Farm News February 2018
Greetings from the Farm! After a quiet couple of months, the pace is picking up once again. Signs of spring are all around, despite the brief cold snap expected tomorrow. Today was a classic day of extreme PNW spring weather with high winds (power outages!) lowering temperatures, sunshine, rain and even a little snow. When we do get freezing temperatures in the forecast, we have to make sure we take care to turn heaters on in the well houses, drain all hoses and outdoor water pipes, put extra cloths on our greenhouse crops and tender starts, turn heat lamps on in the chicken coops and harvest as much produce as we can! In the morning, we’ll need to bring warm water out to the animals to break up the ice in their waterers. Because these cold temperatures are not the norm for us, we have a little back and forth in the spring months. One day seeding radishes in the ground the next day scraping snow off the greenhouses.
In the quieter winter months there is still plenty to do. We use this time to plan and prepare for the coming season. There are orders for seeds, amendments, materials, plants, potting soil etc. We draw out field maps and plan all our successions of crops. There is also the process of hiring our three seasonal interns and scheduling various farm events. We do find time for working outdoors as well! We’ve continued to harvest and periodically our farm stand is opened with fresh winter-time produce such as broccoli, cabbage, carrots, eggs, squash, salad, kale, onions and garlic.
Throughout the winter, elementary students have been visiting the farm on Thursdays. We’ve spent our time finishing off fall projects like our dry bean threshing and sunflower seed saving. We have gathered windfall branches and made burn piles and stocked firewood stores for spring overnights and summer camps. The past two weeks we have been digging the last of our overwintering carrots, a favorite activity for sure. There is nothing quite like digging for buried treasure to keep children engaged!
We will begin spreading compost, planting native plants, cleaning and organizing our tools and greenhouse seeding in the coming weeks among other projects. And we will welcome back the middle school students in March.
We are also looking forward to some upcoming farm-related events and we hope to see you there! ~Jen
April 28th Farm Work Party
May 2nd PCS Plant Sale (Herbs, Flowers and Vegetable starts from the farm)
May 19th Farm Celebration