Category: Farmer Notes

And here they were, two scrawny male hummingbirds at the feeder after all this time.  As if sheep hefted to the fell.  Weeks had gone by since I traded out our one sunflower bird feeder for our one hummingbird feeder.  It hung vacant for long enough that I actually restocked it with fresh juice then hung it with care in hopes that….  At last, they arrived and now as we enter the third week of May, the hummers are really here.  The late arrival of the hummingbirds in large sanctifies the slow, cool, damp spring we are experiencing here in the Methow.  If the tardiness of birds were not enough to figure in a late spring, what about the balsamroot in the upper foothills here? Or lack thereof.  Our balsamroot blossoms either froze altogether, or decided not to bloom at all this year.  Oh, there are clumps here and there but nothing like the yellow flooded hillsides that most years we see here in early May.  What’s more, the lupine – usually a later bloomer – have begun to flourish!  Mother Nature never ceases to amaze.  Mother Nature… my library.  I hope I live long enough to read all her books!

I thought it was wise to plant spring peas as early as I could in the fields this year and drilled them directly into winter’s residual moisture.  As it turns out, I sowed them deeper than I’d first planned, given the malleable soil, but this worked out to be advantageous because the little sprouts remained under ground when we had a series of 20 degree April mornings that rolled into May.  Peas are tough but yikes, 20 is pretty frosty for most any annual plant, and the cold days persisted.  Luck would have it that just as morning temps moderated, the peas began peeking out from beneath the stubble and after just a handful of sunnier days and temps in the 50’s, most of the rows began to fill and peas began to reach up – as impervious to the cold as the meadowlarks dawn song.

Speaking of birds, if a little mumma robin didn’t find the perfect nesting spot!  I noticed this when I went into the pole barn where the combine and various headers and other equipment are stored for the winter.  I’d gone in to start a generator when a mumma robin flushed out from the pick-up platform on the Gleaner.  There in the lee of the northwest wind, and deep enough into the bay to be out of the southward rain, a perfect nest was nestled onto the skate of the pick up reel.  Five perfect blue eggs rested within.  My, how fast Nature goes to work.  I feel like when spring hits, I’m already three weeks late and need to get in gear.  But robins… all of the wildlife in general I’d say, operate on a different level of urgency.  Remarkable.  Admirable.  Undisputable.  Just yesterday I noticed all the broken shells on the gravel nearby.  That fast.  In what seemed less than a weeks’ time!

So what does all this have to do with farming and custom processing and the world of Bluebird Grain Farms these days?  Nothing.  And everything.  I like to think that every day we operate a scant step away from Nature, if at all.  Which is why just weeks ago, when I could hear the northbound geese above the whirr of the mill, then the cranes, I took pause.  I suggested everyone take a pause in their activities to come look, scan the sky and try and trace out the wavering birds that own this ageless music.  Spring sky.  Breeze blown, chewed on clouds. Mountain snow squalls, valley showers.  What sky.  What sounds.  What a place!

Bluebirds, too.  Their iridescent blue against the sage and rapidly greening hills.  Moist hills,  deep smells.  And now Orioles have shown up in our elderberry and Izuali Bunting in the Apricot tree.  Lest we forget, this all follows a very rainy late fall which sets the stage with hope in the fields.  Planting season is slowly underway in these parts,  and even slower in the northern prairies east and north of here.  Food security is something that has come back into the limelight lately.  Why does it always take a crisis of some sort to remind us of what is important?

While I feel awful about the needless conflict in Ukraine, I also realize this is another chance to evaluate our food systems and food supply chains.  We’ve been very busy with orders here at the granary.  We’d love to be moved into our new facility but aren’t quite there yet.  That said, despite a back up here and there, we are doing pretty well servicing all your fine orders.  Once again, the heyday of the custom mill near and far is here.  We are grateful for the trusty and proven mill that we have but…

Our new facility is looking great!  It will enable us to increase our processing and filling capacity significantly.  Also, we will be refining the process and offering an even superior product than what we do now.  Oh, and we won’t be bumping into each other!  Target start up date is Summer Solstice.  Hoo-ray!

Deputy Don at KROOT radio and I have been working on the next round of podcasts #’s 5-7.  These build off of the 4-pack that we released last year.  #5 interviews both myself and our farming partner Blaine Schmaltz, who is a cornerstone farmer in the “Regenerative Agriculture” movement.  #6 concerns itself with our processing methods and capacities, and what it takes to preserve our grain’s integrity following harvest right up until it arrives on your table.  #7 finally gets into today’s food systems and how we might “Reset the Table”.  These podcasts will be released throughout the summer.  In the meantime take a listen to our podcasts 1-4, click here to listen.

Meanwhile, congratulations to all of this year’s graduates both in high school and college.  This is an exciting, and also dangerous time for young drivers full of springtime wishes and wondrous times ahead.  Remember to SLOW down.  For everyone’s benefit.  And, as always, hope for PEACE.

Yours, Farmer Sam

Spring has sprung. At least for the time being as I write this on April Fools morning. Most all the snow patches have disappeared while meadowlarks, robins, flycatchers, and BLUEBIRDS have arrived back to the valley here. Deer have moved back up to graze and owls still sound at dusk.  Resilient and wonderful bunchgrasses are begin to green up along the foothills as yellow bells, spring beauties and bluebells brighten everywhere in between. Freshets trickle down the buttes and the poignant smell of moist sage fills the windy air. Wind. Spring. Wind… the northwest wind that waits until spring to kick up often makes this time of year in the Methow seem colder than winter. No joke!

As a follow up to last notes, we did actually receive one more decent snowfall here which extended winter a couple more weeks and added to our moisture profile. That hope was fulfilled.  At this point I believe we have very good soil moisture given the late fall rains, and a decent snowpack here in the valley. Up in the Cascades more snow and what is estimated as average or above snowpack prevails. So… a promising farm season is upon us.

Spring cover crop peas just arrived and I plan to begin planting them this weekend. With the aggressive no-till seed drill we bought a few seasons ago, my aim is to sow the peas directly into last year’s grain straw.  This drill should get a good test when I pull it through last year’s massive rye stubble!  However, with the soil surface still pliant with winter’s moisture I’ve good hope I can plant the peas accurately enough to give them a solid jump. Peas are tough yet I’ve never planted them this early.  We’ve planted winter peas in September and had decent wintering-over results, but spring peas are a bit more delicate. I missed the fall planting, and therefore I’m anxious to get the spring peas in as early as possible, so that they may put on early growth and we can get a similar amount of nitrogen fixing and biomass from them as we might from winter peas.

Another reason for an early planting is that I can double up the cover cropping on these grain fields. If I take down the peas in late June/early July I can follow that crop with a warm season cover of buckwheat and thus, give the soil a double hit of goodies.  Our soils deserve this. They’ve been working hard for us and giving us some good crops of grain these past years.  Thank you!  Time to rejuvenate. Or dare I say, Regenerate!  

As to the follow up on my hope for Peace: Not so good.  Horrible, actually.  So sad in this day and age that certain cultures need to fall back into history and take the bad from it. Ukraine has some of the loveliest, richest soils in the world.  Oddly, even healthier before the fall of communism back in 1991.  Ukraine had large community run “state” farms wherein an entire village lived around these farms – sometimes 15,000 acres – and all tended the soils.  The community planted long crop rotations of ten years or more, and over time built the biology in these organic soils to higher and higher levels every year.  These farmers were truly farming “Regeneratively” before it was even the buzz.  In twisted irony, once the communist “curtain” fell, so did the market for these farms as these government farms were no longer such.  And with little if any preparation for a “free market” and what it looked like, many of these vast farms fell dormant.  

What is worse, as a consequence when many of these acres were idled as families left for the urban interface and to find new jobs, not so surprisingly in swooped large Agricultural enterprises from North America and  Europe. These companies begin treating these fine soils far, far differently and more to their own benefit. Now, with the battle and apparent want of some Russian individuals to reinstate communism full bore,  things are far worse.

Food security is an age-old security. One that most often is fought for. Still. Sad as it is, in this way war gets people thinking about their food security as prices rise etc etc. Yes, this thought of questioning food security has affected us even at tiny Bluebird Grains where we’ve been very busy filling direct orders to those who want to make sure they have a solid supply of good grains and flour.  For this, we are grateful and happy and always glad to help. However, this comes at the expense of so much suffering in Ukraine, and so this is not the way we ideally gain in the marketplace.  This also is why we will not increase our pricing beyond previously scheduled increases during this time. We operated the same way during the pandemic.  In this fashion, we are not affected by the greater commodities markets beyond it simply costing us a bit more to operate. In the big picture, taking advantage of a dire situation always pays short dividends.

We feel grateful to be able to operate on our own model and we wouldn’t be able to do so without you great customers. Thank you.

At present, our inventory is solid enough to protect our existing customers, with minimal growth allowances. Farming and customer relations are all about consistency.  We are grateful for our farming relationships and, of course, our customer relations.  And as we continue to crank away in what will soon be our “old facility, ”  we look forward to building new relationships as we transition to our new digs.  Stay tuned.  

And… hope for PEACE.

Yours, Farmer Sam

Truth to tell, sitting by the woodstove while listening to the Labradors snore this morning feels mighty good. Siskins, chickadees and finches visit the feeder, silhouetted by a gray and foreboding sky beyond.  Most of February gave us ample sun and warmer temperatures that sped us toward spring, while easing up the cold lock January held on the land. I won’t lie; we all enjoyed the sun and thaw – even if seemingly premature. Just as fast, however, the chill has returned in a bitter East wind. Tonight the mercury will drop again to below zero and the remaining snow will be solidified into a brand new crust. Dang!

Although we’ve had no snowfall at all here in the Valley for over six weeks now, I am remembering all the wonderful fall rain we received last year. These important rains opened the ground and set the stage for the absorption of this years’ snow.  What is more, as the snow melted I could tell most of it was sinking straight into the ground.  Yes, we had some mud but we also had layers of solid ice that rapidly disappeared out of sight.  This all leads me to believe our soil profile, despite a dry second half to the winter, will still be favorable come true spring.  You can tell by now I’ve already been thinking about our fields and, well, planting!

Even after all these years of farming – 30+ now – come February and without fail, my mind begins to wander toward spring.  As you know, I am a man of the colder months but still, the longer light, the gathering sun, the baring slopes… That fast, it will be here.  What most excites me about this up-coming farm season is the opportunity to truly turn our systems over to minimal tillage and ultimately, proven regenerative practices.  If you’ve read my farmer notes long enough, some of you know this has been an on-going goal of mine these past years.

All of the acreage that I farm here in the Methow will be planted to spring cover crops in 2022. In doing so, I can intentionally reset our crop rotation. I have most of the equipment to do this and am  lacking just a roller crimper.  This type of machine enables one to kill a cover crop without the usual tillage of a heavy disk, or plow. A crimper leaves all the green crop packed onto the surface of the soil, and I will then plant directly into this mass of green with our no-till seed drill. Some of the acreage will be doubled cover cropped; some I will plant fall grains for harvest. Soil test results will help determine what, if and where.

Whoa… I’m getting a ways ahead of myself!  Outside that biting East wind blows and the fire needs another log! We will explore the concepts of Regenerative Agriculture, the importance thereof and the reasons we have chosen growing partners who use this practice, next time. For now, we are still trying to get through one more winter up here on the hill in our stout, wooden granary with no heat.  The road ways are back to dirt, and freight trucks can get to the driveway now, but Dan and Steve are still going through the hand warmers as they continue to clean and mill our grains to order after officially kicking me out of the granary. The rugged working conditions are not lost on me, however, having been in there a time or two over the years!  But they really have been doing a great job and are as excited about our new facility as anyone.

Which is coming along nicely despite the winter trials. Both the processing room, and the packaging and office mezzanine have all been drywalled, taped and painted. Next, a continuation of the electrical work and in May we are still hopeful that all the milling equipment will be installed. Operations to begin around Summer Solstice? Fingers crossed! We will definitely keep you updated, and write more about this.

Meanwhile,  inventory of all our grains is holding up and each week we are still processing to package all the goodies you continue to order. Owls and coyotes own the night; the whirr of the milling line owns the day. As always, we are grateful to you.  I hope that this finds you remaining healthy as we navigate the vagaries of another winter. More snow? Let’s hope.

More peace?  Let’s all do our part.

Yours, Farmer Sam

As promised, you are reading me again (last notes) at the beginning of a New Year. A Healthy New Year I hope for all.  Good health can lead to happiness. One big goal of organic farming and organic food processing is to make sure nutritious food can see its way to your plate. Truth to tell, good food is a major player in health and a healthy population. Why so few of the nation’s farm subsidies are not spent on nutritious crop production mystifies me. Some of you readers may be thinking now this is a major digression from birds! Well, their role in health, and as an indicator of health can never be diminished.

Ahh… winter birds: Chickadees, juncos, finches, nuthatches, waxwings, ravens, owls… we’ve been blessed with them all this wintry month of January. And a wintry month it has been. On the coattails of a cold, snowy second half of December, January arrived and brought two more snow storms and more cold. Our old John Deere (me in it) was busy with the blower and plow keeping our granary cleared out, while all outbound freight was stalled for a variety of reasons, few of them ours.  In time, we finally got caught up on processing but just now are we getting caught up with out-bound freight. Most of you are aware that all freight deliveries have become delayed. After all this time, this is finally beginning to affect us at Bluebird, too, even if in a marginal way compared to many businesses. Thanks for your patience!

Both the  USPS, and UPS have been awesome, and have done their best to see packages are delivered but here again, they can only control what they can control. Over all, and beginning with the Pandemic, our supply chains as a nation have become seriously tested. I’m not simply referring to toilet paper, either. Our food supply/distribution which, last time I checked, was a fairly important supply, did not escape this weakness.  This might  give pause to many whom think about our nation’s health and security.  Who do we all rely on for food?  Farmers, yes, but also their markets. What’s more, what type of marketplace are they growing for, and who controls it. How connected are the farmers to their marketplace? This connection, or lack of,  can either lead to control, or dismissal of control.

All is not lost, thanks to farm-direct marketing and production. Small Agricultural businesses such as Bluebird have filled in some of the supply chain gaps during these past couple of years. As supply became more questionable to the masses, many folks who hadn’t before thought of going straight to the source began to. It has been a humbling, inspiring, sanctifying process to be part of this. I feel this movement and concern was overdue and will be a valuable circumstance/lesson to build on. The marketplace is not going to shrink and that is good! However, perhaps small farms and those that specialize particularly in quality, nutritious food and good food practices can reclaim a more solid and stable market for their soulful goods.

And so, we continue to crank away up here on the hill 5 days a week snow, rain, cold or shine to fill up the orders so many of you place. We couldn’t be more grateful. I am not only grateful to you who  keep us all employed, but I am grateful to our small crew here who work hard everyday to see the goods to your plate. We are blessed, indeed.

It all begins in the soil and as I write, our soils remain under 3 feet of solid snowpack, and under that snow pack a well-recharged moisture profile in our soils awaits, thanks to all the November rain prior to real winter. Mother Nature, as I’ve written many times before, somehow always evens things out. Amen!

While farm season remains a ways off, I’m already looking forward to having a great soil profile to work with this year which, for our fields here at Bluebird, is going to be a big cover cropping spring.  I’ll write more about that next month. The importance of cover crops and what kinds we use and when.

For the meantime, we are into a lot of high pressure here at the tail of January. Which can mean sunshine, or it can mean fog, it seldom means precipitation but most always means sustained chill.  Great cooking weather. Even greater eating weather! So, keep piling in the nutritious foods you get from us and elsewhere, and let’s do our best to stay healthy this coming year and for many years beyond.

Yours, Farmer Sam

As the afternoons grow ever short, finches and chickadees hurry to fill up on the sunflowers we’ve left for winter. Truth to tell, an edging of snow now crowns the sunflower’s circular face,  almost as round as that of Raggedy Anne. We’ve traded the sodden month of November – emphasis on sodden – for the colder and clearer days of early December. Last night when I stepped out with the dogs the stars couldn’t have been clearer. I believe Saturn, Venus and Jupitar were all in a line running northeast to southwest. Following silence.

What a wonderful November it was! Oh my, the month that goes so unloved by many delivered a bounty of moisture to our parched, hardened landscape. This moisture cycle began in late October, and lasted the entire month of November. It raised hell along the northwest coast but here in the Methow, it simply soaked our soils to completion. Now, with the winter seasons’ first snow to stick, the stage is set for what I anticipate to be a major spring re-charge to our little basin here. November is good to her word like no other month when it comes to being a big precipitator. At times the muck and rough working conditions began to make one feel edgy, but what glory compared to the dust and smoke of summertime.

This heavy moisture made it impossible to perform any of the late fall field work as I’d once hoped, but this was an even trade to be sure. The tillage and fall cover crop rotation is now shifted to the spring and spring cover crops. I was tempted a couple times to start on some of the fall work, but it remained  just too wet and would have been counterproductive. Such is the cycle of Nature and one never wants to try and push these cycles too hard.  

November also was a busy month processing orders here at the granary. This is often the case with the “eating season” coming on strong. We’ve been keeping the cleaning line cleaning and the mill grinding away and our freight carriers from falling asleep with lots of deliveries.  There are many moving parts as we head toward the Christmas season full bore.  So much happens in a year’s cycle, no? Yet I’m stunned that another year is coming to a close.  That said, I love winter – a very close second to autumn in this farmer’s estimation. I feel good about the fields going under for a while,  knowing they are at rest with ample moisture. I feel good abut the sanctity of winters’ blanket.

Up until just now, we’ve been able to ship out right from the granary yard here. Always a bonus if we get into December and trucks can still get out of here. However, that just changed and we will have to be shuttling pallets up the driveway for pick up, and snow removal will start in earnest soon.  However, this will be the last winter on the hill here for Bluebird as our new facility is all framed in and dry for lots of winter work on the interior. It is looking like an awesome space, with substantial room for growth.  We are excited about growing in a multitude of ways and certainly look forward to an easier place for public interface, and absolutely greater ease for freight! I keep telling the drivers, only one more winter…

We have a couple new employees on board this month here at the granary and we are hoping they will work into our systems, and then be making the transition to Bluebird II come next summer.  One of the things Brooke and I look forward to once moved, is addressing the over-used but important word “Sustainable.”  What exactly is a sustainable farm system/food system?  How does the organic label play a role in these declarations?  Does it play a role?  Could it play a bigger and more exact role?  How does it shape food?  Health?  And so on.

Most of you know that we began Bluebird Grain Farms because we care about the countryside and care about good food.  Now, 17 years later, we care even more.  We’ve seen how important our offerings are in this tiny place in the West, and how we can influence and educate far beyond our “hood.”  This is intriguing and makes us feel swell indeed for having come this far.  In the coming year, we’re hoping our evolution continues on a  multi-tiered front, and that we can make our engagement with sustainability and good food long lasting. We look forward to that engagement.  We look forward to engaging more folks and are most grateful for all your steadfast support thus far.  I want to believe that no matter what plays out, the consumer drives the bus in the end.

Please stay safe at the end of the year here, and beyond.  Please take care of your neighbors and try your best to keep them healthy as well. Seas are pretty rough at present, but in that roughness there are lessons to be learned.  As always, during the season of giving please give a hand to those so much less fortunate than many of us.

And… you’ll hear from me next year!

Yours, Farmer Sam

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