Farming with Mike

Last Bit of Structural Work is DONE

2011-12-22T18:07:00.000-08:00

The South side of the building is the weather side and has received the brunt of the dsamage over the past 100 years. Here the top plate, a 6x8 beam, was damaged by years of water running down the roof structure where the roof was damaged.

We braced everything temporarily and lifted that section of the building supported by the beam. Then we surgically removed the rotted section and replaced it with new material and provided support to hold everything in place.

Now that all the structural damage has been repaired we are moving on to replacing the floor on the first floor. Aaron has started pulling the damaged flooring and after the holidays we will begin to replace it with 6" tongue and groove. We are all very anxious to get the floor down. Not only will we finally be able to begin to safely use the barn, but now we can have a barn party inside!!!

We have set aside enough money to complete the ground floor this year and will really push to get the loft finished next winter. After that it is doors and windows. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel; after three years this project is still keeping us entertained.

Post about Posts

2011-12-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

The last bit of structural repair to the barn has been made...alsmost. Yesterday Aaron and I finished replacing the rotted posts that support the loft.

We have one more section of top plate to replace on the South wall and then we can start replacing the floor.

Deck the Halls..Haul the Decks...Deck the Barn...Whatever...

2011-12-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

As things slow down in the fields for us we can get back to work on the many ongoing projects and loose ends. Aaron and I took advantage of some decent weather to attach decks to the rear of the barn.

We had already added a ramp earlier in the season, and the decks finish the job of providing safe access to the back of the barn.

Straight and true.

Bachelor Recipes Vol.1 #8

2011-11-11T13:13:00.001-08:00

What’sin the Box:

PiePumpkin

DelicataSquash

Chioggiabeets

Celeriac

Turnips

Brusselssprouts Garlic

Redchard

Mizuna

Spinach

Familyshares also include:

More Delicata, Brussels sprouts, garlic & turnips

This recipe may take a few more pans than usual, but it is something that many people have never had, and is also a crowd pleaser; children and all.

Winter Vegetable Burritoes:

As with most of my recipes you can substitute/add/ommit just about any ingredient. I would recommend the Brussels Sprouts/Winter squash combo, and beets always seem a welcome addition. Anyway....

for 6-8 burritos (3-4 people) You will need:

3-4 beets

1 big handful of Brussels sprouts

1 Delicata squash

1 bunch or less of Chard

two ripe avocados

sour cream

salsa

mild cheese (cotija is nice, or even just Monty Jack or Cheddar)

Clean Brussels sprouts and slow cook covered over medium heat in a heavy cast pan with melted butter until fork tender. (about 30 min.)

While they are cooking:

Half the Delicata and remove the seeds. Carefully cut the skin from the flesh and cube in as large a chunks as possible (1/2 inch or so).

Blanch and peel the beets and cube them as well.

Place the beets and squash in a double boiler or steaming rack and steam until fork tender.

This will take about twenty minutes.

While they are steaming, and the sprouts are cooking:

Wash and slice the Red Chard.

When the Sprouts and Beets/Squash are done remove from heat and put them in a large baking dish in the oven on 200.

Put 2 burrito shells per person in the oven wrapped in a towel.

Skin and deseed avos and mash them in a sauce pan, add equal parts sour cream and salsa and heat until warm.

Use the Sprouts pan to quickly sautee the chard until tender.

When the Chard is ready, add it to the other vegetables and toss.

Fill two burrito shells per person with the vegetables, top with grated cheese and plate them covered with the sauce. Serve at once.

Bachelor Recipes Vol.1 # 7

2011-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

What’sin the Box:

Corn!

Beets

Turnips

Summersquash

Cauliflower

Greenbeans

Romabeans

Romainelettuce

Summersavory

RedBartlett pears

Tomatoes

Familyshares also include:

Redbutter lettuce; more beets & beans

Here's is another serious heybuddy recipe that will score huge points, can be enjoyed by any age and if done correctly uses two pans and a colander.

Chicken Cacciotore:

Ingredients

One whole chicken cut into pieces, or 6-8 of your favorite chicken chunks; I prefer thighs for this recipe (and they are affordable)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 large pepper
1 large onion, or a bunch of green onions
2-3 summer squash
3 cloves garlic
4-6 tomatoes, or a pint of cherry or grape tomatoes
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 bunch summer savory or oregano leaves
fresh basil leaves

Directions

Heat 1/2 inch of cheap oil in a 6 Qt casserole*.
While the oil is heating... Cut the vegetables into chunks they will have to hold up to 30 minutes or more of cooking, and this dish is best if they are allowed to maintain their integrity. Dice the garlic.

Put about a table spoon of salt and a little less pepper in a plastic bag. Skin the chicken and put it it in the bag and sort of shake/shimmy/roll it around until the pieces are evenly covered.Carefully place the pieces batch by batch in the cassserole and fry for about 5 minutes per side or until brown.Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.

Drain the oil and scrape the snizzlins from the bottom but do not discard the snizzlins. (snizzlins are what is left in the pan after something has sizzled). Add the bell pepper, onion and garlic to the same pan and saute over medium heat until the onion is just tender, about 5 minutes. Remember you are going to cook the whole Matilda for about 25 minutes, so do not over cook the vegetables. Add the squash, and frankly anything else you would care to get rid of in the fridge: celery, fennel, etc. Stear away from starchy things as this dish is usually served over pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Blanch and peel the tomatoes and dice them into course chunks. If using cherry or grapes tomatoes, just leave the skin on and half them. Add the tomatoes and herbs and simmer for a few minutes, until things start looking saucy. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce.

Here is when you put your pasta water on. The sauce will cook for 25-30 minutes and give you just enough time to heat the water and cook and drain the pasta.

Bring the sauce to a simmer. Continue simmering over medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes for breast pieces, and 20 minutes for thighs etc. I strongly recommend the use of a good instant read thermometer for gauging doneness of chicken.

Using tongs, plate the pasta. With the same tongs place a piece of chicken on top of each plate of pasta.If necessary to thicken the sauce, turn up the heat for a minute or two. Spoon the sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with sliced fresh basil and parmigiano and serve.

*Remember casseroles? Mine is pictured above. They are indispensable for bachelor cooking as you can often cook the entire meal in this one pot, or whatever it is. They can be used on the cook top, then baked. Oh, and I did not break the bank on this thing. I shopped outlets and purchased a "Lodge" brand and have been thoroughly delighted. If you do not have one just fry the chicken and sautee the vegetables in a cast pan, then transfer to your best heavy bottom pot.

Bachelor Recipes Vol 1 #6

2011-08-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

What’s in the Box:

Red Potatoes

Carrots

Cucumbers-green & blonde

Artichokes

Green beans

Purple or Yellow wax beans

French crisp lettuce

Italian parsley

Peaches

Lilies

Family shares also include:

Bok choy, green onions; more potatoes & artichokes

After years of disappointment growing artichokes as perennials and losing up to 70% each winter, and after the great Choke mistake of 2009 when our farm manager planted our chokes one foot apart rather than the usual three, we have started growing artichokes as an annual crop. We plant them two feet apart in the row with rows five feet apart. By early August there is a sea of chokes, and by the end of September there is a jungle.

A jungle as in; can you spot my daughter in this picture?

By planting them as an annual we avoid the stress of trying to baby them over winter and we still get a healthy crop every year. The chokes are one of my favorite crops. They provide an opportunity for me to feel wealthy in that I can pick and choose only the smallest and most tender chokes, then trim them wastefully down to the most tender leaves and heart and eat a plateful if I so desire. My daughter Natalina will commonly eat five of these baby chokes in a sitting.

I grew up eating things like artichokes and dandelion and a host of other bitter greens and wacky dried fish and other traditional Italian fare. My father would forage wild onions and mushrooms and had a garden that produced an endless variety of sharp greens that I would turn my nose up at at the dinner table. His pat response, "you don't know what good is". I remember having dinner on the porch of our house when I was young. We would be seated at 5pm every evening at the white painted table on the screened porch. Just before my mother would bring the dinner from the kitchen, she would turn to my father and ask, "Father, would you make the dressing?", and place a bottle of vinegar, and a bottle of olive oil on the table. My father mixed the dressing at the table using just those two things and the salt and pepper from the table.

I eventually launched a successful campaign to liberate my self from the tyranny of my father's palate. I petitioned for iceberg lettuce and a bottle of Kraft Catalina dressing. I do not recall how long it took but I do remember a special tupperware container in the fridge with my lettuce and I can still picture the bottle of dressing. I mention this because, as Heidi has mentioned before, I take this out on our CSA customers occasionally by including dandelion and radicchio. And one more thing; one of my favorite responses to the question of "where can you get a 'real' traditional Italian meal?" is "What do you mean? Dried fish and song birds?"

I guess that sounds a little smart Alecky, but look at the true Italian fare. Meat is a small portion, Italian cattle are not what we in America picture as healthy animals. Bitter greens almost always accompany a meal. Song birds are still a guilty pleasure in most of Europe. My friend Eugenio once said in conversation: " Ahh, Americans...They like the cheesa to moova." What he meant was that Americans wanted enough cheese on top of their meal that it jiggled. My father always favored many small portions over the tremendous servings we have grown accustomed to. One of his most frequent critiques of family dinners was that there was simply too much food. With the exception of pasta, when it came to pasta he always told me to take a large first helping because seconds never tasted as good. But I digress.

Artichokes:
I am always surprised by how many people have not eaten them before. I am even more surprised by the fact that anyone ever ate one in the first place. They are a huge flower bud of a plant that closely resembles a thistle and do not look particularly appetizing.

The easiest way to fix them is to simply trim them of any damaged leaves and place them in a double boiler or on a steam rack. Have the water at a rolling boil before adding the chokes. Steam them until the outer leaves can be easily pulled off using a set of tongs. Try not to over cook them as they will get mushy. To eat them; melt some butter with just a hint of garlic; like one small minced clove. When the choke is cool enough to handle start on the outside and remove one leaf at a time, dip the butt of the leaf in the melted butter, stick the leaf in your mouth and slide it out scraping the leaf with your teeth. Wow that sounds weird. There is a bit of meat at the base of leaf that will come off and, well I cannot really describe it. Fresh chokes typically will not have a developed "choke" (the fuzz at the bottom of the bud), and once you have eaten a few layers of leaves you may well be able to pop the remainder in you mouth like Liz Taylor. The heart and base of the stem are an outrageous treat. I always prefer chokes before dinner, I believe there is something in them that stimulates the taste buds and makes whatever comes next taste even better.

In contrast to the usual bachelor recipe based on ease and simplicity I want to recommend one of my favorite dishes using chokes. I will describe the ideal but cannot promise that you will receive the chokes that will work best, or even that these chokes are available to anyone but a farmer or the savvy market shopper.

Take enough baby chokes of equal size (ideally about the size of a ping pong ball) to fit tightly on end in a small cast pan. Trim them hard down to tender blanched leaves. Trim the tops of all spines and sharp edges (you are going to put the whole thing in your mouth). Steam until they are just tender-do not over cook. Place a small cast pan on medium heat with a smattering of olive oil and enough rock salt to have a crumb about every 1/2 inch. Take the chokes one by one and mash them into place in the pan; butts up and fit nice and tight. Force them enough that they open slightly. Sear them in the oil for just a few minutes until they brown slightly. Place a plate of equal size to the pan face down on the pan as you would a lid. Place your fingers on the plate to hold it in place and flip the whole thing over so the chokes are arranged right side up on the plate. Remove the pan, sprinkle sparingly with a good quality hard cheese and serve immediately.

Bachelor Recipes Vol. 1 #5

2011-08-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

What’s in the Box:

Turnips

Green leaf lettuce

Green Beans

Sugar snap peas

Summer savory

Cucumbers

Apricots

Radicchio

Fennel

Basil

Gladiolus or sunflowers

Family shares also include:

More snap peas, basil, and beans

So here goes. This is a great way to use everything left in the fridge (within reason) It's super easy and scores major points for taste and presentation.

Pasta Primavera: a few things you should know

Water and Salt: Always add a big pinch of salt to the pasta water and do not skimp on the amount of water used to cook pasta. I use about a gallon for one pound and probably a big tablespoon of salt. Heat the water to a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook UNCOVERED. Use tongs to stir it occasionally and after about 7 minutes start checking it by pulling a strand out and cutting it. In cross section you will see a white core indicating that it is not quite done, as this core vanishes your pasta is ready. Al dente pasta will have just a hint of white in the center. For this dish, because you are going to cook the pasta a bit more later you will want a noticeable but barely so white core.

Sautee: Vegetables while the pasta cooks. Have them all prepped and ready to go before you drop the pasta in the water. If you are sharp and focused you can do this while the water heats. I have used just about every vegetable imaginable, but this weeks box has some of my favorites.

String the snap peas and leave them whole. Slice the fennel thin. Slice the Raddichio thin. Snap the stems from the beans and cut into bite size pieces.

You can use anything that sounds good... anything. I have used beets, rutabaga, turnip, you name it. The traditional Italian vegetables are always a hit.

Mince the Summer Savory and hold onto it till the end.

Sautee the vegetables in olive oil in a large cast pan while the pasta is cooking. When they are tender turn off the heat.

Scoop: And here is the secret... scoop a mug full of the starchy pasta water off before draining the pasta. Pour this into the pan of vegetables and simmer to create a light sauce.

Toss: Add the pasta to the pan of vegetables and toss as you would a salad using the tongs over medium heat for a few minutes. Add more pasta water if necessary.

Stir: In some butter or olive oil and a generous handful of grated sharp cheese; quality counts on the cheese.

Stir: In the minced Savory. Basil also works well.

Toss again and you are ready for the plate. When you serve this dish grab a healthy tongfull, hold it over the plate and lower it slowly as you turn the plate and the tongs in opposite directions. This will leave a pyramid of pasta Primavera. Serve with grated cheese.

One pot, one pan, and a cutting board and it is so good it is easy to get someone to wash them.

Never Qualify

2011-08-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, so I have been a little lax with the recipes. Rather than craft an excuse I have posted a picture intended to serve as a starting point for broad generalizations and blanket statements regarding my blogging, or rather the lack thereof.

Bachelor Cooking 201: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

2011-07-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

In true bachelor cooking fashion I drug myself out of the shop at about 7pm last night and had dinner on the table at about 7:45. I used one pot and a colander, or rather, Heidi made pasta and prepped the peas with Natty while I took a quick shower. I wrapped the sno-peas in foil with a few slices of butter and planked the zucchini about 1/4 inch thick. I also trimmed and cut the roots from a bunch of green onions and wrapped them in foil with butter as well.
I warmed the grill at the same time that I placed the zucchini in a large stainless bowl, sprinkled it with salt and pepper and drenched it in olive oil. Then I tossed the zucchini. Everything went on the grill. First the peas and green onions on high. They cooked as I carefully arranged the zucchini perpendicular to the grate on high heat as well. When the zuccs were done on one side as indicated by their softening and a noticeable grill mark, I flipped them carefully and reorganized them to accommodate a slab of local beef. Still cooking with high heat, I seared the beef on both sides flipped the peas and onions and turned the zuccs to low. When the zucchini was done I checked the onions and peas and moved everything around while the meat finished.
Dinner is served... One pot, one colander and some foil. Cook time under an hour. Hachacha.

Bachelor Recipes Vol 1 #4

2011-07-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2011

What’s in the Box:

Cauliflower
Bunched Beets
Sweet onion
Green Leaf lettuce
Golden Chard
Dandelion
Apple mint
Cherries
Crocosmia

Family shares also include:

Radishes
Mizuna
Basil

You are probably not going to believe this...

Whole Baked Cauliflower:

Soak the head of cauliflower for 15 minutes or so in a sink of salt water. Warm water will dissolve the salt. The reason you do this is to get any little crawly thing that may be hiding in there to release its hold. We farm organically and though we do sometimes apply organic insect control materials we do not do so routinely and that means that there may be another living creature that beat you to the cauliflower. A salt water bath is an easy way to make sure they are gone before you cook.

Preheat oven to about 400.

After a relaxing salt water soak, trim the cauliflower and remove the center of the stem. That is to say, core the cauliflower carefully with a paring knife by turning it upside down and removing a cone shaped wedge from the center.

Slather the entire head with butter..use your hands to get butter in all the nooks and crannies. Powder with a good quality bread crumb (easy to make your own by cubing and baking any day old bread you might have and baking at 300 until crisp then grinding in a blender). Place cauli in a greased (more butter) baking dish and cover loosely with foil. Place in oven. It will take an hour or more to cook. At about 40 minutes remove the foil so the head will brown. Keep an eye on this thing, you do not want it to get away from you. You may have to reduce the heat if it is browning way faster than it is softening. It is done when you can easily pierce it with a fork. This is an easy recipe to make in the toaster oven if it will accommodate the cauliflower. Makes a real splash if served whole and sliced at the table.

It's that simple.

Bachelor Recipes Vol.1 #3

2011-07-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Chioggia Beets
Green onions
Bibb or Green Leaf
Lettuce
Bok choy
Dill
Garlic flowers
Arugula
Lily bouquet

Family shares also include:

Red Oak Leaf lettuce
Spinach
Green kohlrabi

New this week: green onions and Chiogga beets, there are also kohlrabi in the family shares.

The Chiogga beets are an Italian heirloom and if you slice them into rounds, they have a bull's eye pattern...very pretty; too pretty to overlook. There is really no quick way to prep beets, but I can try to make them easier and more approachable. Put a few inches of water in a double boiler, or in a pot with a steamer rack. Trim the greens to with in an inch of the beet, but no closer, I like to leave a bit more. KEEP THE GREENS. Heat the water to a boil and place the beets on the rack or in the steamer of the double boiler. They take a while...at least twenty minutes, probably more. They are done when they can be easily pierced with a fork. In the mean time wash the greens and trim off the stems. After about ten minutes of the beets cooking on a low simmer, heat a heavy pan to medium heat, add a little butter, and toss the dripping wet beet greens in. Sautee them unti they are just tender. By then the beets should be done. Remove them and dunk them immediately into a sink of cold water. The skin will slip right off, then they can be transferred to a cutting board and carefully sliced to show off the bullseye. Serve them on a bed of the sauteed greens and a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar. A smattering of crumbled Feta is a really nice touch.

If you have never grilled green onions you simply must. Just trim the tops and toss the onions in a bowl until they are drenched with olive oil and a shake of salt and pepper. Grill them indirectly over low heat until tender or wrap them in foil and place them at the back of the barbecue until they are limp and smell good.

The kohlrabi falls into the salted crisp things category from my earlier post, or you can use them in place of water chestnuts. I have tried every conceivable way to eat these and far prefer them raw, sliced thin, and lightly salted.

Bachelor Recipes Vol 1 #2

2011-07-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

What’s in the Box:

Shunkyo radishes

Spinach

Pom Pom lettuce

Oregano

Garlic flowers (scapes)

Strawberries

Cherries

Lily stem

Family shares also include:

Curly kale

Bok choy

No problem...

If you have not done so already, make the QnE (quick and easy) dressing described in the previous recipes. Stuff a stem of Oregano in the bottle and hang the rest by a thread or any other string (or twistie or whatever you find in a draw or on the floor) above the sink in the kitchen. After about a week the bunch will be dried and can be crumbled into a jar or just used a stem at at a time to flavor other recipes or add to future dressings. The spinach in this week's delivery is not your granma's spinach. When delivered fresh you may be pleasantly surprised by just how good spinach really is. You may rinse and tear it as you did the lettuce from last week, but I suggest: heating a large cast skillet to medium high with some olive oil in the bottom. Dunk the spinach in a sink full of cold water. As you remove the spinach from the sink, just tear the leaves from the stems and shake the water off. Place them immediately in the hot pan, stir quickly, and cover. Sautee until just tender and salt lightly. The garlic scapes are a bit weird but they are a great sauteed garnish and an excellent salad topper. The trick to these is to get them tender without burning them. Discard most of the stem and concentrate on the flower bud and the inch or two of the stem directly below it. You can either sautee them (do this first and then use the same pan for the spinach), or wrap them in foil and make them on the barbecue. To get them soft without burning you need low heat for a long time; you will do better if you pay attention to them, stirring and flipping while you gorge yourself on cherries and draft a plausible explanation as to why there are no cherries left when someone else reads the farm notes.

Here is an oldie for the other greens: Make about a cup of rice/two people. Rinse the kale and grab a decent handful. Holding the kale at the leaves with all the stems facing the same direction, slice the leaves perpendicular to the stem as thin as possible. Do the same with the Bok Choy. Heat a woc or large cast pan with olive oil and a splash of sesame oil. Place the greens in the hot woc or large pan and sautee until tender. Move the tender greens to the outside edge and drop two or three eggs in the middle. Break the yokes and fry the eggs until hard. Slice the fried eggs thin with a dull knife while still in the woc and toss with the greens. Add the rice and toss the whole thing together. Serve with tamari and a smattering of sesame seeds. Garnish with sauteed garlic scapes. This is a great breakfast recipe.

Bachelor Recipes vol1 #1

2011-07-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

6/29/11

In a moment of weakness this winter I claimed that I would get more active in terms of the farm notes. Years ago I used to write them, usually at the end of a twelve hour day cutting vegetables and capped at the end by bunching flowers. I remember having to reread them in the morning before making copies at the local grocery store and heading out for the deliveries. I am always reminded of the chapter from “The Great Shark Hunt”, in which Hunter S. Thompson R.I.P reviews his notes and recorded journal entries only to find the drug addled ranting of a lunatic;let’s just say that some of those early farm notes required some last minute editing.

My intention in getting involved in this again is to provide some very simple recipes. I refer to them as bachelor recipes because most of them have their origin in a time when I lived alone in a small house about seven miles South of Rochester. Dinner was often from the garden and prepared and eaten using only the most rudimentary tools. The object was to minimize the impact on the kitchen; if possible using only one pan that had to be hand washed and eating out of said pan leaning over the sink… ah, the good old days. At any rate, many of these early recipes (if you can call them that) have been tried and true; they are simple, they taste great, they use vegetables fresh from the farm in a way that does not require a French dictionary, and above all they are designed for the person without a surplus of time and energy.

Let’s start with a short shopping list that will make everything else easier:

Olive oil: one gallon of mediocre oil for cooking and one gallon of excellent quality oil for dressings

Sesame oil

Salt: a healthy quantity of sea salt and a container of a nice finishing salt (consider a fleur de sol)

Pepper corns

Grinders for both the salt and pepper

Balsamic vinegar: You do not have to break the bank on this

Dried mustard

Garlic Powder

Hazel nuts

Good quality Parmesan and/or Asiago

A heavy cast skillet or two #10-#4

A giant stainless bowl and a smaller stainless bowl

Heavy duty aluminum foil

Salad spinner

A wine bottle or two

A few spill stop liquor spouts (those metal things they put in the top of the bottle in bars)

OK, that’s a good start. Most of the above is to get ready for the abundance of early greens; salads and sautés. The pourers and wine bottles are for the cooking oil and dressing. A wine bottle with a pour spout, filled with olive oil, sitting next to the stove-top is a must have. The fresh ground salt and pepper make a huge difference and are an economical way to fancify everything you cook. There is no substitute for a good quality hard cheese. A few heavy cast pans are all you really need in a kitchen, that and a decent Dutch oven (more later). The beauty of cast is that, if cared for properly, they require minimal washing and no scrubbing unless you make a mistake.

Sooooo… based on this week’s CSA contents:

Salad: prep all the lettuce and other salad greens at the same time. Wash out the sink and fill it with cold water. Cut the butts off the heads of lettuce (be aggressive, there’s lots) toss the leaves into the water and pull them out by the small handful, breaking them into manageable pieces and discarding any damaged leaves as you go and placing them in the strainer of the salad spinner. When the strainer is full, spin the lettuce dry and dump it into a giant stainless bowl. Repeat the process until all the lettuce is washed and dry. Do the same with any arugula or mizuna you might add to salad. Toss together in the giant bowl and place any salad you will not eat immediately into a plastic bag and put it in the fridge.

QnE Dressing: Take one of your empty wine bottles, fill it 2/3 full of best quality olive oil, add some salt, some pepper, some dry mustard, and some garlic powder.* You can also add a few crushed dried herbs like oregano or basil. You can even just stuff a whole stem of fresh herbs into the bottle, but remember you are going to have to get it back out eventually. Fill remainder with Balsamic vinegar and shake.

*There are only three measurements in bachelor cooking: some, lots, and all.

Traditionally in my family the salad was tossed with the dressing and served after the meal with a meager grating of good quality hard cheese.

Salted crispy sharp things: Wash, top, and trim roots from radishes. Wash peel and top the kohlrabi. Slice radishes just as thin as you safely can, do the same with the kohlrabi. Place them in the smaller stainless bowl or even better in the bowl you had the salad in (less washing). Salt them with the finishing salt, toss them around a bit. Serve as is.

As for the Broccoli or Rapini or cauli or tatsoi or joi choi or any other wacky Asian vegetable or brassica; wash and cut into manageable pieces, let them fall into whichever stainless bowl is already oily, and drizzle with olive oil, add some sesame oil and toss. Dump the oily vegetables onto a piece of aluminum foil and wrap them tightly taking care not to leave any gaps. You can either heat these at 350-400 in a toaster oven or better, place them on the grill. They are ready when you can begin to smell them, or when they feel light when you pick them up with tongs.

The Chard can be prepared as above, or rinsed and torn and then tossed into a medium-hot cast pan with a bit of olive oil. I like to brown a few chopped hazel nuts in the pan first and then toss the chard with these. Browning hazel nuts is easy, just don’t burn them. Chop them course and add them to a medium hot pan with just a bit of oil in the bottom. Stir them until golden brown.

The strawberries should be rinsed and eaten as you prep; after all you are cooking aren’t you. You deserve them. If you can wait you can slice them thin and serve them over a scoop of ice cream for dessert.

As for the mint… We’re busy, too busy to sit around drinking tea; we do, however, have time to rinse the bunch and stuff it into a jar of water with a bit of brown sugar, put it in the sun and wait. You will be rewarded with a mild mint tea that can be served over ice.

2011-07-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Strawberry season is in full swing here at the farm. We just enjoyed the high water mark of strawberry Festivals here on Saturday. Hundreds of people, great food and music...
A rose by any other name...
C'est magnifique!!!
And if you are a ripe strawberry, this may well be the last thing you see.

Chicken Sedan

2011-06-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Why do chicken coops always have two doors? Because if they had four doors, they would be chicken sedans...

My daughter delights in her flock of black Australorps.
Henry is her favorite; a polite and reticent rooster who enjoys jazz and long walks in the lawn.

Relay Tillage at the Munroe Field

2011-06-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Munroe field is home to this season's garlic crop as well as our early cauliflower and broccoli.

Due to our, cold damp spring, we have been a bit behind the eight ball here at Boistfort Valley Farm. In an attempt to catch up and save time we followed through on a diabolical plan to prep our corn ground in record time.

You can see in the above photo, that we are dealing with a cover crop that almost reaches the hood of the tractor.

As I mowed with a seven foot mulcher, Aaron followed behind with the plows. Together we went from shoulder high grass to plowed ground at a rate of 3.5 mph. This felt like flying after spending three days on the transplant tractor moving at a mind numbing 0.5 mph., and it sure did shine up those plows.

I'm Back

2011-06-01T13:08:00.001-07:00

Well...Here it is. I am back after a long winter of bookwork. Typically over winter I am involved in some exciting project or another which I deem note-worthy and indeed that is why I started blogging in the first place; to create a record of projects and improvements, and though I do have tons to report, I am sorry to say that my winter was all but consumed in a sea of paper work. We incorporated in early 2010 ho hum. As the farm grows the business has become more complex and the sole proprietorship was no longer the best business model for us. So...I spent the winter with the help of some very sharp and very generous financial consultants and attorneys shoring up the business and inventorying equipment and assets. I also revamped our safety policies and procedures; added some policies that will better protect our employees and generally tried to put a personal spin on our safety program so that hopefully it will be a bit more engaging.

Thanks for your patience,

Mike

Field Walk Reveals Healthy Crops

2010-08-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

A big part of my job here at the farm is to manage the health and happiness of crops in the field. Every week I take a tour of all the fields and monitor crops and their condition in great detail. During these field walks I generate a list of the activities necessary to keep each crop in each field doing their best. Then it's back to the office to use that information to generate the weeks job lists for each crew here at the farm.

I could not resist sharing some pictures of the Kahout field from yesterdays visit. The beans all look wonderful. We have been harvesting from the first planting for about a week and pictured here is the start of the flowering cycle for the second planting. These plants look great, healthy with a prolific flower set; I hope you are hungry for beans.
The real surprise in this field has been the vigor of our Solanaceae; the peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. Despite a terrible spring that left these plants struggling to grow in substandard temperatures with a deluge of spring rain, they have really come around. We will be harvesting peppers soon, we have already begun harvesting some cherry tomatoes and we are hopeful that the forthcoming warm weather will mean even more ripe fruit next week. I even found a few ripe eggplant.

No Joke

2010-07-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

A tractor walks into a bar and tells the bartender it's having clutch problems. After several beers the bartender asks the tractor if it would like another. The tractor responds " No thanks, I think I'll split". Get it? No? That's because it's really not funny.

Above you can see our John Deere 1630 "split". To replace the clutches, as well as facilitate other service work, a tractor is literally split in half. This can be done in several places. The transmission to engine split is the easiest thankfully. The most difficult part is trying to fit the two halves back together. Each weigh in at over 1500 pounds and you must carefully line up a small shaft that is fixed to the rear and fits snugly into a splined plate on the front half. Yep.

GAPs Training (do not go in the forest!!!)

2010-07-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon at a GAPs training session in Puyallup. If you are not familiar; the GAPs or "Good Agricultural Practices" are a set of federal guidelines meant to improve consumer safety. They are, like many other government generated programs, loosely based on science and firmly based on fear. That said, please understand that at this time GAPs certification is voluntary. We at Boistfort Valley Farm are positioning ourselves to implement a GAPs program in house and intend to seek third party certification in 2011. As the farm has grown we have embraced relationships with institutional customers. It is our pleasure to do business with several institutional buyers that show a very real commitment to providing nutritious food that is sourced locally to their customers. Please see my post regarding the staff at Intel: http://boistfortvalleyfarm.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-intel-is-inside-and-we-are-inside.html
Chefs like Kris Kamp at Intel and Maury Bennett at St. Martins have an enthusiasm for their craft that is equal to the finest Chefs in the finest restaurants.

I must report that when I speak with other small farmers these guidelines are not viewed favorably. They do carry with them a significantly increased burden of paperwork and have elements that are at odds with some sustainable practices especially regarding wildlife and rotational practices that include livestock. The guidelines would have you believe that the presence of wildlife and domestic animals on a farm are a liability, that is a bitter pill to a farm that has just spent so much energy recreating a riparian buffer that is largely geared toward increasing habitat for wildlife and spent so much money and time restoring a barn that houses barn owls and bats. Many elements of the GAPs are just good common sense and we are in favor of the formal nature of the record keeping and policies which address sanitation and cleanliness as well as monitoring of water quality.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x3355

Personally I believe that in a world with a food system that can so quickly and broadly distribute a product that is a risk to human health that GAPs are a necessary component of that system. However when it comes to a farm like ours where we can trace back a product so quickly and personally they are largely redundant. We harvest a product, wash it, box it, cool it overnight and then deliver it. We know our CSA and commercial customers by name and are present at Markets. It would be an easy task to trace a head of lettuce from the consumer to the person that packed and or picked it to the field of origin. We already keep careful detailed records as part of our farm management and are not particularly intimidated by the paperwork necessary to complete a GAPs audit. I am a bit torn on the issue of wildlife as liability, or the notion that nature is dangerous and harmful. I often leave the GAPs training exercises with the idea that food might be best grown in a laboratory setting. If what the food safety experts say is true we would have no living dairymen in this country, and truth be told we as a species are probably more at risk of injury from lowered immune system response as a result of over-sanitizing than we are of pathogens present in our food.

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/98vol24/dr2403ea.html

Please do take some time to familiarize yourself with this issue, I think we will hear more about this as time goes by and we may soon see a requirement that all farms regardless of size pass a mandatory GAPs audit. In the meantime know that we at Boistfort Valley Farm are committed to your health and to the safety and quality of our produce. We are implementing several practices that will help us to better monitor some elements of our farm in this context, as well as formalizing the practices that are already in place.

My formal spin- GAPs:

Personally-They are a neopuritanical neccesity in a world where produce is grown in unnatural quantities and shipped an unnatural distance to an unnatural number of customers with no relationship to the person that grew it.

Professionally-The health and well being of our customers is our first concern. We are committed to actively reducing the risk of food born illness in all phases of our farming operation.

2010-06-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

In my last post from weeks ago I said I was going to introduce you to the Munroe field. Well, then it started to rain again, and again, and in between drops we hammered away at the fields and frantically seeded and transplanted. The Munroe field is our most developed right now with the exception of the home place and it shows in these pics. The field in the fore ground is full of potatoes and brassicas; broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi. Behind that, you can see the remay which covers our third planting of beets and carrots as well as the second planting of Asian greens and radishes. Just out of sight are the corn and squash.

Here is the kale up close and personal.

On the day I took these pictures I was running the cultivating tractor, a 1948 Super A. These tractors are an indispensable component of our weed management strategy. They where originally built to replace the one horse on a one horse farm*. The steering is offset so you can see directly below you, and there are rudimentary hydraulics on the belly and rear of the tractor.

We have an arsenal of tools that attach to a tool bar under the tractor; furrowers, knives, shovels, discs, all of which serve a slightly different purpose. We furrow for planting tubers and bulbs, then cover using blades we fabricated from an old CAT blade. We run knives and sweeps between rows of plants to slice out weeds just below the soil surface.

The whole set up is called "cultivision" in the spirit of that eras use of "-O-rama" at the end of words to create a sense of wonder; weed-O-rama. I always get a chuckle out of that because cultivation days are sometimes long. It is not unusual to spend 5 or 6 ours staring down between your feet at the plants as they pass through the shovels which are passing through the soil at 2 miles an hour or so. It would be like watching sand sift through an hour glass for 5 or 6 straight hours. When you look away everything still appears to be moving in and down; you got "cultivision".

*no horses were replaced during the creation of this post

Progress in the Field

2010-05-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

We have taken full advantage of the recent dry weather. Pictured above are our fields on the Kahout Rd. Bafaw is in the background and you can just begin to see the clouds thickening into what became the major downpour that put an end to our progress late yesterday afternoon. Patrick and I have prepped and fertilized about 38 of the 50 acres we will have in production this year. We have filled the 9 acres at the Home Place with celery and lettuces in addition to all the perennial herbs and flowers that along with the strawberries constitute a majority of the ground there.
Kahout Rd will be home to our 2010 bean crop the first planting of which is pictured above. I hope you are hungry for beans. Our onions and more celery will also go in these fields along with the Solanacea; tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and last but not least the artichokes. Below you can see the field crew planting onions. We plow, disk, fertilize and then till the ground until it is as smooth as possible then plant the onions by hand. This is probably one of the toughest jobs of the season. The crew finished in just over two long days as Patrick and I rushed to finish plowing and fertilizing the remainder of the field.
We will be planting corn and squash early next week at the Munroe Field. I will introduce you to that field then. We already have our potatoes and some brassicas; cauliflower, broccoli, and kohlrabi in there. Then we will move on to Pe Ell McDonald Rd to prep for the late brassicas and more peas and roots.

Barn is Officially Painted!!!

2010-05-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

The barn is shown here with its finished coat of paint and trim. We will slowly build the doors over the course of the summer and hope to finish the interior floors this winter. The end is in sight...

Barn Gets Paint

2010-05-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well, as I promised; one board at a time Patrick and I replaced and repaired the trim on the barn. The final stage was to rebuild and replace the damaged and missing window frames.
Then we taped her all up and Omar from MDK came back to start in on the paint. The body should be finished today and we are hopeful that the trim will be painted and dry before it starts to rain early next week.

Stop the Presses

2010-04-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Boistfort Valley Farm owner and noted tightwad Mike Peroni authorizes purchase of new piece of equipment.

Despite years of the term "new equipment" meaning a rusty old piece of iron that had never been on the property before, and to the disbelief of local residents and coworkers, an actual new implement has been purchased by Boistfort Valley Farm. The new transplanter arrived in early April and I finished assembly late last night, then reassembled all the parts I had put on after my bed time this morning. The shiny red planter is sitting outside the office right now waiting for the weather to clear a bit so we can take it for a spin.

This transplanter was purchased to replace the old unit we have been running for years. That old unit will not be decommissioned, but rather used for a few select crops for which it is best suited. The new N-E-W transplanter features several improvements. It has a carousel which rotates instead of fingers that grip the plants. This system of delivery allows one person to do the work of two. The new units also float independent of one another and will allow us to more accurately plant on uneven ground. Because the new transplanter can be set on a much closer row spacing it will also allow us to cultivate more accurately, and last but not least it comes complete with tanks and a delivery system that will give each seedling a shot of water and liquid fertilizer as it is being planted. That will significantly reduce our water and fertilizer usage and the labor of having to follow each transplanting with irrigation from overhead sprinklers. Please also note the Ferrari red paint, the foam seats, the little windshields for the plants (I didn't think the thing was THAT fast) and the provocative name.....the Mechanical 5000WD. Boy howdy.

Neither rain nor snow....

2010-04-06T08:03:00.001-07:00

Despite some of the nastiest April weather I have ever seen we continue to make progress on the barn. MDK has finished their part of this phase of the project. They replaced missing and damaged siding and have replaced the shingles at both gable ends.The east end was a real challenge. It seemed that between the pitch of the roof and the windows and vents that nearly every shingle had to be cut and fit into place.

Patrick and I have been following the crew from MDK and replacing trim and wrap to prepare for paint. Oh, and did I mention that we also hand scraped every surface of this building setting nails to secure the trim as we went? Patrick and I have set lofty goals for our performance and regardless of weather will not quit until at least one board is placed every day; some days are longer than others.

When you look at some of the photos from before we lifted and straightened the building it is difficult to believe that we even took this project on. We are delighted with the outcome and everyone is looking forward to seeing the paint go on.

Hard to believe it is the same barn.

Back at it on the Barn

2010-03-24T17:43:00.001-07:00

Shortly after the first of March MDK came back and started replacing the missing and damaged siding on our barn, then moved on to removing the damaged shingles at the gable ends.
We tried unsuccessfully to acquire more grant monies to complete the barn project. We met this winter with our employees and I pitched a number of different projects for the farm to pursue this season. Everyone got behind completing the barn. With limited funds available I begged and pleaded with the contractors, and volunteered myself and dedicated some field crew to try and get the exterior finished. While MDK replaces the shingles we scrape and replace siding and trim.

MDK finished the East gable today and we have prepped the North and South sides for paint. By the end of next week if the weather cooperates the old girl should have a fresh coat of paint to match the house.

Against my Better Judgement

2010-03-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well, despite the fact that I have been a hold out against season extension, and have always advocated shortening the season to a point that we actually only farm for a week to ten days in the middle of September, after the heat of summer has passed, I was finally prodded into erecting some inexpensive cold frames. We set PVC pipe at 8 foot intervals and have covered roughly 8000sq feet.

First we prepped and fertilized the beds, then we planted out early lettuce and green onions. Everybody got in on it; some planting, some tilling, others setting posts and anchors and still others building sand castles.
The design borrows heavily from a Kentucky County Extension design and gains most of its strength from the use of earth anchors and rope. Thank you Tim Coolong for your help and your patience.
I have to admit I am pleased with how the structures turned out and excited to see how well they work for early crops and even more so how they will help with some of the heat loving crops that we just barely get away with in the North West like tomatoes and peppers.

Here we go Again

2010-03-10T10:43:00.001-08:00

Well here we go again. I have not posted for some time, in part because many of the activities here at the farm over winter are less than exciting. We meet a lot, we set schedules, order seeds, define and refine job descriptions, make tons of copies, meet some more, brainstorm, perform maintenance on equipment, create budgets, meet some more, evaluate employees, reorganize, refine our safety program, attend meetings (meet some more), create advertising, stare and compare the farms performance relative to years past, then meet some more.

Then suddenly one day we seed in the greenhouse. Then, usually in mid February we get some unseasonably warm weather and all of a sudden it feels like spring. Our greenhouse is starting to overflow with plants, we will begin moving flats to greenhouse 2 this week. Patrick and I could not stand it and went out and seeded some early greens, then went back and seeded an early planting of roots; beets and carrots. We often experience less than ideal germination followed by weather that makes these early seedings impossible to manage successfully but our fingers are crossed. Everything in the field is nesteled under a layer of row cover and early indications show much better germination than expected. We have weeded the perennials and garlic and have a good jump on early cultivation. Yesterday I signed with our house contractor and this week we will begin prepping the barn for paint. We will be repairing and or replacing all the exterior trim and siding and should be painting late this month or early next; more on that as it happens.

Above you can see Boistfort peak sporting a dusting of snow this morning. Local lore dictates that you not plant a garden until there is no snow on Bawfaw. But well, I never have been a good listener.

Thomas Jefferson on Agriculture

2010-03-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

Having spent a full half hour trying to craft a clever introduction to the following quotes, I give up. They stand alone; thoughtful, timely and inspiring.

"The class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is the first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same artificial means which have been used to produce a competition in learning, may be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts among it handmaids of the most respectable sciences, such as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics generally, Natural History, Botany. In every College and University, a professorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be honored as the first. Young men closing their academical education with this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, instead of crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of their fathers, their own, or those of others, and replenish and invigorate a calling, now languishing under contempt and oppression. The charitable schools, instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the present state of society does not call for, converted into schools of agriculture, might restore them to that branch qualified to enrich and honor themselves, and to increase the productions of the nation instead of consuming them." (TJ to David Williams, L&B.10.429-30)

And another thing:

"Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth. Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor nation has furnished an example." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:229

Boistfort Valley Farm Voted Wildlife Habitat Steward of the Year

2010-02-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

Boistfort Valley Farm has been recognized by the Lewis County Conservation District for our efforts to enhance diversity and maintain habitat for wildlife here on the farm. We have been working with the Conservation District to plant and maintain a riparian buffer bordering the South Fork of the Chehalis where it flows through the property. The Conservation District has provided us a grant which reimburses us for the trees and labor, as well as provides incentives for the ongoing maintenance of the project. It has been a very real pleasure to work with this organization. It was a hoot to attend their recent Board meeting, and an honor to sit in a room full of such dedicated local farmers and others.

Apart from being instrumental in facilitating this project, the Conservation District is an excellent resource for information and grant funding of other projects. They provide information, technical services and cost share opportunities for projects which keep land and water healthy and productive. Their services are available to farms and forestry concerns of any size. http://www.scc.wa.gov/ The Conservation district works in partnership with a host of other County, State and Federal entities such as; Farm Services, USDA, Fish and Wildlife, the Forest Service, and the Department of Ecology.

I would also like to thank the Conservation District of Lewis County at this time for their help and support after the flooding of 2007. Through a special appropriation, the Conservation District offered reimbursement for expenses to repair and replace irrigation equipment, to replace perennial plants, and to clear and rehabilitate lands damaged by flooding on the farm.
Thank you.

Just When I Thought I could Stop Crying

2010-02-08T15:16:00.000-08:00

Lewis Co. flood victims give back to United Way KOMO News - Breaking News, Sports, Traffic and Weather - Seattle, Washington Local & Regional

Back to Work

2010-01-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

Once back we celebrated the New Year at the local Grange with a potluck, music and dancing.

Then we set to work on the seed order. We have always done this at the dining room table with seed catalogues spread everywhere, notes from last year and lots of snacks. It is about a three day affair to complete the order and Heidi is inside faxing and phoning in the orders today.

In the mean time we service and maintain our tractors and field trucks, inspect and repair the delivery vehicles and generally go through all our equipment and facilities and effect the repairs for which a hectic summer schedule does not allow the time.

Last but not least, operating on the premise that man does not live by bread alone, I have dropped a high performance motor in my old 1967 Ford pickup. This motor, combined with an antiquated chassis and running gear makes for a profoundly dangerous combination of horsepower and poor handling and braking. The gentleman who built the motor suggests that I only use the truck to go to the store. I look forward to the challenges and eventual outcome of a project of this nature. I have had this truck since I was 25 and will endeavor to restore it in stages over the next year or two. More later.

Christmas in Pennsylvania

2010-01-18T15:37:00.001-08:00

It feels as though we just got back to Washington, though we returned from visiting family just before the first of the year. Heidi, Natty and I spent a full two weeks visiting family in Pennsylvania for the Christmas holiday. While we were there we "got dumped on"; over 8 inches of snow in my sister's neighborhood outside Pottstown.

We went sledding.

Built a snow man.

Baked cookies for Pop Pop....

and of course, opened presents and exchanged gifts with family and friends.

Chronicle Article on Tree Planting at Boistfort Valley Farm

2009-11-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

http://www.chronline.com/articles/2009/11/09/news/doc4af861a8d63c6035683816.txt

Tree Planting

2009-11-05T15:38:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday Kathy Jacobson and Jan Strong started delivering trees with help from Dawn and Omrao. I am amazed at the diversity of the species we are planting; dogwood, fir, hemlock, cedar, maple, oak, cottonwood, willow, alder, chestnut.....

Jan, Kathy and Dawn set out pins to mark where the trees were to be planted. I had already facilitated some strip tillage and planted the beds into native grass. On Wednesday we started planting with help from a group of middle school students from Rochester.

Thursday morning we where host to over 100 4th graders from Montesano. These kids where incredible. They were focused and hard working. They braved rain and wind and planted an amazing number of trees with an inspiring enthusiasm.
I cannot express how profound an experience this has been for me. I owe so much to the land from which I have been making a living most of my adult life, and from the rivers that have provided me with food and water. To have the oppurtunity to give back a bit, and to share that experience with such wonderful people of all ages is deeply moving. This is an endeavor I encourage you all to take part in; the planting of trees with friends and strangers.

Tree Planting

2009-10-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Boistfort Valley Farm will be hosting three days of riparian mayhem this next week November 4th, 5th and 7th. We are working in partnership with ESD 113 and others to restore over 2000 feet of riparian buffer here on the farm. I am trying hard to post the flyer for the event but for now you will have to settle for the following link. Please join us for this fun and meaningful project.

http://tnl.esd113.org/191910116152619890/lib/191910116152619890/Boistfort_Valley_farm_flyer.pdf

A Day in the Chokes

2009-10-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with a hardworking crew from Growing Places Farm and Energy Park http://www.gpfep.org/about.php and others, who came out to lend a hand cutting back perennials and getting them ready for winter.

We removed all the old stems from the artichokes and cut back hundreds of perennial flowers.

Natalina delighted in the company and a day long game of hide and seek from her overprotective father.

Can you spot her in this picture?

Winter Garden

2009-10-06T09:59:00.001-07:00

Here at the farm we are busy harvesting and bringing in the winter storage crops. The garlic is cured and in storage, the greenhouses are full of onions, and our first ever dry beans, the barn is filling with squash, and the fields are loaded with winter greens and plenty of root crops. There are even a few acres of tender vegetables covered with remay that we will be harvesting well into winter.
At Boistfort Valley Farm we have always prided ourselves on our end game. If you visit the website or are a CSA member you will notice that we have extended our local deliveries, and offer a winter CSA as well as seasonal holiday deliveries. It is a complicated list of options that we are always trying to simplify and refine. Trust that if you take the time to navigate the possibilities you will be delighted with the quality and flavor of these cold hardy crops like the Brussels Sprouts pictured above.

When I first started farming, which was much more of a garden, I was driven primarily by the desire to grow my own food. For better or worse my heroes as a teen were guys like Grizzly Adams and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, my sincere apologies to my mother. Having never quite figured out how to comfortably ride a chopper with a pet grizzly bear, I had to settle for being a farmer, fisherman, motorcycle enthusiast. But I digress. The climate in NW allows us to grow many vegetables year round, the long daylight hours and mild winters are excellent for a winter garden. We have just translated those possibilities into a larger format over the years. We probably have no less than five acres in production through winter. Kale, chard, Brussels sprouts, carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabaga, leeks, Asian greens, radishes, cabbage, kohlrabi, celery, herbs; all these crops will hold well in the field until the temps become brutal or the increasing daylight hours of spring drive them to go to seed.

Many of these crops are my favorite comfort foods; roasted root crops and potatoes, roasts surrounded by fennel and carrot, hearty stews etc. The other benefit to winter gardening is flavor. The sugar content and therefore the sweetness of many of these crops, especially kale, Brussels, and chard are greatly increased after a frost.

One of the biggest challenges in the way we farm is the fact that it is a bit complicated. We do our own marketing, trucking, packing, book keeping et al. We often put together and train a phenomenal crew, cultivate wonderful relationships with our customers, then in fall just cut everyone loose to fend for themselves and pray that our staff and customers will be there again in spring. As a means of addressing this issue, especially when it comes to offering meaningful and rewarding positions here at the farm, we have really focused on transitioning to a year round endeavor. We market in Olympia through December, in Ballard through February, and offer the CSA year round. We also continue to provide stores and restaurants through the winter months. We rely heavily on our early experience as gardeners and on the fortitude of our field crew to grow and harvest the quality and quantity of these winter vegetables necessary for a successful winter program.

So praises to the winter garden, the brave souls out there harvesting in the sideways rain, and the mild maritime climate that make it possible.

If Intel is inside, and we are inside Intel, then????

2009-10-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Boistfort Valley Farm recently spent the afternoon rubbing elbows with the staff at the Intel cafeteria in Dupont. We were invited by Executive Chef Kris Kamp to spend the day displaying our produce, and talking about the farm and food with Intel's staff and employees. The cafeteria is run by Bon Appetit and as part of their eat local challenge we shared the cafeteria with a local rancher and hundreds of Intel employees.

Kris and his kitchen staff were courteous and generous to a fault. The employees at this facility are spoiled rotten when it comes to lunch. Kris's eye for presentation and commitment to using the best ingredients are worlds away from what one might think of when using the word cafeteria. He handles his kitchen with the skill and grace of a true professional. It was a joy to watch this team work, and an even greater joy to see the delight the diners took in their meal.

Thanks for the opportunity Kris.......

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

2009-09-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

It dawned on me recently that I may not have met many of the readers and customers who occasionally visit the blog. Hi, I'm Mike Peroni and I am a farmer. A very tired and easily agitated farmer this time of year. The farm is a runaway train in August and September. We hold on for dear life as the Markets get busy, the garlic comes in, the winter squash ripens, the onions dry down, the potatoes scream to be harvested before the rain.......the list really does go on and on.

We will be attending the Tilth harvest fair at the Good Shepherd Center this weekend: http://www.nwsource.com/shopping/home/home-garden/enjoy-urban-garden-party-sept-12-seattle-tilths-harvest-fair?cmpid=2336
This is a great event we look forward to every year. It is an excellent opportunity to meet some of the best farmers in the state, shop at a premier urban market, listen to live music and presentations....There are loads of kids activities, and the venue alone is worth a visit.

I have also been selling at the Olympia Farmers Markets on Sundays lately. As my personal responsibilities at the farm which focus on planning, seeding and planting slow down I am able to get out a bit more. Though maintenance on our equipment has kept me busy this year I look forward to ramping down a bit, letting my hair down at the forthcoming barnstomp here at the farm, and spending a bit more time with family. So get out and get to local market market, or come see us at the harvest fair or better yet at the second annual barnstomp here at the farm on Saturday Sept. 19.

What a Difference a Month Makes

2009-09-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

The hot dry summer has done wonders for the corn here in the Boistfort Valley. After watching the local pea and bean harvest come off, which for the commodities growers in this area had to border on disaster, I am pleased to report that the corn looks wonderful.

What started out as a nice planting of Bodacious and Mystique, with a little Sugar Buns thrown in for an early harvest, has matured into the nicest corn crop we have grown in years.

We look forward to a light harvest for the weekend and a full blown concern for the next month.

The Chronicle Online > Life > Boistfort Valley Farm Offers Fresh Food for Seasonal Cooking

2009-08-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Chronicle Online > Life > Boistfort Valley Farm Offers Fresh Food for Seasonal Cooking

Holy Smokes!!!

2009-08-07T15:45:00.001-07:00

That's a whole lot of chokes!!!

Is it Just Me or is it Hot in Here?

2009-07-29T23:08:00.001-07:00

You probably recognize our farm logo pictured above. Pretty, yes, but also purposeful. The image actually comes from a sunflower here on the farm.

I caught this bee at work one morning during a tour of the fields. The sunflowers have long been a favorite of ours because of their beauty, their long history in agriculture, and also their resilience. After the flooding of 2007, the next spring, throughout the Valley down river of the farm sunflowers sprouted from piles of mud and debris. During these dog days of summer when the temperatures reach into the 90s and even over 100, the sunflowers just soak it up. They do not require any of the pampering that other plants do to make it through these periods of adversity.

They have volunteered in our potatoes this year and their stunning display as they serenely follow the sun in its arch across the sky each day without complaint is a real inspiration.

Just like our Hannah, who last Tuesday braved record temperatures in downtown Chehalis at the farmers market. Thinking ahead she provided cold water and even a sprinkler on the street to help cool off the brave customers that made it out that day. When she returned to the farm that evening she reported record temperatures of 113 degrees confirmed by two thermometers on banks downtown. Even King 5 news showed up apparently noting that Chehalis was the hottest spot in western Washington according to their radar observations.

Kahout Road

2009-07-29T22:16:00.001-07:00

We lease the Kahout Road field from local resident Werner Klee. It is at the end of a county road bordered by the South Fork of the Chehalis River and timber land. I often joke that it is like a petting zoo. It is common to see deer, elk, porcupine, raccoon and coyote. If you picked up the field and shook it all manner of wildlife would drop out.

We have consistently suffered substantial damage in this field, and have had to make careful crop choices based on the dining preferences of elk and deer.

The first year we farmed here we watched our corn disappear over night, and witnessed the methodical munching of each heart out of the center of thousands of heads of lettuce.

A year later after moving the lettuce and corn I was marveling at how quickly the crew had harvested a crop of peas only to later find that it was not the crew but rather a herd of elk that had reduced a once lush field of green to spent vines and hoof prints.

We now use this field for a rotation of broccoli, celery, beans, and onions. The elk seem to leave these crops alone-go figure. We have also been fortunate in that Nil, who often plants corn across the river from this field has used his fields for barley and wheat for the past couple years. The corn is such a favorite that the herd could easily wipe out this field just marching across from the timber to get to it.

We also use a combination of carefully placed mylar ribbon and fuse line to discourage t he elk from entering the field. Though nothing, and I mean nothing, will stop a herd of elk from doing exactly as it pleases, they are agitated by the flash and movement of mylar ribbon. Fuse line is a series of fire crackers which we weave into a slow burning rope. The line burns at rate of about one foot per hour then lights the fuse of the fire cracker and they go off periodically. We make these up to pop at dusk and dawn and carefully place them in areas where the elk enter this field. I believe this is an effective deterrent if done consistently and conscientiously.

Apart from a few hoof prints we have never had any damage in the alliums (onions, leeks, and shallots) though it makes me uncomfortable just writing about it.

Beans too seem to escape damage, with the exception of the soy beans which we actually plant as a decoy. Deer love to nibble these from the top down, and in my experience if you provide them with an ample supply of edamame, they will leave the other varieties of beans alone.

This picture you may remember from an earlier post as Patrick gets his first go 'round on the seeder tractor.

A few weeks later they have formed a nice stand of beans.

Garlic Harvest

2009-07-29T16:49:00.001-07:00

Carpathian Garlic is originally from the Carpathian Mountains in what they refer to as the Garlic Crescent. It is the only garlic we grow. We used to grow several different varieties. I would sell them at market and everyone would ask me to describe the different types and their attributes. The Carpathian is a large bulb with several large cloves that peal very easily, it is an oily variety with a bold very traditional garlic flavor, not hot like the Asian varieties, stores well......."And the others?" Oh those, yeah, they're uhhhh.....yeah.

So after a few years of that we concentrated on Carpathian.

At least ten years ago I bought my first Carpathian from another farmer who grew only garlic. He had several varieties and I bought a few and trialed them. I had seven pounds of Carpathian, the largest bulb no bigger than a ping pong ball. After growing it out for a few years I had a crop of about 800lbs, the average size well over 2 inches in diameter. I would put about 200 lbs of seed back in the ground and sell the rest. The average bulb weighs in at about 1/4lb and will yield 8 or 9 cloves to plant. I was then consistently harvesting 1200lbs or so every year.

In 2000, when I moved from the Independence Valley south of Rochester I took the Carpathian with me. I rented a trailer on a dairy farm and worked as a remodel carpenter in Seattle while I shopped for farms and tried to save money. I planted about 5o lbs just to keep the strain, and when Heidi and I finally did find this place the Carpathian was the first thing to go in the ground.

It took two years just to get enough stock to sell and still have some seed. Then, in the winter of 2006 just when we were getting back up to speed we had to plant our garlic in a marginal field that we leased from some friends down the road. We planted our 200lb bench mark, then watched in horror as the field we planted filled with water and remained a lake for almost two months over winter.

We managed to harvest about 35lbs of usable product the following spring. It is from there that we have once again slowly built up our garlic crop.

We harvested our garlic last Saturday the 25th of July, pretty much right on schedule, and we are curing it in our shade house. In a week or so we will clean and sort it and it will be ready for market. We will select out about 500lbs for seed and plant in mid September for next year. I have already chosen a site that is high and dry.

Carpathian really is a wonderful variety. I believe it is the best culinary garlic available; oily to the point that it once flooded and shorted out a friend's dehydrator as he made dried garlic to grind for garlic powder. As if that were not enough: the Carpathian Mountains border Transylvania making it quite likely that garlands of this particular variety were once worn to ward off vampires. It has been a real pleasure to enjoy such a long, rich relationship with this particular crop.

Pe Ell McDonald Road

2009-07-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Boistfort Valley Farm covers about 35 acres. We own 20 acres we call the "home place" where the house and barn are located. Of that we cultivate about 10. We also lease a large remote field from Werner Klee on Kahout Rd. This field totals 45 acres or more of which we cultivate about 12. Those twelve are a beautiful big rectangle that run from the river to the road. The soil near the river is a Chehalis mix; sandier toward the river and getting heavier as it slopes up to the road. Heidi's parents, John and Vicki, own 25 acres on Pe Ell McDonald Road. We also farm about 15 acres there.

The PeEll McDonald field is a real cocktail of soil types. It is very difficult to manage as it transitions from type to type with distinctly different textures and watering requirements. It is however a nice long field that was the recipient of years of dairy manure pumped from the pit on a nearby dairy. It grows beautiful brassicas, and for the past three years has also been home to our squash and corn.

Young squash soak up the sun at Pe Ell McDonald, later becoming the Sea of Squash you see below.

Brassicas, like the kale below, as well as broccoli and cauliflower do well in this phosphorous rich field.

Our corn, not quite knee high by the fourth of July, is loving the warm summer.

A note on acreage: though by most standards Boistfort Valley Farm is tiny, we are the largest farm of our kind in Lewis County, and probably one of the largest CSA/direct market farms in western Washington. I am always reminded, when speaking of acreage, of the metal sculptors I hung out with in Cincinnati in a past life. These guys where a breed of artist that one rarely meets. Macho to the core, so poor they used to melt down their previous work to get material for the next. I remember one late night in an abandoned warehouse turned studio listening to them judge each others work by gross weight, not artistic merit or some fine sense of the aesthetic, but tonnage.

I will always judge our success on the quality and taste of our product, our ability to communicate with our customers, and the quality of the environment here at the farm.

BVF Awarded Conservation Grant

2009-07-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

Great news for the farm arrived recently in the form of a press release and a congratulatory email from Kathy Jacobson at ESD113. We have been awarded a grant through Fish and Wildlife to plant over 2000 trees and restore over 2000 feet of river bank and riparian buffer along the South Fork of the Chehalis river where it wanders through the farm. The ESD113 program's mission; "To help low income youth reach their educational and employment goals". The map below outlines the proposed scope of the planting, those of you familiar with the farm will recognize this lower field and the river.

We are very excited to continue our outreach and involvement with the youth of Lewis county. We already employ a young woman at the Chehalis Farmers Market through this program. She has proven a real asset to the farm, and I believe she really enjoys the real world experience of working at the market. My hat is tipped to Hannah for all her hard work in making this relationship with our community a reality. The press release follows.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2009

Contact:
Don Stuart, 206-860-4222, dstuart@farmland.org
Or
Kathy Marcella Jacobson, 360-464-6722, kjacobson@esd113.k12.wa.us

Local School District Receives Grant:—Students and Community Volunteers Will Save Salmon and Farms

Chehalis, Washington—The Educational Service District 113 (ESD 113) has received a grant that will allow it to help save both salmon and a local farm. The project will use ESD 113 students, and Chehalis River Council and Chehalis River Basin Land Trust volunteers to restore over 2,500 feet of riparian salmon habitat on the Boistfort Valley Farm. The project will provide much improved habitat for salmon while, at the same time, stabilizing stream banks and providing a vegetated (should this be a vegetation) buffer to reduce flooding.

“This is a big gain for both the fish and the farmer” says Kathy Marcella Jacobson, Chehalis Basin Education Consortium Coordinator for ESD 113. “Our work will prevent valuable farmland from eroding into the river and the new trees will create a natural barrier to minimize the damage from future floods. And, it will improve habit for fish and create a wonderful educational and volunteer experience for the children and citizens of this community.”

The grant comes from the Pioneers in Conservation program which pays for projects on farm and forest lands that help both the fish and a farm or forest business. “If we are to save our salmon,” says Don Stuart, of American Farmland Trust, “we need to also save our farms. This program shows how viable farms and healthy salmon go hand in hand – each can help with the survival of the other.” American Farmland Trust is a national nonprofit that helped create the Pioneers in Conservation program and currently assists with its administration.

Funding for the Pioneers in Conservation program is provided through the Washington State Conservation Commission and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). NFWF administers the program. A new round of Pioneers grants has recently been announced for a deadline of March 31, 2009. The new request for applications and details about the application process are available on line at the NFWF website at: www.nfwf.org/pioneers.

For further information about the grant and project, contact: Kathy Marcella Jacobson, Education Service District 113, 360-464-6722; kjacobson@esd113.k12.wa.us. For information about the Pioneers program, contact: Brian Ferrasci-O'Malley, Evergreen Funding Consultants, Phone: (206) 691-0700, Email: bferrasci-omalley@evergreenfc.com, or ▪ Cara Rose, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – Western Partnership Office, Phone: (503) 417-8700, Email: cara.rose@nfwf.org, or ▪ Don Stuart, American Farmland Trust, Phone: (206) 860-4222, Email: dstuart@farmland.org.

-30-

American Farmland Trust is a national nonprofit organization working with communities and individuals to protect the land, plan for agriculture and keep the land healthy. As the nation's leading advocate for farm and ranch land conservation, AFT has ensured that more than a million acres stays bountiful and productive. AFT’s national office is located in Washington, D.C. The phone number is 202-331-7300.

Strawberry Festival

2009-07-06T11:20:00.001-07:00

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it out to the strawberry festival this past Saturdy the 27th. We had agreat time visiting with old friends and making new ones.

The old apple trees provided some much needed shade that day.

Pickled Ochra graced us with their wit, grace, and musical acumen. They are on the fast track to becoming the Boistfort Valley Farm house band.Natty donned her strawberry dress ala' Lizzy and made the tricycle look so good that......Even her mom couldn't resist taking a spin.
The real guest of honor was Dianna's hard working chocalate fountain that single handedly laid waste to pint after pint of berrys and was responsible I am sure for more than one tummy ache; but what a way to go.

Spring Home Tour

2009-07-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Boistfort Valley Farm is proud to have been chosen to take part in this seasons Visiting Nurses Home Tour. We enjoyed the afternoon with the help of the Visiting Nurses staff and volunteers. A steady stream of wonderful folk from the surrounding community was greated by volunteers and Boistfort Valley Farm's own Hannah Johnson, and toured our home and the surrounding fields.

http://www.visitingnursesfoundation.com/event_springhometour.asp

Though we have a modest home, I believe everyone enjoyed the trip to a working farm, and was truly inspired by the amount of effort that went into our recovery from the flooding of late 2007.

Cultivating is.....

2009-07-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Probably the single greatest task in organic agriculture is keeping on top of the weeds. As with many other things here at Boistfort Valley Farm we favor the simplicity and versatility of older equipment designed at a time when farms grew a variety of different crops and the equipment met the needs of that type of diversity rather than being highly specialized.

We have two Farmall Super As. One was built in 1949, the other in 1953. They have offset steering which allows the operator to look down directly between their and view the rows of plants and the tooling as it passes over the soil. They also have independent belly mount and rear hydraulics which allows the driver to keep the tools in the ground until the end of the row, then lift the belly mount stuff and continue cultivating with the rear tools until that part of the tractor has passed over the end of the row before lifting the "track erasers" which are cultivating the paths between the beds.

We have an arsenal of shovels, sweeps, knives, discs and tines which we can attach to the tool bars of these tractors and adjust for each individual crop, and for crops at different stages of growth. We also use these tractors for furrowing and for hilling potatoes. The only change I would ever dream of making to these beautiful and versatile machines would be the addition of power steering, and a more comfortable seat. After a few hours on the tin pan of these tractors you know you have been on a tractor.

Our second Super A is outfitted with a Buddhing Basket Weeder. This is one of the greatest examples of simple and effective low tech equipment. It amounts to two sets of "baskets", which closely resemble hamster wheels, mounted on a frame. The forward wheels run across the ground and drive the rear units via chain. Because the front sprockets are larger than the rears, the rear baskets turn at a much faster rate.

So the front baskets penetrate the soil and disturb the weeds, then the rear baskets come along and literally toss the weeds out. This gentle action doesn't displace much soil and is indispensable when it comes to weeding tiny seedlings and slow growing crops like carrots.

Because all our crops are planted by seeders or transplanters that are set up on standard row spacings, we are able to set up the cultivating tractors to match and the weeding, though still a daunting task, is made possible. Timing is everything when it comes to managing this aspect of the farm. A good rule of thumb is that if it looks like it needs to be weeded it is too late. Patrick is on a cultivating tractor no less than ten hours a week right now, on a constant slow rotation from bed to bed and field to field trying to keep up with that strong flush of weeds that follows on the heels of good early summer weather.

Once Again, From the Beginning......

2009-06-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Remember way back when we posted pics of our first big day of transplanting?

Here is that field a few days ago.......

I always chuckle a bit when I hear people report that "I planted the garden yesterday". Here, we start planting and transplanting the first good weather in March, and continue to plant right up until September 15th or so. Fast growing short season crops like arugula and cilantro are seeded every two weeks, things like lettuce and cabbage are transplanted on a three week schedule, and even corn is planted twice a year to maintain a steady supply of produce at its peak throughout the growing season.

How do we get all those seeds in the ground you might ask; well I'll tell ya. We favor outdated equipment made popular at a time when diversity and local markets where the norm in agriculture in this country. These are Planet Junior seeders. They are probably almost forty years old, and the design has changed little since the first one was made. They are simple, and allow us to use the same tool for almost every crop we plant simply by changing a set of plates located at the bottom of the hoppers. Here they are full of green beans, our third planting so far this year.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. For the first time in history I allowed someone else to run the seeders while I walked behind and made sure everything was coming out OK. Patrick did a great job despite my constant demand that he turn around and look at me while driving a straight row. Anyone can drive a straight line looking where they are going. In farming this has to be maintained while looking back at equipment. It is peoples inclination to turn the wheel slightly as they turn to look behind them. He did well, and if he had failed there is always the old adage, "you can fit more seeds in a crooked row".

Irritation

2009-06-09T13:42:00.001-07:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. After we plant and transplant if it gets warm, and it usually does. We have to irrigate. Ever notice that hot spell this time of year when temperatures seem to go from 50 to near 90 and stay that way for a week? We do. It means we have to set pumps and move pipe. We water primarily with three inch aluminum hand line, which is set in the field by hand from the back of a trailer and moved in increments of sixty feet at a time across the field. We have four different sites now and almost two hundred sticks of pipe which are moved twice a day until everything is watered. It is a job I really don't even like to talk about, especially with anyone who has not done it before. It is a job for which I pretend I work for someone else and "just get it done". It is a job that produces the kind of facial expression pictured here as Jordan gets the answer to the question "are we going to try to finish today?"

So Much Has Happened

2009-06-09T12:19:00.001-07:00

Wow have we ever been busy. I apologize for the lag in posts but the weather broke and we have been going from daylight till dusk and beyond for weeks. The Home Fields are nearly all planted. We filled in some blanks with more lilies and perennial flowers yesterday, and the only ground left here to plant is being reserved for our next strawberries which are due to arrive any day now. This is a view from the north showing our shiny new barn roof, the green houses, and the fields north of the house. these are planted to perennial flowers and strawberries. (I have a pint On the desk right now and our CSA customers can look forward to them in the first delivery this coming Tuesday the 16th). Several flats headed north this morning to the Olympia Food Coops. The report came early that after directing the crew to run through them quickly and harvest what was ripe that they brought in eleven flats.

The fields to the south of the house have more perennials and our herb garden which we moved this spring. In the foreground are cabbages and kohlrabi.

When the weather turns in spring in the Boistfort Valley everything breaks loose. Tractors outnumber cars on the Boistfort Rd some mornings and any time of night or day you can find someone working. I must admit that I have always had a hard time on Memorial Day weekend watching the boats and barbecues roll by from the seat of a tractor. But I am in good company here. Several farmers whether commodities or hay are working as much or more than we do. It is strangely comforting when I have been working from 6am till dark or later and am heading home sweaty,dirty and sometimes wet from irrigation repairs, to pass Nil or Dave on the road or see Dan out there in the middle of the field running under lights from the tractor.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his "Notes on Virginia" that, "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds."

It is times like these when everyone here at the farm is stretching their boundaries of endurance and stamina that I often reflect on this. I am both groping for some sense of justice and hoping to make sense of the fact that I get up before my daughter is awake and get home after she is asleep. Here are facts as I see them; I like to work. I am from a solid blue collar family, my father was a stone mason, my brother is a stone mason, and most of my cousins and nephews are in the trades. My sense of value is based largely on what I produce. This, for better or worse.

Further, farmers do not have the luxury of setting their schedules. We are given a finite amount of time without knowing what that amount will be, when it will start, or when it will end. We answer straight to the top when it comes to scheduling; the very top, the powers that be.

Along with the sacrifice of keeping these hours, we as farmers, if we listen carefully, are granted insight into the workings of nature like no other people. We are tethered to the sun and the rain, to the soil and the river. Though I am not one to bask in the romance of this, nor certainly to take credit for it, it is a tangible and moving experience. I do hope that I can pass this experience on to my daughter, all or in part, and in so doing repay her for missing jammy time this time of year.

Dave Fenn is seeding corn here in this picture. He and his brother Dan may be the best farmers I know. They cover alot of ground and do it with sense and style. Their ability to conserve moisture before and after planting, and the shear volume of food they produce are praiseworthy. Though they are conventional farmers they have begun to dabble in organic production. For these guys dabbling means a few hundred acres of corn and beans. I also admire the fact that they are so diverse. They grow the usual corn and peas etc. but also produce seed crops and have grown winter squash on a large scale successfully in western Washington. This last fact alone makes them heroic in my book. Of course they not only grew the winter squash, they designed and fabricated, along with local genius Steve Vantuyl, a harvester for the squash made from an old combine. "The Squasher" made the pages of the Capitol Press, and was a real headturner.

These two brothers farm the hop yard down the road and I get to watch their progress there driving from field to field. I also pass Nil and Tom, see Joel at the store between bailing and irrigating, and pass several working dairies as I drive back and forth, or move equipment. It is hard to feel sorry for yourself when surrounded by such a cast of characters, many of them second or even third generation farmers.

Yes, I am in good company.

The Grass isn't Always Greener

2009-05-05T08:49:00.001-07:00

Here is a view from another seat I occupy here at the farm. As the farm grows, so does the burden of office work. Unlike our agricultural brothers and sisters in the commodities business who sign contracts in winter then get to the business of growing, have their fields harvested by the contract holders, then receive a check in fall, we do all of our own marketing. That means we have a "sales team" albeit an informal one, and are also responsible for the development and distribution of our own advertising. We also are responsible for all the fun stuff like paying bills, and keeping track of our customers concerns and payments. Boistfort Valley Farm employs 18 people in the summer. We grow , harvest , pack, and deliver our own product. Each of these areas has someone in an oversight position and a team of people on the ground getting things done. they all need a paycheck, not to mention a place to have lunch. And just between you and me, things don't always go smoothly.

In an effort to grow up and create a work environment based on harmony rather than chaos I spent a lot of time this winter developing a business organization chart and creating job descriptions and performance contracts in an effort to educate everyone here of the expectations of their positions and create a working model for the farm and its business structure. Here is my magnus opus, drawn in sharpee on a piece of cardboard and displayed prominently above my Orange County Choppers Pez dispensers and lava lamp.

I sometimes imagine our customers, especially those in urban areas, sitting at their desks, or in a board meeting, and imagining the ideal farming life; rising at dawn and spending the day communing with nature and growing good food for good people while the birds chirp in the background. Or maybe you picture me sitting at the breakfast table eating bacon and eggs and reading the farm report with my daughter bouncing and smiling on my lap, Heidi standing behind us in a floral print apron asking if anyone would like another pancake. We do experience those moments, but in fairness I wanted you all to know that we also spend our share of time meeting with staff, on the phone, at the computer, and doing all those things that a business requires to function smoothly.

We also have a secret weapon. Pictured here is "Marci" (her name has been changed to protect our asset, as she moonlights here at the farm). She comes in once or twice a week and does in a few hours what used to take me all day. She enters all the CSA member information, and creates invoices and enters payments. She balances our check books, reconciles accounts, makes payroll, and pays the bills. She is awesome. At the end of each session I answer a few questions, put my signature on checks and ask sheepishly, "is there any money left?". "Marci" also introduced me to Pandora radio, for which I am eternally grateful. So next time you imagine the farm try picturing me on the phone while my cell phone rings and someone comes in the office with the disaster du jour. I am happy to be a link in this chain of events, and though I clearly prefer being out there in the field I am proud of everyone here for adjusting to the changing environment at the farm and for putting their best foot forward in making it a success.

Boistfort Valley Farm Gets Plowed

2009-04-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

After getting our first round of seeds and transplants in we began to plow in earnest. Very few people plow any more, it is a real lost art. When you see it done correctly it can give you shivers. Here is a view from the seat of the John Deere 3020. We are working about 12 acres here; trying to plow straight and true and flop all the grass from this winter's cover crop under so we can follow with discing and tilling.

Much like with the transplanter I keep my eye on the furrows and endeavor to keeps things straight straight straight. There are a few jokes around here regarding plowing; 1) Always plow parallel to the road so people can't see your furrows, and 2) Plow after people are home from work and disk in the morning.

The tractor we use for plowing and disking is a 1969 John Deere 3020 Diesel. If you close your eyes and picture a tractor, that's the JD 3020. She is in beautiful condition and builds horsepower based on displacement rather than any of that newfangled gimmickry. A very simple machine that sounds great and is a joy to run. Many old timers will tell you that the 30 series is the last real tractor. I don't know about that but I do know this, it is the only tractor we own with a factory hood ornament and cigarette lighter.

When you're plowing you should always look forward. When you turn in the seat you naturally turn the wheel slightly in the direction that you are twisting your body as you look over your shoulder. If you do turn around you should definitely not hold and focus a camera, however if you did, you would get a glimpse at the plows as they fold the top layer of soil over and under the soil below.

Here's what we did for lunch that day. While plowing one of my plows "tripped", which means.....Well on a set of "breaking plows" they are held in place by a big old pin, if you hook something large enough and are moving with enough force, the plow will trip and sort of flop up out of the ground. They can easily be reset by backing up with the plows on the ground. However, then you are obligated to find out what did it. In this case it was an old cedar tree that finally decided to surface. You can see the pile of limbs forming just behind and to the right of the loader bucket. It was a crying shame to dig a big hole in middle of this field but well, we had no choice.

It started me thinking about farming and all other things I suppose. It seems to me that you can teach anyone to plow in a straight line, that the technical skills of any occupation can be developed, even mastered. But the true measure of ones achievement has to be how they handle adversity, how they get the job done under conditions that are unpredictable and sometimes downright unpleasant.

So how did we do?
I think we did real well.
I finished plowing this field yesterday while Patrick mowed the cover crop of the next. By 6pm I had plowed three acres at our third field and Patrick had finished all the field mowing and even spruced up around the edges. We had a short day today as the rain that I have been hoping for to water in all our transplants came late last night and into morning.

We have enough ground ready now that we can start fertilizing, and getting ready for the next round of seeds, and transplanting onions.

A Veiw from the Seat

2009-04-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

On the 17th after a few days without real precip, we got started. We filled all the fallow ground we had at the farm with potatoes, early peas, lettuce transplants, cilantro, carrots and beets then a planting of what we refer to as Asian misc; arugala, tatsoi, hon tsai tai, radishes, and boc choy. We finished under tractor light expecting rain the next day, we were not disappointed. We got almost an inch two days later. Here, the crew has finished planting potatoes and they are walking back as the tractor prepares to cover the spuds with a set of furrowers.

Then we set in plowing and disking and in short order covered the rest of the ground here at the "home place". We have about nine acres cultivated at the house. We have three other locations leased. We will cultivate a total of about 45 acres this year.

On the 20th we started planting the Kahout Rd. This field totals about 12 acres and is a beautiful secluded site which is ,for better or worse, loaded with wildlife; elk, deer, the occasional bear, and myriad raptors and other birds.
This picture was taken early Monday morning. I am showing off our list of transplants to go in. We set 11,000 plants that day; mostly broccoli, cabbage and kale.

Here is the view from the seat of the transplant tractor. Looking between Liana and Jesus you can see Heidi back there "kicking"; making sure the plants are going in at the proper depth and setting well. To the left is Patrick "Home Sweet" Homa staying ahead of the crew on the tiller. We kept him busy that day.

This is what I am focused on all day. I strive for the straightest rows possible and follow my tire tracks five feet across at a time as we make our way over the acreage, moving at between 2 and .5 miles per hour. Things get a little boring in the seat on days like this, but the finished product is nothing short of miraculous.

When the smoke cleared at about 5pm on the afternoon of the 21st we had finished with the most critical transplant and had set out over 30,000 plants. Patrick and I went back this morning and seeded some early snap beans, and as I write this he is out finishing transplanting artichokes with Liana. Jesus and Francisco are in the greenhouse potting up lettuce and tomatoes. Tomorrow we will start plowing again and the cycle will repeat itself until mid September.

As my friend Nil says: "It's a great life, if you don't weaken."

In Loving Memory of Manny Pups 9/9/1995 - 4/6/2009

2009-04-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

More than 13 years ago on October 30th 1995 I drove up to a home in the Nissqually Valley to look at puppies. I had decided to get a dog having mourned the loss of my Golden Retriever "Candles" for long enough to feel ready to invite another pet into my life. I had decided on a Labrador Retriever and had looked at several litters already.

When I arrived, there they were, 11 total brothers and sisters yapping and wagging in a kennel with their mother. One pup caught my eye, he seemed to posses the kind of intelligence and sensitivity that you cannot train into a dog. The qualities that make for a remarkable companion. He must have thought the same of me, because the attraction was immediate and enthusiastic. We played for a bit, then not wanting to be impulsive, I left. I was back the next day, and the owner took all the pups into the house as we discussed details. Manny climbed immediately into my lap and and went to sleep as the other pups clamored around the kitchen.

On the drive home he settled under the seat of my old pickup and into a deep sleep that lasted the entire drive. This truck would become his home away from home. He went everywhere with me until age and arthritis made it too difficult for him to get in and out.

As a young dog Manny enjoyed running around, sniffing, and swimming. His greatest passion in life was fetching sticks thrown into the river. His love of female companionship as a young dog gave way to more refined interests later in life. His appreciation of sausage remains unparalleled in my experience. He enjoyed a long full life with all the canine benefits of living on a riverfront farm.

On the afternoon of April 6th Heidi came and got me. Manny was in one of our greenhouses breathing heavily and unable to get up. I went to him. He was weak. I picked him up and carried him to the shade behind the shop. We sat down together in the grass. He laid his head in my lap much like he had done over a decade ago. He closed his eyes. His breathing got shallower and shallower and then he drifted off; dieing with the same dignity and grace with which he had lived.

Dear friend, you will be sorely missed.

Roof is all but On

2009-04-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

Against all odds, braving rain and high winds that seemed to start the moment these guys showed up, JR roofing has all but finished the barn. The metal is screwed down and part of the hardworking crew will return tomorrow to finish the trim at the gable ends.

Like I said before, I am ready to finish this project, but now that the roof is on it is easy to start getting excited about trim and paint. Patrick, our new farm manager and I will continue to repair the remaining rot in the side walls. We should be finished in just enough time to start farming. Then we will solicit the state to stop in and provide us with a punch list to finish this phase of the project to their satisfaction, and begin to start to think about preparing to plan for the replacement and repair of the aesthetic components of the old barn.

Barn Ready for Roof !!!

2009-03-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Shown here, the two Brians from MDK Construction are finishing the sheathing and soffet on the South facing elevation of the barn. These two braved the weather and the danger of a badly rotted loft floor and spent the past week up and down ladders and scaffolding repairing the structural elements of the roof; its rafters and bracing, before moving on to the man lifts and scissor lift to replace the rotted sheathing and other exterior components of the roof.

JR roofing from Olympia is due out this Monday to start putting the tin on. I know they will be pleased to find the structure sound, and I think they will be absolutely amazed to find it straight.

All in all everything is coming along well, and though I am ready to have this project finished I am already looking forward to the prospect of finishing the exterior trim and painting.

Calender Says Spring is Here

2009-03-19T11:29:00.001-07:00

Shown here, Hannah waters in the first transplants of the season. Tray after tray of alliums; onions, leeks, and shallots have been seeded into open flats in early February for transplant in April.

Weeks later the same flats are here on the left and trays of brassicas, and flowers have taken their place on the heated bench in the middle of the greenhouse. Once these plants get up to size they are hardened off in an unheated greenhouse then transplanted into the field. As soon as the weather breaks we will be busy, busy, busy. Since the ground can be a bit less than perfect for transplants they are the first thing be planted in spring. A few days later we will start direct seeding. I am always pleased after the first day of transplanting. It's like instant farm. We can transplant about 25,000 plants on a good day. This always turns some heads in the Valley as people go by on their way to work and see open fields then return later to fields of perfectly placed little seedlings.

Barn Beginning to Take Shape

2009-03-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

With the help of about ten large come-alongs and an untold amount of cable and trepidation the old barn is about as close to plumb and square as I could hope for. We are in the process of adding internal bracing and will add shear panels to the first floor to try and hold the old girl in place.

Compare the back bone of the barn in this picture to the one above and you can clearly see the amount of sway that has been removed from the building. The roofer is scheduled to return at the end of next week and the abatement phase of the project is hoped to be complete by the first of April.

Barn Progress

2009-02-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

A few days ago JR Roofing from Olympia came out and stripped the two layers of old roofing from the barn. Originally the barn was roofed with cedar shingles, then later a layer of cedar shake was added. Both were badly weathered and in desperate need of replacement. We are replacing them with a metal roof. Though perhaps not as pleasing as cedar, the metal will provide a level of protection and longevity that current cedar products would not.

Now that the material has been removed from the roof we can address any issues with the structure itself. Though the skip sheathing is badly rotted in places we may be able to salvage quite a bit. The rafters seem to have been spared owing in part to the quality of this old lumber, and we should not have to do any major structural repair or replacement. With the weight of the roofing material removed and before the metal goes on we will set a bunch of come-alongs and cable and see if we can't straighten the old girl out just a bit.

A Return to the Motherland

2009-02-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

After Christmas is over Heidi and I kind of fly below radar for a while trying to make time for a little R&R. On the 28th we set off for the beach and spent about a week watching Franky Avalon movies and walking the magnificent coast outside of Moeclips and snuggling our daughter. Not wanting the party to end we stopped at Hannah's (our friend and farm manager) on our way back to the house and spent another couple days with her family. She has a big family and a warm and welcoming home in a converted barn outside Pe Ell.

Then it was back to the house where we try to get two big jobs done before the 18th of January every year; the seed order and the WSDA Organic Certification Renewal. They are not glory jobs but the seed order and the certification both offer a great opportunity to look back over last year and plan for a new season. We also go over the customer survey responses from the CSA and pour over Market and Commercial sales info to come up with a comprehensive plan for the coming season.

Then it is time for our annual pilgrimage to the homeland, Douglassville PA. I was born in Pottstown PA, about 10 miles from Douglassville, and lived there until I was seventeen and off to college. Located in Berks county PA, Douglassville is just a little berg that has become developed over the years and though it retains some of its original charm is largely unrecognizable from the memories of my childhood. My parents home is over two hundred years old and not at all out of the ordinary for the area. Field stone farm houses, barns and even long field stone fences are common. The nearby township of Oley is in its entirety a historic landmark, and it is quite easy to have a beer or sandwich in a pub that housed soldiers from the revolution. You cannot turn around without bumping into an historic marker.

One of the things I recognize when I am "back East" is this sense of history. It is tangible, literally. Like when you open a door and your hand rests on a hand made iron knob that has been turned every day for 200 years you can feel it. When the big oak door swings effortlessly on hand forged hinges, and closes with a sharp and perfect click, it says something. The banister in my parents house has been polished by the hands of people for two centuries, the old the young; sliding down from the second floor making the tight turn at the top and hoping not to get caught; "Michael David are you sliding down the banister!!!!"

When we visit nearby Philadelphia we walk the narrow brick streets with stone curbs which still have the rings set for tieing up your horses, and see rows of red brick homes with black doors. Here you can visit Bettsy Ross's house, see the liberty bell, and stand in the room where the declaration of Independence was drafted. There is art every where, I love the hidden bronze sculpture of Caulder's all over the city, and the Philadelphia art museum itself is an imposing part of the landscape.

The other thing I always enjoy is the food. OK, I'll level with you; it is difficult but not impossible to find fresh local organic produce in Philly, and to their credit it is getting easier all the time and many restaurants have begun featuring such culinary oddities. However it is easy to find your choice of prosciutto, yes choice. You can walk into any of a number of delis and get capocolla, and soppresatta, fresh mozzarella and asiago, roasted red peppers, stuffed olives, fresh bread from Philly or New York (flown in daily). Fugettaboutit. And my parents cooking.........Cappelletti; that's Italian for little hats, and here they are; hand made stuffed with pork sausage and floating in a bowl of chicken broth. And the cheese steaks with a bag of Utz potato chips, mmmmmm. OK enough.

Wait, one more thing. On day two of our visit I went into town to Vinccenzos and bought so much lunch meat and olives that the owner asked if I was hosting a party and threw in two loaves of bread. I smiled and said yes, thank you.

Puyallup farmer Carrie Anne Little Wins Second in White House Farmer Election

2009-02-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Carrie Anne Little of Mother Earthy Farm ,http://www.efoodnet.org/mother_earth.htm, in Puyallup took second place in the White House Farmer Contest we posted a few days ago. Claire Strader of Wisconsin narrowly won first place, and Margaret Lloyd of California took third. Thanks to everyone who voted for me and placed me at a respectable 24th among a field of accomplished farmers and sustainable ag advocates. The results can be viewed at http://whitehousefarmer.com/?page_id=119 The most thrilling aspect of this whole event for me is that almost 56,000 people voted in about ten days. It is inspiring and encouraging to imagine the level of awareness and commitment of the nation to bring the issues of our current food system and of sustainable agriculture to the forefront of the American consciousness.

A big giant congratulations to the three top nominees and to everyone else nominated, and a heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted for taking the time to cast your vote for a program that would place the issues of how we eat and who grows our food smack in the middle of the Whitehouse lawn. Now let's hope the current administration takes this outpouring of interest to heart and starts preparing for a successful season of small scale farming in the heart of our nations capitol. You can stay informed at http://whitehousefarmer.com/?page_id=354

Mike

Mike Nominated for White House Farmer!!!

2009-01-30T06:07:00.000-08:00

Imagine my surprise when on Wednesday Jan. 28th I was directed to a web site, http://whitehousefarmer.com/, to find my name listed as a nominee for becoming the White House Farmer. "Inspired by a recent New York Times article by Michael Pollan, an Illinois family is sowing support for a White House farmer with a Web site allowing people to nominate and vote for their favorite growers.

Michael Pollan called for the appointment of a White House farmer to complement the White House chef. Pollan suggested replacing five acres of the White House's South Lawn with an organic fruit and vegetable garden.

The nominees range from 10 teens in Alameda, Calif., who grow food for more than 500 formerly homeless people to former pro basketball player Will Allen, an urban farmer in Milwaukee. The election ends Saturday, when organizer Terra Brockman plans to forward the names of the top three vote-getters to the White House.

More than 100 farmers from 33 states and Washington, D.C., had been nominated by Thursday afternoon, while more than 27,000 votes had been cast."

According to Brockman, nominations and votes trickled in at first, but then word spread among farming and foodie groups. In the past few weeks, "it's kind of gone crazy," said Brockman, 50, of Congerville, Ill.

I am flattered to have been nominated and to be considered among such a distinguished and accomplished group of farmers. Though I am treating this whole affair with tongue in cheek it has raised some rather interesting questions for me.

First, I am thrilled that something like this has even taken place; that 27,000 votes have been cast as a result of one families vision, and that the voting public of foodies and farm advocates got out there and cast votes. It's encouraging to think that the top three candidates could be presented to the President and that in turn might actually be appointed. That's a lot of maybes, but I get excited whenever I witness these experiments in democracy.

The nomination has also prompted me to ask some of the tough questions like "what could I offer in a position like this". It quickly makes clear to me that I am primarily an egotist driven by things like fear of failure and selfishness. However, like all things I cannot help but posses some redeeming qualities, and also found my self taking inventory of those qualities which make me unique among such a distinguished group of farmers. The bottom line is that were I ever given an opportunity like this I think it would support the idea that "anything is possible", and I would delight in the value of the experience for my daughter. Beyond that I really do believe that from a brass tacks perspective, few can offer the level of fortitude, the experience, and the work ethic that I would bring to the position.

That said, if you have not yet cast your votes please do so. The two front runners have developed a clear lead, and I would be tempted to carefully consider the vote count for the third place position before making a decision.

Back Down

2009-01-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

The old barn rests firmly on its new foundation, with a thorough replacement of all the rotted floor joist and rim joist. Now we do a few "last minute adjustments" to try and straighten the walls a bit, and its time to start in on the roof.

This photo highlights the new structural timbers beams and rim joist located just above the foundation.

Barn Settling Back Down

2009-01-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Shortly after Christmas and before all the excitement of the New Year and the threat of flooding, CDI began lowering the barn down onto its new foundation. In these pictures they got it to within about two feet and then began to remove their cribbing and bracing. This new lower elevation allowed us to address the replacement of the rim joist without needing to climb up and down ladders. Why I didn't have them lower it before we replaced the floor joists I may never know.

It was a fascinating process. Watching them lower the structure was a pleasure. They maintained complete control of the building and were actually able to move the structure forward and back and side to side as little as 1/8 inch at a time if necessary to match the new foundation.

Flood Recovery Before and After

2009-01-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

Above is a slideshow of photos of the house and farm recovery before and after the flooding of December 2007.

Dodged a Bullet

2009-01-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

This past week was spent in a flurry of activity putting things up and moving equipment to prepare for yet another flood. When we heard the temperature was going to rise and that a warm wet storm was expected we were horrified. I began the process of freaking out early in the week as I became more withdrawn and short tempered. A bonafide %&$#. I was hoping for the best but as reports continued to come in and as river forecast outlooks became increasingly grim I began to worry in earnest. It was not until Tuesday evening that I decided to act. That night we moved all the tractors and field trucks to high ground. After doing the books for the week I packed up the office and on Wednesday morning the crew came out and we set to work. We loaded all the office furniture and appliances into one of our delivery trucks, and the produce and freezers into another. I moved all my tools into the attic above the garage. We picked up everything that could float and put it in the barn, which had just been set back on its foundation (more later). We strapped down all the gigantic stuff that could float, got all of our fuel up and out of the way, loaded trailers with equipment and filled the barn with boxes and bags and inventory and supplies.

It took ten people about 9 hours to effectively move everything out of harms way. Our house is about 24 inches above grade, our laundry and the attached office as well as the shop and garage are ground level. That evening we moved the last of the vehicles and the loader tractor to high ground along with the delivery trucks full of produce, furniture and appliances.

By Wednesday at 12:30 in the afternoon the South Fork broke its banks and began filling the low spot behind the house. As the water rushed to equalize with the river the level rose a staggering 18 inches the first hour then 9, then 6. The water rose in this bowl about 6 inches per hour for the next five hours, then slowed to 5, then 4. I was checking the level every hour and preparing to put stuff up in the house the moment the water started into the yard; estimating that at 3-4 inches/hour we would have plenty of time to get everything put up and evacuate. By 2:30 am Thursday morning the water was rising at a rate of 1.75 inches per hour, and it crested at about 4am leaving just over 12 inches before threatening the yard.

I slept from about 5-11 that day and just had my first real meal last night. Though the river didn't threaten the house, and crested well below expected in the lower Chehalis valleys, the emotional ride was awful. Our recovery required a healthy dose of denial that the kind of flooding that we experienced in 2007 could ever happen again. The feeling of helplessness as I watched the water rise again, the knowledge that it had happened before.......

Yeah, anyway. We are safe and sound, as are my agricultural brothers and sisters in Independence Valley. I have yet to get a solid report from the community around Duval and Carnation. So thanks to all of you who emailed and phoned with your concern, thanks for the prayers and the help.

We intend to leave everything were it is for the time being and enjoy the peace of mind that should we have to put it up again we have successfully completed a drill and are fully capable and equipped to prepare given enough notice.

Do check out this site: http://ahps2.wrh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=sew

Click on a river and it provides real time flow and discharge as well as a forecast which in my experience is close enough to extrapolate from and form a plan of action.

2008-12-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

Let it Snow!!!

Here is a shot of the home place from the South. We have at least a foot of snow and it has been coming down steadily for the last two or three hours. We had one last delivery to make on the 18th of last week and not knowing what to expect we postponed and it came around to bite us. The farm is located about 11 miles SW of Chehalis and about 10 miles from I5. Boistfort Road has been a certified disaster since Thursday. My wife and I did jet up to Olympia Friday, and made the Tacoma drop on Saturday afternoon. Right now we have one more delivery to get up to Seattle. Scheduled for tomorrow, we are in a holding pattern to try to keep everyone safe. Once on I5 the going is not too bad but between the Farm and there is a real challenge. We deliver in 16 foot box trucks that drive like a sheet of plywood in the wind so we have been very hesitant to commit to the trip North.

On the bright side. The apples that mysteriously clung to the trees for so long have created a natural bird feeder for every overwintering song bird in the area. A neighbor asked me the other day why the apples had stayed on the trees so long. Now I know.

2008-12-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

OUCHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Here's an x-ray of my mashed left thumb. On day two of the floor replacement after removing all the old flooring we began replacing floor joists. While holding a new joist in place with my left hand I took a mighty swing with a three pound hammer and missed the mark, hitting myself square on the thumb. It is the consensus of the medical establishment that "wow, you really did a good job on that".

Terry has been a real trooper and has led the effort to replace the rotten joists and make sure that everything will line up as the barn is lowered back onto its new foundation. Seen here he is clamping a new joist onto the existing joist. We sistered these together where we were able and replaced those joists that where badly rotted.

Darren too, our farm manager's husband, has been instrumental in making sure the old girl is ship shape. This photo is a view from the ground, up through the floor of the elevated barn where we had removed rotten flooring.

Despite pouring rain, temperatures in the teens, and 6 inches of snow, these guys stuck it out and all the joists are replaced as of this afternoon. They will be back for one more day to button up the details, then CDI will be back on Monday to lower the barn back down. A big thumbs up to you both.

Forming and Pouring the Walls

2008-12-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday morning Mike and Jason from MDK showed up and tied in more rebar and set the forms for the perimeter walls of the foundation

Wedensaday they poured the walls without mishap or fanfare.

By the end of the day everything was in place.

This morning the guys pulled in the drive and removed the form boards and started bolting down the mud sill. The beams are being drilled right now and by the end of the day the structure will be ready to drop back in place. We will let the walls set up while the well meaning and under skilled crew at Boistfort Valley Farm replace rotten floor joists and repair any damage to the floor structure. We should be setting the barn on its foundation somewhere around the fifteenth. Then we will start in on the roof.