Author: Sam Lucy

One more session of grousing about the “blog format” I suppose, and I’ll be done. The issue this time being that I must be “connected” to the web in order to write this up. In our “interface” situation, this means I no longer can sit at our kitchen window. Alas, speaking of birds, I was just there and got to see not three but four hummingbirds jousting at the feeder. What joy! Earlier this morning as I sipped my cup out on the porch, a single rufous male came and hovered not a foot from my head, attracted by the bright red-checkered coat I wore. This added a certain buzz to the coffee…

Meanwhile the house wrens are back, chatting up a storm and busy gathering nesting material. Some of the flycatchers have already nested and bluebirds have followed us, or us them, along the fields regularly. April here in the Methow was as warm as about any I can recall. What we lacked in moisture we got in sun and though we had the customary windy days, not a steady diet of them. Still and all, the soils are pretty darn dry. Thank goodness for the mountain snow-pack that will give us the pure irrigation water when needed.

Once we began field work in early April were aware of the dry profile immediately and have been protective of it as much as possible. When we’ve had to disc or plow we’ve followed soon after with he packer to hold in the moisture we bring up with tillage.

So far, we drilled in spring peas as a green manure crop on about 35 acres and they have the moisture to come up on their own. What’s more, the winter peas that we sowed last fall on a larger acreage, and that I’d given up for naught by golly look like they are still alive!  -15 FH, no snow and the little buggers are still coming to life. I turned the water on them and they may make a crop after all. To watch them fighting for life, literally, sanctifies the power and energy in one single seed. Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me. Perfect in every way…

Now that we’re putting down our main fertility and much of our seed-stock is set-aside and the moon is beginning to wax again, with a little more cultivation, the stage will be set for planting. I’m not sure we’ll get all our crops in around the full moon, but certainly we should be able to get in a good portion.

That said, Mother Nature can weigh in at any time, of course. And she will always have the final say. Maybe we will get some May rains? The past two springs have also been pretty dry and we’ve had our crops in fairly early fashion. By the next news, I mean blog-letter, we’ll know the story.

May is a beautiful month to work in; the hills a lime green and shot with deep yellow balsamroot. Soon the lupine will be up.

Then the bitterroot, then… it goes on and on with the building, beautiful daylight. Good thing there is a lot of daylight. There is a lot of work to do!

Here’s to full on spring. Here’s to hoping you all get out to take in the the sights, sounds and smells of the warming earth. Cheers.

Your farmer, Sam

Well here we go…the great “blogging” experience has begun for your dear farmer. If I can keep the darn page from jumping around every two seconds we might just be able to “connect.” Never too late to learn new tricks and what better time than here in the fresh springtime? Where this will lead is anyone’s guess.

To be sure, springtime it is here in the Methow foothills! The rapid change we saw from no snow prior to February, to 4 feet by March, we’ve now seen in reverse. Now, the robins indeed have it right. As do the towhees, the northbound geese, the meadowlarks and, of course, the mountain bluebirds! I saw the first group of brilliant males a week ago – nothing more stunning than their brilliant blue against the brown hillsides of by-gone winter. With the show of bluebirds comes the beginning of one more farming season.

As I’d speculated, spring field work has begun as we send out our April news…I mean, “blog.” This means I’ve been out and taken a variety of soil plugs from all our fields and sent them to our soil folks so we can see whether we were naughty or nice the past growing season.

The grains that we’ve been milling has been very pleasing all winter long so I’m confident the crop was healthy. However, the goal is not to run out the goodies in one year’s harvest.

As Bruce Tainio once stated, ideally your soils should be in as good if not better shape after harvest than they were before.  Soon we will know.

Next,  we’ll be evaluating what minerals we might need to apply, and where. I like to do our main nutrient applications before we perform any spring-tillage.

This way, we get a more thorough amendment mix in the soil with each pass of cultivation, also, there will be less risk of compaction caused by a heavy amendment wagon on freshly tilled soil.

We’re looking forward to getting our new Big Valley lease into production. Last fall we left Big Valley plowed and only packed and therefore, this lease will require the most work as we now need to prepare a new seedbed, and on ground that has not been farmed in a long, long time.  The rest of the fields are in good shape and will only require the couple rounds of tillage/cultivation before packing and planting.

Because the ground froze deeply and prior to any snow-pack last year, much of the snow we finally received in February either evaporated or ran-off before actually sinking into the profile.  The down-side here is the obvious moisture deficit to an extent in the upper profile.  The better side is, we should be able to get right on the fields for work, despite that rather late, and extensive snow-pack. While out taking soil samples, I was pleased with the early tilth of most soils.  They were pliant and just about the right moisture content to get on.  If for some reason we should get into early rains, this, of course, could all change.

So, when will we plant?  Ahh, I like to quote Dorthy Evans, one of the older farmers here in the valley, who when asked the planting question gave pause and replied something like:  “Well… when we get the time to, I suppose.”  For us, this means we lay out a plan but Mother Nature always has the final word.  Do I look to have some crops in by the month’s end?  Yes.  Could it be as late as the end of next month?  Yes.  I will say that if I knew we were to have a dry fall, I wouldn’t bother planting until the first week in June.  Our heaviest crops have been June planted, but that leaves us pushed up against even more uncertain harvesting weather in Sept and even October.  Generally, harvesting weather is more predictable in August/early September.

Our seed selection has begun and we’ll be stock-piling our seed this month.  We look forward to planting back our own einka seed this year as well as the customary emmer, hard red and white wheats.  I’ve taken a quick glance at our fall rye and our fall peas – our only fall seeded crops.  They are barely awake and it is too early to judge how they are doing.  We’ll know more in the next couple weeks as the 60 degree days and longer nights add up.  The cold, snow-less weather we had in the early winter certainly will be a test!

Meanwhile, the granary has been humming.  I got the chance to work in there quite a bit last month as Walt was down for a spell, and I was impressed with the interest in our goods.  As always, we would not be doing this without all of you and we sure are grateful.  It was good for me to complete the circle again, wherein the processing of fresh grains and flours reminded me of just what it is we are up to here: growing and delivering nutritious food.

Mariah and Larkin were thrilled to have the trampoline back up!  The lawn is raked, trees pruned, Brooke has been happily planting more trees around the place here and the Labs are happy to be back swimming.  I hope this finds all of you enjoying the early days of sweet spring wherever this may find you.  “Blog on…!”

Yours, Farmer Sam

Mother Nature is perfect in every way. I’ve often said: Maybe we don’t understand her actions but they are necessary and perfect. Lo…I’m still scratching my head about that end-of-January Robin? Since our last newsletter went out, the Methow has received nearly 4 feet of snow. Once again, a generally quiet month – February – couldn’t have been any more active. In a month’s time our snowpack has pushed above average, we’ve given the snow blower and plow a steady work out around the granary here along with the shovels, and still have had time for a few powdery runs on the Butte! I’m not alone in surprise that the two wettest months of the last 12 have now been last September and this February. Neither are generally big precip months. Okay – go figure.

So I remain ever more perplexed by that robin I saw January 30th. Our feeder now is busier than ever, but not so much with spring birds as with birds that previously were able to peck and scratch and bud elsewhere until the steady snows hit. Sapsuckers; nuthatches; grosbeaks now join the winter-long chickadee and finches. February not only secured our water supply for another year, but it bought this farmer more time as, what looked surely to be an early spring, is now shaping up to be a later one. Fine by me; we were busy enough with snow removal and meeting our reluctant freight trucks that grew very shy of the Rendezvous. We’ve had no time for seed selection and hardly much time for spring planning.

Alas, the sun is reaching higher and daylight is fairly an even 12 hours. Although the mercury sat at 10 FH this morning, the sun and longer days of March will soon go to work on the snow. Hopefully, the early frozen ground will mellow some now, and when the snow begins to melt we’ll have some good absorption. Having a late and dry fall, followed by below zero temps. sometimes can seal the ground.

This month we will get to selecting that seed stock! This month I will be contacting our crop advisor and laying out a spring plan. My guess is we’ll be on some fields if not by the next newsletter, by mid-April. Meanwhile, we’re pleased with the run of grains we’ve been into most all winter. Consistent cleaning makes consistent milling and orders have been lively enough so that we’re sending out lots of fresh product every week. Though we do not farm in the winter, we get to taste the farm year every week while milling our grains. This is yet another attribute to growing our own products. Not only do we get to see how we did in the field, but we are never too far from the soil in this regard. Whenever we open the lid on a barrel of our fresh-run emmer, and take in that sweet, nutty aroma, one can easily drift back to the ripening August sun and the turning-blonde grain heavy with Mother’s goodies.

When customers drop by during our open houses and we step into the granary, often I hear them remark: Oh, it smells good in here! Reminds me of my grandfather’s, or Uncles, or some other fond memory of farms and grains. It is a sanctifying comment and one I treasure. It is a spoken compliment to us and our staff here. It makes us feel good to know our customers and share our “space.” Every farm should be happy to have visitors and be glad the visitors are curious about their food.

After being guests at the Nevada Small Farms Conference this past month, where there is precious little snowpack again this year, Brooke and I drove back to the Methow in another blizzard – tired yes, but also gleeful. We are fortunate here in the Cascades to have the beauty and water, once again. We are so fortunate to call this Valley our home and to have such wonderful customers here and elsewhere. Leaving town, sometimes, can drive home the fact of how good we have it.

And so when all this lovely white turns to muck and the Rendezvous transforms into a “monster truck” track and the spring winds begin to kick, we’ll remember the farmers in Nevada and California who will not have the moisture to farm this year. We’ll remember that, without water no plant can truly thrive. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to farmers in a completely different paradigm. For their sake, I hope the March snows come.

Enjoy the Ides of the mighty month of March! As much could easily transform this month as it did last. Thank you winter for staying around. I know by next month it will be goodbye to you for another year…

Yours, Farmer Sam