After a two year battle with breaking digital cameras, we finally broke down and bought a nice one. It is even dust proof and shock proof! The best part is that it actually takes photos. Matt has been loving the macro feature and I am excited about capturing all that happens daily on our farm.

Now that the sun is shining consistently, everything has grown about a foot including the chickens! We are also starting to feel like we are catching up. Instead of the usual 12 tasks a day, there are only 2 or 3 and they are getting done. It is really nice to not feel as behind. The Farmers’ Market has been going well. We keep selling out early of all of our produce which is a great sign. We even have a few loyal customers who love our salad greens. We are going to try and keep producing them far into summer (with a little help). I think they could be a great staple for our farm and salad is delicious. Last week, we also had our first harvest of potatoes, German Butterball. People were really excited to see new potatoes at the market. We should have more at the market this week including Yukon Golds. We have been giving out recipes to go with our produce and the customers love it. Last week, we shared this recipe for Strawberry Brown Butter Bettys to go with our berries. In other news, we are now officially Certified Naturally Grown (CNG). CNG is a grass-roots alternative to USDA organic. It follows the NOP guidelines but with stricter ideas about animal husbandry and a wholistic view of the farm. It is a non-profit organization and so inspections are done by another CNG farm in your area. We were inspected by Sawmill Creek Farm in Paradise, CA. It was great to show them around our farm, answer critical questions, and pass our inspection. We are excited to be a part of an organization that values small farms and understands the financial challenges and the desire to grow organically. I would definitely recommend checking out this program. I stumbled upon this great resource a few weeks ago and have been subscribing to their blog posts. It contains all kinds of great articles about small farms across the U.S. including workshops, available land, interships, and unique sustainable ideas. Their Greenhorn guidebook also has tons of great information for beginning farms. Check it out! The plan for this week including planting pumpkins, thinking about fall crops (yikes!), continuing to till and build the soil, thinning fruit trees, direct seeding lettuces, & keeping the chickens from hiding under their coop (rendering it next to impossible to put them away at night).

bed prep for onions/leeks transplants under agribond (notice the plastic is blown off our row cover) snow in March Farming in the wonderful Pacific Northwest is a good way to become mental.  We love it; the weather really keeps things interesting and your “plans” ever changing.  Here in Washington State it rains in spring.   We are hunters and hopefuls for a mildly sunny, dry day.  Last season in a single day we experienced sun, rain, sleet, and snow.  This year back in February we experienced… Read the rest of this article »