Tag: always organic

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Providence

I often quote to myself (and to others) that simple prayer by Francis of Assisi, “Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

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As the farm season starts to unfold, there are bound to be things that I have planned to do, but just won’t get to. It might be weather related, it could be a timing issue, or it could be just a lack of time. But one thing is for sure, I will get to a lot of things on my list and a few things that weren’t. And at the end of the day, at the end of the farming season, I will have gotten something planted, weeded and harvested.

This week, we are planning on doing something that wasn’t on my farming list. In January, I ordered 4 flats of lettuce to transplant into our greenhouse. Our greenhouse isn’t very big and I was planning on only planting lettuce in half and spinach in the other half. I planted the spinach by seed and then went to get the lettuce transplants—all 512 of them.

When I arrived to get the flats, we walked over to get them and I started to grab the 4 I ordered and the nurseryman asked, “Is that all, you ordered 40?” My response was “gulp.” 40 flats x 128/flat = 5,120 plants. I have never planted 5,120 lettuce plants in my life at one time. So much is really out of our control when it comes to farming, and this week I picked up the remaining 36 flats of lettuce to transplant.

This will be a big undertaking, because the weather has not been the greatest for preparing a seed bed. Well, when an opportunity presents itself, like an extra 4,608 lettuce plants to plant, I stop, pause and evaluate the opportunity and then I pray, “This wasn’t my idea, but Lord if you want to do that, I am game!” Then I start looking for an opportunity to plant 5,120 more heads of lettuce in the first week of spring.

This is a bold move and definitely qualifies as borderline stupid, which is why I normally don’t plant lettuce in March! But sometimes on occasions like this, you discover a new way of doing something and other times you affirm why you don’t do something. Time will tell. For now, I am going with Providence and growing a lot of lettuce at the Klesick farm!

Your local lettuce farmer,

 

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In Remembrance

I often quote to myself and to others that simple prayer by Francis of Assisi,

God, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

In light of the recent mudslide tragedy in Oso, we are remembering those who were injured, those who have tragically lost their lives, those that are missing, and those that are grieving.

 

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Chives, Crocuses, Daffodils and Tulips

The time has come. All winter long I wander around doing this and doing that almost aimlessly, but not quite.  During the winter, our family tends to rest and recuperate from the previous farm season. (We even went to Disneyland for the first time in 23 years, which was not restful, but it was fun.) But I must be a farmer at heart, because it is this time every year that the winter fog becomes a little less dense and my senses awaken to spring. I think there is a little farmer in all of us during this time of year!

I get excited when I see grass growing. I don’t love to mow, but I love to notice the nuances in the shades of green or the thickness of the blades. I am also drawn to buds on the fruit trees. I notice the leaf buds and fruit buds, I pay attention to how much they are swelling and I wonder if a hard frost will set them back this year, again. I begin to think about the pollinators. Will it rain during the time the flowers are open, will the bees want to get out and work so there will be fruit in the fall?

I notice how much water the mud puddles are holding and how much they have dried or not dried out. I pay attention to the impression left by the tractor tires—how deep, how defined or not at all. I listen to the birds, the frogs, the coyotes—each species unique, but still calling this their home too. I also notice that the swans are still here, but I know that when they move on from this winter home, that it will be time to plant strawberries, peas and spinach.

Now I am looking for pockets of weather, openings in the curtain of heaven, to begin my annual dance with this farm. In many ways it has already begun because our farm is a living eco system with many types of crops growing. We have been pruning fruit trees and seeding greenhouses, we have been in the shop repairing and building equipment to help us this season, our seeds have been ordered, soil samples taken and fertilizer blends have been created to feed each of our crops.

So it is, as our daylight increases, so does our energy, focus and purpose. Our partnership continues with this patch of earth we call home, to grow fruits and vegetables that are so flavorfully packed with sunshine and nutrients that they will cause your taste buds and mine to dance—food that will feed your family and mine!

Always organic, always GMO-free.

 

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Wild, Farmed, and GM

salmon-safe-logo 250x297In a far away land, there lived a fisherman who fished and fished and fished. The salmon he caught were sold at the marketplace. He was an early rising and hard working fisherman who had learned the habits of the fish. He understood their cycles and seasons, like when they would return to spawn. He respected the gift of the fish and so only fished in such a way as to not hurt the future of the fish or its ability to continue to feed not only people, but all living things within the watershed (bears, eagles, earthworms, grasses, trees).

As the years marched on, the fisherman noticed that the fish he was catching were a little smaller and less plentiful as they once were. He still sold his fish at the marketplace, but now he had competition from a farmer selling “farmed” fish. The farmer was raising salmon in a pen. The cost of raising the fish was cheaper and the marketplace got a bargain.

Eventually, word spread that the farmer’s fish didn’t have the richness, color, or the revered Omega 3s found in the wild salmon populations. The farmer soon discovered, however, that if he took the food of the wild salmon, like sardines and herring, and made it into fishmeal and fish oil to feed his farmed salmon, they tasted better. Unfortunately, there was a lot of bycatch (incidental or unwanted fish and other marine species) in the process and, as to be expected, a lot less fish for the wild salmon to eat.

The marketplace was growing weary and leery of farmed salmon, and for good reason. The farmer realized that the customers were becoming educated and were voicing their opinion about the overharvesting of sardines and all the bycatch. To make matters worse, word was getting out that his farmed fish were “getting out.”

After some thought, the farmer contacted another farmer and started to buy genetically modified (GM) soybeans to supplement the fish meal and fish oil, to help his farmed salmon grow bigger sooner. He reasoned that if his fish grew quickly, not only would they be ready for market sooner on less feed, but they would spend less time in the pen, meaning less chance for escapement. All of this would mean more profit.

Later, when a scientist discovered that a growth hormone could be injected into the salmon egg, causing the fish to grow twice as fast and twice as big, the farmer embraced the scientist. The marketplace, however, embraced neither, but instead let the farmer know that they would not eat his farmed, GM-fed, or GM-altered fish.

Thankfully, the fisherman was still fishing and bringing his nutrient-rich, Omega 3 laden wild salmon to  the marketplace, where he was greeted by excited customers who valued the fish and the fisherman for helping them live better and eat better.

Always organic, always GMO free.

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