Tag: flowers

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Garlic and Flowers

Hello August and Hello Fall Soccer! August is that transition month where a lot of us start thinking about back to school, fall sports and last vacations. And I am so glad that the Stanwood/Camano School district is starting after Labor Day. Because, I am going to need every available minute before my school aged crew goes back to school.

Labor is the tightest I have ever seen…but there are crops planted and they will need to be harvested and after all the work it takes to get a crop to harvest, you can be darn sure that I will get it harvested. It might take a harvest moon or two or head lamps, but it will get done! ?

Flowers

Every year, I have this volunteer crop of sunflowers that grow. I let them grow so the birds can eat them, then I mow them and till them in. The next year what the birds didn’t eat starts to reseed. These sunflowers are special because they remind me of our oldest son’s wedding. You see, his future wife had asked for sunflowers for her wedding and I, being a farmer, was more than happy to comply. So, for the last four years, the Klesick family gets to enjoy and reminisce about the wedding on that special day in August.

We also have beautiful red Poppies that have re-seeded themselves from our second son’s wedding 3 years ago. Yep, you guessed it. His future wife had wanted wildflowers! And I, as a farmer, was more than happy to comply. ? This year there is a splash of color intermixed with the potatoes.

Joelle and I have been blessed to see our four oldest children get married. And you know what that means–GRANDCHILDREN! We will be adding two more grandsons, one in August and one in November, bringing the total to 4 grandsons and 1 granddaughter. It is pretty emotional to be walking around the farm with your grandchildren and think that the third generation is on its way.

Garlic

Last week we harvested our Inchelium Garlic. A little later than I would have liked, but, like I shared earlier, we got it done. We don’t spend much time curing our garlic. Curing is the drying process that allows garlic to store longer. I don’t have a lot of extra storing capacity, so I plant less and sell it fresh. You can use your garlic like any other garlic, but use it sooner. Inchelium has beautiful flavor and would be great roasted or minced.

We are also starting our first picking of green beans. We have 3 plantings of green and 2 plantings of purple this year. Garden-fresh beans are the best. Steamed beans and carrots with a little butter. Incredible and so simple!

 

Enjoy!

 

Tristan, Farmer and Health Advocate

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Summer Fun at Klesick Farms

The weather has finally turned in our favor and we are thrilled to get out and work the dirt! It’s the first step in getting delicious, healthy, organically grown produce from our farm to your dinner table! We love what we do here at Klesick Farms and we are wanting to share the wonder of it all with our amazing customers! We would love for you to join us in any one or all our farm events this summer. The great line up of events and farm tours will run from June through September! We have events including farm tours, an on-farm painting class and a local floral design class. It is an eclectic offering of fun on our farm.

June 3rd Klesick Good Food Farm Tours, 10am – 12pm (tours start on the hour) – Free event – Please register for planning purposes: REGISTER HERE!

July 8th 10am –11:30 Good Food Farm Tour with NW Healthy Mama Angela Strand – Free event – for planning purposes, please R.S.V.P. through NW Healthy Mama. Click for more info. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

July 29th ‘Mountain & field landscape’ Acrylic on canvas, 11×14 Painting Class with Nancy Hansen. Limited availability – materials provided Cost: $35/person. Registration required. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

August 12th Good Food Farm Tour 10am –noon (tours start on the hour) – Free event – Please register for planning purposes. REGISTER HERE!

August 22nd 6pm –8:30 Flower Design with Deanna Kitchen from Twig and Vine – limited availability – materials provided Cost: $65/person. Registration required. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

September 30th 10am- 4pm Squash Fest – Free event **CANCELLED**

In addition to these exciting events, stay tuned for more spontaneous adventure! Watch for “Volunteer Opportunities”. We’ll be offering random farm experiences for the entire family. You will have a chance to work alongside us as we cultivate, plant, weed and harvest! Know your farm, know your farmer, and better yet, join your farmer! Consider laying aside the everyday demands of life and come rejuvenate. Experience the quiet thrill of working with nature in all its wonder and beauty!

 

Looking forward to seeing you here on the farm,

 

Tristan and Joelle Klesick

 

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Sweet corn needs more fertilizer next year

 

I just finished planting the cover crop for this winter in time for last week’s “heavy mist,” so we should see germination very shortly. Most of our plantings from June and July are coming to fruition and we should be able to harvest those in the next few weeks, except for corn. Ugh! Corn has been a bummer all season. It really needed a lot more summer than what we got this year.  The joke around here is that I have corn for the end of October, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  In a normal year we would have sweet corn by now, with the second planting close behind and the third planting for mid-October. This year hasn’t worked out as well. We got it in early enough, but it just didn’t get going. I am not giving up on it, but if that acre is going to pay for itself we are going to have to have the most incredible Indian summer ever.
 
If I could have gotten water on my last planting of corn, it might have done the best because of the hot weather that blessed us soon after planting it.  Of course, the third planting is always a gamble.  In hindsight, corn needs a lot more fertilizer than other vegetables, and based upon what I see, it needed a few more nutrients and heat units this season. Oh well, that is farming—not every crop pays the bills. We will have corn and it will be sweet, but a smaller harvest than planted and planned for. 
 
With that said, I participated in a WSU research trial using Cedargrove Compost this season. Here is what I have noticed. In the cover crop trial there was a noticeable difference in the compost areas to non-compost added areas. The potatoes were markedly larger plants and the corn plants are greener and taller where the compost was applied. 
 
Compost definitely works and I would encourage everyone to use it around your flower beds and vegetable gardens. We apply compost in the spring before planting and right now. Appling compost now will mimic nature because fall is the time that nature sheds its summer growth and the microbial and other ground critters make those nutrients available for next spring. In the fall we apply compost more like a mulch and in the spring we apply it more thinly and work it in. So after you clean those flower beds, muster the extra energy to mulch with compost. Your spring growth will be better and your soil happier!