The beginning of the 2016 season is just around the corner. We have our opening pot luck set for April 10th 2- 6 p.m.. The first harvest begins that week April 11 or 15 depending on your pick up day. We have been hard at work planting the greenhouses to ready ourselves for the season. Unfortunately after last night’s rain we lost half of one of the fully planted greenhouses to flood. The torrential rains of the last 5 days culminated in over 2.5 inches into already saturated land. The rain from the fields to the east of our farm drain to the west of us and the gopher holes served as conduits for that water. Lettuce, kale and peas took the brunt of the flooding. We will try and replant but much of the work we started on 1/18/16 has been washed into the culvert.
Several new plagues have appeared in Oregon in the last year and are spreading over the Willamette Valley. There is the threat of black leg fungus and white spot fungus, affecting the kale, broccoli, and radish families. We have had to find ways to treat these seed born illnesses in hot water treatment baths prior to planting the seeds. There is a new caterpillar which grows fast and is ravenous. It eats just about everything including grass but loves everything on the farm. We lost much of our soft fruit (cherries were particularly hard hit this past year) due to the new fruit fly. The problem with farming is that there is always some new threat out there making the already difficult task of farming harder.
Juve brought home 8 new weaner piglets yesterday. We have 11 lambs and about 14 kids (we have lost track). Juve is determined to diminish our cattle herd by half (he has had to travel to McMinnville three times a week all winter!) so there will be plenty of grass fed beef for sale. He is anxious to get your deposit for 1/2 – whole a hog, a whole lamb and 1/4 – 1/2 a steer. The deposit for each is $100. They will go to the butcher this summer or early fall.
As soon as I can figure out how to load my pictures to my ridiculous new office 365 (I hate microsoft!) I will get photos posted of the lambs, goats and the river running through the greenhouse. Please contact us ASAP if you are interested in 2016 season, we still have space and want to welcome you to our community.