The 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...
read moreKnowledge and Wisdom on the Farm
Coming to the farm this year, I knew I would be learning a lot about farming. That was kind of the point. My background being in nutrition and farmers markets, I wanted to dive head/hands first into the growing and sourcing of organic food. I expected to learn how to grow food, but I didn’t expect all of the others ways in which I would learn on the farm. It’s immensely valuable to watch and participate while we all learn from our farmer and managers – the transmission of knowledge and wisdom. There are other less tangible ways in which...
read moreFinding Happiness and Peace in the Fields
Hello Red Dog Customer! My name is Jake Carson, and I am new to the farming life, having only started at Red Dog just over a month ago. Only months ago, I was convinced that my life would take the path that so many of my friends’ and family members’ lives have already taken: I was to go to college, get my bachelor’s degree and, because I chose history for a major, then it would be onto grad school. Raised to believe that this was one of the noblest lives I could lead, raised to believe that I would never be happy with a job which demanded...
read moreFor Love of Raspberries
As we enter into our first full week of July this season, the farm staff is especially excited to be starting the raspberry harvest. And that of course means this week’s CSA share will be including these exceptional berries as well. If you’re like me, you can never really have enough of these when they are in season. So we like-minded berry fanatics surely plan to establish our own raspberry bushes at home. That being said, I’d like to take the chance to help us familiarize a little with some facets and techniques of caring for these awesome...
read moreOne-Armed Cooking
I signed up to write this week’s newsletter about a month ago, anticipating being able to share with you all my first-hand account of what has been happening around the farm and highlighting my favorite produce that makes its debut this time of year. Instead, I find myself having been out of the field for 2 1/2 weeks now, writing to you with an ice pack on my arm and dancing feet still adapting to being idle after an elbow injury that required surgery and a lengthy recovery. Though I have to take a little time away from the farm, I have been...
read moreSourcing Supplies in a Supportive Community
“Farming is all about moving people and things around.” A veteran farmer in the Skagit told me this once and it struck me as exceedingly true. Get the carrot seeds, the tractor and the driver to the field to plant carrots. Get the irrigation pipe and people to the field to water the carrots. Get the people and the hoes to the field to weed the carrots. Get the truck full of crates and the people to the field to harvest the carrots. Get the harvested carrots to the packshed with people to wash them. Get the carrots on a truck to deliver to...
read moreOld Things are New Again
How far can something be stretched until it’s no longer physically viable? Making broken and old things new again seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life. Old trucks getting new parts, broken hoses getting replaced by new hoses, ripped greenhouse plastic getting patched with new materials, switching dull knives out for sharp knives, the list goes on. Today, I wear new boots. This is my third pair in my third season here at the farm. Today, I also wear patched pants from an old shirt given to me from a once new friend. It’s always a...
read moreBecoming a Farmer
June is an exciting month to work on the farm. The fields are filling up quickly with vegetables and fruit; the days are finally warmer and the longest they will be all year; and there are lots of new folks who are joining our crew. May marked one year that I’ve worked at Red Dog Farm, and after twelve months of learning and observing, June is the first month that feels familiar to me. Then, like now, I remember the garlic being almost ready to harvest, picking fava beans into yellow buckets, cutting long beds of salanova lettuce in the sun,...
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