Tag: family

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Harvesting Lettuce & Spinach

When it comes to greenhouses, I am a newcomer. For years, I have eschewed the technology, but after a spring like this, “I am a believer!” We have taken a beating from the weather this spring and our planting windows have shrunk considerably.  I know I have a relatively short memory (comes with age), but I am a little dismayed by the lack of farmable weather for April—March was a better month.

But if you saw my “Wednesday Farm update Video” last week on Facebook, you can tell that I have turned 180 degrees on my opinion about greenhouses. If it wasn’t for my two greenhouses, I wouldn’t have gotten peas planted and then transplanted out to the fields. Granted, I mudded them in, but they are growing and when the weather breaks they will take off and get growing in a hurry.

For the first time, I planted an early spring crop of lettuce and spinach in one of the greenhouses and, experimentally speaking, I might make it a habit. The spinach is not as profitable to grow in the greenhouse as the lettuce, but it does grow a few weeks quicker and can be direct seeded. Lettuce, however, needs a little warmer nights to start from seed, but as transplants they are good to go. Next year, I will probably grow lettuce exclusively in both houses. Mostly, lettuce is a little simpler to harvest and handle than spinach. And during most springs, “simpler to harvest and handle” is appreciated by this farmer.

In our valley, the farmers are traditionally dairy farmers or they raise crops like spinach, cabbage, chard and beets for seeds. The dairy farmers need to start cutting their fields soon, before the grass is overripe, and then they need to get the corn planted. The seed crop farmers (farmers who raise crops for their seeds and not the vegetable) need long growing seasons and April is a critical month for them. But this hasn’t been a normal “wet” spring and some of my large farming neighbors are going to be financially impacted if warmer dry weather doesn’t come pretty darn quick.

Ironically, the weather is one reason I like to farm. I like the challenge of working with what comes my way and the different management styles each season, crop and weather require. The weather is also why I grow different crops, because from year to year, I won’t know which crop will “pay the bills.” It can be spinach and other leafy vegetables or potatoes or tree fruit or beef cows or any combination thereof.

But then the weather can be almost perfect like last year, when almost everything we planted did well. And in those rare seasons, when all the crops do well, it had a lot to do with the weather!

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Living a Giving Life

I have been thinking about the act of giving. Giving is an opportunity to participate in making some thing, some place or some one’s circumstances better than could be accomplished by itself. Giving requires sacrifice, a lot or a little, but you have to be willing to deny yourself something in order to give.

This past week, the world celebrated Easter—a holiday to remember the resurrection of Jesus. Nothing has more radically impacted the world than His birth, ministry, death and resurrection. He is the ultimate example of giving.

We believe in giving. And we believe the act of giving, whether money, talents or time, is freeing. It reminds us that we are not the most important entity in this world. It changes our focus. It intensifies our senses and awakens us to the needs of others and other things. Giving also allows us to give more, and it is contagious and infectious. Being generous is a surefire way to live a happy life.

This is why, when an opportunity to give arises that we can participate in, we are all in, in whatever capacity we can participate. But we have had to learn where to draw our giving boundaries over the years. Here is what we have learned about giving:

1. We have planned giving and then we dig deeper for emergency giving.

2. We always pray for whatever the pressing need is.

3. Then we assess how we can help. Is it with time, knowledge, communication, money or all of the above?

4. Sometimes we are unable to participate because of location or skills needed.

5. If we cannot help physically at the location, that is okay. Help comes in many different shapes, sizes and methods, and all of it is needed.

6. Refer to #3 and decide what you can do and then do it with all your heart!

Lastly, we are grateful and thankful for your partnership as we reach out to the Oso and Darrington communities. As a group we are able to collectively do more than as an individual, but community can only happen when two or more agree to walk together.

Thank you for walking alongside us to help Oso and Darrington land on their feet again.

Tristan

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Spring

This week, it looks like we are going to have a decent stretch of good weather and every farmer is going to be hard at it working the ground. As much I try every year to get ahead of or prepare for the farm season, I never feel that I am quite ready for it to begin. We have been plugging along doing many non-weather-related projects, but these can be miserable chores when it is raining sideways or hovering around freezing. But we do get many of them done; albeit, all layered up and looking like the Michelin man trying to stay warm.

Although Urgency and Procrastination are distant cousins, they both can be task masters. I try to strike a balance between the two of them, between what has to happen and what can wait. Nevertheless, there is nothing like a few good days in spring to put a bounce in your step and a burst of “get ‘er done” coursing through your veins!

Much to the disdain of Cousin Procrastination, we have made some pretty significant changes this winter. We have realigned our farm fields to make them more efficient to farm, upgraded fencing for our grass-fed cattle and invested in farm equipment to help us with harvest and post-harvest handling.

I find it ironic how Cousin Procrastination lives with me, but I am not quite sure when Cousin Urgency is going to pay me a visit. Although I do expect a visit every time this year, I am just not sure when it will be. However, the thought of Cousin Urgency coming does tend to accelerate the pace of activity and the need to get ready for the visit.

Well, Cousin Urgency has arrived and the Klesick family is going to be busier than a “one-armed wallpaper hanger.” We still have fencing to button up before the cows arrive. We have 3,000 pea plants to get in the ground and trellised, plus another 10,000 peas to direct seed. There is a ton of potatoes waiting to be planted, so I need to get that ground ready, fertilized and composted, and IT ALL HAS TO BE DONE YESTERDAY! At least this is what Cousin Urgency is saying. In reality, it can be accomplished over a few weeks and everything will be just fine. Striking that balance is the hard part, and as sure as “the cream rises to the top” the most pressing tasks make it to the top of the list.

Thanks for checking in. Your good food team will be hard at it growing, sourcing and delivering organic and GMO-free fruit, vegetables and grocery items for you this week and every week.

 

tristan-sign

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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.”

planting_lettuce6

 

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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Teamwork

 

Coming off the heels of our farm festival, I am reminded of how important it is to work together or, more importantly, how important each piece is to completing the puzzle. Our annual festival and our weekly “box of good” only happen because people come together and complete the puzzle.
 
Accomplishing these two things is much easier when it is not the farm season. The farm season, at times, seems like a tidal wave crashing upon us, especially when we are planting, harvesting, weeding and trying to maintain some semblance of family life. As the farmer, I am constantly surprising my team with extra vegetables or fruit that they were not planning for because I happen to discover a patch of strawberries or onions or spinach that is ready earlier than I expected. My team is very nimble and can change menus and directions in seconds. 
 
The other day was a prime example of teamwork. Maleah and I are the flower farmers. We have a system in place when it is time to pick flowers. She runs around and gets the asters, cosmos and dahlias and I get the sunflowers, amaranth, calendula, marigolds and straw flowers. She has quite an eye for picking beautiful flowers. Well, the other day she was at a sleepover birthday party and had left earlier that afternoon. The rest of our family was doing some last minute weeding and harvesting for the festival. Maleah and I always start harvesting flowers about a half an hour before dark. Of course, out of habit, I started the flower harvest like normal. At that moment I thought to myself, “What was I thinking, letting Maleah go to a birthday party during harvest time?!?!?” I ran around cutting my usual flowers and then I ran around getting Maleah’s usual flowers, barely finishing as the sun left the horizon. Then it took twice as long to bunch them.
 
That night, I experienced the importance of my seven year old’s help. I got the flowers harvested and arranged, but pinch hitting for Maleah isn’t nearly as much fun or efficient as working with her. I will still let her go to birthday parties, but I will definitely start earlier next time!
 
Farming as a family and a team, 
 
 
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Winter: a time to reflect

The farm is anything but quiet during this time of year. The trains rumble by, the coyotes join in the chorus and trumpeter swans trumpet as their wings carry them barely above the house. Ah…the sounds of a farm at rest.

The pruning is finished and if all goes well there will be lots of pears, apples, plums and raspberries. The garlic is making its presence known as the sentinels of the garden. The potatoes have been ordered and other seeds are on their way.

We are installing two new greenhouses this winter in attempts to provide more local food earlier and later for you. We are busy fixing fences, building fences and getting ready for the grass-fed beef to arrive in April. In addition to mending fences, we are making compost and servicing our equipment. Right now we are focusing on the things we know that need repairing and we will worry about what we don’t know later, when it becomes obvious (sigh).

But mostly, winter for us is the calm before the storm. It is the warm up before the symphony begins—lots of tuning of the strings and tightening of the bows. For me, it is the time (lots of time) I spend with my children, reading and reading and reading and playing lots of games—right now mainly Mexican train dominoes and Settlers of Catan.

I am purposely investing in them, because I know that in a few weeks to a month the weather is going to change. We are going to be farming and outside from sun up till sun down. We will still have lots of fun as a family, but it will be busy fun, not the quiet fun that we get to have right now. Thankfully, the transition from winter to spring is a gracious one and gradually comes upon our farm like the incoming tide. But I also know that our younger children will become young adults before I know it and I want to enjoy them as much as I can now.

I am looking forward to tomorrow evening when my kiddos pick a book out and we all somehow, four or five of us, will snuggle into that easy rocking chair and read together.

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Parenting for the Next Generation

Joelle and I have been raising, homeschooling and hanging with our children for the last 20 years. It hardly seems possible that our eldest, Micah, is nearly 20 years old. Surely it couldn’t have been but a few years ago that I was teaching him to ride a bike. Alas, it is true, our children do grow up with or without us. I now find myself teaching Stephen, his four year old brother, to ride a bike—without the training wheels!

Stephen wants to ride with the rest of the clan to the top of the Pilchuck tree farm and go mountain biking. If he only knew how much uphill there was compared to downhill he might change his mind! The other day we stopped into see Mark at the Arlington Velo Sport to pick up a bike and Stephen got the vision for some new wheels. Funny, it seems that Micah got the vision for some new wheels as well, ones that could generate a little more horsepower than his legs could—a 1979 black Chevy T-top Camaro. Hey, that was the car I wanted when I was in high school! Now, 30 years later, they are affordable for him, but for me impractical. Hmmm??? Maybe things really don’t change, just their price tags do.

One of the first lessons I learned as a parent was to teach our children “no” early and that it is not negotiable. Many parents argue with a two year old and far too often the two year old wins. If a child learns “no” early there will be less arguments (now I didn’t say no arguments, just less), which means there will be more pleasant interactions. Doesn’t that sound nice?

As I enter into this new phase of transitioning children from parent-dependent to independent, I have been learning a lot. When I chose to farm, back when we had six children, I did so because it gave me the opportunity to be more involved in the raising of my children and to have them work with me. Our focus was family—we did things as a family and with other families. It was easier as a parent to navigate this world of young children because they were totally parent-dependent. As my oldest is moving on and his 18 year old sister and 17 year old brother are close on his heels, Joelle and I have had choices to make. Do we hold back or do we release? We have learned to do both—to hold where they want us to hold and to release where they want us to release. The goal of parenting is not to keep our children back for ourselves, but to launch the next generation, to see them stand not fall, succeed not fail, to love that which is good and do good. This is not easy for us, but it is easier because we built a relationship early, played together, worked together, laughed together and went to church together. And now that they are adults we still do those things, just less often together.

Sure we miss them, but aren’t they supposed to grow up, hopefully marry, have their own families and their own lives. My job is to impart whatever I can into them for the short time I am privileged to parent them. I understood the process, after all, I went through it. But now that I am experiencing it as a parent, I have been thinking about it more intentionally. If I am going to be a successful parent and raise children that become good citizens, who are focused on blessing others, I need to not only model that but also involve them in it—at the grocery store, gas station, ball field, church, etc. And I need to gradually decrease in their lives and they need to increase. They need to make more decisions as they get older, yes good and bad ones. But I want them to practice making those decisions while they are still at home, so when they do move out they will have already been making life type decisions for awhile.

We still have little ones to raise and they will be gone before we know it, but I am committed to seeing them develop into what they were created to do with their lives, which means that I have to recognize their strengths and strengthen them and recognize their weaknesses and strengthen them. But I can’t do that if I am still heavily pursuing my own personal dreams, passions, hobbies. At some point my own personal goals have to decrease and my children’s goals (not my goals for my children) need to increase in my life. And at the same time I have to recognize when it is time for me to decrease in my parental role to allow them to pursue their dreams.

Many of you are parents, I want to encourage you that it is not a mistake that you are raising children and the children you have are going to need your insights, perspectives and experiences to negotiate the adult world and no one is more qualified than you to help them succeed. They are a gift to you and you are a gift to them.

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Summer Camping

Last weekend was one of those weekends where there was way too much to do to get it all done. Joelle was busy going to a baby shower on Saturday and hosting a baby shower on Monday, which meant she would be preoccupied with those responsibilities and could use some concentrated time. So, on Saturday, I made the bold snap decision to gather up the five youngest and head to Oso to camp for the night. I knew that this was going to be an adventure camping with our younger children, ages 15 months and 4, 6, 9, and 13 years.

My grandparents used to live in Oso and I have been going to the river property for family outings since I was in the womb. I called Aunt Linda to check on availability and got the go ahead. I quickly scratched out a packing list and my son Andrew gathered everything, even two tents just to make sure we had enough poles to get one up! As Andrew was busy gathering and loading the van, I was busy planting beans, corn, fennel, and dill. Everybody got their clothes and pillows and we were off.

An hour later we were all alone on the Stillaguamish River, putting up the tent and making camp. We built a fire, had some dinner, and waited for the bats. Yes, bats! As long as I can remember I have enjoyed watching the bats fly in front of the campfire from our vantage point overlooking the river. That night I was excited to show these flying marvels to my children. Just as planned, at dusk, they started darting to and fro. And then we watched the stars appear; one by one, starting with the North Star, the sky began to reveal its majesty.

As you can imagine, we have a large tent – you know, the 10-12 man size. Usually we need every square inch, but with only six of us it seemed, well, downright palatial! So as the temperature dropped and daylight diminished we headed for the tent. It was cold and for some reason the ground seemed harder than when I was a kid?!?!

Finally, we were all tucked in. Although the baby wasn’t excited about the change in routine, because she was tired she eventually nodded off next to me. About an hour later, Maleah, the 6 year old, got up and, walking over everything and everyone, joined the baby and me in my sleeping bag. Another hour later, Stephen, the 4 year old, popped up and said in earnest, “Daddy, I got to go to the bathroom!!” In my hurry out the tent door, as one can imagine, I caught my foot and fell back onto the tent from the outside and landed on Andrew, who was sleeping. After making sure Andrew was okay I grabbed Stephen who, thankfully, was still waiting to go to the bathroom. Mission accomplished, I crawled into another, more roomy sleeping bag and for some reason the ground was hard in that spot too!?!

In the morning, we had breakfast around the campfire, had a devotional, and went for a long bike ride, played some ball, built sand castles, and went to the Oso General Store for some ice cream, just like I did when I was a kid.

It has been somewhat of a taxing farm season and I think I needed that connection with my heritage more than my kiddos did. For them it was a fun time with dad, away from the crops, cows, weeds, and work. But for me, it was about sharing the past (the river, the bats, the stars) with the future.

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Pancakes

The other day, I set out to make pancakes and scrambled eggs for the family.  Most of the clan was home, maybe 9 out of 11! So I went to allrecipes.com and found the perfect recipe (you know, the one with 4000 reviews and a 4+ rating), read a few comments to see if there were any important changes recommended and then went for it.

I don’t know how my wife does it. Trying to get that first batch of pancakes not too runny or too thick. Do I double, triple or quadruple it? Let’s triple it. Get out the mixing bowls, one for dry and one for wet ingredients. Oops, I picked out a mixing bowl that was too small for the tripled recipe. But instead of washing another dish, I prudently chose to mix carefully!

Before I headed out to feed the horses around 5am, I checked the quantity of milk in the fridge – “A half gallon, we’re good.” Came back in and started to pull it all together. Got all the dry ingredients together, started on the eggs, oil and milk. Oh no! Between my feeding the horses and other chores our #3 son had gotten up, had breakfast and headed off to work, and in the process had used up most of the milk for his breakfast – the milk that I was planning on using for pancakes! Those teenage boys can consume a lot! Well, he had saved enough for almost the amount I needed. Hmmm…now what? Okay, improvise. Back to the fridge. Oooh, we have some half and half! Catastrophe diverted.

Now comes the challenge for me. How do I get the eggs and the pancakes to be ready at the same time to feed my army of eaters? The eggs are on stove and the electric griddle is on the breakfast bar, about six feet from each other. I have decided this time to cook them slower at a lower temperature. Start the first batch, get out the butter, jam and syrup, turn on the oven to “keep warm,” finish the first six pancakes and start on the eggs. Next, wake up the kiddos, get them to set the table, say grace and start eating. I would have never thought that sleeping was a strenuous activity, but those kiddos polished off 30 pancakes and a plate of eggs. One would have thought they had worked a full day on the farm!
What is your favorite pancake recipe?

Happy Father’s Day!