Tag: farming

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Plenty of moisture around here!

Every crop needs a few necessities to get off to a good start. Soil: it holds the nutrients like Phosphorus, Manganese, Magnesium, Nitrogen, Boron, Calcium, etc. Soil critters: microbes, fungi, earth worms, beetles, spiders, bees and other creeping, sliming and crawling critter that digest decaying matter or breakdown minerals so the plant can utilize the nutrients to grow. Sunshine: everything loves a few heat units. Water: check that off the list, until August!

In our micro climate, we can really assist the crops we grow by amending our soils with nutrients in the form of compost or mined minerals, like calcium, through soil sampling and application rates. We can also inoculate our fields with good bacteria and fungi that help the plants thrive. We can do as little harm as possible to earthworms, beetles and spiders by not spraying our fields with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and bactericides. We can also help the critters help the plants by not overtilling or overcultivating our fields.

When it comes to soil and soil critters, we can treat them alright and have a measure of control. But when it comes to sunshine and water, we barely have an “oar in the water” to guide that boat! The greenhouses can help, but sunshine is still needed to generate some heat. We don’t use propane or lights in our greenhouses. Propane and lights can mimic natural sunshine, but they come with their own environmental impacts and expenses. Have you ever tried to heat a 1000 sq. ft. space to 70 degrees with 1/16th of an inch of plastic between winter and the crops? That is a sure fire way to “burn” some dollars up. For us, we use them as season extensions to try and capture a little more warmth as spring comes on or fall leaves us.

But water, that is completely outside my control. Yes, we can irrigate a little in the summer, but for the most part we work with what falls from heaven and is conserved in our soil. Our soils have great moisture holding capacity (a.k.a., clay!). They are slow to dry out, which is a great attribute in August, but fairly detrimental NOW! Ideally, I would have some sandy soil for the spring crops and some of “heavier” (clay) soils for the summer/late summer crops when a lack of water is an issue. But alas, I have heavier soils, which makes springs like this one very challenging.

But the good news is that we have perennial crops, like tree fruit, berries and a few greenhouse crops, to offset a wet spring, but we will need a warm summer to catch up. It is going to be a good year for our vegetables.

Farming for the future,

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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.

 

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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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Time to Prune

Last year, we “top worked” some Comice pear trees in our orchard—36 to be precise. We saved 12 of these trees to pollinate the Buerre Bosc pears. I planted the orchard five years ago, but the Comice pears have not performed well and seemed unhappy in our microclimate. The Bosc pears, however, took to the microclimate like a duck takes to water. So this winter, I cut some scion wood from the Bosc pears and am going to “top work” the last 12 Comice pear trees. Last year, we grafted the Comice pears over to Conference pears and four Asian pear varieties. The picture in this article is Stephen cutting off the “nurse” limb we left to stabilize the tree from the aggressive pruning.

Definitions:

Top working is a term that refers to grafting a new variety onto an existing tree. In a sense, you are working on establishing a new “top” for the tree. It can save a few years in establishing a new variety  and  lots of dollars.  “Top working” makes sense if you are happy with orchard layout, irrigation tree spacing, and if the new variety is compatible with the existing root stock.

Nurse limbs are designed to allow the tree to funnel energy to the new shoots that have been grafted onto the top of the “stump.” It works well because the “nurse” limbs are lower and the tree begins to put energy into building a new top. In the following spring we come back through and select the best of the grafts and cut off the “nurse” limbs.

Grafting is the process where one variety is grafted into or onto another tree. As mentioned earlier, it can really speed up the process of getting back into fruit production by 2-3 years.  It is a relatively straitforward process, but you need to be ready to do it when the weather is right, towards the end of April. You also have to gather the scion wood in the dead of winter and store it at near freezing to keep it dormant.

Scion wood is the wood that is grafted onto the existing tree. We typically use a 4-6 inch piece of wood with 3-4 good buds (buds become the future branches). Amazingly, as the main tree adopts the grafts, they will grow 2-4 feet over the summer. And now we are selecting the best “grafts” from last year to grow the new tree.

If all things go as planned, we should see a small crop next year of Conference pears and a larger crop of Buerre Bosc pears in two years from the “top worked” trees this year.

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Three Types of Farming

healing-through-nutrition-01-300x300I have been preparing for my upcoming talk at the Celebration of Food Festival at the Lynnwood Convention Center this Sunday, May 19th. My topic is Healing through Nutrition. I will probably tackle this subject from a soil health perspective—something akin to healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people. In the 1900s, America’s health ranking as nation was #1. Americans were the healthiest, but by 2007 we had moved from the top to the bottom, ranking 95th in overall health. What has changed in those 100 years? The way we farm!

For centuries we have had food primarily raised “organically.” People ate more locally, had more diversity in their diets, raised their own food and got plenty of exercise in the process. (I can only imagine how successful a CrossFit gym would have been during the early 1900s.) Americans also ate a lot less processed foods and consumed a lot less animal proteins.  

Back then, New Jersey was called the Garden State for a reason. When the country was run by true animal power—everything from police to fire to transportation—every sector of society generated animal waste and it all had to be carted out of the city. And guess where NYC’s animal waste went?  New Jersey. Copious amounts of barnyard waste were plowed into those farm fields to grow more fruits and vegetables. A beautiful picture of a symbiotic relationship between cities and farms, where the farms fed the cities and cities, in turn, fed the soil.

After WWII, agriculture moved away from barnyard wastes to chemical solutions. Initially, the chemicals were used more like a supplement and they worked reasonably well, but that was because the farmland was heavily fortified with nutrients from the “organic” farming practices of earlier generations.  But as time marched on, the ease of chemical usage enticed many farmers to leave the time-tested practices of building soil health. And eventually our national treasure, the soil, became depleted and disease and insect pressure on our crops dramatically increased. Of course, the chemical mongers developed stronger killers to wipe out the new problems that their chemicals helped to create.  

As our national health continued its decline, our nation embraced Genetic Engineering (GE) or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). So, having moved from organic farming to spraying our crops with synthetic herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, we are now actually inserting the pesticide or herbicide into the genes of our food. Now, a farmer can spray his crops with an all-purpose indiscriminate herbicide like RoundupTM and kill everything but the crop or insert a pesticide into the plant itself, so that when a corn borer or Monarch butterfly starts to nibble, it will die, saving the crop, so that you and I can nibble it later. YUCK! 

Klesick Family Farm, along with many other farms across the nation and around the world, has decided to grow real food from soils that are nutrient-rich—working with nature, not against it.  But we can’t do it without “eaters,” so thank you for saying “yes” to real food.  

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Spring Farm Musings

8364_10151575311876145_1157698364_nOh my, was that two weeks before Easter incredible. Everything was warming up and drying out and the soil was getting to planting quality, but not perfect.  I spent all last weekend wishing I could get more peas planted (almost done), my strawberries planted (half done) and get some spuds in the ground (none done). This amount of rain will take 4 or 5 days to begin to dry out. Thankfully, it is still very early in the season and most of my crops will go “in” from the end of April through June. 

The frustrating thing about farming is you have to take what is given and make the best choice at that time. When the weather first “broke” a few weeks ago, I waited. Then it stayed nice and I was compelled, no…drawn, no…wooed, yes…“wooed” by the farm to come and begin the season. So, cautiously, I fired up the tractor and started working the ground. The ground was willing, but not ready to begin.  If our farm was a sandy soil it would have been perfect, but we are more of a clay loam. Clay loams are great for holding soil moisture into August, but not so great for “working” early.  Alas, rarely is anything perfect and the soil responded to produce an acceptable seedbed.

With the forecasted weather change coming, I planted.  I really wanted a few more days, but none were coming and now I know that none are coming for a while. The rub is that if it stays on a warming trend from mid-March through April, the farm will give up a lot of field moisture early that would normally carry us through dry summer months. It will also cause the grass to dry out sooner and affect our grazing rotations for the cattle. But, conversely, many crops love an early spring and if a farmer catches it right, you can have some amazing spinach, lettuce and pea crops.  

But I have learned to not trust March and only wade in; after all,the water is rarely warm in March.  So now I find myself wondering if my pea seeds will germinate, partially germinate or rot—time will tell. A little concerned about the strawberries and how they will fare. I am thankful that I didn’t plant my potatoes. But I am also happy that this past March’s nice warm weather won’t deplete my soil moisture for the cattle and late summer crops.

As a farmer, there is almost always a crop or season in which you can find a “silver lining.” You might have to look a little harder or change your attitude/ perspective, but every season has a blessing buried in it. And if you find yourself in such a season of instability or insecurity, take a deep breath, dig a little deeper and unbury that blessing –it will warm your heart and get you through that moment.
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