CSA Newsletter 10/3/18- Wild New Friends to the Farm
One of the things I love best about farming is that there are always surprises. Even after farming for 20 plus years, and farming this land for 10 plus years, I learn new things daily, making new discoveries and connections, and sometimes completely shifting my understanding. This happens in big ways, sometimes, but mostly it happens in small ways, on a micro-scale. It is like a treasure hunt that keeps me looking and interested- what will I find next? This summer, a sweet little surprise was a new wildflower living quite happily at the...
read moreCSA Newsletter 9/26/18- Food for Thought
I am ready to release my final newsletter into the world as I jump into my last week of work at Red Dog Farm. I think it’s time to get nostalgic and emotional about all of my dear friends who make up the Red Dog Farm. Farming allows the space and time for intimacy and intention within your farming community and reflection on how you work with this community. There are no screens, desks, glass doors or walls dividing me from my co-workers. We are confronted at the very beginning of our time together with really getting to know each...
read moreCSA Newsletter 9/19/18- Back to Our Roots
Early this year I had the opportunity to leave the “big city” of Seattle and return to my old stomping grounds and place I grew up, the Olympic Peninsula. I had experienced enough of the population density and I felt it was a good time to get back to my roots. I was lucky enough to find Red Dog Farm at just the right time, and was offered a summer job, for which I was extremely grateful. Having done some organic farming (albeit on a much smaller scale) and flower raising in the past, it seemed like a good fit for the summer while we...
read moreNewsletter 9/12/18- Hats Off to the Crew
It’s funny how time moves differently through the seasons of one’s life. At the moment, in my life, time feels like it is coming to a screeching halt. A lot of my job has to do with crops and when to harvest them. I spend time walking the fields looking at vegetables that won’t be harvested for 2-3 weeks, trying to anticipate their growth cycles. In the height of summer things grow so quickly that we move through 2-3 successions of spinach within a week or two, trying to cut them before they go to seed. Now we are holding on to those same...
read moreNewsletter 9/5/18- Reemay Wrangling
The great David Allan Coe once sang, “Sometimes it seemed so useless to remain,” in the perfect country and western song. This may be the case for a country and western singer, but in the eyes of a farmer there’s always a reason to remain—still we sing the same tune, just a little differently. Our lyrics go, “Sometimes it seemed so useless to Reemay,” because, bluntly put, it sometimes seems useless to Reemay due to its bad habit of coming off the intended bed. Well not useless, but it can be frustrating! Agribon, our ‘season extender’...
read moreNewsletter 8/29/18- Taking a Breath
Can anyone else smell the changing of seasons in the air? I am always amazed, each season, how something as intangible as the air we breathe can affect everyone so differently and deeply. For me, the transition into the fall season, breathes welcomed moments of reflection and freshness. As peak season has crept over its crest and is now descending into slower months, we are confronted with time and space to reflect on where the season has taken us. It’s hard for me to conceptualize how my season at Red Dog Farm is coming to an end, but I have...
read more8/22/18- The Fleet
The day-to-day tasks on the farm would never get done without the help of a small fleet of pickup trucks. We use these trucks for mostly hauling vegetables and crates around the 23-acre farm. The trucks are such an integral part of Red Dog Farm that it’s hard to imagine the place without them. The first truck ever used at Red Dog Farm is a purple 1997 Nissan that we all refer to as “Denise.” Denise started out as Karyn’s daily driver back in 2006. Denise was used occasionally on the farm, but as the farm began to grow more so did the need for...
read more8/15/18- Coming Home to the Farm
Hello CSA members and farm lovers. By now I have had the opportunity to speak to a few of you and am looking forward to meeting more of you as time goes on. I have recently taken over the post of Office Manager here at Red Dog Farm. Though the position is new to me, the farm is not as this summer marks my seven-year anniversary of my arrival at the farm. To say the least, I fell in love with the farm and Jefferson County. After working in the field on and off for a few years, and spending a few more years away from the farm, I am thrilled to...
read moreNewsletter 8/8/18 – Pigs!
Working hard is neither their purpose nor their strong suit. They’re often sleeping, eating, or roughhousing amongst themselves in the mud. Between long naps in the shade and endless veggie showers turned buffets, our fat, happy pigs are doing their best to transform any excess harvest into delicious meat. Every day, the group of ten pigs consume as many vegetables as the average human child is likely to willingly consume over a span of multiple years. They’re remarkably healthy eaters, but wouldn’t pass up a candy bar for the life of ‘em—in...
read moreNewsletter 8/1/18- Tomatoes: a Labor of Love
Every morning, I am greeted by a bouquet of smells when I arrive at the farm. The muddy stench of the pigs mixes with the sweet scent of basil being harvested; the flowers in the fields linger all the way into the break room by lunchtime. But my favorite of all, and the smell that – to me, at least – most signifies the arrival of August, is the warm scent of a sun-ripened tomato. Tomatoes require a lot of planning and preparation, but I think the payoff is worth it. We planted them when I first started working here back in May, being careful...
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