Rainy Day Reading

I'm in the midst of working 12 days in a row right now, so I won' t lament the rain too much more. Plus, we got a new book that reads like it was written for us! It talks about which crops are best in Oregon, how to deal with the rains (I'll have to go back and reread that part), and how to eat fresh vegetables year round in our maritime climate. Our farm can't help but be a success now!

Rainy Day(s)

Is it natural for people to be more easily discouraged on rainy days?

It is easy for me, if its rainy, 39 degrees, and with snow forcast for tonight. Our garden is evolving into something between a swamp and a lake. Raised beds are nice and all, but they are raised only so high and it is raining every every every day.

Personally, I celebrated the spring equinox but the weather and winds did not. Those sweet sunny promises of warmer days that I whispered to the pea sprouts are exposed as lies now!

A Younger Farming Generation

It turns out that we're not the farming pioneers I thought we were... Even the NY Times has caught on to our homegrown revolution. If you access this link, you'll read about all sorts of young good looking folks like ourselves who are living the dream. Well good for them, and good for all of us, you can't do much better for taste and nutrition than to buy direct from your local farmer!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/fashion/16farmer.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=young+farmers&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Our Babies

We've had our first birth, on 3/14/08! Our first three onions have burst forth (weakly) from the soggy ground.

In honor of one of our garden's biggest supporters, we named the one in the middle Kimberly the Onion, above that is Kimberly Jr, and near the bottom of the picture just trying to emerge is Lil' Kim.

All three are doing well, and looking forward to a warm sunny summer just around the corner.

Living of the land-Grenada style

We're freshly back from our trip to the Grenadines, we were conducted some overseas farming research. (Hopefully this makes the trip tax deductible?). We were able to readily identify three fairly common food sources that don't require a trip to the grocery store.

Goats: There seem to be a lot of pet goats in the caribbean. In a weird coincidence, there is also a lot of goat rotis and curries on local menus. As you can see, the locals pick up their sheparding skills at an early age. (Why there weren't more chickens on the islands I don't know.)

Fish: This tuna was caught while under sail. He was turned into tuna steaks (enough for the six of us), some sushi for those brave enough to try, bait for the next fish, and the tail section was used by a local to make fish soup for his family.

Coconuts: There is some debate whether fresh coconut milk is worth the effort and injury risk of acquisition. Fortunately, we brought this one willing tree climber to help hook us up with fresh coconuts.

Indoor Starts

While on vacation we got a few indoor starts going, and upon returning are happy to see that our pea starts are growing pretty quick. Up at the garden, we suffered some slug damage on the peas we planted pre-vacation, but everything is still alive.

Before....

These are our little oregon sugar pod starts..... They lot happy to be planted. For the next few days Gretel and I are on vacation, so Dexter the local rooster will be looking after the place. Hopefully these little plants survive (living dangerously outside of the fence) until we get back.

We will have an "after" picture after our vacation, and hopefully it will be more than just a patch of dirt!