Go Team Winter Squash!
When life gives you a bad tulip year… you make it a standout squash year!!! I remember a few short months ago we were disappointed by an underwhelming spring tulip yield, a time of year where we are craving growth and bounty. But we shan’t dwell on that too much because luckily we don’t put all our eggs in one basket, we put our eggs in a hundred different baskets! By that I mean we plant over a hundred different varieties of plants. This year we planted 9 varieties of winter squash planted over 3 acres and 3 different fields. After prepping...
read moreSeasonal Changes Nurture Personal Growth
As this summer fades and fall and winter approach, I am filled with a melancholy. The days become ever shorter, the nights longer and colder, and the friends I have made on the farm begin to take their leaves for their winter lives. Some I plan to see again next season, some I never will. Change, ironically one of the only constants in life, has never sat well with me. I have always done my best to avoid it, and the reminder of it as seasons change has always pressed itself upon me like an unfortunate weight. But here, on the farm, change is...
read moreAutumnal Farewells
When you spend your time pulling carrots out of the ground during a heat wave, or cutting salad mix as the wind tries (and succeeds) to steal the leaves from your fingers like it did during last Friday’s storms, it’s impossible not to become close with the folks who are working alongside you. Since I moved across the country to work at Red Dog just four short months ago, I have been shocked by the community that this farm has given me. During that time I’ve made lifelong friendships here, getting to know each of my workmates—what makes them...
read moreAn Ode to the Season’s Last Corn
When I was growing up, corn always signified summer. Even though my family did not always eat an entirely seasonal diet, we saved corn for summer, knowing that’s when it would be the sweetest and the juiciest. During my time farming, my understanding of summer sweet corn has deepened as I learned the ins and outs of the crop. When I arrived in Washington in June, I remember walking through the fields and being excited to find the corn growing ankle high and feeling proud that I could identify its early leaves. As the summer progressed, the...
read moreTransitioning to Fall
The past couple of weeks have really started to feel like fall here on the farm. Mornings are a little chillier and days are becoming shorter. Here on the farm we have started harvesting fall crops which is very exciting. This week we are planning on harvesting the remainder of our potato crop for storage and our crop of onions were already harvested a week ago and now are all laid out in our greenhouses curing. I personally love the seasonal transition from summer to fall. While summer brings sunny days and abundance, fall offers cooler days...
read moreFall Abundance
Fall is certainly in the air with the brisk morning and cool wind. Today’s rain made it feel official- fall is just around the corner. Farmers love fall as it means we are one step closer to winter, which means we get to rest! Not yet though, still lots more work to do before the resting time. Fall is also when we get to see the fruits of our labor. Literally. We just pulled in our first storage crop last week in the form of pallets and pallets of onions. Good thing we built a second greenhouse last spring because we needed it to cure...
read moreThe End of Summer
When you’re in the heat of it, the summer feels like it’s going to last forever. The crops (and pigs) grow fast, the fruits are unlimited, and the days get so hot that it’s easy to forget that each day was slightly shorter than the last. Suddenly, it feels like we are passing the threshold between seasons. Our tomatoes, green beans, strawberries, sweet onions, melons and cucumbers are still in their prime—but now our sweet corn is here and multi-colored winter squash are decorating the fields. It’s a precious and fleeting time of the year...
read moreThe Life of a Red Dog Carrot
Most people think that I was created in the seed factory, where I popped out of a machine and then was tucked neatly into my packet, alongside around 100 identical seeds ready to be delivered to the farm’s mailbox. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, although I have nothing but respect for my fellow seed packet-mates. Their company and entertainment made the long bumpy ride to Red Dog much more tolerable and they reassured me that everything would be okay when we heard Maggie, the farm’s dog, barking at the mailman. While I wasn’t made...
read moreBonding with History Through Agriculture
When I began my time at Red Dog, only a couple of months ago, I knew that I was joining one of the longest, if not the longest, unbroken lines in history: the line of the agriculturalist. For as long as human civilization has existed, and probably for even longer, agriculture has also existed in its various forms. It is, in fact, one of the standards by which we often define civilization. From the terrace farmers of the Inca to the wheat farmers of ancient Germany, humanity has been practicing agriculture, for all intents and purposes,...
read moreCauliflower Bonanza!
CSA members might notice they’re receiving cauliflower in their shares for the second week in a row. Those of you who are home gardeners can probably sympathize with the paradox of the summer growing season: after so many months of preparation and effort and patient hoping for success, our plants are finally doing what we want them to do: making tons of food for us! (Sometimes literally.) How are we to adequately appreciate the overwhelming abundance of fruits and veggies July brings us? I aspire to be the kind of person who processes and...
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