Defining the relationship: I'm going to be the farmer's wife

So our biggest news is that Jeff finally did the dirty deed and popped the question. Apparently he likes me a whole lot and wants to get married to me and have babies someday. I'll be honest, I'd been hinting for awhile now, but he had me pretty well convinced that he was just too busy to think about turning me into the Mrs. I wasn't taking it personally - we have been working harder than we've ever worked before and hardly have time for dinner each night, let alone deciding to get married. So it was my birthday on June 16th and I was just hoping not to get any presents that would require me to do more work (last year I was given Shosanna and Isabella, our rambunctious goats). The morning of my birthday, Jeff told me to go out to the goat barn with him and I thought, "Crap! Is it going to be a donkey? Another goat? Maybe a pig?" As soon as I entered the barn, Jeff handed me a wrapped box, which I opened to find a ring box. Still disbelieving, I thought, "Now this is a low prank...tease me with a ring box when he knows that's what I want more than anything." I kind of stood there with the ring box and he told me to open it. When I did, lo and behold, there was the most sparkly and beautiful ring I've ever seen. Me, being the classy gal that I am, asked, "Is it real?" What I meant was, "Really? You really want to marry me?" Jeff, thinking I was asking whether the ring was real, said, "Of course it's real, stupid! So, are you going to say yes?" That's when I said no....JUST KIDDING! Of course I said yes...with the goats as my witness, I eagerly, happily, ecstatically said yes to becoming Jeff the farmer's wife. So, that's the biggest farm news - we've finally, officially defined our relationship. No, I'm not an intern, nor am I just his amorphous "partner." I'm Jeff's fiance and he is mine and it is awesome!

Other exciting farm news:

• The first Armenian cucumbers are starting to come in and they are just as good as I remembered them!
  
• We ate the first ripe Early Girl tomatoes on our grassfed beef hamburgers last night and they were so good! Next on my first tomatoes of the year list: BLTs!
  
• We're getting closer to opening the new and improved Redwood Empire Farm store, so keep your ears and eyes peeled for more info.
  

I'm back!

Believe me when I say that I feel extremely guilty when I neglect my blog. I’m quite proud of this written record of the life we are living and building and I really don’t want too many gaps and omissions in my account. I have a really good excuse for not writing recently, though, I promise. I have been fighting with technology – my computer’s been on the fritz, my internet connection has been extremely shaky, and my printer is completely out of ink and I haven’t had time to drive down the dreaded Santa Rosa Avenue to get more. Contrary to what you might imagine, I don’t have a fancy, high-speed computer control room where I coordinate our business and write my emails and blogs. I have a hand-me-down Blackberry and a laptop that chugs along well enough, but no real internet connection or phone lines. It’s a rustic and improvised technological infrastructure I deal with, to say the least.

It’s not so bad though, because when technology gets the best of me, I seek solace in the outdoors and throw myself into work on the farm. Not that I really have a choice about how much work I do on the farm – we have so much to do that Jeff and I are both busy from the moment we wake up until well after dark. Today, for instance, has been jam packed with planting tomatoes, preparing beds for planting peppers and basil, picking squash, broccoli, kale, and arugula, and taking care of a slew of other farm chores
We are busy, busy bees these days. It’s hard to imagine that not that long ago I still thought I could pursue a career as a teacher while farming. I was 95% sure that my decision to dedicate myself to farming was right, but now that I have put all of myself into the farm and the farm has given back so much more than I ever hoped, I know that my decision was perfect.

I have always wanted to make a difference in the world, my community, and the lives of those around me. I am sure that Jeff and I, in all of our efforts and strides to grow our farm and ourselves, are making a bigger difference than I could make any other way. I get to grow beautiful food that brings people happiness and health, I get to meet and work with people who share my vision, and I’m even finding a way to be a source of knowledge, experience, and support for young people who want to learn to be farmers too. Our farm is organic in so many senses of the word – it grows naturally, sustainably, and adapts to the world in which it is firmly seated. The farm’s ability to transition and adapt to the changing world and our community’s needs is what will make it long-lasting, successful, and is what makes Jeff and I so excited every day to do our work.

Beautiful Dirt

Good dirt is a beautiful thing. Black, rich, moist, crumbly – it practically emanates life and the desire to grow. I was just riding along with Jeff on the tractor as he did his final disking of our bottom pasture in preparation for its planting. As we drove along, I watched, delighted, as the strong soil erupted out of the ground, turning itself into what I know will be fertile land. Every once and awhile my reverie was broken and I had to hop off and clear rocks by throwing them into the bucket of the tractor. I’m not complaining, though, because there’s nothing better for one’s constitution than some hearty rock tossing.

Perfect soil is not easy to come by, which is why it’s so gratifying when it finally reaches its prime. A couple years ago, our bottom pasture was just an ordinary horse pasture full of rocks and weeds and too rough even for our retro tractor. But now, after two years of cover cropping, chicken raising, horse manure, and vegetable growing, it’s ready to go. We have dug that pasture by hand, pushed wheelbarrows full of rocks from it, watered it, added nutrients to it, and talked to it. I can’t even tell you how many watermelons Jeff sacrificed in its honor last summer; he would cut out the heart and eat it, leaving the shell behind for the pasture to use for its benefit. We have put ourselves into that land and now, hopefully, it will reward us more than it already has.

On a less philosophical note, today was a market day. Markets require a lot of preparation (picking, packing, loading, etc) and are always a bit stressful because we depend on them to sell the majority of our produce each week. A busy market is loads of fun, but a slow market can quickly become nerve-wracking as I start to worry about making sure none of our product is wasted and how we will cover our bills. Farmers really do rely on the Farmers’ Markets to help them do business – they are, in many cases, the only outlet for farmers to sell their produce.

In addition to being our place of retail business, the farmers’ market is also a place where we gather together with other agricultural professionals, as well as our customers, and share our blessings and burdens. Every week, there is some intense topic of conversation, whether it be the good weather, the bad weather, fungus and pests, weeds, insurance, restaurants, wholesalers, varieties of plants, and equipment. By the end of the day on Saturdays, my head is usually spinning with all the ideas that have been sparked and I’m ready to pass out in a tired stupor.

Jeff and I have always thought that farmers’ markets would make a great subject for a “mockumentary” movie (think “Best in Show”). The places are filled to the brim with individuals who have all sorts of eccentric qualities – and I’m including Jeff and myself in the mix. Because of the unique nature of our jobs, we always have weird and improbable stories to tell and, because we’re only human, there’s always at least a half dozen soap opera-esque dramas playing. I’m pretty sure that the farmers’ market would make such a great movie, I am hereby exercising my intellectual property rights and staking claim to the idea. You read it here first, folks - the Market movie was mentally birthed by Jeff and Ariel of Redwood Empire Farm

Blights and Scapes

Today was another long and hard work day. We weeded, watered, picked, and planted. We spent a few hours trying to help some tomatoes that have a nasty blight from all the rain and cold. I felt like a surgeon trying to remove cancerous cells as I crawled along the rows, reaching up into the plants, and carefully removing blighted leaves. Working with sick plants isn't fun at all. The whole time, I'm sad for the plants, like they're my good friends who aren't feeling well.

The highlight of my day was pulling garlic scapes. If you don't know about scapes, here's the deal. Not long before it is mature, hardneck garlic throws up a long, slender, big chive looking thing thing that, if left, would eventually turn into the flower. It's best to remove the scapes when they appear, because that improves the overall garlic bulb formation. Well, the lucky coincidence is that scapes are great to use in cooking. They taste just like garlic cloves, except slightly more mild and light in flavor (somewhat like chives). My favorite thing about scapes is that they're super easy to use - you just chop them up and use them as you would garlic. If you want to get your hands on some garlic scapes and try them out, we will have them at the market for a couple of weeks or you can check with any organic farmer usually grows garlic. Chances are that if a farmer grows garlic, he'll have garlic scapes.

Garlic Scapes!

Weeds and Bees

Whew! Another busy day on the farm. Along with picking and packing CSA bags, it was the day for tackling all the weeds that are growing rampant all over the farm. I think Jeff mowed and weedwhacked for a solid eight hours straight. The poor guy will probably be wheezing from allergies for days, but the job had to be done. Weed erradication is important because it's really hard to see the farm clearly when it's overgrown. Clearing the weeds is kind of like cleaning the kitchen before preparing a big, complicated meal - you need all the space you can get so you have room to make the next mess.

The highlight of my day was getting to see a wild swarm of bees move into one of the bee boxes that we have on the farm. The last couple of years have been so dicey for bees everywhere that we wanted to introduce extra bees to the property, as well as attract wild bees. Rob the Honey Guy brought us some bee boxes and bees and we also got a bee "trap" box intended to draw in wild bees. Since we got the trap box, we had seen some bees check it out, but it had yet to be fully inhabited by a swarm. Today, though, the swarm descended. I wish I had a better camera so that I could have taken a good picture, because it was the coolest thing. Seemingly out of nowhere, a swarm of bees appeared and filled the air around the tree in which the trap box sits. The swarm was about 30 feet by 30 feet of solid bees...incredible! Within five minutes, the air had cleared as the bees made their way into their new home. I'm telling you, it was so cool. I felt like I was watching some spectacular nature display on the Discovery Channel, but lucky me, it was right on our farm. I'm always amazed how often I see the most special natural occurrences in my day to day life. Even though it may feel like we live in the midst of a concrete jungle full of cars and shopping malls, all that crazy, man-made chaos exists within the much larger natural world. So. even if we aren't actively seeking out nature by going hiking in a park or camping in the wilderness, if we just open our eyes and stay attuned to our surroundings, we'll undoubtedly see nature's most intricate and incredible workings.

So, there's my challenge for you. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, look for nature. I bet that you'll be able to see nature even in the most unlikely places. And if you look for nature enough, I guarantee you'll see something so awesome that it trumps anything on the Discovery Channel.

Let the Sun Shine!

I haven't written anything this week because I didn't want to complain about the weather. When I woke up at dawn on Thursday morning to the loudest thunder and brightest lightning I've experienced in years and then when the sky opened and rain and hail came pouring down, I honestly thought it might be a bad dream. I like rain, really I do, but this May has been something else. Farmers have a schedule that we need to stick to in order to get our crops off in a timely fashion. Usually, April 15th (the last frost date) marks the beginning of a planting bonanza. April and May are the busiest planting months of the year and set the stage for the entire Summer. This year, however, we have had cold temperatures (both at night and during the day) and rain throughout April and May, which has made planting nearly impossible. Every other local farmer that I have talked to has said that they are behind because they simply haven't been able to get into their fields because of the wet weather. The reason wet weather prevents us from planting is because we can't drive tractors in the mud and even if we could work the ground enough to plant, plants planted in too wet of conditions are prone to fungus, disease, don't grow very well. There's a reason why Summer crops don't grow in the Winter - they need seasonal Summer weather in order to grow! Seasonal produce requires seasonal weather, which we really haven't had this Spring.

I'm not complaining, though, because today the weather is beautiful. Hopefully the sun and heat will last and all of us local farmers will be able to get back on schedule.

Enough about the weather! Now that it's almost June, we've started planning the opening of our Farm Stand. Hopefully we will open sometime in June with days and hours to be determined. The exciting news is that last year's rustic and weather exposed parking lot Roadside Stand will be a bit more weather proof and permanent this year. We will be moving our produce stand into the space formerly occupied by Carter's Feeds, which means we'll have electricity (lights!) and shelter from the weather. Initially, we'll be selling our produce, fruit, and eggs, but in time, we hope to expand to create a hub for those involved in local agriculture (both growers and eaters). We have so many ideas and plans - I guarantee it will be exciting to watch how our farm and business evolve over the next year.

It's important to acknowledge that our positive evolution is due in large part to the support of our community and customers and to the green-friendly atmosphere of our society. I was just in Copperfields Book Store and whole displays are dedicated to organic farming, seasonal eating and cooking, and the appreciation of nature. Right now, farming is cool. Because of people's attitudes about the environment and interest in getting back to basics, Jeff and I get to pursue our greatest dreams, live the best lives we're able, and try to help change the world for the better. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. We are living our dream, thanks to people's genuine interest in what we're doing. So, to make a long story short- We're not content to just stay the same farm year after year; we always want to grow more, grow better, and feed more people. Last year, we grew more than ever before and opened a Road Side Stand. This year, we have more acreage, are expanding our Stand, and started a CSA. And next year? We will most likely be doing (or trying to do) something even more spectacular than all that has come before. I don't mean to sound arrogant at all. It's just that Jeff and I have really high expectations for ourselves and will work as hard as we can to accomplish our goals. What can I say? We're kind of crazy.

A Cucumber Love Story

Last summer, at our Roadside Stand, we sold Armenian cucumbers (along with everything else). For those of you who don't know, Armenian Cucumbers are the greatest cucumber, if not the greatest vegetable ever. These beauties grow over a foot long and curl into crazy shapes, not to mention that they are seedless, don't need to be peeled, and have the most refreshing and perfect cucumber flavor. People who like cucumbers love these. People who hate cucumbers even like them.

Anyway, we were selling Armenian cucumbers at our stand and we had one customer who would come every week and fill her bags full of cucumbers. Every week, she raved about how amazing they were and how much she loved them. After a couple weeks, she told me that her boyfriend had been visiting her and they ate one of our Armenian Cucumbers. That night, her boyfriend got up in the middle of the night and went and ate more cucumber because he couldn't stop thinking about it. The woman and I discussed whether it would be worth it to try and ship him cucumbers, but we eventually decided they probably wouldn't survive the journey. You can be sure, though, that she stocked up on Armenians before his next visit. It just goes to show the things people will do for a really good cucumber.

I'm happy to report that we have Armenian cucumbers in the ground and they are doing their best to grow despite the unseasonably cold whether. Hopefully it'll heat up and those plants can give us cucumbers soon!