Newsletters

Lessons from Winter Plants

As the winter sun grows increasingly meager into November, so does our crop diversity here at the farm. Beds of cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts have given all they can and are turned over to cover crop to replenish the fertility of the soil. This grassy mixture of oats, triticale, vetch, and crimson clover sways across the fields like a green sea as the...

Change of Seasons

Last week, a heavy frost covered the Chimacum Valley. It was a sight to behold, with bushes and grasses in an early morning white. This of course meant that there were things for the farmers to attend to and navigate as the proof of a change of seasons greeted the morning commuters.The first thing was that some of the harvests had to be adjusted so as to let leafy...

Tilth: A Conference for Farmers

Farmers are great at embracing what might seem like paradox: for example, taking advantage of modern scientific research in the ancient act of agriculture, or simultaneously using technologies built half a century apart. We even sometimes leave the fields for an event that is usually associated with corporations or sci-fi superfans: a conference. Tilth Conference...

A Brief History of Squash and Celeriac

It’s sort of strange to think of vegetables as not “always” having been the way that they are – that all of them began as some wild, sometimes unrecognizable version of what they are today, carefully (or, perhaps, recklessly) bred into the delicious treats we get to eat today. This week, I did a bit of research on two of our crops: squash and celeriac. I hope...

Observations on the Arrival of Autumn

We are given days full of surprises. The days swirl from sunshine toward a misty rain to a roaring wind and back again, always giving each day a new beauty unlike the last. With gratitude, the wetter days mean an end to overhead irrigation and more time spent on harvest. The number of times we have seen rainbows increases as rain returns as a familiar friend, and...

Squashball 2023!

As Geffen wrote last week, squash season is here! We had the full crew outside on Thursday and Friday harvesting over 50 rows of squash. While the task was bound to take days, we had a special technique to speed up the pace and elevate our moods – SQUASHBALL! Here’s how it goes down. We cut the squash from several rows and place it into two adjacent rows. A tractor...