What We Are Growing, and Where You Can Buy It

It seems an obvious thing to have a comprehensive list of all the varieties of vegetables that we are growing in a season, and to make that list available to you, our loyal customers and friends. Each year I've meant to do it, and each year I realize that it's August, and the list is still lying in pieces around me.

But not this year!

Follow this link to the snappy new Plant List Page on the recently updated Ostman Farm Website. There you will find listed everything that will be coming to market at some point this season, including our ever popular Tomato List.  (I tried to control myself this year when ordering seeds, but failed miserably, so we are growing 29 varieties of tomatoes this year (!!), up from about 13 last year.)

As always, we will only bring things to market when it is reasonably safe to plant them outside, so don't look for basil or squash in early May.  If there is something on the list that you really need to have, get in touch with us and we will work out a way to make that happen.  If you have a greenhouse and want to get a jump start on things, we will find a way to get plants to you early.

We are excited to have two events coming up  in April where you early birds can get a jump on market season and buy your plants way before the Astoria Sunday Market even opens.

The first is:

 Spring Into Gardening!  on Saturday April 18th from 8:00 am -4:30 pm. 

The annual Garden Love-Fest put on by Clatsop County Master Gardeners is always a fun event, and a great way to get inspired about the coming growing season here on the coast. The theme this year is 'Home Grown Made Simple', which is a concept close to our hearts here at Ostman Farm.  The MG Website gives a bare bones description of the event, which is somewhat useful, if not very inspiring. (We really need a garden enthusiast with good technical chops to join Master Gardeners!  Anyone out there?) There is a much better description in this week's Daily Astorian 'Coast Weekend' edition here.   I'm not sure how long they leave their links up, so if the link no longer works, e mail me and I'll try to get the information to you.  There is a great line up of speakers this year, I am really looking forward to hearing them.

The first speaker starts at 9:00, but the doors open at 8:00 am so you can come early and get first crack at the MG plant sale, and of course Ostman Farm's great selection of fabulous plants. We are bringing a lot of edibles this year, so make room in your veggie garden, or make a bigger garden! (Who needs a lawn, anyway?)  There are going to be a lot of great vendors this year, and as always the vendor marketplace is open FREE to the public all day long.  

Admission for the speaker series is well worth it.   Register by April 16th, and it's $15 for the whole day, $12 for seniors and Master Gardeners. Admission at the door is $18.  Students are Free!  We are very excited about some of the speakers this year, and Packy and I are already negotiating about who gets to hear which speaker, and who has to stay and mind the booth.

9:00 am The keynote speaker is Vern Nelson, taking you 'Beyond Peas and Carrots'.  Vern is the owner of A New Leaf Edible Landscape Design, and he has, among many other  cool accomplishments, written  a guide for kitchen gardens in the northwest.

Then at 10:50 you have to choose between:

'Fruit Tree Care and Pruning' with Luke Colvin, an ISA certified arborist.  I haven't heard Luke speak yet, but anyone that can help demystify fruit tree pruning is well worth listening to.

-and-

'Children (and other people) In the Garden' with Sunny Hunt, our own OSU extension service Master Gardener Instructor, and coordinator of the local community garden project.

At 1 pm, the choice is between:

'Home Entertainment- Wild Birds in the Garden' with Mike Patterson.  Mike is a famous local naturalist, and a GREAT speaker.  This guy knows his birds, and you will learn a lot about how to make your garden into wonderful bird habitat.

-and-

'Organic Food Production' with Liza Ehle, who operates By-the-Sea Gardens on the South Oregon Coast.  You can never know too much about growing organically!

I think the final sessions start at 2:00 pm, and then you have to choose between:

'Tips for Gardeners' with Chip Bubl, who is the Agricultural and Community Horticulture Faculty and Staff Chair for OSU Extension Service in Columbia County.  Chip comes and teaches some of the regular MG classes in Astoria each year, and I can tell you from experience, he is a fantastic speaker with great stories to tell.  You will learn a lot, and be entertained while you learn it.

-and- 

'Growing Cut Flowers' with Linda Beutler.  I own a copy of Linda's wonderful book, Garden to Vase- Growing and Using Your Own Cut Flowers, and I LOVE it.  Love it. I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who likes to grow flowers to cut and arrange.  I love it so much I may go all fan-girl on the day and bring it along to have her sign it for me.  I've learned a lot from this book, and am so looking forward to hearing her speak, and I curse the person who scheduled her to speak at the same time as Chip.

The second opportunity to buy your veggie starts early from us will be at the 

Cannon Beach Earth Day Celebration on April 25th, 2009

I don't know a whole lot about the event yet, and will post more information when I do.  But I do know that we will be setting up our booth and selling edible plant starts- and absolutely no cut flowers! :) from probably 12:00 pm-2:00 pm (it might be 10-2, I'm not quite sure yet.)  We will be set up in the US Bank parking lot, next to the Cannon Beach Farmers Market booth.  Part of the proceeds from our sales will go to benefit the new Cannon Beach Community Garden program, so come buy a lot for your spring garden and know that you will be benefitting the community as well.

So there you  have it.  Two great ways to get a jump on the season and get some great plants from Ostman Farm.  

Market Season starts in May, with the Astoria Sunday Market starting on Mother's Day.  Then look for the Cannon Beach Farmers Market and the Manzanita Farmers Market to start up mid-June.  

It's going to be a great year for locally grown produce, whether it comes from your own garden or your favorite local farmer.  See you all soon!

Our Photo Shoot is Hijacked by Junkies

We've been working hard to update our website with new plant lists (more on that soon!) and new photos, and had finally gotten around to shooting the catnip stuff this afternoon.

We're all excited about 'Eddie's Homegrown', our new bags of Straight Up Catnip, which we have been trying to get organized for a while now and will finally have at our 2009 markets.

Some of us were more excited than others.

 

And then they tried to get us to order them a pizza.  

Grow Your Own

WWII Victory Garden poster, 1945

Last year we noticed a surge of interest in home grown vegetables among our customers.  We were intrigued by the number of people that came by our market booth looking for vegetable plant starts- both seasoned gardeners wanting to add to their home started seedlings, or first-time gardeners wanting to try growing some of their own food for a change.  All ages, backgrounds, economic levels and hairstyles- everyone wanted home grown veggies on their table.

It seemed to be a combination of tightening economic times and the wave of food scares that happened last year- remember the tainted spinach, the salmonella tomatoes?  Every time one of those industrial food system bombs went off, more people showed up on our doorstep, looking to bypass the system altogether and get their food straight from their own gardens.

Some people had read Michael Pollen's recent books, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, or the wonderful and inspiring Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver, and were determined to change how they ate, and where their food came from. (If you haven't read these books, I highly recommend them all.)

Whatever their reason for wanting to grow edible stuff,  it was great fun for us to help so many people through their first food-growing experiences, and to talk to such a number of enthusiastic gardeners about the joys and challenges of growing food wherever they were from, but especially here on the coast.  ( I think we need to start a 'Coastal Tomato and Basil Growers Support Group.  Or maybe it should be grief counseling!) 

WWI Department of Agriculture poster

This year the swell of interest in home-grown produce is becoming an enormous wave.  From people advocating for a Farmer in the White House to seed companies running out of their most popular varieties due to overwhelming demand from customers, this year the Victory Garden is really back in style.  I've read where some media people are trying to dub this new wave of home vegetable growing 'Recession Gardens', but I find that a rather gloomy name for something so positive.  It also implies that the only time anyone would want to grow their own food is during hard economic times.  I'm sure that's true for some, but I hope many in this new generation of gardeners learning to rotate their crops and thin their carrots will stick with it long after the global economy has rebounded.  I'm pretty confident that once a person experiences what vegetables should taste like, and the has the satisfaction of eating food they've grown themselves, it will be hard to go back to tasteless supermarket veggies and fruits.

I still like the name Victory Gardens- not just because I love the great poster art that was produced in support of the concept during both WWI and WWII, but because of what the gardens did for individuals and communities.  They truly  helped people achieve victory over deprivation and hardship.  The statistic most often quoted says that during WWII, forty percent of the food supply in the United States came from home gardens.  Forty Percent!  If we today cannot accomplish even a fraction of what our parents and grandparents (and great-grandparents, for some) did during the last Great Depression and World Wars, then we really should hang our heads in shame.  There is also no reason why we can't have a damn good time while we're at it too- share seeds and plants with friends and neighbors, swap recipes, trade produce, get your kids involved, try making jam, sing while you weed, whatever it takes. Growing food can be fun.

WWII Department of Agriculture poster

If you can't grow your own, make your way to your nearest farmer's market- there are thousands of them now all across the country, and those that are seasonal will be starting up soon.  We here on the North Coast are blessed with three- the wonderful and fun Manzanita Farmer's Market, the huge and yet still enjoyable Astoria Sunday Market, and the new kid on the block, back for their second year of fantastic edibles, the Cannon Beach Farmer's Market.  There are great farmers and local food producers at all of them, and I encourage everyone to try and shop truly locally this season, and make sure at least some of the food you eat is produced here on the North Coast.  (Or near your own community, wherever that may be.)

On a final note, I am so happy to see that poster art of the sort that came from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the first Great Depression is alive and well. Recently,  ReadyMade Magazine asked five artists to reimagine the populist poster art of that era; you can read the article here.  The one created by Christopher Silas Neal deserves to be displayed in every kitchen, garden mud room, farmer's market and supermarket across the country, not just because it is a great image, but because of the sentiment behind it:

 " Solving the world's energy and food problems would do a great deal to strengthen the global economy, prevent disease, and reverse the effects of climate change.  The original Victory Garden program was designed to ease pressure on the public agriculture supply and support the war effort by encouraging families to grow their own food.  I wanted to expand this idea to the more broader concept of buying and eating local food."

You can download a free copy of the poster here.  Check out the others in the series here, they are all great.  We know our bicycle-mad friends over at the Blue Scorcher Bakery will especially like the bike one.

Daffodils Control The Weather

People theorize about how the simple movement of butterfly wings could have the power to stir hurricanes on the other side of the planet, but here on the north Oregon coast I am convinced that it is the daffodil that wields the true power over the Late Winter Weather Gods.

Consider the evidence.  Every February without fail, we have a spell of magical, early spring-ish kind of weather.  Sunny days, mild temperatures- warm enough to make you strip down to just a t-shirt if you are working even a little bit hard outside. The air begins to hum with anticipation, and you can just hear the plants starting to yawn and stretch, their roots reaching around in the soil for the plant kingdom equivalent of a strong cup of coffee.  It's a glorious tease that lasts a week or so, and inevitably all the buried daffodil bulbs begin to shoot up from the ground, bright green spears poking through the soil to join the crocus and snow drops that are already blooming and enjoying the weather.

Tragically,  just as you are making plans for another jam-packed week of really getting a lot done outside, one of the daffodils has to go and bloom.

The Culprit

And then it's all over, because inevitably that very night, a storm will blow in- not a drizzly gentle thing, but a howling, branch rattling, rain-and-sleety hail-dumping storm that pelts the flowers with ice and completely soaks the soil again, making it too wet to dig for at least a week.

The Morning After- fortunately the ice melted, and now we just have Gloomy Rain....

It's as if the very act of the daffodil petals opening completely unbalances the atmospheric equilibrium, and the weather just cannot help but storm.  The Late Winter Weather Gods are a spiteful, petty bunch who like to taunt and throw things as they ride out of town, and thus we are stuck with a week of grey skies, cold rain and the soggy first daffodils of the season.  

Still, there is a great silver lining.  Inside, carefully protected from all the weather uncertainty, there are seeds germinating, and roots growing, and many thousands of seedlings enjoying the indoor light-and-heat spa (when we can get the cats to shift out from under the grow lights).  

Eddie moves into The Spa as soon as the plants get pulled out to be watered.

We are so looking forward to this year- there is great enthusiasm for home grown vegetables all across the country right now, and here on the North Coast people are getting geared up for another year of great locally grown produce, whether they grow it themselves or buy it at one of our fabulous local farmer's markets.  We can hardly wait to share our  plant picks for this season with you, and hear all your stories about what worked for you last year, and what your garden plans are for this year.  

Coming in the next couple of weeks:  Complete plant lists for 2009, (including The Tomato List) so you can start planning your veggie garden now, plus this year's schedule of Special Events and Farmer's Markets.  

Stay Tuned!

When Flowers are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Sell Flowers

Exhibit A- Criminal Flowers

There are a lot of quirky towns and cities in these United States.  On any given day you will hear residents of any and all of them, upon hearing about some event or incident that has taken place there, roll their eyes and say "Only in ...insert Quirky Town name here!".  Only in Santa Cruz.  Only in San Francisco.  Only in New York City.

Well, here on Oregon's North Coast today we are rolling our eyes and saying "Only in Cannon Beach!"  As in, only in Cannon Beach would you have a city council that would outlaw selling cut flowers at their popular Farmer's Market.  I know, I know.  Selling Cut Flowers is a Crime? Can you imagine a farmer's market anywhere in the country that allows any and all manner of locally grown and produced vegetables, meat, fruit, cheese, fish, salsas and salad dressings, but will not allow a farmer to sell bunches of sweet peas or dahlias that they have grown on their own farm not fifteen minutes away?  And yet last evening the city council of Cannon Beach voted to forbid the selling of cut flowers at their farmer's market for the second year running.

There are, apparently, a lot of Very Good Reasons for this.  One of the reasons seem to be that re-writing the Cannon Beach ordinance that forbids any and all outdoor merchandise displays in town would be tremendously onerous, although this re-writing has already been done once to allow for the market to exist in the first place. Edible products only, please, and no prepared food to be consumed on the premises, because the market can't compete with local businesses or restaurants. Except it is OK for the market to compete with the one independent grocery store in town, because the council checked with the grocery store last year before setting up the farmer's market, and the grocery store said it was OK.  (And somehow, they have managed to stay in business, too.)   

Oh, and except that the city council voted last night to change the market rules this year to allow one local restaurant a week to sell prepared food at the market (thus, we must assume, competing with all the other local restaurants on that day) because of the enormous public demand for some kind of prepared food to eat at the market.  That there was equal, if not greater, public demand for cut flowers to be sold at the market?  Well... that's just not the same thing at all.

Another reason is apparently that allowing local farms to sell the cut flowers that they grow on their farms on one day a week between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. from mid-June to the end of September would give these farmers an unfair advantage over a local florist who is not allowed to display flowers outside of their shop.  Florists are of course able to sell flowers inside their shop seven days a week, if they so choose, and they do not actually have to grow the flowers that they sell themselves.   They can purchase their flowers at the Portland Flower Market-  flowers imported from as far away as Columbia and Ecuador, if that is what they need. Yep, all the weddings and funerals and Valentine's and Mother's Day sales are nice enough, but that one afternoon of possible lost walk-in flower sales, three and a half months out of twelve, is what is really going to kill a business.

  

I'm sure there are many, many other reasons why buying a bunch of flowers at your local farmer's market would lead to the general unravelling of society as we know it, and complete economic collapse of all florist businesses within fifty miles of anywhere a farmer's market dares to raise it's many tented head. Competition can be scary for small businesses, and I say that as a small business owner.  I know it is scary, because we have weathered a lot of competition at farmer's markets from other vendors.  But I also believe that competition is good for us- it makes us better business people, more creative in defining what is unique about what we grow and make and sell, and it makes us better at finding new and more effective ways to connect with our customers.

Exhibit B   Not-Criminal Flowers.   Just add Salad Dressing.

The irony is that Cannon Beach will allow flowers to be sold as long as they are edible.  So a bunch of calendula is OK, but not a bunch of sweet peas.  As long as the bouquets we sold last year were entirely made of edible things, and were sold as a Food Product, we could sell them. This made for some interesting challenges, and a steep learning curve about what was, and was not, edible in the floral kingdom.  Did you know that snapdragons were edible?  Neither did I. They don't really taste like much, but I must say, they do look pretty scattered across a salad.

Why use croutons when you can use snapdragons?  Low-carb and colorful!

So once again we are limited to the Flowers as Food Product concept this year.  And once again, every time one of our customers from one of our other regional markets comes to our booth and asks, "Where are your beautiful flowers?!?" we will smile and politely say, "We are Not Allowed to sell Cut Flowers at the Farmer's Market in Cannon Beach, by order of the City Council."  

And they will roll their eyes and say, "Only in Cannon Beach!"

Living with The Rain

If there is one defining characteristic about the Northwest region of the United States, especially on the coast, it is this:  it rains a lot here.  This is both good and bad, from a farmer's perspective. We save a lot on irrigation, for one thing. And our often foggy coastal climate makes this an ideal place to grow things that like it on the cooler side.  Leafy greens, salad greens, your cool weather loving brassicas- we have a great relationship.  The heat lovers like tomatoes and basil?  We struggle in our dealings with one another, but as long as we are both willing to compromise (I give them a greenhouse to live in, they don't complain too much about the acidic soil), we manage to work things out.

Rain in the kind of quantity we receive it can be challenging, but we have found ways to deal with it that are helping to make growing things here easier.   The first obstacle to really successful vegetable and flower gardening is that our soil here is very acidic, because of the heavy rainfall.  Some of our soil on the farm tested at 4.6 ph when I first dug into it- that is a long way from the 6.5-7.0 range that most vegetables and herbs prefer.  So the first thing you learn about in the Northwest is lime. 

 "Lime sweetens the soil" is a phrase you hear a lot around here.  I've often wondered, why sweet?  Is it because sweet is the opposite of acid?  Anyway, what lime does is raise the ph level in the soil. It makes the soil less acidic, and contributes calcium to the soil, which is essential for healthy plant growth. This does not happen overnight, it takes years to really shift your soil's ph level. And then, you have to remain vigilant because, just like compost and other fertilizers, the stuff breaks down, plants absorb it, it all gets used up and then it is gone and you're back to acid again.  Lime actually takes a long time to break down and become available to plants, which is why Fall is the best time to apply it.  By the time Spring rolls around, and the plants are waking up and reaching around in the soil for calcium and other minerals, the lime has done its work and the plants are much happier.

There are two main types of commercially available lime:

Agricultural lime

Agricultural lime is finely crushed limestone, pure calcium carbonate.  It is a very fine grey-white powder; do not mistake it for powdered sugar. Or anything else, for that matter.  This is the most widely available lime, and the cheapest. It also breaks down and is absorbed fastest.

 Prilled Dolomite lime

Dolomite lime comes from dolomite rock, naturally, and contains magnesium in addition to calcium.  This is good if your soil needs magnesium, which many northwest soils do. (Heavy rain leaches out everything. Except slugs, damn it.)  It is often available in a prilled form, which means the powder is formed into small pellets by a process known as 'prilling'.  An interesting word, and one which I have not yet been able to find an origin for.  I mean, why 'prill'?  Is that the sound the material makes when you roll it into little balls?  I cannot help but be curious.

So, prilled Dolomite lime is just easier to spread than the powdered form.  It is usually more expensive (more processing) but I think it is worth the cost if you can afford it, as it is so much less annoying to use.  Some people only use dolomite lime, but if your soil has enough magnesium, you can actually make it toxic to your plants by adding more. 

One of the best explanations I have read about The Lime Issue, especially as it applies to us here in the northwest, is in the classic 'Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades', by Steve Solomon.  He recommends using a half and half blend of the two limes mixed into a regular fertilizer blend.  However, before you go dumping huge amount of lime on your garden, I really recommend getting a soil test done.  This is not a hard thing to do, but it does involve a wee bit of time and expense.  Your local extension office can help you do it right, and help you understand what the hell it all means when you get back the results.  Soil tests are not just for farmers!  If you are a home gardener, and if you plan to build a long term relationship with your garden, it is very helpful to understand the soil you are working with.  That way you know more accurately how much fertilizer or organic matter it actually needs added to it.  More is not always better, in fact it rarely is.  Get a soil test.  Trust me, it's worth it.

After the lime, the next best thing to do in the Fall to deal with the effects of the rain is sow a cover crop. This is really only for those beds where you grow spring and summer annuals, and where the beds lay dormant in the winter.  I have learned the hard way that our  heavy rains wash away a lot of soil, and those carefully built up beds can be eroded and beaten down, as well as full of winter germinating weeds, by the time I am poking my head out the door in March to see if it is warm enough to sow peas.  

Cover crops are also known as green manures; they are a crop that you grow just to chop down and dig into the soil.  Essentially, you are growing your own compost.  However, while the crop is growing it is also doing a lot of other things, like reducing soil compaction and erosion and, if the crop is a deep rooted one, helping to loosen heavy soils and improve the soil's tilth.  Cover crops can also help to capture nitrogen and other nutrients that would be washed away by the heavy rain; these are returned to the soil in the spring when you chop down the cover crop and dig it in.

Our usual blend- rye, vetch and peas

There are a lot of things out there to use as cover crop.  One of the most popular in our area is crimson clover, but as the whole point of a cover crop is that you don't let it go to seed, it is a hard one for me to use, as you have to chop it down just as it is looking its most beautiful. We use a combination of rye, vetch and winter peas, and it seems to do the trick for us, and I can joyfully hack down in the spring with no regrets. 

I am hoping someday to have a patch of ground where I can just sow the crimson clover and let it re-seed over and over, as I love to see those deep garnet-red flowers swaying about in spring. On the 'someday having a patch of ground' issue, which I really don't want to talk about anymore for a while, the latest in our Looking for a New Farm ongoing saga is that we are pretty much on hold.  It is a combination of lack of appropriate land at a price that makes using it for a farm realistic, with a  big dash of 'Loaning Money to Small Farms in an Uncertain Economy' Fear from banking institutions.  We actually had a very good meeting with the USDA Farm Loan agent, but in the end we can't apply for a loan from them if we can't find a piece of land that can be farmed, that we can afford.  So we are still looking.  There is possibly another creative option in the works, but I can't talk about it, because it is very uncertain.  Fortunately, we have the option to go through another growing season on the farm we are on now, so while it may not be the ideal solution, it is at least a solution that keeps us farming for now.  There will at the very least be heirloom tomato plants and flower bouquets next year, and probably much more than that.

To follow up on my last post, wherein the possible addition of a new farm crew member was discussed, it has now been made official, as we were unable to locate anyone who wanted to claim the little cat we found.  We struggled with what to name her- all the names we have tossed about over the years for what we would name a new cat if we had one just didn't seem to work for her. And we couldn't keep calling her 'Squeaky Cat', as that just seemed too ridiculous a name.  Then one day Packy was listening to our Blind Pilot cd, and decided that she should be named 'Jojo', after a reference in one of their songs. (Blind Pilot is a  band co-founded by our friend Israel Nebeker- we both like them very much, which is unusual as our musical taste does not always overlap.)  'Jojo' met all of the requirements- easy to remember, snappy, cute- but not too cute, and so on.  But it still felt like a nickname, so we thought we would call her Josephine, and Jojo for short.  And after all of that dithering, we find that what we actually call her most of the time is still 'Squeaky'.  So be careful with those first nicknames- they can really stick. Come to think about it, that's how Packy ended up being called Packy, so I suppose it's a family tradition.

 Squeaky and Eddie negotiating hunting rights on a newly cleared hillside

So Jojo Squeaky is doing much better after several very expensive trips to the vet, and the consumption of a lot of cat food.   We have yet to have her fixed even, that is next on the shopping list. She is a very expensive free pet, but fortunately is quite charming and affectionate, which goes some way to make up for the drain on the farm finances.   She likes to sleep by the fire a lot, (who doesn't, this time of year?)  and then explode and chase things, and then sleep more.  Eddie is getting used to her, and for the most part she is fitting in fine. 

Unfortunately when she does venture outside, she rather likes to hunt, and has very proudly brought in several field mice, some that were as big as her head.  It would be ok if she just brought them in and displayed them for approval, but she is not so far off from fending for herself in the great outdoors, and so has a tendency to start to eat them, which just gets disgusting.  Immediate intervention is desirable. Now that the weather has turned chilly, I am hopeful that the snakes will be hibernating more, as she also brought in a couple of those while Packy was out of town recently, and I really do not do well with snakes. I mean, I love them in the garden, I know they are great pest control, I admire them when they are sunning themselves on the rocks, but I      just  cannot   pick    them   up   with    my     bare    hands.  Not sure what it is- they move too fast?  Too slimy?   There ended up being some creative work with a bamboo stick, a dustpan and a re-useable grocery bag that did the trick.  It is nice to have a good division of labor on a farm, and Packy makes a fine head of the farm's 'Wildlife Rescue/Release and Dead Animal Clean Up' department. He just may not ever be allowed to leave town again.

It is a frosty morning here on the farm- the last couple of nights have been clear and cold, with barely a sliver of moon showing in the sky.  It is in its final waning stages, and will be new again on Thanksgiving, a somehow appropriate bit of timing.  I am always thankful to the moon for gently reminding me that everything moves in cycles, and that when you are working with nature, it is best to respect its pace, and not try to impose your own upon it.  

One of our very favourite seasonal cycles has come around again here on the farm, as coho salmon have begun to return to Neawanna Creek.  But I will leave that story for next time.

Fortunately we love lettuce, because lettuce loves the Northwest Coast

Productive Distractions

Like many other human beings, when faced with some sort of Major Life Issue needing to be Dealt With,  we are prone to being distracted.  Thus, our house is never so clean as when our taxes are due.  

Now that we are deep in the throes of 'Plan B' (and Plans C-G just to be safe) on the 'Looking for a New Farm' project, we find ourselves irresistibly drawn to all the things that need to be done around the farm that are NOT filling in loan paperwork.  Naturally, the paperwork from the Farm Service is the longest and most complicated, Thank You, Uncle Sam. Then there is also the 'Looking at Other Farm Properties', in case the loans for the one we want don't work out, lots of time consuming soul-searching about what to do if our Big Dream just doesn't work out, and what are the things we are willing (and not willing) to compromise on.  You know, fun stuff like that.

Fortunately,  the Gods of Distractions are bountiful in their generosity to us.  

Not only do we have a nail-biter election going on in our country, one that really does feel like the most important one we will vote in thus far in our lifetimes (this is the one area in my life where I actually want complete change), we also have the wonderful Internets full of interesting, semi-useful and utterly irrelevant yet somehow compelling information to spend lots of time digesting.  

The on-line time does somewhat negate the mental benefit of not having television service, but I know that once this election is over the internets will all seem much less interesting to me. But for now, it is hard not to get caught up in it all, sometimes wallowing in massive indignation, such as Packy's recent observation that if the RNC had chosen to donate their funds to the purchase of our new farm instead of a new wardrobe for Sarah Palin, we would be moving right now.   The land that we had hoped (are still hoping, mostly) to buy has the potential to feed many people, educate many more in how to feed themselves, and contribute to our local economy.  It would put a beautiful piece of land, in a county with very, very few sources of locally grown food, back into agricultural production, and provide large areas for wildlife habitat as well.  Hell, even the money they paid Mrs. Palin's makeup artist would make a difference in our ability to accomplish this.  It is so painful to see an amount of money that could make the critical difference in our ability to achieve our dream casually tossed around on some snappy black boots and some cute jackets. 

As you can tell, fuming about this is a really good distraction from paperwork.

Then there is this:

For now, we are just calling her "The Kitten" or "Squeaky Cat" as she (we are pretty sure about that detail) talks a lot.  In a high little kitten voice.  It's a bit weird, because for months now, Packy and I have been saying to each other, "I wish we had a kitten!"  As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Packy found her down by the barn two nights ago, skinny and thirsty, and covered in tree sap, and very eager for affection.  She is familiar with houses, litter boxes (thank you, Cat Gods) and cat food.  She has obviously lived in a house, and we are going to spend some time in the next few days trying to figure out if someone around here is missing her- I would, if she were mine. She is pretty damn cute.  But, people do dump cats around here, so the farm crew may be gaining another teammate.

Eddie the Cat is not very pleased about this, but he has mostly stopped hissing at her.  We've tried to remind him that this was how he gained entry to the household too- he moved in on our cat at the time, the Late and Still Missed Elsie.  I think if the Little Kitten (that we are not claiming yet, nor getting emotionally attached to, really) calms down and stops hopping on everything and everyone and trying to eat everything and just...shuts up with the constant squawking, eventually we will all calm down and be OK with the situation, even Eddie.  Fingers Crossed.

Then there are all the fun outside distractions, many of which actually do double duty as Chores Which Really Need to Get Done Before Winter, thus making spending time on them entirely justifiable.  It has become clear to us that whatever happens next in our lives, it is probably not going to happen in time for us to start over this fall on a new piece of land.  Thus, we will need to keep renting this place next year, and as we have all these established beds, and perennial plants, and infrastructure already in place, we may as just get it all ready for another growing season.

"I'm sorry, I can't work on that paperwork right now, I must get the lavender cut back and limed!" 

 "No time for Future Income Projection Charts, I must clean out the greenhouse so that we can move in all the plants that need to go inside for the winter!"  

"I would love to be calculating our Net Worth, but I really must get all the things cut back that need to be cut back, and mulch what needs mulching, and get cover crop sown!"

We are late with everything this year, but fortunately we are having the most amazing fall- sunny, and warm even.  This is definitely helping to make up for the sheer wretchedness of this past summer.  And spring. And winter.  Although if it were possible to schedule this kind of weather next spring and summer, I would do so and gladly take the rain now.  

So, if you will excuse me now, I have Things to Get Done!  Although, given that we have an appointment with our Farm Service Representative tomorrow, there really is no way to completely avoid the paperwork today.

One day until the Farm Service Meeting.  Seven days until the Election.  New Farm Acquisition- no estimated date yet.  But we are quietly  hopeful.