Produce Boxes and Mouth Salsa

Thanks to all who have supported us in the begginning stages of the produce box program. It is a true medley of delicious veggies and we hope that you enjoy them as much as we do. The interest and show of support has been nothing short of inspiring.

Our newest invention (patent pending, don't even think about it) on the farm this week is what we call mouth salsa. For those of you like us who are constantly on the go and lack the time to create fresh, sliced and diced salsas, simply try the following. Hold one tomatoe and one spicey pepper in each hand. Take a generous bite of each and use the tongue to create a nice homogeneous mixture--and there it is. Consider adding cilantro, onion, tortilla chip or tacos for added complexity.

5 minute harvest

A quick and easy goulash of summer squash, chioggia beets, carrots, english peas, broccoli, and beet greens. Off work at 8:30, vegetables picked, washed, cooked, and on my dinner plate by 9:30. I suppose for multitude the failures a farmer must endure, one good meal can erase them all.

Tomatoes are painfully close to turning red, and in all honesty i'll probably start eating them at orange.

Thanks goes out to Joe for all of his hard work at the farm lately, he has definitely been shouldering his share (and more) of the work burden.

off, off, off with their heads.....

Without any pictures to do them justice, I must report that the heads of cabbage have been coming off at a delicious rate. As have the roots of the beets (the giant yellow eckendorf variety is already melon size!), and the heads of the voles. Things are going very well at Beanie's at the moment, with more weeding than we ever thought possible happening on an almost daily basis. I say almost because we takes breaks every few days so that Joe can watch me catch trout out of the Spokane river. He'll get one, some day. Next crops to pop should probably be beans, tomatoes, and peppers. Come see us at the farm soon, we love company.

The post title comes from what may be the greatest techno song ever-- by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Bloody Fingers

The first cans of the year!



My fingers are bleeding. I have picked so many weeds that the tips of my fingers are stained brown from dirt, and red form blood. I hate weeds but I also hate chemicals. That leaves me hour after hour picking one after the other. Weeds Weeds Weeds. I love farming :)

home sweet home

Well guys I just got back from a road trip with Mandy and damn its good to be home. I had a chance to catch up with Beanie's after a five day absence and, the food is flourishing. I ate a carrot, pea, and chioga beet all were absoulutely delish. Here is a quick look.

Market Mushies

This morning i found myself downtown at the local farmers market browsing others produce. Everything looked real good. There were loads of greens and green onions, but it seems that a little more time was needed for the true market variety. I spent some time picking the mind of a old hippy dubbed the mushie man. He talked me into a king Porcine. Here is a look at what i picked up, also a look at the Romanessco Broccoli which is taking off.

smoke bombs and sunshine

I'm happy to say that the sun has been shining and the plants are loving it. Its been a very mild spring and with all the rain and overcast we have been long overdue for a dose or two of sunshine. That being said, our brief moment of light was shattered when we discovered a Vole problem. Yes Vole a relative of the Mole. The dam things have tunneled around, and just like in the cartoons they have taken whole plants down in their burrows and smoothed out the tunnel entrance. Anyone have any ideas on how to get ride of them? So far its just been smoke bombs.

A quick look at Beanies



















Sun Choke. I've never ate one but I'm told that it tast like a nutty potatoe, and looks like a wierd Ginger root.


The corn. I guess everyone needs some corn.

Produce Porn

I'm very excited to offer up the first of what will be many pics of our production at BB this year. From left to right the heirloom varietal types are as follows: Red Champion, Juane d'Orvale, Long Black Spanish, and Saxa 2. It was truly a treat to deliver to Patty the first edible samples from the farm.

On another note, for those of you who are reading this who have not come out to see the project in person, I encourage you to do so. Get in touch with either myself or Joe and come check it out. This is something we want to share with all of our friends and family.

Make it Rain, Dutch Bros., Photostorm

Time to button down the hatches as we are again staring down the throat of a cold snap. We have been researching methods to improve our microclimate in the event of a frost, and I am fully invested in the make it rain method. This is a method that can work to gently lower the dewpoint around your garden itself, rather than allowing it to crash which can cause the type of frosting that will likely strike a death blow to your crop. Now let's hope I'm right. I guess it's time to be like Lil Weez and make it rain.

In the event that this method is faulty or poorly executed, we have been lucky enough to adopt an unofficial non-corporate sponsor in Dutch Brothers Coffee House, who has been kind enough to let me dumpster dive in their milk jug recycle bin. We are using these to create mini hot houses around all of our frost fragile plants, hoping to add another measure of protection to our arsenal.

I've included some photos to serve as a visual update, although the photos are already a couple days old even as I write this.

Couple rows of peppers, 69 plants in all.

Corner looking East/Southeast.

Tomatoes showing fences and cages.

Steve came out and actually worked!!!

Fool me once

Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time I left my beloved plants out in the cold to die. Or maybe it was that a part of me felt that the tomato crop deserved to suffer a similar blow as the pepper crop did a week ago. Whatever the reason, Joe and I decided to get some starts in the ground on what felt like a lovely (yet hungover) Saturday afternoon. You can guess how the story goes from here. Hopefully the only true fatality--meaning the only plant we don't have doubles of--is the incredible and now elusive ground cherry. If you or anyone you know may be able to get their hands on a ground cherry start or two, please let me know, cause I'm buyin.

The call came in. Joe was on the line and I immediately had but one question, "How are the peppers?" His reply rang hollow in my ear. "They're gone. All of them." And so we learned our first lesson of life and death at the farm this year. A tragic deep freeze hit us two evenings ago, and with it went our experimental row of peppers. It is my hope that such phenomenons are behind us, but I must remind myself that the true spirit of a farmer comes in his ability to be resilient in the face of nature, and to embrace that which gives life as that which also takes it away. Before I go to the farm to visit my dearly departed, I leave you with this quote, reminding us that all things truly are relative:

"Rocks fall and structures come down as a result of gravity, but at the atomic and molecular level, gravity is so weak that standard calculations ignore it." --Stephen Jay Gould

too eager?

That's right frozen . This may be our first failed project of the year, although I'm sure there's more to come the first always makes me sad. Eager gardening has taken its tole and half the trial row of pepppers are gone. Last post I mentioned a set of Windows that we had fastened together,well it turns out they were not enough to keep our poor peppers warm through the night. 29 degrees far too low .

blooms and bloomies

It's almost Monday. That means bloomsday is over and we are ready to get on with life. Lol not really it just means its that May is here , April showers are over , and the growing season is about to begin. Trev and I would love to plant the rest of our peppers and other starts, but this is the Spo and you never know when a freak hail storm will come . So we will wait. Better safe than sorry . Till then keep checking in and we will keep you posted on our progress.
" what the mind of man can conceive and believe , it can achieve ." Napoleon hill

BTW the farm was represented today by Trev and his sis both kicked ass and finished bloomsday within their goal . Maybe even a PR . Good job guys!

blogging on the go!

My first mobel blog. To cool. Today is overcast and we will be planting some peppers. A friend of trev's donated a few old windows so we will be using them as cold frames until its warmer.

Moving to the North Side

I've lived in Spokane my whole life, with the exception of a brief stint during college, and never once have I so much as entertained the idea of moving to the north side. However, after some careful consideration of spatial arrangement and available row space, we have decided we have no choice but to move to the north side of the barn and begin to utilize some of the additional land. We've decided to try out the technique of growing some of our squash and melons on cubic yard sized mounds. We shall see how that goes.

A big thanks goes out this week to Ross, who has truly embraced his title as Chicken Manager. He seems to have built quite a rapport with the peep--apparently even figuring out a rudimentary form of communication. Nice work Bill.

Here is a complete list of what is planted to date: mesclun, romaine lettuce, butterhead lettuce, arugula, onions, garlic, shallots, beets, peas, broccoli, romanesco, cabbage, radishes, carrots, a select few pepper plants. With any luck, we should have everything else in the ground within one weeks time.

So far we have Millie and Billie

We've added chickens to our ambitious list of undertakings at the plot this summer. They are looking young, vibrant, and quite healthy. And so begins the task of coming up with names for all of them, as they are now members of the farm family. Maggie, if you're out there somewhere, this one is for you. So far we've named two: Millie and Billie. Anyone who can guess what those stand for wins a free cookie.

Birds eye view of the Brassicas

Another amazing day at the farm. Our productivity went through the roof yesterday, and I am thinking that it had a lot to do with the sun. Our poor body's have been lacking in the sweet sun's vitamin D, but after a long day spent in the seasons first rays I'm not sure I haven't O.D.ed. OK maybe just acquired the seasons first sunburn. HA

Here is a look at our patterned cabage patch!

Joe faked an injury so he could be lazy

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Alright so just for the record, Joe did absolutely nothing on the day we finished the fence, and as a result I now have a neck and arm sunburn.

The fence seems to be doing its job thus far. Pretty sure it fended off its first deer at some point over the last few days, as several of the ties were broken. Easy to fix though, just as we planned it. Here's a quick video for your viewing pleasure.

Spring Has Sprung!

With all this sunshine and warm spring air comes great plant growth. Its crazy to see our starts grow over night, but no lie they truly do. Now that our starts are past the beginning stages of growth they are growing at a accelerated rate. I am sure that alot has to do with a healthy root system and once that is established the plant naturally does the rest. Mass nutrient flow from roots to leaves is key in insuring vigorous plant growth and just like Trev said it all starts with the dirt. But there are other factors that control just how well a plant can do in a certain area and that's genetics. A plants genetics are predeterminers in how boss a plant will be, and as we have found out non-hybridized plants don't necessarily have the strongest genes. Weak or not we will try our best for success. Enough garden jargon here are some updated photos and quote of the day.
"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."

Whoever said it was just dirt

With the last few days came the sad realization that we had shortchanged over half of our starts. Apparently they don't just put dirt from a field somewhere into those bags at the garden store so that they can sell it for more. After using a bag of high quality dirt to transplant around half the seedlings, we switched to recast dirt from the raised beds out back. Not a good plan. Within several days, it became obvious that all dirt is not created equal. The outcome is transplanting the rest AGAIN into better dirt homes. That and several hours and some extremely sore backs.

Thanks to Joe for having a more sore back than me, that always makes it easier to pull through.

That is a picture of a Jerusalem Artichoke. One of the stranger things Joe has insisted we plant, but I figure the most amazing thing in the world is something out there I've never tried, so maybe this is it.

Two work days, four hangovers

An updated view of the starts, and boy are they looking good.

Got to work today erecting the deer fence. We're saying that it is more of a deterrent, and less of a barrier to entry. I suppose time will tell.

Lastly a pic of Joe working on getting the onions in the ground. White sweet, red, and Italian cippolini are among the several varieties we will be working with this year.