Category: Farmer Notes

There are few sweeter ways to wake up than to the urgent song of spring birds. This has been the way here in the month of May. What we continue to lack in rain we’ve certainly gained in mild temperatures and birds, birds, birds!  Truth to tell, we’ve already sown half of our grains and one day while planting our einka, there a bluebird indeed landed!  Combined with the early-May full moon, I believe this is why our first seeding has  jumped out of the ground.

To be sure, the soil temperature is warmer than in many springs past. Time will tell if an earlier start will benefit us or not?  Here at mid-month we’re rolling along with hopes of having everything sown by the month’s end. We’ve still got half our pre-plant fertilizer to spread, and next week we’ll turn under our winter peas for some real fertilizers on last years grain fields.  Meanwhile, we’ll start feeding the grains that are already up  by applying liquid fish very soon. Each spring I feel like a beginner, I’m fond to mention. That said, one thing that becomes clearer all the time is that to grow anything of value, one constantly has to be building the soils biology. Biology is what it is all about. This is one reason we’ve shifted toward chicken based pre-plant, followed by the fish and the on-going green manures such as the peas.  Without good biology, it matters not what a grower might “apply” for fertilizer, it will not be recognized nor used by the soil.

The only interruptions with the farming this spring really have been with equipment  This, too, seems to go in cycles. Primarily, our old International 1086 continues to have fits, despite all the TLC we  annually give it.  Basically, we’ve not been able to use it much and this makes us all the more grateful to have gotten our new Kubota last fall.  This has assured we still have two machines to work with, even though we use the John Deere most days up here at the granary. Dead Red?  Red has mostly been dead, but perhaps one more trip to the hospital and Red will be back in time for us to finish planting…?

The granary crew continues to roll as orders continue to flow. Hanz is doing a great job stream-lining some of our through-put in the milling line, and Brad has been learning quickly.  We’re fortunate to have such conscientious talent on board.  Thanks guys!

We finally got a few showers the other afternoon. Although May is likely our busiest month here at Bluebird, it is a month that never ceases to delight. It fairly made me want to write a poem about it!  Then I realized I already had. Here’s one from some years ago when we were experiencing a similar droughty spring.  Hope you enjoy…

Rain

Finally

Not just sprinkles

But a moving chorus

Come down

From shrouded melting peaks

Out from the lifting fog

Across the springtime valley.

Whisper

Cool and easy

Kiss the brittle sage

Make sweet and tangy

These hard dry hills

Come unafraid and curious

Tip-toeing toward the fields.

Spread open and clutch

This anxious eager earth

Harrowed, sown, waiting

Through sunrise and moon-set

For gentle May breezes to rise up

And sing the long spring song.

Listen: Thrushes’ trill

Meadowlarks’ lullaby

A growing pitter- patter

Dancing ‘cross dusty stone

Along tender aspen run

Pelting dusty dirt

Swallowing the land whole.

Yours, Farmer Sam

Now that our first hummingbirds have arrived and our apricot tree has bloomed it is time for real April to settle in here on the Rendezvous: nighttime temps in the 20’s, 20 mph wind, fresh snow in the mountains. Ahhh… I knew spring wouldn’t let us down – the only season colder than winter here! That said, with the lengthening daylight birds, plants, kids and I suppose farmers can’t help themselves.

Each morning I pull away from the fire and brave the back porch for a few sips. I’m always greeted by a chorus: Quail along the creek, grouse hooting on the hillsides, ducks quacking and flying about, geese along the river, robins, larks, bluebirds… and now hummers! The balsam root are almost all in full bloom and the aspen all leafed out. Deer race about the hills and to be sure, our spring -though now slowed down-remains an early one.

The kids have been on their bikes, on the trampoline (what an awesome invention!)and helping with spring chores. The farm crew, off and on, has been in the fields. We’ve plowed some, cultivated some, mechanic-id  some and made some trial runs of our seed. Our winter peas are cranking this year with the moist soil and early spring and ground that never froze too deep this year. They are beginning to bulk out and should give us a real good hit of goodies to turn under in another month, so we can follow with our emmer.

This month we will continue seedbed prep on our earlier fields which means cultivation, spreading amendments, packing and yes, we’ll likely get some grain planted.  To be sure our spring cover crop will go in and over all, we are still a little ahead of many years.  Rain would be nice; it rained at the beginning of the month but April is not known to be particularly wet here.  The prevailing northwest winds can take away the top moisture that fast.  Particularly in combination with freezing nights.

Unlike many other western states, we do have a decent snowpack here in the North Cascades and I may have mentioned last month how good our soil profile is.  All the seasonal ponds up here in the foothills are as full as I’ve ever seen them. Ducks, deer, snipe and butterflies frolic about each one.

Hanz and our new employee Brad Halm have been a good combination in the granary and have continued to streamline operations in there so as to keep up with your orders!  As always, we are grateful to you all.  The issues we had with some of our crop damage seem to have diminished some and we’ve gotten into a little bit better lot of grain lately.  Meaning, we’re capturing more of the whole kernels in proprtion to the splits.  Truth to tell, though, I am partial to the split emmer!  It cooks fast, tastes yummie and ahas all the nutrition of the whole berries.  Because it is split, it won’t hold up for re-use after cooking quite as well, but I love cooking up a cup in some oil and light broth or putting it in soups.  OOps – I crowding in on Brooke’s department!

And so, I better get back out to the awakening fields! I hope this finds all of you awakening to nice spring thoughts and soon,the coldest season will be past. Enjoy the fresh Earth. Enjoy re-birth. And watch for kids on bikes!

Yours, Farmer Sam

Yellow bells, spring beauties, meadowlarks and yes, bluebirds! That fast, an early spring is upon us and the view here at Bluebird is quite different than last month’s as very mild temperatures and lots of sun have chased the snow except for the north slopes and leftover snowbanks. After a wintry beginning to February, it has been all spring since. Bees now are sipping nectar from the budding alder along  our creek. Coyotes yip one minute and a frog croaks the next.

Do I miss winter? Yes. Yet the warm days and green winter rye in our garden and the robin’s song and fresh smells of earth aren’t all bad. Indeed, thoughts turn to working in the soil. At this pace, we may be on some fields by the month’s end. In time, of course, for the obligatory April snow squalls quite likely, and freezing spring wind!  We’ll see.

We continued modifications in the granary over the past month, and have made some further improvements in our small, albeit good, milling line. These changes are intended to enhance our quality standards and do so in a more efficient manner. With anticipated growth again this year, this  will enable us to maintain our good service. As well, we’ve added some efficiency measures in our packaging room, too. This has made Halley very happy! She now has a new bag sealing/dating machine, all on a conveyor belt!!

We’ve  germ tested some of our seeds this month, with good results so far on one lot of the emmer stock , even though it received considerable damage during last summer’s violence. These seeds  test very vibrant so far. Right now, we’re testing our Einka seed. As well, we’ve been sourcing our pre-plant amendments and likely will be applying some early April. This could be a year when we actually get some April sown crops in. It has been a few seasons.

The longer I farm the less I know. Truth to tell, intuition still plays a large part in our farming practices, yet the weather always holds the trump card. During years when it is possible (like maybe this year?)I’ve felt that some early plantings have been worth trying. For the Methow, early is somewhere around the 3rd week in April. On a year like this soil temps. may indeed be warmer than usual and therefore the grain will keep growing once out of the ground. One advantage is the potential for an earlier harvest and, perhaps higher yield if the plants actually keep growing strong once up. The danger is that of the weather turning cold again, like it seems to always do in early May, and the plants sort of get stuck in idle, perhaps allowing other less desirable weeds the chance to come on.

Our heaviest crops have been our June planted crops, actually. However, then we push harvest on the autumn end. And, given the growing turbulence of the later summer weather we’re experiencing here, we’ll probably do both earlier and later plantings. Now as I gaze back outside, I see the rain has turned slightly to snow which makes me think we might not want to get in too much of a rush!

However, there is other prep work to do besides actually cultivation! Equipment maintenance, spring soil testing and, of course, rock picking in the more less-forgiving parts of our fields! This always is a nice way to get back on he land, particularly given the fact I’m from the granite state of New Hampshire where “pastures” were fenced with the stones picked to make the pasture.  Frost’s opening line in “Mending Walls”. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall… I’ve often thought should go more like: Something there is that doesn’t love a pasture! Hmmm…

Here’s a poem I wrote for March called “Spring’s Concerto:”

   The way

   a spring creek leaps

   and rolls and glistens

   in 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 green

   before them lies

   land ripe

   for slow, baggy clouds

   to spread open‑

   give life within

   innocence sung:

   meadowlarks’ song;

   innocence danced:

   feet skipping along

   to this ancient chime‑

   the only way

   the only true

   measure of time

                                                           Sam Lucy ©1997

Happy Equinox!   Farmer Sam

Snow falls steadily outside; finches, grosbeaks and chickadees joist at the feeder as I tap these keys.  A raven soars above the chicken coop.  Last night a great horned owl hooted outside our bedroom while coyotes yipped at the fat moon from further away.  Winter bears ripened fruit of it’s own and winter’s sleep is the good sleep.

A year ago we received 4 feet of snow up here on the Rendezvous during the first 8 days of the month.  I’m not anticipating such again this year, but the latest little round freshened up the landscape and was a nice change from the day-long fog we had periodically been getting throughout January.   Although we didn’t receive that much additional snow during January, temperatures remained fairly cool and the snow pack is still solid.  At this point things look promising so far as spring moisture and good soil profile goes.  Alas, in 2 more months, we’ll know the true story.

I’m never in a rush for winter to pass.  This year, with additional employees and a lively flow of orders, it does seem that February has come upon us rather fast.  Last month we made some minor improvements to our cleaning line and now we are working on a couple of improvements to the larger flour mill.  Also, we plan to condense the floor footprint for the machines inside the granary.  We’ll also be adding another elevator leg as part of this refinement as we need the extra room to grow again this year!  So far we’ve been able to avoid shutting down altogether while making these improvements and all our employees continue to do a great job filling orders.  Great service will always remain one of the primary goals as we grow!

Despite the falling snow, and thoughts of finally perhaps being able to ski the Butte soon, I’m aware that the next farming season is now closer than the past! There is plenty of planning to do in this regard.  Not the least will be beginning seed selection for our spring sown crops.  Also, I’m looking at a couple improved implements including a new field cultivator and/or a minimum till seed drill.  These expenses have yet to be justified and will take further budgeting but they have been on our radar for a couple years now.  I’ll let you know what we decide.

The nice thing about farming (ha, ha) is that there always is a tool you didn’t know you needed until you saw it!  This is true for whatever type of farming one engages in I suppose.  That said, the basics of how we farm will remain the same in that we will continue to concentrate on soil balance, timing, and wise water use.

After the crop losses we took last season I’m admittedly not quite as jazzed about the up-coming season as I might be with the lengthening days.  However, we will strive to improve our plans and practices knowing that we can not control whatever tantrums MN decides to throw in the end.  We can just continue to trust in her and know that whatever she does, it is necessary and perfect.

At this point, we do not have any additional farm leases secured for the coming farm year but this, too, is something we’re always trying to prove up.  As time goes on, it seems more and more challenging to find relatively “clean” farm land that has not been abused to some extent either with chemicals or neglect.  Yes, even in our little mountain valley here!  It surprises me in some ways, and doesn’t in others.  As a result, we will be looking to begin work with some other producers that can meet, or already meet, the Bluebird standard.  Here again, I will let you know how this evolves.

Meanwhile, looks like I may need to clear out the driveway again before long!  I hear the mill running and know that we’ve got trucks to meet this week.  After having moments that felt like spring some afternoons later in January, early February is reminding us it remains a winter month.

Enjoy.  Yours, Farmer Sam

From our kitchen window it seems that even the chickadees wear the ice-fog that has shrouded our Valley these past January days. To be sure, the two Labs return from outside with new frosting on their otherwise deep, black coats. The roses, apricot trees, mulberry and sage wear the same. About this time last January, we had similar stalled weather. However, this year we have a solid snow-pack. And I do mean solid as following every snow storm in December we had either a thaw, or rain and a thaw.

Truth to tell, the stage is set for a beautiful moisture profile for our soils come spring. The total moisture here in the Methow for 2014 actually came in over 2 inches higher than the 35 year average.  Most all of that moisture came last February (snow) and then this late fall and early winter (snow and rain). We are grateful! Yes, this has every bit to do with the farming news as we already are thinking about the up-coming season.

Thanks to all of you loyal customers: Home users, restaurants, distributors – we had another year of growth in 2014 and this year has begun on the same pace. We love the fact that you love our goods!!  We like them, too.  In fact, our youngest daughter, Mariah (10) made a batch of our emmer sage biscuits (my personal fave) this past Sunday to go with my family-famous venison stew. She liked the stew biscuits so much, she was up this morning before school, making another round of biscuits! This a girl who generally stays in bed until the very last moment – particularly on school days.  Warm from the oven, she wrapped a couple up for both her and her older sister Larkin, then popped them into their lunches. Oh, she requested a thermos of stew to go along. What not to like?

I wish I could say this is the season for reflection but in reality, things have been so busy it has been trying to find the time. Certainly we’ve had time to realize how grateful we are for the good things in 2014 and still are pained for many who lost much here in the Valley at the same time. 2015 we’re hoping will bring more stability all around but change is all we can count on. We have been spending most of our reflective time talking about some changes here at Bluebird that we’re hoping to implement and to be sure, we will keep you abreast of these. Included will be changes to help us with increased efficiency, production and employment. One thing that will not change is our standard of quality and service.

Yeah, I’m dreaming of a few improved “tools” for the fields already. As well, we are always looking at potential farm leases. Meanwhile, meeting freight trucks, UPS and even getting to the post office has it’s challenges this time of year. Here again, our employees have risen up. In a rural community, individuals make all the difference. We are fortunate to work with committed freight drivers who really go out of their way to get our goods and ultimately, move them on to you.

What will the next 10 years of Bluebird look like? I’ll let you know soon as I know! For right now, however, I’m thinking in the moment and hoping the finches leave a few sunflowers for the chickadees, and that the coyotes only kill the deer they need in this crusty snow and that we all think of the people around us, too.

I LOVE the depth of winter. I hope you are getting time to enjoy this “quiet” season, too.

Yours, Farmer Sam

To be sure the Methow is catching up on moisture. Since the later part of October,I’m not sure we’ve experienced such swings in weather here and this has been true right up into the second week of December. As happened 2 years ago, later October ended up too wet to finish all the little field chores we’d hoped to. None of the work was critical. That said, we were lucky to get the weather earlier on to complete the major fall tillage, planting etc. Because we never got back on the fields after that 3rd week.

By the time November dried out, the temperature dropped to single digits and nothing but lovely blue skies,essentially freezing up the ground. The fortunate October rains thus proved paramount as the soil profile was now saturated before freeze-up this year. I’ve mentioned how important this is to have the soil’s “pores” opened up prior to freezing. Come spring and snow melt, “open pores” generally foster greater soil/moisture absorption capacity. Some of the issues with the very dry profile last spring and summer,despite an eventual and even snow pack, can be attributed to the fact that 2013’s fall was parched and cold.

This November’s cold broke and more moisture returned into Thanksgiving when we received rain, then, as heavy of a snow as seemed possible – about 16” here at the granary. Yes, we lost power once again and the fun began! A great beginning to the snow pack and some earlier skiing once it cooled. But it didn’t just cool. No, back to below zero again! Aah, but our soil was now protected.

The dark, starry nights of December’s start, and snappy, clear days of just a week ago seem a distant memory now with the southerly flow returning this week. It has been raining ever since! What sort of wardrobe Santa should pack this year is anyone’s guess? Trench coat, snowshoes, a propane heater…  Time will tell.

None of this wacky weather has thwarted our customer’s enthusiasm nor, I hope, our service here at the granary. My… Santa’s workshop has been busy! I’ve had the luxury of being in the granary cleaning grain, milling and shipping these past couple weeks and bustling business has sure kept me warm. Thank you!

As I noted earlier, our crops took quite a hit this past summer.  We’ve made some equipment adjustments in our cleaning line that have helped us deal with these stressed crops.  Although there is still loss, we think we’ve improved our quality and take of whole grains. Hardest hit was our biggest emmer field. However, we’ve been able to cut down on our broken grian and are delivering the sort of quality we aspire to. Being a “do it all” farm, we get to see the different fields first hand.  Consistency is sometimes tricky as different lots run differently.Our quality goals never changes and I suppose if aesthetically consumers might notice some variation in grains, I suppose that can be the beauty in an “organic” process. We hope you appreciate this. So far, all of this year’s crop is cooking, baking and tasting good as ever.

Alas, that fast, another year comes to close. Speaking for the Bluebird Farm Family, we sure appreciate all your support. It has been our best year in sales. We also appreciate our hard working, what have become “tenured” employees!  Through all the challenges that this year has given from fires to hail to mudslides to power outages, I truly believe our service has remained excellent. This would not be possible without our wonderful little elves. My biggest thanks go to my business partner and sparkly wife Brooke.  She makes this nice website possible, and keeps all the “fires” burning when necessary, and under control otherwise.  As of midnight on the 31^st, we will have been married 15 years!  And in business together two thirds of that time with two blossoming little elves of our own…

Wishing you all warmth, peace, and good health throughout the holiday season and for the coming year. Please be generous to the many in such need. This season, if no other, should remind us to give.

Yours, Farmer Sam

As the aspen turn gold and the robins re-gather and the first flights of southbound geese murmur overhead during the night, another farming season, too, draws to close.  We’ve completed harvest, applied our straw digesters and sowed winter peas as our winter cover crop.  Fall tillage is what is left for us to do.  This includes disking in the grain stubble, some cultivation on our summer cover crop fields, and to a lesser degree, a little plowing.

As I’ve likely mentioned here before, autumn is my favorite and also the time when I enjoy field work most.  Finally, there is time for some reflection as the pace has slowed and the list of should-have-done- yesterdays fades.  Fall tillage is just as important as any of our other steps, and it can snow for good here early, but this aside and just as important is the time to summarize ones actions of past, so as to set the future’s stage.

Truth to tell, I’m at a loss to summarize this past farming season.  The one constant seems to be all of your positive feedback and steady flow of orders for Bluebird goods.  If I were to choose one constant, that would be at the top of the list!  As well as the consistency of our employees.  Regarding our crops, we’ve had a wide spectrum of results.  Given the adversity of weather we experienced during the second part of the summer, following a mild but dry beginning, this isn’t at all surprising.

I mentioned in the previous blog that hail had hit us and actually hit one of our emmer fields twice.  This has presented us issues not in just out-right yield loss, but has created processing challenges as well. In some cases, the actual grain kernels themselves have been compromised, giving us a harder time separating the whole grain from the splits.  The nutritional quality is actually very high.  This is common in hard grains.  when severely stressed they actually cycle faster and bring up soil nutrients faster than normal. So, we’ve got very nutritious emmer grain and flour, but twice the work in getting there!

Meanwhile, our hard wheat seem to have fared better as they were in a different location and a different growth stages.  Our hard white wheat did particularly well, as did our einka!  This is a big one, as we only had one field of our einka and it came off the best crop we’ve grown of this sort in the short time we’ve been growing it.  The einka, too, only saw hail once and it was a younger, less susceptible plant.

The einka really grows and matures quite differently than the other grains.  We spring- plant it just like our other spring grains, and usually it is up in-row within a week, like our other grains but then it seems to fade.  In fact, it doesn’t seem to grow much at all for the first month or more after it is up.  I’ve decided this is true because the plant is so wild it is as close to a true grass as any cultivated grain, including the emmer.  And most grasses spend their early development building their root systems, and thus spend energy going down, not up.  Once the heat of July hits, the einka takes off.  I mean it will grows like July corn!  I haven’t heard it grow at night yet, but I have seen it grow 2 feet in two weeks time.

When the einka harvest finally came round, our last crop to harvest, the plants were 4 feet tall and beginning to blacken as is natural with this strain.  It was late September, and a lovely, mild sunny September it was!  The einka harvested beautifully.  And for all the stress, the success and many failures that this summer conjured up for ALL of us here in the Methow, finishing harvest on a good note with the oldest of grain gave me renewed hope!  Amen.

We just received our first October rain and cool air after an amazingly mild beginning to fall.  It smells, feels and looks wonderful.  Get out there and enjoy this lovely time to be on the land.  The close of even this summer smacks of melancholy as animals and birds busy themselves “stocking up” and heading out.  Alas, another curve of the cycle comes round…

Yours, Farmer Sam

No one living here in the Methow is going to escape this past summer unscathed. Assessment based on: “to what degree of destruction?”. Some homes that escaped fire didn’t elude mudslides which came late in August as violent thunderstorms continued to roll through our little valley.  All the moisture we never saw in the spring and early summer came in August this year!  The true silver lining within these storms was the fact that they put out the fires – an improbability for this time of year if ever there was one.

As I’ve said here many times before, Mother Earth tends to have a way of evening things out. She gives what she takes; she takes what she gives… and so on. Alas, September has come in with the most stable weather we’ve had in 2 months and for us bystanders it is, truly, a breath of fresh air. The cooler nights and glorious sunny days; the poorwill of the evening, the gathering of southbound bluebirds, the great horned owls back and forth on these Harvest Moon filled quiet, bright nights with the light sharp against whisk-broom colored foothills are all reminders of why we do actually live here.

Harvest.  Oh yes, there is our harvest! Our crops did not survive the summer unscathed either. Some irony may lay in the fact that the storms which came and put the fires out were particularly hard on crops. Hail is what did the most damage. Our hulled grains generally take the heavy rains and wind fairly well compared to many crops, but hail is hard on any annual. Roughly half way into harvest it is hard to judge just what the losses are, but they are evident. That said, because most of our crops were healthy going into the 6 week storm cycle that began  mid-July, they survived better than they might have.

Our quality seems intact so far, despite diminished yields. We’ve run some new crop for tests and will hopefully know more soon. Through all of the above, the granary has been abuzz and we’ve had some of our heaviest weeks so far! Very grateful to you all,  and to our employees who continue to give excellent service to all.

With school back in session, PLEASE be careful driving as so many kids are out and about these days, filled with the “pleasures” of going back to class! We wish all kids the best going into a new year and wish all some autumn peace as shadows lengthen to the shortening days.

Yours, Farmer Sam

I’ve always felt July to be the longest month of the year. As this stretched-out month comes to close it is safe to say we were “full up” with July here in the Methow this year. Rain, wind , hail, scorching sun, a 38 degree morning, and true firestorms all about our foothills; this year our July had it all.  Still, the birds sang. Adult robins and flycatchers and bluebirds began teaching beautiful voice to their young. To me, before sunrise and after sundown is what July is all about, yet even mid-day I’d hear the cheery thrush or quail in the wood.

Over 250,000 acres have burned up in our valley this month. Countless wildlife have been incinerated, scores and scores of neighbors have lost homes and property, the 100 degree days roll on and still birds sing. Thank goodness. What simple, reassuring power in the Lark’s song. How precious our running waters. How deep and solid our community.

The Bluebird family weathered  July far better than some. Our fields of wild grain took some hail and heavy wind and rain, but they, too, appear to have weathered the storm with mild damage, though only harvest will tell the true story. Haven been blasted before by heavy thunderstorms, and hail, I’ve marveled at how the physiological character of the ancient grains has the rugged make up to handle more adversity. The shiny husk, long awns then droopy heads when cured, all add up to more resilience which makes some sense:  Wild, to handle the wild.

Good news also was the fact that we’d just finished our last nutrient applications before the storms. This, too, may have helped the plants. One of the inconveniences of losing power for 8 days was that our irrigation cycle was interrupted. Here again, we were close to the end of the cycle anyway. Things could have been far, far worse.

Up here at the granary, freight lines were cut off for a few days.  Combined with the loss of power, our usual flow and timely service was interrupted. We thank all for your concerns and patience.  We rented a big generator to get going about half-way through the outage, and that was helpful to be sure. The local REA really are to be commended, as power was restored very quickly in sight of the devastation. Of course, the tractors could keep running! Really, we’ve just been turning under cover crop and not much more for field work.

To be sure, we’ve done just about all we can to grow a healthy crop for yet another year! All irrigation is going off for the season, most all the grains are fully headed out and now, that piercing sun can work its magic and put the “slow-cure” on our grains.  At this point, our crop looks good. Our new lease on the Big Valley looks very good. I expect to begin the harvest there the last week of August. And to move on from there. Then, we’ll know if we were naughty or nice.

Meanwhile, I harvested our winter rye yesterday! The hail had already harvested some, but we got the Gleaner combine rolling in good shape and cut the 8 foot tall rye.  In that sense, this years harvest has begun!  That said, we are headed on our annual pilgrimage to New Hampshire for some much anticipated R&R and to visit my homeland with the good fortune of knowing Bluebird is in the assuring hands of our great employees. Very fortunate we are.  Our Labs will likely get more swimming in with our house sitter than they did with us!

Our thoughts go out to all our neighbors enduring such losses. We hope that Mother Nature can somehow heal what she may have taken away.  I hope this finds all able to get some rest, and I hope that August brings a little more summer stability  Get in a hike, bike, fish, and swim!  Next notes, I’ll hopefully have some harvest reports.

Until then, Your Farmer, Sam

The loveliest way to awaken each morning is to the sound of early rising birds. This enables one to at least begin the day with great hope and gives one time to get the lay of the land while sipping on the porch, realizing that this has to have been one of the mildest, tranquil springs ever here in the Methow. And dry. To be sure the nearly complete lack of rain is one challenge during planting, but I believe the depth of frost this past winter is what has made for the parched soil profile more than anything. For the first time I can recall, we’ve had to irrigate up most of our crops.

We never take for granted the good fortune in having irrigation water – particularly when so many farmers elsewhere don’t this year. However, I’ve always favored the crops germinating on their own. Irrigating bare soil certainly adds work to the planting cycle, what’s more, however, is that it is hard to end up with an even stand. Some plants will be cruising along at 3-4 inches tall, while other rows are just coming out of the ground. It’s early enough so that the stands can even out as the growing season advances. But they never will be as uniform as if the seedbed was moist enough for everything to row at once. And, we’ll be challenged by this right thru harvest, potentially, with most of the stand cured, but some still lagging and still green. Time will tell.

Yes, we are all planted. We finished the majority of our planting the last week in May and all the stands are up and we’ve been using supplemental irrigation sparingly and actually have begun our second round of nutrients just in time for the long, sweet light of June to take hold. The endless 70-75 degree days with a good bit of sun have been perfect growing conditions for our grains. And so, the next phase is set and the next phase is ALL about growing…the Fun part!

Finally, after a couple years of struggles, we’ve installed a new and improved mobile injection set-up for our pivots. Now we can more easily apply various nutrient packages without driving on the fields and without having to be present. This is a huge time saver and a more accurate way of applying either soil goodies, or foliar sprays.

We just finished applying fish emulsion on our first emmer field on our new WDFW lease and it was swell to get a strong whiff of ocean smells while watching the young grain – a deep green – bob in the fresh mountain breeze with snow-capped peaks beyond!

We will treat all our grain crops with this fish, before giving them more water and just prior to booting (heads beginning to form) we’ll likely apply a kelp extract combined with some amino acids for another nutrient support to boost actual grain quality at fill-stage. Our first couple fields will likely boot the first to second week in July, depending on the weather.

After our final treatment, and more watering, there is little more that we can do for our crops. Then it truly is all up to Mother Nature and she will see things through to a good harvest, or not such a good harvest. With the staggered stands this year I suspect that harvest will be spread out a bit. However, sometimes certain conditions present themselves and all the growth seems to even out and harvest moves right along. We won’t know the full story until probably the autumn equinox.

Our winter peas are in full flower and I’ve decided to mow them off and try and extend their growth period this year, adding more bio-mass and green goodies to the soil.

We may try some later season green crops on a couple of our winter pea fields – sort of a double whammy of green manures. Maybe some buckwheat and/or maybe something else. It is an intense cycle and growing season here in the foothills, to be sure. The strangest of strange things is happening though as I write this; it is RAINING!!

We’re ever grateful for our steady flow of orders in the granary. It has been a good year thus far thanks to all of you. I hope everyone gets a chance to take in the long light of solstice, and enjoy the up-coming summer days. Congrats to all the Grads…from various schools. Good luck to you all.

Yours, Farmer Sam

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