We've had an amazing late Spring, that is up 'til now.  Not that the future is interminably bleaky, it just looks that way on the NOAA weather website.  We've all been out in the garden taking full advantage of the weather up until now and have gotten most of the garden under control in terms of weeds, seeding, transplanting, and of course, making it bigger and better than last year.  Jason put it a big new garden patch and filled it up (almost) with potatoes, with a long row of hot peppers on the side.
Michael has been getting in touch with our farming friends east of the Cascades and it's been confirmed; Summer will happen, fruit will ripen, we will bring it west to fill our fruit stand for the 13th year with amazing Washington sunshine packed inside drippy, sweet berries, stone fruit, melons, pears and apples.
I've just finished moving this website from SFC, where it was born and lived for the last 1+ year, to Weebly where, as far as I can tell, it will live forever more.  It looks different, isn't as sophisticated as before; you can't send in order forms, per se, for your poultry or meat or csa membership or winter subscription, but you can still get those things ordered from the site via our contact form.
Iris continues her gardening education, becoming an ever more adept weeder, plus planting seed and helping to transplant "little baby plants" in her spare time.  She also knows how to manage the operating end of her shovel and rake to help sift soil and scoop up weeding piles for the compost.
Jen's busy season is on with her day job teaching the masses about the importance of environmental awareness for the health of our bodies and our planet, and how to make better decisions about the products we choose to buy for cleaning our homes, taking care of our bodies and managing our yards and gardens for weeds and pests.
Whew!  What a busy household!
Today we're stewing chicken and kidney beans on the woodstove for dinner and staying inside.  Thank You Gaia for the showers!

Jeannine

Posted 10/16/2012 12:39pm by Jeannine Anderson

I don't always have the time or energy to make regular postings during the fruit season; here's one I thought shouldn't be missed.  Like Fire and Fruit, it speaks to the hard work of growing food:

Sleeping in our van in the parking lot at Rest A While Fruitstand.  This farm was owned by Bill and Lois Woods when we first started buying the fruit from here.  Their son Tim and his wife Connie also worked here; Tim in the summer months when he was off from teaching school in Brewster, and Connie in the fruitstand bakery creating recipes for all of the fabulous fruit coming in from the trees.  The Woods’ had to relocate here after their original farm was flooded by the Columbia River when the Azwell Wells Dam went in.  There used to be a photo in the stand of Bill and his Grandfather on that farm; Grandpa was driving the tractor, pulling toddler Bill along in his wagon.

Tim inspired his father to change the farm over the years, working with integrated pest management, then replacing old standard packing house fruit varieties with a more diverse, delicious selection of seasonal fruit from apricots, to cherries, to early peaches, mid-season peaches, late peaches, nectarines, heirloom and gourmet apple varieties.  Now the farm belongs to Amy Wu and this year she got her organic certification.  Thanks to the Woods' and Amy Wu for keeping this farm alive and producing amazing summer fruit!

How much work goes into the fruit on our tables? How much struggle, love, devotion, perseverance?  How often do these questions come to you as you enjoy the bright, fresh flavor of summer sunshine as it fills your palate and drips down your elbow?

Sleeping here at the farm, listening to the wind toss the tree branches, knowing that there is fruit hanging on those branches, being tossed as well, it’s easy to get a sense of what it takes.  How much?  Only the farmers really know how many hours they spend listening to the weather as it rangles their crops around with wind, rain, hail, drought.  They are the ones clocking the hours for pruning, tending, chasing birds; driving fans around the orchards to blow rain of the cherries; watching crops rot on trees from lack of pickers or lack of a price worth paying for the crop to be picked; counting and reporting the number of trees destroyed by unseasonable weather; waiting for the packing houses to pay for the fruit they send them.  Only they know the frustration that comes with raising the best crops they can just to have those packers demand a lower price for their efforts.  What Michael and I do gives us a small glimpse into their realities, and we in turn share our stories with our customers, because we want them to have a small glimpse as well.  We hope it expands their appreciation of the food they get through us, from those farmers who are willing to share the products of their efforts with us.

Think about the food you eat, while you eat it.  Consider the number of hands, hours, resources that goes into producing it.  Do you know where it comes from, how it was grown and by whom?  Do you know that the farmer that grows your favorite old timey apples comes from a family of farmers that stretches back 6, 8, 10 generations?  Do you know how rare that is, and how crazy (I mean truly insane) it is that such a thing is a rarity?

I find myself thinking about the Bullet Tree boys in Belize and their wisdom: “Jah provides, but life is work and work is life.  Ya mon. Inspiration, more time. Yaaaa!”

 Posted 7/5/2012 11:54am by Jeannine Anderson - Site Administrator.

This morning started off at Rest Awhile Fruit Stand in Pateros, where we picked up the first peach of the season; Queen Crest.  She's early and kind of small but the smell in the van is almost intoxicating.  Amy Wu bought this farm from Bill and Lois Woods about five years ago and began working to change it from a conventional IPM farm to a certified organic farm.  This is Rest Awhile's first year as a certified organic farm.  Congratulations Amy!

Now we're waiting for the rainier's to be packed at Bartella Farm in Omak.  We've been buying organic and conventional fruit from John and Cindy Bartella for eleven years, since we first started Madrona Grove.  During the course of those years they phased out conventional farming practices across the board and now the farm is fully certified organic.  This will be their last year farming here though, because they have sold the farm to a young man named Autumn, who plans to continue growing most of the fruit varieties that John has perfected here up on the Omak flats.  We are really going to miss John and Cindy but are relieved to know that we'll still be able to get the high quality organic fruit we've come to expect from this farm.  We've also heard little rumours that John won't be able to completely give up farming, and his new spot down by the Okanogan River sounds like it's good for growing food, as well as fishing for steelhead.

So stay tuned, and be sure to come on out to the fruit stand on Tuesday or Friday from 12:00 to 7:00 pm for a taste of summer sunshine from Eastern Washington.

Posted 6/17/2012 11:17pm by jen.

My plan to blog here weekly hit a little snafu called, May.  May is a thriving, jiving, busy, busy time for farmers and their crew.  My off-farm work gets filled up with spring events, the garden begins to burst in colors of green on green and the need to get all of the warm crops planted is immediate.  Beans are planted on their incredible trellis, peas tangle up the vines in their incredible spiraling lushness and the tomatoes have been planted in their houses of green.  Peppers, cukes, and even melons bring us to June. 

 It’s inspiring to see how much gets done when people can put most of their focus to it – this is not me personally, mind you, but the Mandersons, Jason and Iris have a roving crew of dedicated garden helpers, of which I am thankfully and whole heartedly a part.  I am thrilled to get to do some weeding, wheelbarrowing, watering, and more weeding while the masterminds rotate each plant family, time the seeds just so, and stay two steps ahead of the calendar.  I walk the garden each evening in utter amazement- how can it be strikingly more beautiful than last year, and that more brilliant than the one in its wake?  I know it’s the bias of the present moment but it doesn’t feel like a stretch to call it a miracle.  A miracle that feeds us salad every night of the week.  Last week granted us spinach and cabbage to form the basis of several seasonal specialties  This week the mesclun mix reaches harvestable height and arugula that seeded itself throughout the greens turns beans into verdant hummus, spicy and rich. 

 June has been wet but long hours of light keep the plants healthy.  I wouldn’t want to try and grow the nightshades (tomatoes, peppers) without season extending hoop houses.  They need protection from Junuary’s wind and rain, and may very well need it again on chilly days in September and October. Although, we do have several hearty cherry tomatoes planted in the field that are flowering and bushing out.  I am not bragging (maybe a tiny) but can you believe we are still eating last year’s tomatoes?!  We froze enough sauce to last our pasta, pizza-loving souls for a seeming eternity!  Or at least until late-August when we begin again.

 An entire day awaits me tomorrow without leaving the farm plans.  Amazing how rare that can seem - I want to get my hands dirty and feel it in my arms (just a little bit!) tomorrow night.  Now that Iris is nearly three, mama gets to get her garden on and I am loving it.  The song of birds, the wind in the trees, the plants joyous all around, hey, I already called it a miracle, how much more profound can it get?!

 Thank you to everyone sending in deposits!  We don’t even realize we are holding our breath until the confirmations begin to roll in – well, Jason realizes it more acutely – he gets kind of lightheaded!  The groundedness and gratitude in receiving allows us to trust and BREATHE as we get to keep on doing what we love – growing the best food we can for YOU!  AND US!

The fruit stand opens SOON!  It must be summer…

Posted 5/17/2012 1:44am by jen.

Here I am, publically marking the timing of the first tinges of overwhelm as they sneakily creep in.  Always hoping to postpone it but being caught up in its tendrils in random moments.  A quiet shower to realize how far behind on marketing we are, as May’s operations quickly surpass winter’s planning. 

This winter was filled with planning as we created a farm business plan for our farm.  This labor of love has been so much work and clocking in at 20 pages is an impressive road map for the farm and life we are creating.  I will share more of the specifics in the introduciton pages soon as I figure out how to paste it in there!

 I love May –Love it!  Coat-less and peeking over the edge of summer’s green hill.  It is always a wild ride around here!  Careening down that hill while Cramming in as much fun as possible.  The real challenge is making everything fun – digging in the new garden beds, planting tiny seeds of hope and faith, grateful to May’s sun for creating watering chores, barbecuing last summer’s bounty, eating the last of 2011’s preserves, beach combing, hot afternoons in the cool forest, sand box castles, bicycle/tricycle rides and honestly, the list of play and chores goes on and on.  This is May. Turkeys in the brooder, pigs and lambs ripening in the field and on the verge of hundreds of peeping chicks.  Fresh and fanciful salads lighten us all up as surely as the promise of summer lends its energy.  The sunshine is the anecdote to overwhelm.

 Welcome to another glorious farming season!

Posted 5/2/2012 11:46pm by Jen.

Spring may be the finest farm season - fluffy baby chicks, leaping lambs, pettable piglets...Everyone (including the farmers) so fresh and perky still.  I heard a farmer recently describe the approach of the summer season as trying to outrun the weight of the farm - soon it will be sitting on top of you.  In the spring, everything feels manageable, you are still in front of it, nothing on top of you although the list of chores grows as surely as the peas poke through amended soil, tomatoes find larger pots, and everyday brings new wonders.

The intention of the blog is to keep you connected with the farm - if you have questions, ask 'em.  Something you've always wondered, let us know!

Posted 1/16/2012 4:02pm by Jeannine Anderson.

My partner, Michael Manos, and I operate a seasonal open air fruit stand (Madrona Grove - Summer Fruit Stand) that highlights Washington grown fruits and veggies.  We direct source all of our fruit from small, family farms in Eastern Washington; relationships we have been nurturing for over 9 years now.

For the past three years we’ve also run a Winter produce subscription program and a Summer CSA program.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  CSA’s have been around for several decades and they operate on a shared-risk principle.  When members of the community join a CSA, they become a vital link to the success of the farmers who operate the CSA.  Members pay in advance for a share of the crop production of the farm, sometimes including a subscription fee which is non-refundable, and which the farmer uses to help capitalize the farming of the crops to be sold through the CSA.  This arrangement also makes it easier for the farmer to plant the correct volume of crops to meet the demands of the CSA members.  By making direct contact with the farmer growing their food, the community becomes more invested in the farmer’s success and the farmer becomes more invested in the community, and the economy generated from this relationship stays in the community.  In this way everyone is working together to be a sustainable, healthy, well-fed community.

We work with Thurston and Mason County farmers for any of the berries and veggies we don't grow ourselves, and Eastern Washington farmers for summer fruits.  We live, garden and operate our produce stand at Building Earth Farm, owned and operated by Jason Hurst, Jennifer Johnson and Iris Johnson-Hurst, which provides organically raised poultry, eggs and lamb to customers throughout Thurston County. This makes our CSA a little different from most in that we are not relying only on what we can produce, but utilize a network of farms to provide a diverse, well-balanced selection for our customers.

Michael and I have been building our business for 11 years.  Fresh produce is not a high profit business on the scale in which we operate, but it is profitable enough to keep doing it.  In seeking to increase our profits we’ve changed our approach to volume and pricing, as well as our location, to lower overhead and reduce waste.  Lowering overhead primarily means lowering rents paid out for commercial space, which is why we first went rebel after 3 years and moved from a 20’x30’ tent to the back of our longbed Toyota pickup.

We were allowed to operate in the Grange parking lot for 2 years, paying only the cost of summer electricity use.  That was a blessing, but it meant moving away from where our refrigeration unit sits and that meant more back and forth with produce.  We own and need the refrigeration unit, so we continue to pay rent for it to sit where it is.  Plus we had to flex to the schedule of events for which the Grange could be rented throughout the summer, often times without advance notice.  This would always result in reduced sales because the parking lot looked full and this discouraged people from stopping to shop.

At the end of our second season at the Grange, they decided they wanted rent from us and we decided that if we were going to pay rent, we needed space we didn't have to share.  We decided to talk to Fred Finn at Steamboat Square and take him up on his invitation to the Fruit Truck to move over there.  We ended up moving there and paying rent, but we had our own space that we didn’t have to share, which included a trailer with a small bathroom w/sink and toilet.   We were there for three summers.

That brings us to 2010.  We terminated our lease at Steamboat Square after a tough 2009 season.  The economy affected everyone, even what they spend on food, and many were willing to pay less money for lower quality food.  It’s a tough choice to have to make, and I’ve done so myself and don’t fault them.  Still, it made our year-end cash flow really tight.  Fortunately, we have a fairly consistent customer base that still doesn’t want us to stop doing what we’re doing, so we launched a winter program where we packed up a $30 or $50 box of groceries once or twice a month.  Our customers came to our truck to pickup their boxes on Sunday mornings, and they pre-paid 3 months in advance.  The program continues to go and we've also begun offering it during the summer in addition to our roadside sales.

Our roadside sales moved again for 2010, and hopefully it’s once and for all, to Building Earth Farm.  The farm fronts Steamboat Island Road, the only road on and off the peninsula.   We’re all collaborating on the market garden, which has tripled it’s size in three years, as well as the CSA and farm meat production.

Between Michael and I, and Jen and Jason, we already have the farming and gardening knowledge to expand Building Earth Farm food production in a way that will provide an abundance for all of us, plus surplus to sell for putting back into the farm, and have on a small scale done that for the last two years together. Last year we raised veggies, pigs and chickens and all of us have plenty of meat in the freezer and canned goods in the pantry to show for it, plus a little cash at the end of the year.

Our biggest challenge is funding the infrastructure projects at the farm, like fencing, water lines, electric lines, drainage systems, not to mention a better barn and keeping the mortgage on the farm paid.  We don’t want to do farming like it’s mostly done, which is always in the red.  We look at our relationship to the farm and the community as that of stewards, responsible for maintaining a healthy, sustainable farm that serves the needs of the community, and we look to the farm and the community to reciprocate for our investments of money, time and labor.  There’s a bumper sticker that’s been showing up a lot lately, “No Farms, No Food”, and though it seems a simple idea, it’s one most vital to humanity.  If farms can’t make a living for farmers, farms aren’t going to last, at least not small, responsible, family farms which account for a huge percentage of the food we all eat, and for wildlife habitat preservation on a scale most people don’t realize.

I have a friend, Mark, who works for USAID.  He’s an agriculture expert and he gets sent into the most devastated areas of the world after major drought, war, hurricanes and other calamities.  His mission is about getting farming going again, so people can feed themselves, so the aid they receive can pay for other urgent needs the people can’t supply for themselves (like medicine, clean water, electricity), and so that agriculture can become an income stream to help bring them out of poverty.  Give a person a meal and he eats for a day, teach a person to farm, and they feed themselves and others for a lifetime.  If we let farming go in this country, it will be a calamity like those Mark faces in the “third world”.  It feels good to feed myself and help to feed a community.  It feels good when that community tells me how much they appreciate what I do and how good it makes them feel.  It’s so warm and fuzzy!  It makes me feel secure when that community steps up and says “Here, we’ll help ensure you can keep feeding us; we’ll share some upfront cost and some of the risk; it’s worth it to eat well while helping sustain a farm, a farmer and their family.”

We drive a lot to get to the small family farms we work with to get summer fruits for our community.  It’s a trade off of time, energy, bigger ecological footprint, etc. to be able to eat fresh, Washington grown summer fruit; we’re still willing to make that trade.  As we drive through the landscape of farm country in Eastern Washington we see farm after farm that is fallow or under development into housing.  We drive through miles and miles and hours and hours of jammed up traffic, burnt out and impatient drivers and worn out highways farther out from cities as more people leave small agricultural communities to get work enough to pay ever rising housing, insurance and healthcare costs, not to mention trying to buy some quality of life with what is left over.  It’s no wonder that so many people on the highway are uptight, rude and reckless; willing to endanger themselves and everyone around them just to get a car up on the car in front of them.

On one trip during the 2010 season, we left in the evening to drive up into the mountains to sleep in our van overnight.  It’s a great way to miss some early morning traffic, plus get to sleep with the smell of fresh air and pine trees filling our lungs and dreams.  It usually means we can get back before the late afternoon traffic, which can save 2-3 hours time on the road and immeasurable frustration and annoyance.  Usually.  A trip that should have taken 6 hours instead took 12.  There was road work, a bad car accident four cars in front of us, a bridge repair, rock blasting, more road work and finally Friday afternoon commute traffic on a pristine summer day (an all to infrequent reality here in the Great North Wet; the summer part that is, not all the other stuff which is all too frequent).  We got rewarded by the first peach of the summer; a super sweet and peachy juice ball called Queen Crest.  Our customers and us all agree, it was worth the trip to eat that little gem.

Truth be told though, that peach “should” cost about $10.00/pound if you’re going to calculate the real cost of growing it and moving it from East to West.  Food and fuel are some of the first things that people cut back spending on in hard times, even though they are heavily subsidized  which means that though prices rise a bit, they never actually reflect the true cost of production.  Imported hard goods, housing, insurance, healthcare, education; these things are what people spend that money they’re saving on food and fuel on and the price for these things rise hundreds, sometimes thousands of times.  We see so many people in need these days because they can no longer keep up with the rising costs of everything, and they have less and less food and fuel to keep themselves going forward to work and earn the money needed to pay the rising prices on everything else.  It’s a tragic circle that benefits the providers of hard goods, housing, insurance, healthcare and education while impoverishing the consumers of those things.

Eventually, it would seem, there will no longer be anyone who can afford to consume anything.  Eduardo Galleano, a Peruvian writer, has a book entitled “Upside Down World” and I frequently reflect on how upside down the entire world is in its systems and policies relating to money, power and the well being of individuals and communities.  You’d think all of the blood rushing to all of our heads would make us wake up and realize how upside down our way of life has become.  We try to buy the cheapest thing we can to put into our bellies in order to save money, to pay money to big corporations whose executives earn big salaries and bonuses, to “insure” ourselves against the financial burden of getting sick (maybe from malnutrition, disease or food poisoning from industrial fast food).  We get less rest and relaxation in order to commute to jobs that pay barely enough to cover the cost of living, wearing ourselves out physically, emotionally and mentally so that we have less and less energy and time to put into ourselves, our families, homes and communities.  We are using ourselves and our planet up at an alarming rate; heading nowhere fast with no sign of slowing down or recognizing that we are upside down and hurtling toward disaster.

In the final analysis, I’d rather pay $10.00 a pound for an outstanding peach than waste it on low quality, non-nutritious (actually toxic) cheap food just to be able to send what I saved to some fat cat for the pretense of providing something of value to me.  I’d rather stand on my feet, take responsibility for my well-being and support all the extended people and systems which directly support me in doing so.  I can do that; I have two feet that hold up a whole, thinking, feeling, caring human being; I can do that.  I also have the knowledge that I have an entire community backing me up which makes it all the sweeter and more satisfying.  Supporting sustainable family farms and businesses is a win, win, win proposition; that’s sound investing in the collective, healthy future of our bodies, communities and planet.

copyright 2010: Jeannine Anderson – is a cook, market gardener, fruit monger and writer living on a farm in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.