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!