When We Will Be Where

The start of Market Season always feels a bit like those autumnal first days back at school-  it's hard to put the harness back on and settle down to a regimented schedule, but it's so much fun to see everyone again- familiar friends with stories to tell, and all kinds of new and interesting people to meet and get to know.  I approach it with equal amounts of excitement and anxiety, but I am so looking forward to this season that excitement is winning out this year.

2008 is shaping up to be a busy season for us, and we wanted to let you know what our plans are so that you can come out and meet us at one of the events or markets we will be at.  We will have lots of great plant starts, edible things and gorgeous flower bouquets to share with you, as well as a whole host of crafty stuff and catnip temptations that Eddie the Cat has been quality testing for us all winter long.

Come see us!  We have stories to tell, and can't wait to hear yours.

2008 Ostman Farm Calendar  (So Far)

Clatsop County Master Gardeners present:

'Spring Into Gardening- from 'A'phids to 'Z'ucchini'

Saturday, April 12, 2008

8:00 am- 4:00 pm

Clatsop County Fairgrounds

The Clatsop County Master Gardeners annual garden education event promises to be a good one this year- wonderful speakers (ahem!), great vendors, the always tempting Master Gardener Plant Sale and a fantastic raffle will no doubt help to get all of our gardening juices going out here on the North Coast.  I really enjoy this event, and it is a great start to the market season for us.  I realize I am confessing to being a complete gardening geek here, but  I just find it so stimulating to spend a whole day talking and sharing information with hundreds of other garden enthusiasts who really aren't just pretending to be interested in what happened to your garden over the winter.  I'll be giving one of the talks this year (more on that below) which I am...mostly...ready for.

This event is one of the best values around- $15 if you preregister,  and $18 if you pay at the door.  That gets you into all of the classes, which look to be especially good this year.  There are four one hour long classes, and I think they start at 9:00 am.  The Keynote speaker is Glen Andresen, who hosts the radio show 'The Dirtbag' on KBOO in Portland.  Through the magic of the internet, I have been able to listen to some of his shows, and he is a very entertaining speaker.  He focuses on edible gardening, a subject dear to my heart, and I am really looking forward to his talk.  I am so annoyed that someone scheduled Rose Marie Nichols McGee's talk on container gardening at the same time as the talk I am giving, so if you go to her talk, take good notes and tell me what she says.  She's giving another talk in the afternoon session on heirloom vegetables, which should be great.

Ostman Farm will have a booth in the Vendor Marketplace, which is open free to the public all day.  Come check out some of this year's new crop of tempting plant starts, as well as all of the lovely crafty things we have been busy making over the winter.

I have come to realize that a great way to interest people in what I have to say is to feed them while I am saying it, thus my talk this year is:

'From the Garden To the Table'  11:00 am-12:00 noon

I will be joined by the fabulous Iris Sullivan from the Blue Scorcher Bakery Cafe in Astoria, and we will be giving a talk on what to do in the kitchen with all of that great produce that you are going to grow this year.  (Or buy at one of our many wonderful farmer's markets.) Creative cooking tips, cooking demonstrations, recipe handouts and best of all-  yummy samples to tempt your taste buds, and inspire you to plant all kinds of delicious and beautiful vegetables in your garden this year.  Including kale.  

For more information about this whole event, 

contact the county extension office at: (503) 325-8573

Clatsop County Community Garden Event

'The Garden Graze'

May 8th, 2008

The Seafood Center, Astoria, OR

Ostman Farm will be donating something wonderful to the Silent Auction fundraiser part of this event.   Packy and I will both be there to support this great benefit event for the Community Gardens and Food Bank, and to enjoy the wonderful local and regional wines and cuisine being served.  Rumor has it that there will be a Community Garden starting in Seaside this year, which we are very pleased to hear about.  Come out and join us in supporting our local Community Garden movement!

For more information contact Sunny Hunt at the County Extension Office: (503)325-8573

Astoria Sunday Market

Sundays from May 11th (Mother's Day)- October 5th, 2008

10:00 am-3:00 pm

Located in beautiful, historic downtown Astoria, Oregon.  ASM is the Big Market on the North Coast, just heaving with vendors and temptations, of which Ostman Farm is, of course, one of the most tempting and beautiful.  Our booth is on 12th Street, just opposite the Hotel Elliot, and right in from of the wonderful Lucy's Books.  Stop by early for the best selection of this year's tomato plants, as well as all of the other great plant starts and crafty stuff.  Flower bouquets will probably start up at the end of May, or early June, depending on what the weather does. (Oh, the Sweet Peas I am starting this year!  Glorious!)

Manzanita Farmer's Market

Friday afternoons from June 27-September 12th

5:00pm-8:00pm

467 Laneda Street (in the Windermere Real Estate parking lot)

for more info contact: fairtradediva@yahoo.com

Such a great little market, located in one of the prettiest towns on the Oregon Coast.  We love the relaxed, welcoming atmosphere of this market- friendly locals, happy tourists in town for the weekend, wonderful vendors, lots of organic produces and the best selection of local, pasture raised meat we've seen this side of the Coast Range.  Round the whole thing out with great food (We hope the Sushi People will be back! And those fantastic burgers made with Lance and Tammi's pasture fed beef are worth waiting in line for) and wonderful music and it all makes this market feel more like a weekly community barbeque.  We love it.  We'll have lots of edible plants, cut fresh herbs and other edible temptations, all the great crafty stuff and of course our ever popular flower bouquets.  We are planting extra flowers this year to keep up with demand!  Hope to see you there.

Cannon Beach Farmers' Market

Tuesday afternoons from June 17th-September 30th

2:00pm-6:00pm

S. Hemlock Street & E. Gower Street

The new market in the area, and practically in our own back yard, so how can we not participate?  We are so pleased to see this market starting up, especially for its wonderful focus on fresh produce and edibles, and for its commitment to being a good market for locals, not just visitors to the coast.  South Clatsop County residents will now have easy access to the freshest produce around, plus lots of other edible temptations to inspire you in your kitchen.  We can't wait to connect with all of you Cannon Beach folks, and to meet more of our South County neighbors.  Come out and join us in supporting this market in its fledgling year.

Lughnasa Festival

July 26th, 2008

in the parking lot next to the Blue Scorcher Bakery and Fort George Brewery

Astoria, Oregon

The second annual Lughnasa Festival is shaping up to be even more fun than the first one, and that was plenty fun!  Lughnasa is a traditional Celtic festival marking the end of the summer growth and the beginning of the Autumn harvest, also called Lammas in some traditions.  One of the key elements of this festival is a blessing of the first bread of the harvest, and who better to offer up the best bread for that honor but the greatest little bakery on the North Coast, the Blue Scorcher.  Partnering with their great neighbors the Fort George Brewery, the folks at Blue Scorcher put on a lively festival, with great music, lots of good food, farmers like us, selling their bounty of harveted goods, brewing demonstrations, games for kids, several cake walks which were amazingly popular, more good music, lots of happy people and some very well-blessed bread.  

Lower Nehalem Community Trust 

Harvest Festival

Sometime in early October

We'll let you know the date as soon as it is set, but we encourage you to come out for this great Harvest Festival down in Manzanita.  The Lower Nehalem Community Trust property at Alder Creek Farm is so beautiful, and the Harvest Festival is a great way to wind up the summer.  Fun music, fresh pressed apple cider, the best pie potluck ever (there are some great cooks on the North Coast!), great friendly people, wonderful local vendors sell all kinds of bounty from their harvests, an inspiring permaculture vegetable garden and fruit orchard to tour, wildlife to spot (birds and elk mostly, some people...) and a wonderful atmosphere make this one of our favorite annual events.  

That's all that is officially on our calendar so far for this year, but keep checking back to see if we add something else to the list- there are some good things coming that are still in the planning stages, but may hit the official calendar soon.

We look forward to seeing you all this season!

NOT The Color of Spring!

I don't know what the weather is doing where you live, but here on the North Coast of Oregon, it has been snowing and hailing and slushing and sleeting and just in general behaving in a very Un-Springlike Manner.

I've never been really keen on white as a color, and this weather is doing nothing to change that opinion.

All this wonky weather is wreaking havoc with our attempts to get our new greenhouse finished- the grow lights in the house are all full to bursting point with seedlings waiting for their chance to head outside, except they need that all-important transition period in the greenhouse first. I am beyond frustrated by this!

And don't even try talking about going outside to Eddie the Cat, he hasn't moved from his position in the chair next to the wood stove for days.

Cats are not dumb.

If you have an excess of sunshine in your area, please send some our way- we will make good use of it, I promise.

The Color of Spring

Yellow has never been my favorite color. I don't dislike it, but it has never been the color that came to mind first when asked the inevitable "what's your favorite color?" question. When I was about nine years old, it was unequivocally purple, any and all shades of purple (I know, I know, but at least is wasn't pink).  Somewhere along the line, my preference shifted to green, where it has remained. Green is an amazing color, and the more that I work with plants, and observe the natural world around me, the more I realize just how many shades of green there are. The first flush of leaves on a vine maple tree, new spring grass, the soft grey green of sage leaves, the beautiful deep blue green of Tuscan kale, the deep greeny green of cedar trees- there are hundreds, thousands of shades of green, and all of them are lovely and interesting to me.

But ever since we moved to Ostman Farm, yellow has been moving up in the ranks, thanks largely to the late Hilma Ostman and her daffodil bulbs. Mrs. Ostman planted these bulbs back in the 1930s and 40s.  They are everywhere on the farm, but thickest here on the hill just below where our lavender is planted. I'm not exactly sure which variety of daffodil it is, although working my way through the bulb possibilities at Old House Gardens, the amazing heirloom bulb company, the one it seems closest to is called 'Van Sion'.



When we first moved here, this hillside was covered with a 10 foot tall thicket of blackberries, but we were told by a former tenant that there were bulbs growing underneath the vines. This meant cautious vine removal, no scraping of the hillside for easy invasive eradication. It was a herculean task, involving a lot of cursing and fighting with 20 foot long vines that ripped at our clothes and got tangled in our hair, but in the end we won, mostly. It is a truce at best, and we know that several years of neglect would bring the blackberries roaring back. However, the incentive to stay on top of them is this:



Every spring, starting sometime in late January, the bulbs start to pop up. By mid February they have started to bloom- usually just in time to trigger a massive hailstorm, it seems. But there are always lovely sunny days when the hillside just glows with golden yellow, and the sight of all of these daffodils swaying in the breeze makes me ridiculously happy.

The other sure sign around here of the shifting seasons is a less celebrated plant, but one that holds a place of deep affection in my heart. Skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanum) is aptly named, as it really does have a pungent smell reminiscent of an encounter with our little furry black and white friends. Native throughout the Pacific Northwest, it grows thickly in the wetland
and boggy areas of our farm, and it usually beats the daffodils by a week or so in popping itself up out of the ground in all of its yellow and green stinky glory and announcing that no matter what anyone else might think, Spring is On The Way.



I'll be honest, I enjoy strolling along Daffodil Hill admiring the blooms far more than slogging through The Bog to go look at the skunk cabbage, but the giddy happy feeling that all that yellow inspires in me is pretty much the same when I look at both plants. Spring isn't here quite yet, but I know it is wandering briskly in our direction.

Dreaming of Tomatoes....

In about a week I will start sowing seeds for this year's tomatoes. I feel a bit giddy with anticipation. Of all the things that we grow here at Ostman Farm, nothing generates the intense interest and passion that the tomatoes do. I'm not sure quite what it is about this plant that so gets into our blood and makes us go to all kinds of lengths to produce that Holy Grail of the Northwest gardening experience: The Ripe Homegrown Tomato. I have never fought so hard for each and every ripe fruit I get, and the effort makes success, when it happens, all the sweeter. It's the taste, I suppose, that drives us. Nothing, nothing tastes quite like a vine-ripened, homegrown tomato, eaten moments after it is picked.

We've been growing tomatoes here on the Northwest Oregon Coast for a while now, and are beginning to get a feel for which varieties have the best chance of success here. We owe a lot to the great tomato breeders in Russia and Eastern Europe who have given us some of our most successful ones- Stupice from the former Czechoslovakia, Black Prince and Paul Robeson from Russia to name a few of our favorites. We're also lucky to have in our state the wonderful Dr. James Baggett at Oregon State University, who has bred some of the best tomatoes for our challenging climate, favorites like Oregon Spring, Legend, and Siletz, the last of which we are trying out for the first time this year- Thanks Dr. Baggett!

Early season, short season, smaller fruited varieties that have a better chance of ripening- these are the ones that we come back to again and again. We throw a few larger, long-ish season varieties into our mix just because we all like a challenge, and we have a surprising number of Brandywine fans out here on the coast, ourselves included. We all accept that there will be a lot of hand-holding and pleading involved, and we will be pathetically satisfied with a pretty meager crop of ripe tomatoes, but let me tell you, being able to boast that you got a Brandywine to ripen in Seaside, Oregon is nothing to sneeze at.

I always grow some Green Zebras too, which is one of my very favorite tomatoes ever. I find it beautiful (green is my favorite color), and one of the tastiest tomatoes I have ever grown. It is gorgeous in a mixed tomato salad, or sliced in a layered tomato tart. I don't know if it is just too weird for people out here, but we hardly ever sell any. Still, each year I grow about ten of them, and bring them to market and try to convert just one more person to the Green Zebra Fan Club.

So, here is our list of what tomato plants we are growing here on Ostman Farm this year. There are a few new ones (to us) that we are trying out this year- Silvery Fir, Siletz, Plum Lemon, Hezhou, Alaska, and Reisentraube. And there are the returning favorites- Stupice, Sungold, Paul Robeson, Principe Borghese, Brandywine and Yellow Pear to name a few. And Green Zebra, of course!

For our local customers, the tomatoes are usually ready to sell by the first week in May, which is when the Astoria Sunday Market starts. They may be ready to go a bit earlier, so e mail us or give us a call if you want to pick some up in late April, in case you have a greenhouse or a cold frame and want to get them going. We will hold plants for you if we can arrange for a firm pick up date either here at the farm, or at the Astoria Market, but we can't hold plants indefinitely, so if you want to be sure you get the varieties you want, get them early before we sell out!

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for better summer weather this year....

OSTMAN FARM TOMATO LIST 2008

CHERRIES

Sungold       65 days, Hybrid, Indeterminate, Early-season
We could not imagine a summer without Sungold tomatoes. Our favorite cherry tomato by far, this vigorous vine produces abundant clusters of deep orange-cherry tomatoes that explode with tangy sweetness. Great in salads, if any make it back to the kitchen. Most of ours get eaten right off the plant. Bred to be resistant to Fusarium and Verticillium wilt.

Black Cherry       64 days, Indeterminate, Early-season, Organic seed
This tall, vigorous plant produces abundant crops of 1” deep mahogany brown fruits. The only truly ‘black’ cherry tomato around, it is delicious and sweet, with the rich flavor that black tomatoes are known for. Very popular with Ostman Farm customers, this one always sells out early, and for good reason- tasty and beautiful is hard to beat.

Riesentraube       80 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season, Organic Seed
This is an old European heirloom that was grown by the Pennsylvania Dutch as early as 1856. Its name roughly translates to: ‘Giant bunches of grapes’, and this variety was indeed once commonly used to make tomato wine. (Who Knew? Look it up online for recipes, we are SO going to try making some this summer!) Reisentraube is a generous producer, with of big clusters of 20-40 1”, pointy ended, tasty red fruit. I can’t wait.

Sebastopol     75 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season, Organic seed
Another cherry with lots of potential for our coastal climate, this beauty originates from an elderly lady in Sebastopol who grew them in her garden for 70 years. A large cherry tomato, it produces 3/4” deep red fruits that are delicious to snack on, or in salads. The seed comes to us by way of the great folks at TomatoFest. They describe it as “well-suited for cooler, coastal regions, or short season gardens and areas with foggy summer climates.” Ah, summer on the Northwest Coast…


PEAR, PLUM AND GRAPE

Yellow Pear      75 days, Indeterminate, Mid-season, Organic Seed
This old-time favorite is a great addition to your tomato garden. It produces an abundance of small 1-2” pear-shaped fruits that are a lovely deep yellow color. Mild tasting and low in acid like all yellow tomatoes, it has good flavor and looks great mixed with other color tomatoes in a salad. Good for snacking, beautiful in salads, popular with all ages of gardeners.

Principe Borghese      80 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season
In Tuscany this is the preferred tomato to grow for drying, and it is our favourite one for that use as well, although here on the Oregon coast we have to use a dehydrator rather than the sun.  Princepe Borghese produces generous clusters of small 1-2” plum-shaped red fruits that have a nice tomato flavor when fresh. The flavor is greatly intensified when dried.

Thai Pink Egg     75 days, Determinate, Mid-season, Organic seed
A most popular tomato in the Kingdom of Thailand, this lovely little grape tomato is gaining a strong following in America for its abundant production of dark pink egg-shaped fruits. The 1-2” fruits burst with candy sweet flavor, and they resist cracking, even in heavy rain seasons. A beautiful, tasty and unusual tomato.


Plum Lemon      72 Days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season
Seeds for this tomato were first collected by Kent Whealy, founder of the wonderful Seed Savers Exchange, from an elderly seedsman at Moscow’s Bird Market during the August 1991 coup. Another great cold-tolerant tomato out of Russia, Plum Lemon produces 3” long tomatoes with a pointy end that really do resemble lemons. Sweet and mild yet full of flavor, it is a solid, meaty fruit good for both salads and sauce.

THE REDS

Stupice     52 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Extra-early season,  Organic Seed
This potato-leaf heirloom from Czechoslovakia is one of our most reliable tomatoes. It is a cold-tolerant tomato that bears an abundant crop of small 2-3” fruits over a long season. For us, it is the first one to bear fruit, and the last one to still be producing in October. Delicious sweet/acid flavor balance. Grows very well on the North Coast, very popular with Ostman Farm customers who often tell us that this is the first tomato they have ever grown successfully here on the Northwest coast.

Oregon Spring       60 days, Sort of Determinate, Early season,  Organic seed
The classic tomato for Oregon! Developed at OSU by Dr. James Baggett, this tomato has earned a strong following in Oregon for its tolerance of cool summers. Small 2-3” fruits are produced on bushy plants that can still grow pretty big, so plan on supporting them. The early fruit production means more chance of ripe fruit- so you can enjoy the sweet, juicy, tasty tomatoes all summer long.


Legend      68 days, Determinate, Early-season, Organic seed
Another one of the many great tomatoes to come out of Dr. James Baggett’s breeding program at Oregon State University, Legend earns its place in our garden by producing a nice compact, bushy, determinate plant that fruits early in the season, giving the tomatoes as much time as possible to ripen. The 3-4 inch round fruits are red and flavorful, with a good balance of sweet and acid. Legend may not be as sexy as the Black Russians, but its a good, solid, dependable tomato plant. Bred to be resistant to late blight fungus.


Alaska      63 days, Heirloom, Semi-determinate, Early-season,  Organic seed
It’s called ‘Aljaska’ in Russian, which is where this tomato originates. Medium-sized, bushy plants produce a good yield of round, bright red ‘salad’ tomatoes- larger than a cherry-type, smaller than a beefsteak. This tomato has very good flavor for such an early producer. Rumored to be able to tolerate some wind, which would be great for here at the coast.

Hezhou      80 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season, Organic seed
This variety originates in Zhengjiang province in China, and was sent to Gary Ibsen of TomatoFest from a family farm there. It bears a good crop of 2” purple-red tomatoes, slightly plum shaped with a yummy sweet flavor on a compact though indeterminate vine. A tasty salad tomato, with good ripening potential in our coastal climate.


Siletz      52 days, Determinate, Extra early-season
Our friend Dan recommended we give Siletz a try this year, and if he could grow a decent tomato in his garden in Hammond, Oregon, then this one should do well anywhere! Siletz is another one out of Dr. Jim Baggett’s program at Oregon State University, and the word is that it produces and abundance of 8oz red fruits loaded with old-time flavor- something not all these bred-to-be-hardy tomatoes can offer. Dwarf, determinate plants make it easy to find a place for it in your garden. We are looking forward to trying this one.

Silvery Fir Tree      58 days, Determinate, Early season, Organic Seed
I have heard great things about this tomato, and I’m excited to be trying it out this year- it has great potential for us challenged tomato growers of the Northwest coast. Another early season Russian wonder, it grows into a compact, determinate plant- 24” tall at most. Recommended for containers and hanging baskets, the beautiful lacey grey-green foliage is most attractive. And the tomatoes? Heavy cropping, 3” roundish, red and tasty. If this is as good as they say, we might just be in luck this summer.


COLORFUL AND UNUSUAL

Paul Robeson      74 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season,  Organic Seed
This is one of our favorite tomatoes- tasty and beautiful. Bred by Moscow seedswoman Marina Danilenko, it is named for the acclaimed operatic artist and social activist of the 1920’s, Paul Robeson. The slightly flattened round fruits grow up to 4 inches. A deep burgundy red with dark-green shoulders when ripe, the flesh is dark red and delicious. This tomato won ‘Best in Show’ at the 2000 Carmel Tomato Fest, and we fully understand why.

Green Zebra      75 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season,  Organic Seed
One of my all time favorite tomatoes. Developed in 1985 by tomato breeder Tom Wagner, Green Zebra is considered an ‘heirloom’ among tomato growers for its unique qualities. The 2” round fruits ripens to a yellow-green gold with dark green stripes. The flesh is lime green, the flavor is tangy and delicious. Great mixed into salads or on a tomato tart.

Eva Purple Ball      70 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season,  Organic seed
We grow this one in honor of the Ostman’s daughter Eva, and her granddaughter Eva Sofia. A gorgeous heirloom from the Black Forest region of Germany, dating from the 1800s, Eva Purple Ball produces round, 2-3” fruits that are a lovely dark pink color. This was a steady producer for us, with nice solid flavorful fruits that we enjoyed sliced on sandwiches, tossed into salads and tossed with pasta, loads of garlic, olive oil and fresh basil. Yum!


Brandywine      80 days, Indeterminate, Mid-season, Organic seed
A tomato with it’s own cult following, Brandywine is the famous Amish heirloom that has been grown since the 1800’s. This large, potato-leaf tomato plant produces beautiful reddish pink fruits that average 12 ounces, but have been know to grow up to 2 pounds. A challenge for the Oregon coast, as larger fruit is harder to ripen, but we love a challenge, and we know many of you do too! This one has to be tasted fresh off the vine to be believed.

Black Prince      70 days, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Mid-season,  Organic seed
This beauty hails from Siberia, and is one of the most justifiably popular black tomatoes grown today. The deep mahogany-red 2” round tomatoes burst with flavor and juice. An indeterminate yet well-behaved vine, it is a good producer here on the coast, and the smaller sized fruit means more chance of ripening out here. Great eaten fresh, cooked in sauce, sliced on a sandwich, or eaten straight off the vine.


Speckled Roman 85 days Indeterminate Mid-season Organic seed
Developed by Seed Savers Exchange member John Swenson, this gorgeous roma tomato comes from a fortuitous cross
between the tomatoes 'Antique Roman' and 'Banana Legs'. 'Speckled Roman' produces an abundance of 3-5" oblong fruits that are nice and meaty, full of flavor but not a lot of seeds. They make a great homemade tomato sauce, and are good for drying too. We love the crazy yellow striping patten that develops on the red skin as they ripen. The plant is moderately compact for an indeterminate vine, but will still need good support.

Ready, Set..... Go!

This time of year always reminds me of being 11 years old at some School Sports Day event, trying to jump around and get warmed up for whatever race I had had the misfortune to be entered into (I was not a Super Sporty Girl). There is that lull, when you are waiting around for things to begin- you know it's coming, you know you can't avoid it, there is a fair amount of excitement, a lot of nervousness and "What if Something Goes Horribly Wrong" thinking, and just an overwhelming sense of impatience. Let's just get started!

Fortunately I am better at starting seeds that I ever was at the 400 meters relay, and so I always approach 'Seedling Time' with a wee bit more confidence. Oddly enough though, the nervous anticipation is still about the same. Plus, I know that as soon as I sow that first seed, I am starting myself on a journey that may begin at an easy pace, but which will slowly build into a crazy race that won't end until the final market is over sometime in October. It's hard to remember the feel of Summer Market Season now, sitting here at my computer in our freezing cold office, looking out the window at the rain-threatening-to-become-sleet, the alder trees down by the creek still looking bare and asleep. But I know it is coming.

I had fun ordering seeds this year! I managed to wade through the vast sea of tempting catalogs with some restraint borne of experience, and so hopefully will have fewer moments of looking at a packet of seeds in March and saying to myself, "What was I Thinking?!?" It is shockingly easy to get caught up in the excitement of color photos and descriptive writing, luring me to try just one more variety of lettuce or poppy that our farm will be Devastatingly Incomplete without.



There are some new plants we will be trying out this year- great new (to us) varieties of tomatoes to test for their Northwest Coast hardiness- hopefully we will have less soggy summer this year, everyone keep your fingers crossed. We will have even more lettuce varieties, colorful Swiss chards, gorgeous kale and spinach, plus an assortment of herbs and veggies that are making me long for Spring. Check back here soon for our 2008 Tomato Variety list, plus other Plant Lists.

We are going to work out a way for people to reserve tomato plants so that you can make sure you get the varieties you want, as so many seem to sell out so fast. We are also hoping to work out a 'Pick Up at the Farm by Appointment' system so that if you can't make it to one of our markets or events, or you just want to get started earlier in the season, you can still fill your garden with healthy, chemical-free Ostman Farm plants.

And the flowers! I did give in to temptation a bit here... some gorgeous new dahlias are on their way, plus new sweet peas, snapdragons and some other floral beauties that I am longing to see bloom. I am looking forward to making bouquets again this year, let me tell you. We are clearing space for even more flower beds, and I am trying to work out the logistics of a Bouquet Subscription service- we had requests for such a thing at both markets last year, and we hope to work out the details for this season.

So, I'll leave you now with a little memory of last summer's flower harvest, and go get busy on clearing off the light tables and heating mats, and try to remember where I put the UV resistant marking pens for filling in plant labels. I know I put them somewhere Obvious At The Time, a location that is now lost to me.

Stay warm, wherever you are!

What the Wind Blew In

We have friends who have lived on the North Oregon Coast for a long time- most of their lives, some of them. They both surf and fish, and as a result they pay attention to the weather in a very serious way. Saturday, December 1st, our friend Doug told us that the low pressure readings off the coast to the north of us were so low that the only time they had read lower was right before the 1962 Columbus Day Storm. We generally don't name our storms out here on the West Coast, so I figured that if this weather system was being compared to a storm that had earned itself a name, we had best batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst.

Packy got all of the plants cleared out of the greenhouses and moved them to the barn, and we went around the farm and tried to pick up anything that looked like it had potential for flight and put it somewhere safer. We stocked up on candles and batteries, made sure we had enough non-perishable food to make it through a few days without power, went to the library and stocked up on books to read and then just waited. The waiting was the worst.

When the storm finally started to hit on Sunday mid-morning, it was almost a relief. The sooner it starts, I thought, the sooner it will be over. Hah! I heard afterwards that this is the first time that the National Weather Service has used the word 'hurricane' to describe a storm in the temperate zone of the Pacific Northwest- usually hurricanes only occur in tropical or semi-tropical regions. A lot of the wind meters in the area snapped, but those that stood up to the storm were clocking sustained winds anywhere from 40-80mph, with gusts well over 120mph in many places. We've had sustained winds like that before, and they aren't fun, but the thing about this storm was that it lasted so long- over 36 hours of steady wind, with gusts that shook the house like an earthquake. Everyone agrees that what really did a lot of the damage was that the wind blew for so long, it just wore things down until they snapped.

We lost power, which we were expecting. We didn't think it would be out for five days, but who can anticipate that? Fortunately our local community radio station KMUN managed to stay on the air throughout (even after a tree fell on their building) and with the miracle of a hand crank radio, we were able to find out what was happening around us. Our area was totally cut off- all highways in and out were blocked by downed trees or were flooded, there was no phone service (not even 911!) and no cell phone service. You couldn't call outside the area, or even from town to town, and there was no power anywhere. It was a little weird to realize how isolated we were.



We hardly slept that Sunday night, each gust sounded like it was going to take the roof off. When dawn finally broke on Monday morning, we could see that Greenhouse #2 had exploded sometime in the night, and that Greenhouse #1 was barely hanging on, and had been dealt a couple of fatal blows. I felt like we should be playing 'Taps' as we stood there and watched it ripple like a swimming jellyfish. Packy finally couldn't stand it any longer, and during a brief lull went out with his utility knife to cut the plastic off and put it out of its misery. There was still a whole day of storm to get through at that point, so other than venturing out during a sort-of lull to make sure that the barn roof was still on, and to check out the downed trees, we just stayed inside, listened to the radio, read books, tried to keep Eddie the Cat entertained and just waited for it to end.

We were lucky, really. Not that the loss of our greenhouses isn't a huge blow, and certainly not an expense we really needed at this time. But so many people were hit worse than us, and had no power for far longer. Two farm friends that we know of, Jeff at Kingfisher Farm down in Nehalem, and Larkin at Green Angel Greens up in Long Beach, WA both lost their greenhouses as well- and theirs were a lot bigger and fancier than ours were, with large crops of over-wintering greens growing inside.

We ventured out on Tuesday the 4th to check on friends, and see if everyone was OK. We stopped in at the Blue Scorcher Bakery in Astoria- I was supposed to work there that day, but as there was no power at all I figured we could just stop by and make sure their big windows hadn't blown in, and see if there was anything useful we could do. I should have known that our friend Iris, one of the Blue Scorcher owners, would be there finding a way to make a bit of lemonade out of the situation, even though the bakery ovens and cook top are all electric. Until her friends Steve and Kathy came by with their big camp stove, she borrowed the gas range stove top of the fabulous Fort George Brewery next door to boil water for coffee, and as soon as the camp stove was up and running, she and pastry chef/ cook extraordinaire Sheri led the crew that showed up into dealing with the situation by clearing out the refrigerators and making a big pot of 'Cream of Perishables Soup' to serve with Sheri's wonderful biscuits baked off in the oven next door. We also sliced up all the loaves of sandwich bread left in the bakery, sliced up a whole lot of cheese that wasn't going to last beyond the next day, rounded up whatever lettuce we could find and brought sandwich fixings to the retirement living apartment building next door- many of the senior citizens there had been without a decent meal for far too long because of the storm. Many storm weary Astorians stopped by the bakery over the next few days and each day were able to at least get hot coffee, a hot bowl of delicious soup with warm biscuits and a healthy dose of good cheer thanks to Iris and the crew at the bakery.

The worst news we got on Tuesday was when someone came by the bakery and said "Did you hear about the Big Red Net Loft? The roof blew off!" Our good friends Royal and Sarah Nebeker own that historic building, and Royal's art studio was on the top floor. Royal is a brilliant artist, and we knew that he had been spending all his time lately getting prepared for two big shows, one in Seattle and one in Germany. Packy took off at once to see if he could help while I stayed a bit longer at the bakery to help out there. When I finally made my way to the Net Loft, I was stunned to see the destruction. We spent the rest of the day there with friends, trying to help Royal salvage what he could.

The official name of the building is the Union Fisherman's Co-Operative Packing Co. Net Loft, although locally it is known as 'Uppertown Station', or 'Big Red'. The building was one of three constructed by the co-operative after a disastrous strike by local fishermen in 1896, who were frustrated by the local canneries low prices for fish, hazardous working conditions and other issues. Largely formed by Finns who were unhappy with the settlement reached between the unions and the canneries, the Union Fisherman's Co-Operative Packing Company was a worker-owned co-operative that went on to became one of the largest canneries on the Columbia River in its heyday. The Net Loft was the building where the fishermen would make repairs to their nets and fishing boats.

Sarah and Royal have spent the last decade trying to save this piece of Northwest history from sliding into the Columbia River, drawing upon what funds they had to straighten the building, work on rebuilding the roof (oh, the irony), and to put 50 new pilings underneath the building to stabilize it, as well as countless other repairs, many of them carried out by Royal himself. They envisioned the building becoming a center for the arts on the Oregon North Coast, a place where Royal could work, but where he could also share the enormous space with other artists as affordable studio space, as well as have a space for art events and programs that could begin to attract the kind of National attention that this area, with its rich and diverse arts community, could thrive upon. The Nebekers well understand that when places with active arts communities like the Oregon North Coast become 'discovered', as this area has been in recent years, some of the first people priced out of the area are the artists, and when they are forced to leave, a lot of the richness of the community leaves as well. That they have tried to address that issue in their own way, by quietly and steadily laying the foundations for the kind of contribution to their community that most people far better off than they are seem to avoid making these days is tremendously inspiring to me, and I have been in constant awe of the way they kept working away at it, no matter how great the challenge.

The challenge has gotten a whole lot harder for them now. This is a recent picture of the Net Loft, looking quite good after so much work had been done on it:



This is a picture of it soon after the December 1st Storm:




And this is what Royal's art studio looked like after the storm:



We spent much of that first day trying to dig out paintings that were pinned beneath huge beams, rescue flat files full of delicate prints, salvage art materials and a lifetime's worth of collage ephemera, as well as countless other pieces of furniture and fixtures. In spite of all the artwork we were able to salvage, much of which was damaged,Royal figures that over half of his paintings just blew out into the Columbia River. Over the last week, volunteers have shown up to help Royal and his son Israel dismantle the roof, try to shore up the building as best they can, and get tarps over the top so that what undamaged studio space still exists on the lower floors stays dry. The Nebekers need help, obviously- trying to save and repair this historic building is now a huge task. Their daughter Hannah is helping to organize the effort, and is asking that anyone who can think of grants, or organizations that might help, or individuals- they need grant writers, contractors, carpenters, architects, electricians and engineers, to please contact her at hannahnebeker@gmail.com.

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to loose, in a night, your entire livelihood, and potentially your life's dream. At least Royal and his friend Eddie, who were both there in the building during the storm, are alive. They thought that if they could just keep the wind out of the building during the storm, it could maybe hang in there for another hundred years. Eddie suffered a broken wrist after being tossed by wind while trying to nail up a sheet of plywood, and their tale of crawling across the bridge from the building to land is one that still raises the hairs on my neck.

Somehow seeing all that Royal and his family are going through helps to put the loss of our greenhouses in better perspective for me. If this had happened in spring, when the greenhouses are usually loaded with tomato plants and basil and all the plant starts for our summer season, it would have destroyed us. It was devastating to loose the greenhouses, but we don't actually over-winter a whole lot of plants anyway, so the potential loss of crops isn't that bad. We will rebuild, as soon as possible, (we'll probably have a 'Greenhouse Raising Party and Work Day- you are all invited!) and we can hope that whatever we build will be able to weather the next storm. We don't need expensive engineers to help us do it, and we have not lost our livelihood, and our place of work.

I suppose it just makes me feel grateful to have all that I have in life- family and friends most of all, a strong and feisty community around me that reaches out to one another when times get a bit rough, and to know that I have the ability to start again this next year with a few handfuls of seeds, a bit of water, some good soil and a lot of hard work. There is something comforting in starting seeds, starting the cycle over again, re-planting where things have been torn up, and moving forwards with the coming season. It is hard to feel very much Holiday Spirit in the air right now- I think we are all a bit wonky and wind-blown here on the Northwest Coast. But we will all be OK.

And we all have a lot of firewood for next season now.

Still, I would really appreciate it if Mother Earth could hold off on sending another hurricane our way for the foreseeable future.

Changing Seasons and Chores

I hadn't realized how distracting our Summer Market Season is until it occured to me that I hadn't posted anything since that last discussion of growing basil. Well, the basil is just about gone- a few plants are lingering in the greenhouse, but they will soon become pesto, and the greenhouse will be cleared out to accomodate the plants that prefer a wee bit of protection from our wet, windy and chilly winter season.

Last Saturday was our last market of the year, the annual Harvest Festival at Alder Creek Farm, the lovely property in Manzanita owned by the Lower Nehalem Community Trust. It was a glorious day- bright blue skies and warm sun made for a wonderful contrast to the soggy weather we have been having all summer long. It was a bittersweet sunshine- we all knew it was bound to be one of the last truly glorious days of the year, and we all tried to savor and enjoy every moment of it.

This really has been a cool, wet summer here on the north Oregon coast, and we struggled with plants that were slow to grow, bloomed late, or hardly at all, fruit that refused to ripen, flowers that rotted from being continually soaked with rain. More than once we had to completely strip the whole sweet pea trellis and throw all of the rain ruined flowers in the compost, like piles of brightly colored sodden, fragrant tissues. Come to think of it, it did feel rather as if the garden had an ongoing head cold all summer long. Usually I have more statice than I know what to do with, but this year it was miserable, the flowers hardly beginning to bloom before a rain would come and turn them all to brown mush. Our fall wreaths seemed less colorful to me, as I had less color to work with!

There were a few troopers in the flower garden this year, chief among them the Dahlia Gang, who stood up to the rain all season long, and they continue to bloom ridiculously even through the cool nights we are starting to have. I know it is only a matter of time before the first killing frost reduces them to a brown slimy mess, so I savor every flower. We were able to cut enough flowers to bring a last gasp of Ball Jar Bouquets to the Harvest Festival, and they were quickly snapped up by loyal customers eager for one last blast of color from summer.

Fall brings about lots of gear shifting and new chores here at Ostman Farm- with our main selling season done, we shift our focus to cleaning up the farm, putting pots away, getting the garlic planted, sowing cover crop while there is still time, and making sure the hatches are battened down for the inevitable storms that are going to blow hard this winter. Lots of our craft items will be winging their way off to spend the fall and winter for sale in local and regional stores- we will keep you posted on where they will be.

Our work shifts as well, changing to focus some on riparian restoration work, where we will be outside planting native trees and shrubs along our local creeks and rivers to help improve wildlife habitat, working with the North Coast Land Conservancy, and the Necanicum Watershed Council among other groups. It can be challenging work, often done in full rain gear for good reason, but the satisfaction of spending a day planting hundereds of trees that will (hopefully) still be growing long after I am gone cannot be equaled.

This year will find us also filling a few shifts at the fabulous Blue Scorcher Bakery Cafe in Astoria, Oregon to round out the winter work season. I had already been going up there weekly to do seasonal flower arrangements, and it just seemed to be a logical shift to pick up a knife and start chopping vegetables for a pot of soup one day. It is a great place to work, full of fun, talented people who are committed to producing delicious food and the most glorious bread and pastries this side of the Coast Range. Their determination to use locally produced, organic ingredients wherever possible is inspiring, and I think it shows in the quality of the food coming out of their kitchens. It will be great fun to be a part of it all, although I will have to learn to control my lust for Jeff's Cinnamon Rolls somehow. One thing I love about working at the bakery is that it is as much of a communtiy hub as the Astoria Sunday Market is, and many of Ostman Farm's regular customers are also loyal fans of the great Blue Scorcher, so I will get to keep in touch with people over the winter season.

We are already chewing on ideas for next year's market season, debating the tomato varieties that we grew this year, deciding which to do again (feel free to weigh in with your opinion!), thinking about lettuce varieties too, as well as blooming plants. As I pull out the spent snapdragons and sweet peas, I am already planning which ones to grow next year. We had several people ask us for a 'Flower Bouquet Subscription Service' so that they could get flowers regularly each week, and for longer than the regular market seasons, and we are pondering that and will see if we can work that out.

In the meantime, I will work on posting to this blog more regularly, as this season has given me lots to think about.