Kale or spinach
Parsley, chervil or watercress
Young fennel and it’s fronds
Onions
Green onions
Eggs!!

These past weeks have been a wild ride. Low temps at night in the teens and the days barely making it out of the 30s. The cold,wind and snow damaged our seedlings like never before. We lost a good portion of our peppers and even some peas. This added to poor germination in cold, wet soils and pressure from birds, cutworms and rodents make us want to throw up our hands!.The beginning of March has felt more like January and our veggies selection reflects that. A whole bed of arugula and cilantro eaten by birds, three beds of root crops growing moss instead of sprouting and the list goes on. Our sprouting broccoli and cauliflower that we count on at this time of year are devastated by cold and finished off by our greedy goats. Thus, you are getting eggs! In all our years we have never given our eggs, but lucky for us our chickens are happy with the increasing day length and are laying like gangbusters. If you have never bought our eggs you are getting a real treat. There is nothing like a farm fresh egg, where chickens eat real food and make dark orange yolks full of Omega 3.

We have two more weeks of harvest after today, fingers crossed for warmer growing days ahead. I keep planting but trust me, the battle is not one yet won. We are balancing between the end of winter and start of our regular season with quick growing crops and summer favorites. Honestly at this point anything that will grow is great. We are eating parsley pesto and kale salad when we have enough to spare and parts of old squash. We have never felt so vegetable poor. I will have to resort to eating chickweed soon. Here are some recipes I found for this abundant weed for those interested in trying:

Three Delicious Chickweed Recipes You can make today – Tiffany Bader

With the cold weather I did get to play with clay. I quickly glazed up all that I had made in early February last Thursday and had it on display at the Share Fair in Portland last weekend. I went crazy with latte cups and saucers. Luna has pushed me to make the perfect cup to display her latte art and there are some winners (and losers). I will have out the new supply today and over the next few weeks. I am making one last push to create before I am all consumed by farming. I have a few special orders I am working on and excited to craft. Now is the time to let me know if there is anything special you want.

With the legislature back in session there are many bills of interest. I spent several hours on Thursday talking with community members and our local legislators about Senate Bill 4. A horrid piece of legislation that aims to take designated farmland that we fought for in 2014 and turn it into shovel ready land for semiconductors. I am deeply dismayed that our two local reps: Senator Janeen Sollman and Representative Nathan Sosa are supporting this effort. It is deeply troubling and frankly infuriating that they need reminding again about the value of farmland to produce food and agricultural crops in this most fertile valley. Once it is paved over it is forever lost. I will be asking you to write letters and sign on to a pledge in the next week. I will provide you with details, please be ready and act quickly. I sat by on the sidelines, thinking this would go away and it has not. It will not be an easy fight with federal money tempting people to throw away 50 years of land use laws.

Our pruning party was canceled last weekend due to cold temps and so much snow. We hope you will consider joining us next Saturday 3/11 from 9 – 4 to prune our orchard and tidy up the farm. Here is the list of what to bring:

What to bring to the pruning party March 11, 2023

This is a pruning party so please bring as much of the following as you can:

If you have pruning implements, please bring them along (label them with your name).

· Clippers

· Loppers

· hand saw

· Gloves

· Chainsaws

· orchard ladders

· bring snacks for you to eat and a bottle of water

We would love to have anyone interested in helping prune the orchard and blueberries join us for as many hours as they can on that day. 3/11/2023 from 9 – 4.. We welcome you to bring potential members as this is a good introduction to our community.

This is not an event for little ones as branches fall in all directions. If kids do come, it is good to have a dedicated adult to keep them safe.. If you don’t want to climb trees, not to worry, there is tons of other work to do (hauling branches, pulling up t-tape water systems and pruning blueberries).

I will make some food to share and would welcome any potluck items you want to bring.

Lastly, before I let you go please do sign up for the 2023 main season. We are working as hard as possible to grow food and we need your support. Despite all the challenges we hope you will support our efforts and continue in April 2023. Details can be found here:

Leave us a $100 deposit and your spot will be saved:

Two great recipes to use your young fennel and the fronds:

https://www.seriouseats.com/vegetable-scrap-fennel-frond-pesto

https://www.allrecipes.com/gallery/fennel-fronds-recipes/

Using herbs to make delicious stews:

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/walnut_parsley_pesto/

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegetable-stew-recipes

Use those green onions and eggs:

https://omnivorescookbook.com/ji-dan-bing/