Allow Me to Introduce Myself

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

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

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

Holy Smokes!!!

That's a whole lot of chokes!!!

Is it Just Me or is it Hot in Here?

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

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

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.