One of the farm roads, flanked by flowers, moveable caterpillars, winter squash we are bringing in to cure today, and farm compost piles in the distance. Come explore your farm.
I’m not sure if there’s any time better (well perhaps spring transplant season) to walk around a farm. Our sun ripped winter squash are coming in today for curing and more sweeting in our new greenhouse. Plants are overloaded with peppers, tomatoes (we have flats available) are still on the vine, and new crops are steadily going in for what I like to call our winter farm, but it’s really just another season. It’s the time when there’s a ton to harvest, but also a ton of transition, mentally and physically on a farm. Literally as beds of greens are harvested out, cover crop is seeded immediately. As the last cucumbers in one tunnel are harvested, beds are reshaped and weeds are allowed to germinate before direct seeding a week later. And behind the scenes, we are getting ready to get the band back together: some rockstar farm-member builders along with our team are prepping complete the next stage of our packshed so we literally have a space for everything that’s coming in. It’s a chess game and since we won’t meet all of the crucial deadlines, we’ve lined up rental backup spaces literally all over the Bitterroot for our crops. It’s both wonderful and terrible; and we’ve promised the winter team that we’ll get moved in so we aren’t moving too many thousands of pounds (but there will be some) of potatoes and onions around the valley.
Above, the aerial view of the farm from the new (well, it’s reclaimed metal) packshed roof. I always like to say we haven’t grown much over the past few years, but golly, the farm has become a lot more productive.
That’s where you come in. We are eating our way out of the problem; with bulk 5 pound sweet pepper bags (perfect for grilling and then freezing) for $18 and some deals on bunch greens (all kinds of kale and chard), 4 for $10, as well as lots of napa and green cabbage that needs to get out of our field and coolers so other stuff can come in and there are also a lot of tomatoes. We are turning that money right back into the local economy as we work on our packshed that really is crucial to a four season farm and good, longterm farmer moral.
The new to us potato harvester, purchased from farmer’s down the road (Lindsay and Randy) literally will save us 100 hours this season and it may make the difference between getting the potatoes in on time with other pressing winter transplant and seeding deadlines.
We’ll host the farmstore today from 3-6pm, like always on Tuesday, but it’s a great time to walk the fields, the farm roads, visit the hens (they will be moved later this week to fresh pasture), and cheer on our crew. Not including Mary and I, we had five people on Friday and today we have a total of five farmers. That’s really the big evolution this year; working on managing, training, leadership and the packshed is all part of helping us get to the next level, as both farmers and leaders. Like it or not, as I say, we are all on this together and you can do your best part by just eating, supporting our farm and our farmer-neighbors.
Thank you. We cannot express our gratitude enough.
View of some potatoes from the front of our larger tractor, just because it’s so impressive.
Bunches of kale and chard for freezing, 4 for $10 in the farmstore.
Farm cat Zukes (short for zucchini) rests in the root washer.