I’m taking slow food to a whole new level. Want to eat some delicious cornbread? First, plant some corn. I had asked Luke and Adam here at Oxbow for permission to grow a little garden. “Since I’m from the midwest,” I said, “I’ve been feeling the urge to have a cornfield in my front yard. [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: corn, cornbread, dry corn, organic farming, self-sufficiency, slow food | 3 Comments »
It has been a terrible season this year. I don’t mean for me — I’ve been having an amazing time on my own little journey of self-discovery. I mean the growing season in the pacific northwest has been unusually bad: a warm January followed by a long-lasting cold and wet spring, followed by a brief [...]
Filed under: the day to day | Tagged: apprenticeship, crop failure, farming, organic farming, vineyard | 3 Comments »
Bremerton, WA. The house next door: Jean and Glenn’s house: Betsey took us on an awesome field trip a couple weeks ago, to visit StartNow Gardens in Bremerton. This is an urban farm built since 2003 by an amazing couple named Jean and Glenn. They have taken two city lots (they own two houses next [...]
Filed under: farm visits, field trips, philosophical ramblings | Tagged: Bremerton WA, farming, organic farming, StartNowGardens, urban farming, vegetable gardening | Leave a Comment »
I recently had a chance to participate in a small batch chicken “processing” (butchering) on the farm. I was a bit nervous about it, but it turned out to be a great experience and helped me feel many times closer to and more comfortable with where meat comes from, just as I have been learning [...]
Filed under: cooking, meat, miscellaneous | Tagged: butchering, chicken, Dropstone Farms, eggs, organic farming, raising animals, unlaid eggs | 6 Comments »
When we started the internship we kept hearing the farmers talk about “the summer season” when things go crazy on the farm. Back in April, Betsey would take us all out for coffee in the middle of the morning, or Brian would treat us to ice cream after lunch. “Don’t get to used to this,” [...]
Filed under: the day to day | Tagged: farming, organic farming, small farm, summer, work | Leave a Comment »
Persephone Farm in Indianola is another great farm in our little corner of the world that does internships. In fact Betsey credits a former Persephone intern as the inspiration to start her apprenticeship program! Our booth is right across the way from Persephone’s at the Bainbridge Farmers Market, so we have been seeing each other [...]
Filed under: farm visits, field trips | Tagged: farm apprenticeship, farm internship, Indianola, organic farming, pacific northwest, Persephone Farm | Leave a Comment »
We are eating some fantastic vegetables lately! Eat a bunch of Brian’s carrots and you will never again be able to snack on a grocery store carrot and be satisfied. They are like two completely different vegetables. One is sweet and tasty and tender; the other is chemically-tasting roughage in comparison. Why such a big [...]
Filed under: soils, the day to day | Tagged: compost, cover cropping, crop rotation, microbes, organic farming, organic pest control, soil building, tilth | 1 Comment »
After getting all introspective with my last post, I thought I would follow up with some nice boring factual data . So… let’s talk about what we are growing on the farm this spring. Last Saturday at the farmers market, I worked Brian’s booth and we had for sale: salad greens, spinach, asparagus, rhubarb, beets, [...]
Filed under: the day to day | Tagged: farmers market, farming, organic farming, pacific northwest farming, spring vegetables, vegetables | 1 Comment »
