Tag: stanwood

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Berry Time!

The berry season started early this year. I shudder to even mention the weather, but we could use a drink for a lot of our crops, but it would be a disaster for hay farmers and berry farmers now. But it is what it is and if we get rain, great, and if we don’t we will drag out the drip tape and get to watering.

I have already dragged out the drip tape for the strawberries to keep the moisture sufficient to keep those berries growing. We plant a variety called Albion. It is a day-neutral variety, which means that it is not affected by the increasing day length like many of its June-bearing cousins. The advantage of day-neutral varieties is that they produce all season, well into October. The disadvantages are that the fruit set or production and they do not have that classic NW flavor. So we end up picking a little all season instead of a bunch in June.

The June bearing varieties produce copious amounts of strawberries in June and have that classic NW flavor, but are extremely delicate to handle. The disadvantage here is that if it is a rainy June, mold becomes an issue and you can lose a year’s worth of work pretty quick!

While I love the Albion berry for a lot of reasons, I find myself missing the bigger harvest of June bearing berries. So I decided last week to order 3000 plants of Puget Crimson. It is a newer variety developed by WSU for northwest growers. In addition to the Puget Crimson, I am also ordering Black Diamond Blackberry plants to trial them on our farm. We will start with 200 feet and go from there. The Black Diamond is also a newer variety that seems to do well in our climate and to top it off it is “thornless”!

May your health be vibrant and days be merry!

 

tristan-sign

 

Local Organic Berries & More!

Blueberry Flats…. Full $38, Half $22

Raspberry Flats…. Full $38, Half $22

Strawberry Flats. Full $36, Half $20

Pickling Cucumbers……. 5 lbs. $7.50

Bulk Basil……………………… 1 lb. $7.50

Green Beans……………….. 20 lbs. $40

Garlic & Dill will also be available – notify us to request some with your pickling cuke or other bulk order!

To place your order, please call our office (360-652-4663) and we will add your name to our reservation list. Once the items are ripe and ready, we will contact you and schedule a delivery. Orders are on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

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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,

tristan-sign

 

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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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Salmon Safe Certification 2014

We’ve renewed our Salmon-Safe Certification!

Salmon Safe Certification_web

This means that Klesick is:

  • Maintaining a buffer of trees and vegetation along the stream banks
  • Controlling erosion by cover cropping bare soil
  • Improving the passage for migrating fish
  • Applying natural methods to control weeds and farm pests
  • Using efficient and non-wasteful irrigation practices
  • Protecting wetlands, woodlands, and other natural areas
  • Promoting on-farm plant and wildlife diversity

Learn more about Salmon-Safe on Stewardship Partner’s website.

 

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Hang On To Your Hats, It's Time To Farm!

Hang on to your hat, because these next few weeks are going to be a class 5 kayak ride!  We were behind a few weeks ago, but now we are getting nervous.  If the weather doesn’t break soon so that the rain lets up, I won’t be harvesting anything until August.  At least we have snuck in (mudded in) a few plants in between rain storms. Our first plantings of peas are up and our second plantings are just emerging. The strawberries and raspberries are sending out new leaves every day and those two nice weekends we had gave the bees enough warmth to get out and work in the orchard.   Now,it is a waiting game to see if (and how much of) the fruit will set. 

After last year’s horrible spring, I decided to diversify and plant some more perrienels , like raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, plums as well as herbs.  Even the beef help to mitigate springs like these. Every season has its ups and downs, challenges and triumphs. By diversifying we are able to cover expenses and even out the waves of life or seasons.  Looking forward to calm waters ahead.

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Connecting the Past and the Future

Gray hair isn’t a sign of old age, it is a sign of credibility. This past month the Stanwood community lost one of its farmers. Franklin Hanson passed away at the ripe old age of 88. Our family has only known the Hanson family for eight years. Bernice, who passed on a few years ago, and Franklin adopted us when we first moved to the valley and with the help of their three boys have been a huge blessing to our family. We have learned so much by their direct impact on our family.

Sadly, in our society, the gray head is not held in as high of esteem as it should be. Because of this, many of us, especially the youth, are missing out on some incredible insight. The generation that is passing from this life to the next has weathered some amazing times and gained a lot of wisdom as a result. And if this insight were sought out, it would reveal some very relevant information to make life richer. As an organic farmer—or if you will, an old fashioned farmer—I am always gleaning information about how things were done before tractors, oil, and synthetic fertilizers. By just sitting and listening to the years of experience, my children and I have been able to learn some of the wisdom of the ages.

As I think about the stories of old that I have heard, I am in awe of how resilient Franklin’s generation really was. Living through the Great Depression, forsaking comfort and safety to liberate Europe and then having to adapt from outhouses to indoor plumbing, from letters to party lines to no lines, from admiring birds to flying like them, and from using your mind to using a computer. Truly Franklin’s generation has seen much, given much, and has a lot to give still.

Now Franklin is no longer with us (we still have his three boys) and I can no longer grip his hand and seek his wisdom. Have you ever noticed the strength of an old man’s hand shake? The strength is an extension their lives, a strength that reminds us that we can make it through incredibly hard situations as well. I will miss the opportunities I have had to ask a question and then sit back and just listen, absorbing, and taking mental notes as he shared.

I love the Stanwood community. It is the place that our family gets to carry on the farming way of life with a community of farmers that have been here for three, four, and five generations. I humbly submit that my life has been richer because of some of these farmers–the Franklin Hanson family.

Franklin, you and your family have been an untold blessing to the Klesick family and many others. Thank you for sharing your time and your rich heritage with all those you came in contact with. Good bye Franklin. You might have passed from this world to the next, but your life will live on in the hearts of many.

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Trumpeter Swans

These majestic birds have returned to the valley.  When we see these marvelous wonders of creation it is a sure sign that the farming season is nearing its end.  Their ever distinctive trumpeting can be heard clearly as they grace the skies above our farm.

As a farmer, I find that the longer I farm in this region the more I am tied to the nuances of its local ecosystem.  In the spring I am reminded that it will be time to work the ground when I see the early bulbs start to emerge and the grasses wake up. It is the same when that fall air begins to grace the end of August—I better hurry up because the season is coming to a close. And with winter right around the corner, early November brings the swans.

I can be walking in the field, or sitting at my desk, or working with the draft horses and I will inevitably stop and listen and then look up.  I love that sound on a crisp fall morning as they fly eastward over the farm to their morning feasting grounds. And conversely, at about dusk on their return flight to Port Susan, I am reminded to head in myself and enjoy my family.

Nature has been embedded with a whole lot of wisdom and farming that keeps that wisdom in mind always succeeds.
As for now, I am looking forward to our farm’s winter rest and the music of the trumpeters till spring.

-image from tufts.edu

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Squeak, Rattle, Crunch, Tear

I have been spending some of the most blissful moments of the farm season during the fall clean up. Ever since I got my new Belgian team, Sally and Sandy, I have been working them a lot. My previous team was a bear to work with and, consequently, they didn’t get worked because it wasn’t any fun. But my new team—aaaaaah!—has been for the most part a dream.
However, the other week I was away for a few days and put them out on pasture so that my kiddos didn’t have to worry about them. I came home, caught them, harnessed them, and set out for the field. Fortunately, my good friend Ken, from Horse Drawn Produce on Lopez, was visiting and we worked them together. Those two fillies were a handful that morning. When it comes to horses, I am a greenhorn, but Ken is a real teamster. I had bought the girls from Ken and he quietly reprimanded me and said, “No more green grass for them.” Our pastures are very rich and so after feeding off them for a week the Belgians were affected like a toddler on soda pop—they were all wound up. It took a couple of hours driving them around the farm to burn off that excess sugar!
I have always pastured my horses and so this experience got me thinking that maybe my previous team was just high strung because their feed was too rich??? I will never really know. However, I did notice today that when I harnessed up Katy, the remaining horse from my first team, for the most part she was amenable working with me. And she has been off pasture for a couple days and eating our local hay. (We have local hay available if you would like some.)
Yesterday and this morning, I harnessed up Sally and Sandy and we backed up and headed out to the field. It was like I was “Driving Miss Daisy.” We leisurely wandered out to the field got the disc and went to work. Squeak, Rattle, Crunch, Tear… all these sounds as the disc cut through the corn stocks. I have never heard a disc as it did its job. When we are on the tractors it is too noisy to hear yourself think let alone a disc cutting and tearing. But even before, when I was using my previous team, I had to concentrate so much on those horses as they raced through the field that I couldn’t enjoy the moment.
But today, Squeak, Rattle, Crunch, Tear… were the sounds of music. I love that sound and nothing could be finer than working with my team, the mountains in the background and the sun shining overhead! Working steady horses on a beautiful day, an old English poet from Suffolk once said, “is a poor excuse for work.” And this farmer said, “Amen.”

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Know Your Produce: Potatoes

Image from the Maine Food & Lifestyle blog

  • Potatoes should be kept in a cool, dark place with good ventilation. the ideal storage temperature is 45 to 50 degrees F. At these temperature, the potatoes will keep for several weeks. Do not store potatoes in the refrigerator, as a temperature below 40 degrees F. will cause the potatoes to develop a sweet taste. This is due to the conversion of starch to sugar, which causes potatoes to darken when cooked.
  • If you store potatoes at room temperature, use them within a week or so.
  • Wait to wash potatoes, until you are ready to use them, as they will keep longer & this prevents loss of nutrients.
  • It is not recommended that you freeze cooked potato dishes, as they tend to become watery after reheating. As the potato is 80% water, this water separates from the starch causing the reheated potato dish to be watery.
  • Potatoes are easier to prepare and healthier for you when cooked with their skins on. Always rinse and scrub the potatoes thoroughly before using.
  • When you are using cut up potatoes in your cooking, preserve the color by place them in cold water. Limit the water soaking time to two (2) hours to retain the water-soluble vitamins. Color discoloration (pinkish or brownish) happens from the carbohydrates in the potato reacting with oxygen in the air. Potatoes that do become discolored in this way are safe to eat and do not need to be thrown. Usually the color discoloration will disappear with cooking.
  • Sometimes potatoes will get a spot that is a greenish hue. A potato in this condition is “light-struck” which causes a build-up of a chemical called Solanine. This is a natural reaction to the potato being exposed to too much light. (store out of light!) The green part, if eaten in large quantity, can cause illness. If there is slight greening, cut away the green portions of the potato skin before cooking and eating.

See http://whatscookingamerica.net/potato.htm

For more tips on boiling, baking and making mashed potatoes.

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Fresh This Week Tips, 10.3.2010

d’Anjou Pears
STORE: Keep pears at room temperature until ripe. To test for ripeness, gently push on the stem. If it gives a little, your pear is ready to eat.
PREP: Wash pears in cold water and keep them whole, slice them or chop them.
USE: d’Anjou pears can be eaten out of hand, mixed into a spring salad, baked or poached. Remember the delicious Apple and Rhubarb Crisp recipe? Make another version of that crisp by substituting the apples and rhubarb with pears and dried cranberries.

Spartan Apples
STORE: Store apples in a paper bag in the crisper of your refrigerator. Spartan apples typically don’t keep for very long, so it’s advisable to use your apples within 1 week.
PREP: Wash apples under cold running water. If using your apples in a recipe, typically you will peel and core the apple before cutting it into slices or cubes. To prevent apples from browning, brush with a lemon juice-water solution (1 cup water mixed with 1 teaspoon lemon juice).
USE: Spartan apples are the small to medium sized offspring of MacIntosh apples. They are a favorite among children for their crisp, snow white flesh and sweet flavor. Pack your Spartan apples as a lunchtime snack or use them to make a wonderful applesauce or apple butter.

Bunch Carrots
STORE: Always remove tops from carrots as they take moisture from the “root” to stay green, leaving you with a limp carrot. Store carrots in the coolest part of the refrigerator in a plastic bag or wrapped in a paper towel to reduce the amount of moisture that is lost. They should keep for about two weeks. Be sure to store your carrots away from apples, pears, potatoes as they produce a gas that will make carrots bitter.
PREP:  Wash carrot roots and gently scrub them with a vegetable brush right before preparing them to eat. Peel (if desired) and chop according to your recipe or their purpose.
USE: You can steam, pickle, puree (for carrot soup!), juice, eat them raw or add them to any number of soups, stews and stir fries.

Yellow Corn
STORE: Store corn in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Do not remove its husk since this will protect its flavor. To enjoy your corn at its best, eat as soon as possible.
Fresh corn freezes well if placed in heavy-duty freezer bags. To prepare whole ears for freezing, blanch them first for seven to eleven minutes depending upon their size. To freeze the kernels, first blanch the ears for about five minutes and then cut the kernels off the cob. Whole corn on the cob will keep for up to one year, while the kernels can be frozen for two to three months.
PREP: To prepare your corn, remove or pull down the husks (depending on if you would like to cook your corn with the husks on or off) and remove the silk from the cob. Rinse under cool water (if desired, pull the husks back around your corn). To cut the kernels off of a corn cob, put the flat stem end in a bowl and run a sharp chef’s knife down the length of the ear using a sawing motion.
USE: Corn can be grilled, baked, steamed, boiled or broiled. For a last taste of summer, try this tasty Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob recipe. To enjoy your corn in Fall dishes, add cooked corn kernels to soup or chili for a heartier, more nutritious meal.

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The Spring and the Fall: 
Assorted musings from the farmer

The spring and fall farm seasons are similar in many ways, especially with the erratic weather patterns.  The big weather difference, however, is that now the days are getting shorter and the soil getting wetter verses in the spring when the day length is increasing and soil is getting warmer. That subtle change, now magnified with this wet September, has made our fall chores more interesting than usual.

So in the spring we run around getting the ground ready for planting and in the fall we run around spreading compost, planting cover crops, garlic, shallots, and harvesting the summer (as if there was a summer) planted crops.  I love this season, but there are literally not enough daylight hours to get the work done, especially when you only get one or two days of good field work weather. And trust me, when we get those days, we are as busy as beavers from dawn to dusk.

This week we are hoping to do all of the above and get closer to taking a long winter nap. My new team of horses, Sally and Sandy, are sure sweet to work with. Together, last week, we disc-harrowed an acre of ground that had provided us with green beans and tomatoes and then we planted winter wheat for a cover crop on top of it.

Speaking of tomatoes . . . I grew Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes this year, mostly on a whim. Mike and Joanie, at the Rents Due Ranch, had a couple hundred extra plants, so I, in a moment of romanticism, picked up 100. They were incredibly flavorful, but ripened too quickly and didn’t have good shelf life. I have put them on the “do not grow in the future” list.

Back to the horses. It was fun driving the horses through the tomato plants and discing them down. Every now and then a green tomato would burst and I would get lightly splattered.  All and all, Sally, Sandy and I worked together for six hours. That was as close to pure bliss as I have come to farming with horses.  I am looking forward to finishing the fall farm chores with them.

Thanks for supporting our family farm and our family of farmers. This farming year, with all of its challenges, is more enjoyable because the food we raise goes to our family of local customers.