful or not helpful and each of us farmers have different needs for rain than the others. There are times in the harvest season when rain could really help vegetable farmers like us, but seriously impact hay or seed farmers. I have mostly adopted an attitude of making the best of the weather we have, because I have a hard time praying for rain when it may adversely impact my neighbors. 

Last week Joelle captured this beautiful picture on the farm as the sun was rising. It is also on our FB and IG feeds. Follow us on social media and check it out in color and enjoy following along our farm happenings. I purposely parked the 1936 John Deere AR out in the field (when the squash plants were small) for a fun photo op and a reminder of how far farming has come in the last 85 years. 

-Tristan, Joelle, and the Box of Good crew

For those of us who live in NW Washington, we know that the summers can be dry. It is not unusual to have 3 or 4 weeks without rain. In fact, if you mentioned how dry it has been to family and friends in say, Virginia, they would think you are joking. Their belief is that it always rains in WA. Of course, this sentiment totally disrespects our fellow Eastern WA neighbors!

The fact of the matter is summers in the PNW are downright beautiful, fairly dry and comfortable. But summer, we are pushing 8 weeks (about 2 months) without any measurable precipitation. I guess I am not really “built” to live in California or Arizona, I prefer it a little wetter. 😊

The challenge for us is the management of the dry weather and soil moisture. We were able to get a good amount of water on most of the crops before that super-hot stretch and our late fall crops have really enjoyed the heat. But the more sensitive salad crops were not as happy. 

We have had to change our planting plans again. This is mostly a normal occurrence for us, but the length of this dry spell has really shifted our fall schedule.

This year we did make some decisions that depended on hot weather, especially when it came to growing tomatoes outside rather than the greenhouse. We have so many happy tomato plants. They love the heat! We are using drip tape to irrigate with to keep their roots watered. Tomatoes do not like to have their leaves get wet and overhead irrigating can lead to “blight”. And blight is no Bueno for tomatoes or potatoes.

I wish it were possible to outfit the entire farm with drip tape, but that is hard to accomplish and manage given the variety of crops we grow, the length to harvest on those different crops and the weeding we need to do. Drip tape is hard to weed around, and don’t forget weeds are getting watered, too. 

Overall, the weather has been a challenge, but not insurmountable. We have had to cut back on our fall plantings, because there is not enough field moisture to germinate seeds and keep them going without a lot of irrigating. The summer loving crops that are established are happy and healthy, a little thirsty, but with their big canopies shading the ground they can conserve moisture. 

And if we do get a little rain in the next few weeks, oh boy, those plants are going to be reminiscent of Jack and the Bean Stalk!

Thanks for supporting our farm, other farms, and the healthy farming everywhere!

-Tristan, Joelle, and the Box of Good crew

My neighbor has a beautiful lawn. My car isn’t as nice as my coworkers. I wish I had _____________ (fill in the blank). Others may have better health. Why do we compare and what is gained from it? If you allow it to inspire you to greater achievements or cause you to change a poor habit that can be a good thing!  If it’s simply jealousy then comparison can drive us to flat out discontentment!

I have been watching my neighbors irrigate. Some of my neighbors have water rights and use big water cannons to water 200 x 100-foot swaths of crops or pasture in minutes. I have watering cans and a small irrigation reel that waters 60 x 20 feet of plants at a time. It does use less water but it takes hours to finish a 200-foot-long run. And I buy every drop of water from the city of Stanwood ($$$$). He has a river to pull from. But what good does it really do for me to wish I had water rights, when I do not. Absolutely no benefit! So, I use the resources I have available and keep going, because thinking about that big irrigation cannon next door, will not get my crops watered 😊

The other day I attended a one-day business seminar. I learned a few things, but one thing that caught my attention was when the speaker asked the audience, “Where is the grass greener?” 

What do you think? Where is the grass greener? Is it on the other side of the fence, in different neighborhood, in another state? We all have unique situations with unique answers. At the conference the speaker encouraged us to consider the, perhaps obvious, answer… 

“The grass is always greener where you water it!”

Most of us have at least a few areas in our lives that if we watered them, they would be greener. Some of us have cannons to water with and some of us work hard with an irrigation reel and a watering can. So, with that reminder from the seminar speaker, I pivoted on my thinking and started to “reframe” a few areas in my life to make sure I water them one way or another. Sometimes we end up watering areas that we don’t want to grow! It’s equally important to refrain from watering those areas! No farmer I know purposely waters a weed patch! 

I would encourage all of us to be contemplative about the longings we may have. Whether it’s a desire for deeper, meaningful relationships, more rewarding work, opportunities to relax and enjoy, or achieving greater health all usually take intentionality for change or growth, a little bit of hard work, and also some contentment in the process. 

Cultivating positive growth can be hard and there will always be factors that you can’t change or control and seasons that feel like a drought! Whatever our unique circumstances are, we can all fill a watering can and choose to water those areas that will make a positive impact on our life and the lives of those around us!

-Tristan

The last month and half has been a hard season for a dear friend. He started to not feel well in early June, was in and out of the ER, before finally being hospitalized. Ten days later, he was diagnosed with stage 3 Colon Cancer. I remember the call as if it were yesterday, “I have Colon Cancer.” He is in his early 40’s, well before the recommended colon screening phase. By all accounts he is a fit, healthy eating person, but now his whole life is turned upside down with surgery, pain meds, learning to eat again and so many decisions. Last month he was living a “normal” life and the next month he is hospitalized. He has had an amazing attitude for all the suffering he has endured. 

When I think about my friend, I can’t help but wonder, “Am I eating a cancer fighting diet right now? Am I eating enough fruits and vegetables and legumes to feed my body well?” Remembering also that health is a broad holistic concept that includes avoiding toxins, breathing and prayer, exercise and activity! The list of healthy habits is long. Our bodies are so resilient, that we often take them for granted. I have certainly been more mindful of my overall health choices and especially my food choices in the last month.  

I heard Dr. Amen share the first question we should ask ourselves before we eat, “Is this good for my brain?” It is good to be intentional and help our body fight even the unknown battles.  

Our relationship with food is complicated. We should eat to live and not live to eat. Most of the nutrients come from whole foods, minimally processed foods. Less ingredients are better and less packaged foods will eliminate a lot of empty calories. We have chosen as a company and farm to only offer wild or grass-fed meats or certified organic fruits, vegetables, and groceries. We believe that health starts with the food we eat and for the last 2 decades we have only delivered healthy foods to families like yours and ours.  

The freedom to choose what we eat is alive and well in America, the choice is ours. Cancer is cruel and it takes an army to fight it. If you find yourself in a cancer battle, please let us know. We will pray for you and then we will also put a “health” discount on your account. For others, you may know people with cancer; you can “sponsor” them and their family by creating a Box of Good account for them and funding it. We will put the “health” discount on that account, too. 

-Tristan and Joelle

Weather is one of the safest conversation topics unless you go deeper and then it is more like politics and religion. Whole systems are built around weather and its seasonality. Natural resource industries like farming or ranching or timber can be blessed or hampered by the weather. New industries can be created or shuttered based on the availability of water and temperature. 

I read a farming newspaper and right now the two main agricultural issues are wildfires and drought. They go hand in hand, no rain equals more fire, also no water equals no fish, no vegetables, no fruitt and no Watermelons!

There are some deep differences around water, water use and the shifting weather patterns. The amount of water used to fight forest fires is staggering and the need is increasing due to the fire season starting earlier. And to complicate matters more folks have moved into the fire zone and harm’s way. 

A side issue around fire season is Washington State L & I is proposing a new rule on air quality and worker health. Washington is proposing that when the Air Quality Index hits 69 outside workers will have to stop work, find work inside, be given more breaks and/ or masks. The Federal limit is 151. There is also a rule where at 85 degrees farmworkers must stop outdoor work. Keeping up on regulation is an unrelenting task for small businesses and farmers. I will keep monitoring the changes, but the increase in fires and droughts is going to be impacting a lot of natural resource industries.

For us as Western WA Farmers and in particular NW Washington farmers we do get a break from the excessive heat that our neighbors to the east experience. But we still have a need for water to irrigate our crops and pastures. For us, the weather is working for and against us. New pests have begun to arrive, and milder winters have helped with their ability to over winter and survive. We can also grow more crops reliably outside that have been staples for growers east and south. And the increase in fires and poor air quality are bringing with them new regulations.

I imagine one day, if the weather trend continues, I will be able to grow cantaloupes and watermelons. Ironically, if I can farm cantaloupes and watermelons in Stanwood, that will not bode well for California farmers or Eastern Washington farmers. I can only imagine how hot it will be in those regions.

Having water available for fish, farms and people is going to be where the battle lines are drawn. And will green lawns and forests have to be sacrificed for fish and food production. Our current food supply is based on a plentiful supply of water and consequently, so are our lives.

Managing the weather, the evolving climate changes and government regulation is a big part of my job now. Thankfully these changes are mostly gradual and hopefully, the natural resources community can gradually make the changes necessary to keep growing food.

-Tristan

This past week we introduced a new category of meal kits. We are partnering with Kindred Kitchen to bring ready to make meals to your doorstep. We are starting with 3 and will be adding additional. Currently we are offering a Creamy Pesto Chicken, Sweet and Spicy Salmon with Parmesan Rice, and a Vegetable Rigatoni. Currently we are offering the meal kits for 4 –6 people, with generous portions. I have made them.  The recipes are easy to follow and ingredients are portioned. You can add an Assorted Salad bag, Salad kits, or an assorted Vegetable bag to complement your main dish. We love local partnerships and are excited to grow the Meal Kit category in the upcoming weeks. 

Organic Milk 

And since we are talking about local partnerships; we are getting back into the Milk Delivery business. Starting this week, we will be offering Fresh Breeze Organic milk (Whole, 2%, 1%, Fat-free), half and half and whole cream, plus their chocolate milk. Fresh Breeze is a local organic dairy in Lynden and we are excited about this new offering.  

These two products will have different delivery cut offs than your regular orders. When you place your orders, based on when you order, the meal kits or milk may be automatically pushed out to your next delivery. We are preordering these direct from Kindred Kitchen and Fresh Breeze to maximize freshness. 

Farm Updates 

We have been harvesting our first lettuces, radishes and a splash of pea vines. I recently had pea vines at Nell Thorn’s in La Conner and it was so flavorful. We are going to add those back into the rotation. This week we will be featuring our local lettuces, and the green and purple kohlrabi is really close; probably next week. Look for some fun ideas on how to use kohlrabi in next week’s newsletter.  

Our sugar snap peas are getting closer, too. This year we are experimenting with a bush type pea and a new trellis variety. Pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, beans, cabbage, tomatoes, onions are well established and growing.  

I think the garlic crop will be ready to harvest in early July. I cooked a bulb last week in a curry dish and the cloves haven’t fully developed yet, but it was still mighty tasty.  

Our farm is only one of many local PNW farms we work with during this season and we are really “over the moon” to be able to not only grow food for your family, but also be your local connection to organic goodness.   

If you haven’t tried one of our new meal kits or would like to set up a recurring order for local milk, call our office or login into your account and add them to your Box of Good. 

Have a great week, 

Tristan 

I’m a first-generation farmer but have been at the game for 2+ decades, and I am still learning new things. Thanks to changes in climate, we are now able to grow a greater variety of warmer weather crops, but it has also allowed a new variety of pests to move further north.  

We have four major pests that I pay attention to. And, no, slugs are not one of them. The four worst offenders are Cabbage Loopers, Flea beetles, Symphylans and Western Cucumber beetles. There are a host of other pests, some beneficial or at least not harmful to crops. 

These four however can really make a farmer’s life miserable and for the most part I have learned to live with them and accept some loss. 

Flea Beetles, those little black critters can pepper broccoli or radish leaves with a million holes, but usually do not affect the crop. This week we are putting radishes in your boxes. The flea beetles have left their mark on the leaves, but the radishes are beautiful and tasty. To combat flea beetles, farmers can use row covers, but on a large scale they can be difficult to work with. I called another grower who raises radishes without any flea beetle damage and I asked him how he does it. He said, “We have a machine that lays out 1 acre of row cover at a time and it also picks it up when the crop is ready for harvest!” A machine that does 1 acre at a time! That would be like covering 10 houses in a new subdivision. INSANE. Needless to say, we won’t be growing radishes on that scale! 

Symphylans are ground dwelling critters who never see the light of day.  Their whole life is spent underground. We have “hot spots” where there are affected area. There are no organic treatments available to combat this critter and in wetter springs they tend to stay near the surface and eat the seed root hairs and stunt a crop. This year they have knocked back our peas in one section, which is disappointing but not a complete loss. For the most part we are usually able to coexist. But sadly, they thrive in organic farming systems. 

Cabbage Loopers lay an egg in the broccoli, kale and cabbage crops and then a caterpillar emerges and eats and eats and eats. We control this one with approved Certified Organic product called Pyganic. We don’t like to use it, but those critters definitely wreak havoc if left unchecked. 

So far this year our #1 pest is the Western Cucumber Beetle. This is a relatively new pest in our area. When I mention this pest to other organic growers, it strikes the fear of God into all of them. We are just learning how to work with this critter. Last year they were around but didn’t cause much harm, but this year they have destroyed our first bean crop and are taking a serious bite out of the next one as well. They are so darn cute too. They look like a ladybug; except they have a yellow/green colored shell with 12 black spots on them. 

We have had to resort to early morning and late evening walks when they are more dormant and then squishing them. Yuck! One of the most frustrating things about this bug is that the larvae eat the roots of a crop and then when they emerge, the adults eat the leaves. I think we are getting after them, but it is very labor intensive.  

If there is one advantage to our hands on approach to farming and working with nature, we get our “steps” in each day!

-Tristan  

This past week we planted more lettuces, cucumbers, zucchini, onions and lots of pumpkins and winter squash, and 1000 +/- tomatoes plants in the field and in the greenhouse.  

So to date, we have garlic, onions, radishes, cabbages, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets, beans, peas, cucumbers, winter and summer squash, and tomatoes all planted. And we are on our 2nd plantings of the cabbages and 4th plantings of the lettuces. 

We have brought back the Silver Slicer cucumbers for this season in addition to the classic Marketmore cucumbers we have always grown. The Silver Slicer cucumbers are more white than silver on the outside and have that crunch and juiciness that I love in a cucumber. They also tend towards the smaller size of 6 inches. They will be up and growing shortly and then probably around July 4th available for your Box of Good. 

As far as tomato land, we are planting two slicers, two Romas and an orange cherry tomato. We are growing the classic Early Girl and have added Galahad as a trial this year to the slicer category. Both produce medium size fruit that is juicy and great on a burger or in a salad. For the Romas, we are growing Plum Regal and the Italian favorite San Marzano’s. And lastly, we added Toronjina, an orange cherry to our mix. This year’s tomato planting is 4x what we have planted in the past. I am excited to see how the tomatoes do outside the greenhouse. If it is a sizzling summer, it could be spectacular. Wish us well! 

Now that we are planting more and more vegetables, it is time to kick the weeding into high gear. Labor has been an issue for so many businesses this year and we are no different. Thankfully, we made an investment in a Multivator. It is a tool that has several rototillers, 4 to be exact, attached to a tool bar. We plant everything on the same bed spacing and this has allowed us to weed more efficiently and use the hand and hoe weeding just around the plants and not have to weed the extra space. The challenge is planting straight rows and then driving straight. Because like any machine and especially a rototiller, it will rototill weeds 😊 or plants ☹ in its path. Thankfully, John has a steady hand while driving and our rows have been straight enough! 

-Tristan