Author: Sam Lucy

It’s here.  Fall, and all the colorful glory!  This October couldn’t have been any nicer with mellow 60-70 degree days on end, and cooler nights running on for the first three weeks. Crisper air; crispy leaves, resulting from Canada’s bristling breeze pushing down from the northern prairies and mountains. The Hunter’s Full Moon prompted geese, among other birds, to stir and head south this past week.  For several days one could hear them high, high up with their ageless, sometimes melancholy talk communicating back and forth while their  great V formations shifted to and fro in the otherwise empty sky. Few sounds or sights sanctify Mother Nature’s mysteries more than on warding geese.  As I’ve mentioned before, it is a sound that sometimes leaves one feeling pretty darn small, yet one from which I will never tire.

Gone are the meadowlarks and poorwills and nightjars and swifts and so many other summer time visitors. Now, robins gather in the by-gone elderberry, rosehips, and beneath the apple trees as they feed up in the  early morning. One day they, too, will leave. The chickadees are holding forth as their season here comes to fruition. And I’ve seen a finch or two.  As one season fades, another shines. I’m grateful to live in a place where one beauty trades for another.  

As if this wasn’t enough, we began to receive some much needed rain! Right when I was getting concerned that we weren’t going to get enough moisture before snowfall to open up the soil and recharge at least the top layer, Mother ushered in a series of storms. This can often happen in late October.  Indeed, this year the rain cometh.  This is paramount to setting the soil profile for the up-coming year.  If the ground remains dry, and freezes with no moisture in it, then no matter how much snowpack we get, come spring it all disappears and will not sink into the profile as the ground remains too hard. Now, the ground is already opening up and getting soft and this creates the sponge-effect that will absorb what snow we get this winter.

The softening of the soils also will enable me to get some fall tillage going, although the date is late. One of the challenges I often face when the rains come later is that of the ground staying too damp.  With waning daylight and cooler nights, sometimes the soils never dry out enough to be  effectively cultivated. Careful not to cause any compaction by getting on the soils with heavy equipment when there is too much moisture. I always walk the fine line.  At this point, I’ve no idea how much, if any,  I will get done. As usual, it really does depend on the weather and I do not want to force the issue!

Meanwhile, we’ve been stocking up our raw inventory for one more winter here on the hill as our new building grows, but we will not be operating down there at the highway site until early summer.  So… we’re getting the last of the crops hauled up here for a cozy winter of processing.  Sales have really sped up in the last month, as I’ve a feeling we are not the only ones to be stocking up!  Tis the season for eating.  One can finally forget the smoky, hot days of summer that held us all captive.  Time to dive into the goods and celebrate the fact we officially made it through one more summer!  Now, we reap those rewards in more ways than one.

Our small but dedicated crew here has been keeping a lively pace to service everyone big and small out there. Truly, it takes a lot. I think our retail last month just about put our packaging coordinator,  Konrad, over the edge, but then again, it kept him somewhat out of trouble. Steve is keeping the processing line going with the help of our pal Bob Winters who retired from teaching and being a school principal, just to come work for Bluebird!  (Not quite)

As the years have rolled on, we already anticipate the holiday push. Our grains are cleaning and milling quite well, so we shouldn’t have too much of a problem making all the mixes, gift boxes etc. But wait, I’m still out in the fields where the rain has knocked a lot of the aspen leaves down.  Some of those southbound geese have found the left-over grains from harvest,  and the earth smells poignant and ripe with stages of decay. Oh, so sweet… What is more, my most favorite month, November, is just around the corner.

Whether you are busy lighting pumpkins, or roasting pumpkin seeds, or making homemade corn balls (I still remember my childhood neighbor Mrs. Hatch made the most killer corn-balls!) keep in mind with darkening evenings, there are lots of little spooks out there running the streets and some may not be thinking about cars.  

Right  on the coattails (broomtails?) of Halloween comes voting Tuesday! Please please take the opportunity so many do not have,  and cast your vote. Contrary to what some try to propagate about your vote not counting or is inaccurate or etc, every vote does count.  As it always has  And with Veteran’s Day also coming next month, please seek out and thank a Vet.

Looking forward to our Thanksgiving newsletter.  Until then, enjoy the bounty of harvest and cozy up.

Yours, Farmer Sam

Ahhhhh….autumn at long last!  And as mellow of a September as this, I can not recall. Which is a strong statement given that September is presumed by many as the mellowest month on our calendar.  I can’t get enough of the slow  evenings. Evening begins much earlier now and almost suddenly however, evening in of itself takes a very measured tilt toward dusk in these quiet foothills. Truth to tell, as this year’s Full Harvest Moon peaked up behind the eastern ridgeline, on queue, our resident pack of young and old coyotes began to yip and ki-yie. The other sounds were late summer crickets and easy footsteps of deer beyond the orchard fence and robins rustling to bed.

The only light more  than evening this time of year is the light  of dawn.  But just before  first –  light is when I hear the poorwill down below the creek.  Then deer rustling in the brittle grasses, then the stirring of waking robins and more recently, the return of chickadees.  There always is the daylight flight of ducks over the house, and often the purr of quail.  Why can’t every month be like September!  Well, without the rest, none would be the same.  Yes, I suppose, we even need July!!

I completed the harvest this year before the Harvest Moon.  As I mentioned in last month’s notes, we had our spring wheat left to cut and I had perfect weather to do that the first couple days of this month.  Despite the early excessive heat, the yield on our hard white wheat was less compromised than I guessed – about 15 percent – and the quality stayed very good with 13.5 protein and strong falling numbers.  We sacrificed about 3 acres worth to a resident flock of Canada geese who must have known that we barely had room in our granaries for what they left us!  As you’ve heard me say so often, Mother knows best.

The seedstock from our winter red that we cleaned up and set for planting, is coming up nicely.

Our killer Washington Heritage winter rye that we barely got  harvested back during the heavy fire activity, we are just now beginning to clean and it is looking very good.  We will be milling up the first batch of rye flour from this year’s lot directly.  I hope you rye aficionados out there are ready to hoot in joy as this stuff is the real deal and has been grown in Washington for over 100 years.

Orders have flooded us this month and we are doing our best to keep them rolling out accordingly. Our systems have been taxed up here on the hill for some time now, but we’ve got to get through one more winter up here before we make the big, overdue move to… our new facility down on the highway!  Finally.  What a push.  It is going to be awesome and like lots of things that one looks forward to, it is hard to get too excited so far in advance for fear of disappointment,  yet we are so ready to make the move. 

This site  will be so much better for everybody: owners, employees and most of all, you customers! Capacities and efficiencies are going to make a world of difference as we bring our brand into the next phase of growth after 17 years of your loyalty.  Please please have patience with us during this time of transition. We didn’t even know the term “just in time delivery” when we began Bluebird in 2005 and now, we are the epitome of just-in-time milling. Which means, fresh fresh product! As with the supply chain with everything else this past year and a half, our chain has been tested.  That said, we have very good inventory for all our grains, just a bit short handed as many other businesses.

Our goal within this new platform for operations is to celebrate the Bluebird standard on multiple levels and for years to come. We are keeping the shine on and look forward to all sorts of things in our new facility. That said, the cornerstone to Bluebird will remain the celebration of nutritious and fresh organic grains, grain dry products and true organic farm practices.  

So… we will keep you updated while we wait for fall moisture so that we may perform fall tillage on our fields. I’ve plans to do another podcast series with Don this fall/winter, and this one will be  more focused on the storage and processing particulars of our grains and flours and how we preserve their integrity from raw to package.

Stay tuned, and enjoy my favorite season upcoming!

Yours, Farmer Sam  

Wow!  The request I wrote at the end of my last notes was for those displaced by our July fires to be back in their homes with no lives lost. This hope for our valley here was one hundred percent granted!  Mother Nature just never ceases to amaze. We couldn’t have had a more drastic change in the weather than what we’ve experienced here at the tail end of August, under the tutelage of the Full “Sturgeon” Moon –  also a Blue Moon in Aquarius. From temperatures that nudged 100 FH most every day of July into August, and smoke that pretended to be fog, we received a full night of rain on the 20th.  Since, daytime temperatures have struggled to get past the 70’s!  Blue sky has returned and that fast, it feels more like the deeper days of September. 

The two main fires that started nearby still smolder away to the north and west, but have been substantially quelled. This all is not something most would have predicted for what often is the hottest, driest month of the year: August. I feel many birds left the valley early in all the smoke.  Now, I think some have returned and yet those that are typically ready to leave now, are leaving.  So much activity was viewed from the back porch where the temperature this morning was 38 degrees! Chickadees back, swallows have left. Hummingbirds back, wrens are gone. Hawks, meadowlarks, early ducks and so forth. Bluebirds… the bluebirds this summer around here have been oddly silent. This is one I’ve not quite in understanding with, but the phal of smoke may well be the factor 

Our winter rye and wheat crops that we were able to get off the Big Valley field by the hair of our chins came in with good test weights, yield, moisture content. Idea, actually, for storage and milling. Now, our spring hard white wheat crop has been washed thoroughly by the rain and harvest has been delayed somewhat. Meanwhile, no less than 200 Canada geese gorge on the softened grain there, so I grow anxious to capture the rest. After its harvest, I’m hopeful of drilling in our winter peas. This spring wheat crop is more apt to have been affected by the extreme earlier heat and smoke, although I’ve never noticed our actual crops affected too much by smoke alone. We’ve harvested plenty of our crops in the smoke over the past few years.

Not long after harvest of  Methow Red, we cleaned up a new batch of seed stock so that it can be sown in early September.  We select our seed after screening it all, then taking the dense cut of heavy grains off the top of our Gravity table.  We cleaned a little over 200 bushels of red seed for planting this year. The rest of that crop we will grade for milling purposes over the winter.

We’ve yet to clean up any of our new-crop winter rye but should get to that soon with good expectations.  Our new crop einkorn yielded well, but is pretty brittle due to excessive early heat.  It is the first of our spring grains to be harvested as it was planted back in early March.

The grain itself is of excellent quality but we have excessive breakage when hulling, and therefore processing time is taking us a fair bit longer on this lot.  This is not what we look for, but what we sometimes have to deal with in a custom mill.   Growing and processing crops – contrary to what some might believe – is not an exact science. Take science into account, but Mother Nature always bats last.

The news you’ve all been waiting for: We’ve broken ground on our new facility! Finally, and at last!  This has been no short process… but the ship has left the dock and we all are very excited. The not so good news: We will be operating one final winter up here on the Rendezvous. The good news: We will only be operating one more winter up here on the Rendezvous! So, we look forward to giving you updates and pictures as the building progresses. 

Meanwhile, with the sudden turn in weather also comes the first days of public school. More teenagers now are in their own vehicles and more little ones on the streets. Please be mindful particularly during certain times in the day. And be mindful to not text and drive…

Up next, spring wheat harvest report. Until then, hello September! We’ve almost made it through summer once more!

Farmer Sam

The smoke has even the birds off-kilter in my estimation.  Truth to tell,  I’ve heard evening songs in the middle of these shrouded days.  As was somewhat feared, if not expected, our little valley is on fire again.  The heavy heat came early, back in late June, and has run head-long into the hot month of July.  Only a stray thunderstorm so far this year, but just enough lightning to touch off a pair of fires to the west of Mazama, then, just days later a human sparked fire a couple of miles north of our granaries here.  This one looked and was dangerous.

Both fires burn on in the current heat and drought conditions.  With a great deal of fire fighting support, neither fire has consumed a human life as of yet, and very few structures.  However, they both consume 1000’s of acres of wild habitat each day, and countless numbers of wildlife species and birds. It is a hard pill to swallow – this living in a “fire environment” at times. It means this somewhat natural course of events can lead to a new habitat, but not before the destruction of so much. But eighty percent of wildfires are human-caused. I know.

I know because we had the misfortune two years ago of our combine fire that was fortunately quickly extinguished. You might imagine my anticipation when I went out to the very same field this year and laid down massive windrows of rye next to a heavy stand of winter wheat.  Just in time for the Cedar fire to flank southeast and come down into the valley floor.  Harvest often brings stress all of its own, but it is doubled up this year. The early and sustained heat turned the crop quickly and what I might have been combining in early August was ripe and ready to go.

The good news: We had perfect harvesting weather despite the smoke. It was a heavy crop and with a new water pump tank onboard our work truck, we were able to peck away and finally bin all of the rye and winter red wheat at an optimum moisture content of around 10%. The ole Gleaner sprung a fuel leak early on but recovered and was surely put to the test on the thick rows of Treebeard rye.  Which ended up beautiful and about 65 bushels to the acre. About the same for the winter red. And as soon as we got the crop off, I turned on the irrigation so no wayward hot ember would touch the whole field off.  Amen!

But it is just barely August… that is the sad news. Even though it has seemed like August most of July.  We have a long, long way to go in this fire season. Many folks are not in their homes and the Cedar fire is on a path to kicking many more out. Mother Nature is excellent at surprises, but generally one doesn’t look to August for cool temps and precip.  September… maybe? October?  November…. Ahhh, November. This farmer dreams of sodden, sullen November!

Brad also got our einkorn all harvested, and our spring white wheat will be ready by the end of August. We had a great visit from our friends and emmer partners Blaine and Suzie.  They got a good visit in before all the fires… just. Blaine loved the podcasts that Don at KROOT and I did. He was dying to meet Don. On a day that hit 113 FH in Twisp, Don invited us to the studio where we ran off quite a reel on Sustainable Ag. – something Blaine has been a significant player of as long if not longer than I. Once Don gets done all the fire reporting etc, we will refine and add to our series which has been fun for me, not sure about you? The next day we floated the river. With all the recent panic, those days seem a long time ago.

Meanwhile, orders have picked back up at the Granary and we’ve been shipping our products daily, thanks to all of you! As you can see from the photos, here at Bluebird we will do ANYTHING to get fresh grains and flours from the rich field direct to your plate! Even at times like these. It may be times like these where/when staying the course is ever more important.

During these trying times, however, like most other times I can always look to birds for peace and sanctity. Each morning when I drove down the work road at Big Valley to make sure the crop still waited, and to prep for another window of harvesting, 5 partridge would flush from the overflow ditch that separates the 2 pivots. They are such pretty, wild, and resourceful little buggers.  Watching them warmed my heart. Also, in the evening listening to a new bird here in our young aspen grove that I’ve yet to identify.

Oh, the world keeps turning through it all.  The Full Buck Moon has come and gone here; an orange ball the same color as today’s rising sun.

My hope is by August notes we all will still be here, and many back in their homes. That is a lot to ask this time of year, but I ask.  I look forward to the final month of summer, keyword Final!

Then again, only fools wish away our precious time, rain and snow, smoke and fire. One moment is as important as the next.

Yours,

Farmer Sam

There is a bird I’ve yet to identify that wakes me each day at dawn even before the natty house wrens set to chatting.  I am awake. I am of the sort that once awake to birdsong and gathering light I seldom go back to not being awake. Just past the Summer Solstice, wake-up time now generally means 4ish here in the foothills that reach hard against Canada’s border.  Then the wrens.  Then the robins, the Jays, the quail, the coyotes…. At last, a farmer with coffee (5ish) on the porch, and the brilliant western tanagers alight on the rim of the birdbath. Followed by fledgling flycatchers, warblers, and orioles. Did I mention June was a lively month?

And one with sweet juices if we are lucky. After a very warm late May that bumped into June, “Junuary” returned.  Temperatures dipped to the 30’s some evenings, fresh breezes kept the grasses dancing, snow fell to 4000 ft, and finally, it rained! Only once really, but it rained anywhere from ½ – ¾ inch and stayed cool.  However, as I tap these keys, of an evening, the mercury sits at 95 degrees FH outside with temperatures promised well into the 100’s upcoming.  Oh dear, what shall we do?

Thanks to our nice snowpack we’ve plenty of supplemental irrigation water here, unlike most of the West.  The odd thing is, I seldom use near the amount we’ve been allocated growing our grains.  In fact, the only reason I’ve turned on the water to the spring wheat is because of the predicted and lasting heat.  I was pleased to walk fields yesterday and still be able to probe down 3” to natural moisture.  Still, 100 degrees is rough on young spring grain that is only in the 3-leaf stage and so I began just our second cycle of watering for the season.

Our 7 foot tall, Treebeard winter rye is all filled out, and too tall to water any longer anyway.  Our winter hard red wheat crop is looking full and we’re done watering it as well.  Both are finished pollinating and are now filling nicely. These winter grains should not be compromised too terribly by the excessive heat.  They may just finish out a little earlier if the heat remains, which in turn could lead to an earlier harvest.

Right now, the towering rye offers refuge and actual shade for any number of creatures, including birds.  I was mowing along the field edge a few days ago and from 30 feet into the thick of the stand, out flushed a covey of partridge.  Further up the field out flushed a doe and her two fawns.  That fast I felt like an invasive species!  I kept going fast as I dared, and finished up so as to let peace return to the “forest” of rye.

At the granary, we’ve been plugging along.  Early June continued to be busy on the coattails of May but as the heat comes, and the month edges past Solstice with the now full  “Strawberry Moon”,  orders have slacked some.  This has given us a chance to catch up on all sorts of odds and ends, including maintenance of machinery and buildings and storage.  We don’t like to be “down” for long, but it is nice to have some slow-ups to reorganize a host of things.  Our crew is small, and that means many days are spent just prepping and shipping orders with little time for anything else.  Our crew is what they call now “Cross-trained” I guess.  Everyone on board is willing to fill in when needed with no one being too specialized.  We have a great crew.  What we need right now outside the granary is an ice field!!

To be sure, summer is upon us.  Much of this state and the grain-growing regions from here to the Prairie are bone-dry so crops – both “conventional” and organic are suffering big time. We don’t like to see any farm suffer. We do and will need to, however, reevaluate what we farm as a nation, and what is more gentle on the most important resource we have: Open Lands.  Most people would agree increasing temperatures, and decreasing water supply is on the menu for quite some time to come.

We’re grateful for the “re-opening” of the world so as to speak.  Or at least the thought that we can go most of the way back to “normal.” As I’ve said before, we are not out of the woods with this pandemic but I hope the valuable lessons we’ve taken from it are not soon forgotten.

School is out; please take good care of one another and enjoy.

Yours, Farmer Sam

Well, it hasn’t been a quiet month at Bluebird Grain Farms where birdsong greets us each morning, the extended high pressure rolls on with lots of sun, temps in the 70’s, mostly calm days but where the wind right now blows above average. Afternoon gusts from the north rattle windows, toss the aspen trees about, and remind us to take stock in the calm days! Many a robin, oriole, flycatcher have nested in these trees. How their nests survive these waves of wind always amazes me. Are there just eggs within? Or babes? Just a week ago Mariah and I were biking up the road and saw a Mumma mallard in one of the potholes leading forth what had to have been brand new chicks – a clutch of a dozen or more. How fast Nature works!

The wind serves to dry out what is already dry as well. To date, we’ve received less than a half-inch of rain since April 1. The good news is, we do have a fair bit of groundwater and a decent snowpack continuing to melt. Irrigation water should be sufficient enough to help raise solid crops. We are fortunate indeed to be in the shadow of the North Cascades. That said, I never like to rely on irrigation to germinate a crop. This, for a variety of reasons.

First, one often gets a more even stand when seeds germinate and sprout up on their own. Also, if the plants have to fend for themselves a bit, they will develop stronger and deeper root systems than if watered right off.  Unpampered plants will be more resilient and particularly if we get any real heat when they are young. Weed pressure will be more intense if the soil is watered to start off as well. Most annual weeds germinate on the top half-inch of soil. I plant grain at least a couple of inches deep most years. This year I’m hoping to have hit moisture even at that depth. We will soon know. Thus, if the surface soil is dry while the grain seed is tucked neatly into moist soil, the grain will push up but no weeds will germinate. This allows for the crop to get a running start without competition.  

Yes, as promised, I’ve planted our spring grains! And without irrigation. Meanwhile, I have used our irrigation on the winter rye and winter wheat crop. These crops are cranking under sunny skies that aren’t too hot yet, and as their thickening leaves branch, this helps to protect the soil from losing the added moisture too fast.  However, as I rule, I try not to irrigate in heavy winds like today.

Most of the prairie is in severe drought following an open winter and no spring rain at all. This will affect many commodity supply lines, and we hope that our farming colleagues in those parts get moisture soon and soon may not even be in time. To date, a lot of farm ground remains unplanted.

We’ve had an uptick in orders at the granary here this month, both in whole grains and in flour. This is due in part, I suspect,  to the reopening of some restaurants and bakery customers. We are delighted to see familiar customers back up and operating on whatever level that they feel comfortable with. It has been such a journey. We sure hope we can continue to climb out of the pandemic problems and have a more normalized summer… whatever that “new normal” ends up being.

Many businesses have a new struggle as the pandemic wears on, and may or may not be fading: Labor. Many businesses can not find enough employees for whatever reasons – of which there are many. This makes us ever the more grateful to have a solid crew here at Bluebird. Small, but diligent. We look to these fine folks to accompany us to our new facility!

As the balsamroot and lupine begin to fade on the hillsides, the bitterroot is beginning to blossom. Such a delicate, lovely little ground gem. And something that grows on nothing but rock so it appears. Alas, lots of minerals in the rocks. Also, this is the time of year when I notice scads of caterpillars on my hillside walks.

Congratulations to all graduates, both college and in high school. And, here is to nice June rains – a month we can often count on some for moisture. Indeed, the sweet month of June is upcoming.  

Yours, Farmer Sam

Evening. I stare straight at our fully blooming Apricot tree as I tap this month’s notes from the back porch. The two Labs snore mightily nearby, sprawled out on the fir planking as if it were 100 degrees out. Still full of winter-thickened blood, the first 60-70 degree days here in late April make us all feel a bit sluggish. But it is welcomed beauty in this change of the seasons, and with the first frost-free nights of the year the hillsides are greening up right before our eyes as wildflowers begin to burst and mornings are dictated by a cacophony of bird song – chipping sparrows perhaps in lead. Now, as twilight gathers,  hummingbirds zip about that very Apricot tree,  to the ageless and vital tune of Nature.

Of Nature’s promises that she keeps, the promise of seasonal changes is tops. Here in the North Cascades foothills, it seems that change can begin slowly, as it did this year when we had an endless freeze/thaw cycle that went on week after week, affording a nice, slow melt. Then, that fast, it bursts ahead and one finds themselves scrambling to keep up. I recall a local farmer from the generation before me once quipping: “Yep, no matter when Spring hits the Methow you start out three weeks behind.” Or a month…

This farmer has certainly felt that most years. The countryside itself: the grasses, the flowers, the coyotes, the birds, and the bees all hit top gear and their pace can set the pace for any of those who work with the land. As I promised in the last notes, I would start fieldwork, as usual, this month, and I have. Being temporarily short-handed at the mill, I’ve not done the amount I’d first hoped but so far have worked in the grain stubble I couldn’t get to last fall, and tine weeded the winter wheat. I’ve pulled soil samples from all our fields and soon will decide what exactly our spring rotation looks like.    

Meanwhile, our winter rye and winter red wheat looks really strong and are off and running as the soils warm. They are growing side-by-side out at Big Valley and they grow quite differently. We got a good stooling out of the rye last fall, and this spring all the tillers are sprawled out so that each plant is about the size of a dinner plate. The wheat doesn’t spread out as much and grows more vertically even in the early stages of spring. The rye looks like a thick, chunky lawn whereas the wheat is easily still defined in rows. I tine-weed the rows of wheat so as to pop up any swollen weed seed into the bright, warm April sun. I let the rye be, as I can’t imagine any weed seed germinating under its thick, lush mat.

Once I’ve finalized our rotation, any grain will be sown in the next couple of weeks. Spring cover crops will likely be vetch or a later seeding of buckwheat. Or both! Fertility is paramount, but so is variety.

We had a very busy beginning to the month at the granary, although things have quieted some here toward the end. Our supply looks solid going into the spring-summer months, and our earlier crops this coming year will come off late July, or the first week of August. We’ve got a ways to go, however, and hope to keep any gaps filled!

The update on our new facility is as follows: We will be making a final decision whether to build this spring by next month! So, after tons and tons of planning, won’t this be exciting to see if it launches?

Hard as it is right now, please keep up the course trying to help one another through the ongoing pandemic. Covid -19 is hanging tight to whatever hosts it can find, as viruses do, and we need to keep up our guard. Fresh air never hurts, so I hope all can get out and smell the sweet spring breezes. As my writing light fades now, ruffed grouse drum down along our creek, and blue grouse hoot and strut along the upper pasture. Things sure seem puffy around here, as I wish you all a healthy spring!

Yours, Farmer Sam

Springs Concerto

The way a spring creek leaps

rolls and glistens

in the sharp, March sun;

each bubble 

a gone-by snowflake

each turn

a great crawling out

from the white blanket

and such burrowing in. 

New eyes blink- 

see grass greening

before them lies

land ripe

for slow, baggy clouds

to spread over

and shed life from within. 

Innocence sung-

meadowlarks’ song

Innocence danced-

feet skipping along

to this ancient chime

the only way

the only true

measure of time.

Bluebirds, too – iridescent, shocking bright blue males flitting about the winter-broken bitterbrush and sage.  And robins so cheery even on the coldest and most blustery of Spring mornings.  Indeed, it has been a “great crawling out” and that slow pace this March, in particular, has been perfect for the solid snowpack, to ease its way into the once dry soil.

My hope for the return of substantial spring water here in the Methow has been somewhat rewarded.  Many of the dry potholes last fall, are now charged to a degree and some, brimming with waterfowl.  The early flowers: yellow bells, bluebells; spring beauties, and even a few balsamroots are blooming.  Spring freshets jaunce down most every coulee – just like in the poem!  As we spring toward April, Nature’s pace will quicken in so many ways, as will ours, yet it is always worth taking the slow time to marvel at daily progressions.

We’ve operated through another winter here on the Rendezvous, cranking out “ just-in-time” milled products and grains 5 days a week, snow or shine.  Now we are relieved that freight trucks can make it all the way down to the granary.  We also welcome a seasonal up-tick in orders in part due to the fact that under current regulations, some of our wholesale customers – predominantly restaurants and restaurant suppliers – are slowly re-opening.  For this, we are very excited and hope that both old and new, can thrive after an unexpected and unprecedented dormancy.  You all are courageous!  We will do whatever we can to support you back on your feet.

This month – no kidding (April 1st)  – we will begin fieldwork, as well.  I noticed the other day that as the fields begin to emerge from winters’ blanket, the winter grains look like they have survived!  Soon, they will be perking up and greening up!  We’ve some amount of spring tillage to perform on our other fields and look to be getting in some spring cover crops.  I’ve yet to calculate, just how much spring grain at this point, but will, soon.

One of our partner growers down in Connell – the tropics compared to here – planted einkorn way back in February and it is a terrific-looking stand indeed.  Way to go, Brad!  Risky, well yeah.  Wise?  He knows his soils, and his farming better than I, so who am I to say?

We are close to submitting for building permits on our expansion facility, and the little podcast experiment that Deputy Don and I worked on this winter, has been released in 4 episodes on Kroot. Our newsletter subscribers get first access to our FIRST episode on organic regenerative agriculture.   Please let us know what ya’ think?

We have a very lean, but mighty crew here at the moment.  We look forward to refilling a couple open positions, and hopefully add more employment opportunities here in the Agricultural related sector.  We can’t let these age-old trades disappear altogether!

Here’s to a beautiful spring and, hopefully, a much healthier spring than last.  Please continue to be diligent in doing what we can to overcome the past full year of whacky diversity ie: Covid-19.

Yours, Farmer Sam