March on the Farm!!

Hello Farmily!

What a spring!! It’s been wonderfully warm, seeds are starting, grass is growing and baby goats are bounding about the farm! It’s also still really wet. Liquid sunshine we like to call it. Here’s to hoping we avoid a drought this summer! (Speaking of summer, make sure you read to the end for a special offer!!!)

After a dark cold winter it’s nice to be enjoying some of the left over greens from the garden. It’s also exciting to see all the little specks and flecks in the seed packets come to life, lift their hands to the light and GROW!

 Basil, Nasturtium, Calendula and Pac Choi!

That’s not the only thing growing on the farm! Last Friday Marbles, the spotted doe threw (that’s farm talk for gave birth) to two strapping bucklings (boys). They are getting bottles 4 times a day, and are getting more coordinated every day.

They even came out to say hi to our new puppy Logan! With all that’s going on right now, it’s still pre-CSA season! We have a little late March special for those of you who haven’t signed up for our CSA yet! How does a free week of veggies sound to you? If you sign up by the end of March, we will give you a free week of veggies!! That’s 6 months of fresh, seasonal, classic garden treats for less than $22 a week, and you’ll get a week for free!! Everyone likes free. Just click the link, and fill out the order form. We’ll bill you later (yes we can take payments)

HERE IS THE SIGN-UP LINK!

(and one last shot of the cute brothers!)

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Adalyn Farm 2016 CSA sign-up’s are HERE!!!

All Farm CSA!

This is what we have been working towards for almost 5 years!  First, let us tell you what a CSA is.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  First coined in the 80’s, it was a farming business model that allowed local customers to have easier access to local, seasonal food, while taking a little bit of the risk from the farmer and sharing it with the customers (traditionally surplus is also shared with the customer).  The local food scene and eating in general has changed a lot since the 80’s and so have some CSA’s.  

We are striving to get back to the roots of a CSA, while leveraging modern technology to give today’s customers what they want.   All of the vegetables and meat you get will be from our farm, we DO NOT buy in any vegetables or meat from other farms.  We feel local food security is important, and local means local.  Even the flower and berry add-ons we offer are grown within 20 miles of our farm, not trucked in from California’s central valley or Mexico.  This does mean some things will not be available all season long.  You will have choices, not every week, but as much as we can.  Through our weekly CSA email update, when the harvest allows us the flexibility, you can select different options depending on your share size and what is in abundance or scarce.  If we have an abundance, you might get to choose between more lettuce or more carrots, or between a new veggie or some of the more traditional garden fare.  

You will have the choice to do on-farm pick-up of your share, or have it delivered to your home for an additional cost.  We highly recommend on-farm pick-up for several reasons: the chance to pick up surplus veggies beyond what is in the shares (depending on availability), to pick up eggs that are available on a first-come, first-served basis, to see what’s happening on the farm, to visit some friendly animals, and so you can get to know your farmers and where your food comes from.  

Week Seven

Week Five

Week Six

We are also partnering with two other local farms to provide berries and flowers as add-on options with your vegetables!!!

We are excited about partnering with Twig and Vine as they explore offering a flower CSA.  Deanna has been arranging for weddings and custom orders and is excited to have folks all over the area enjoying her flowers!  Her 10 week season will start in July (when the blooms are ready), and will run for 10 weeks.  Your arrangement will be in your box at pick-up, or delivered if you select CSA delivery as an add-on.

 

We know how much our family enjoys seasonal fruit, so we are very excited to offer an add-on for a berry share.  Hayton Farms is a fifth generation farm growing organic berries in the Skagit Valley.  Your berry share will include different varieties of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries as they come into season.  Each share will include 1/3 flat, that’s four pint baskets of local, organic fruit!!!  The season starts in mid-June and will run for 17 weeks.  They will be in your box at pick-up, or delivered to your door if you select for CSA delivery.

Lastly, Community Supported Agriculture is supporting the farmer and the community.  Giving back to our community through our farm is a key piece of our farm plan.  We will be working with several local churches to donate multiple shares to families in need in our community, and we want to partner with our customers in this.  If you would like to help us give additional shares, please indicate so on your order form.  You pick how much, even $25 will go a long way!  We will update our Farm-ily with the impact they make through this.  (Our goal this first year, with your help, is to donate 10% of the total food grown on the farm.)
  
 Here is the breakdown of what we are offering.  To hold your place you only need to pay the $200 deposit (which applies toward your total).  We will invoice you monthly for the balance (full payment due by April 31st).

 Farm CSA with choices! 25 weeks of a variety of fresh, organically-grown veggies and greens.

1. 1. Share Size
      1. Premium Share $795 (7 or more items, larger volume of each item, more choices, feeds 4-6 people each week.)
      2. Standard Share  $545 (5 or more items with some choices, feeds 2-4 people each week.)
2. Add-Ons
   1. Delivery to Stanwood, Camano Is. and Arlington!
      1. $135 for the entire season.
   2. Farm Bouquets!  Arrangements from the talented, local floral artist at Twig and Vine.  Included in your box starting in July and running for 10 weeks.
      1. $200 for a 10 week season.
   3. Berries!  A variety of local, organic berries from Hayton Farms.  1/3 flat (that’s 4 pint baskets) included in your box starting mid-June and running for 17 weeks.
      1. $204 for each 17 week share (Fruit lovers can get a second share for the reduced price of $195.)
   4. Adalyn Farm Organic, Pasture-raised Chickens!
      1. $30 each, must be picked-up on farm on specific dates. (This item is pending insurance underwriting, we’ll invoice once we have a green light.)
   5. Donation for a Family in Need
      1. You determine if you would like to give a monetary gift toward helping us provide fresh, healthy food to a family that is struggling to feed themselves.

 

Are you ready?  HERE IS THE SIGN-UP LINK!

Additionally, if you refer a friend to us, we will discount your CSA share by $20 for each family who signs up for either of our two share sizes.  This credit can only be applied to the main CSA share and cannot be applied to the Add-Ons.  To receive credit, your friends need to put your name in the field at the end of the sign-up form where we ask if anyone has referred them to us.  Just think, you could have a free share this summer!

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CSA Status…

We are past week 8 for our CSA.  We had some issues at the beginning (really before the beginning) that made us delay the start by two weeks.  We still got it all rolling in May (which was the goal, since most other truly local CSA’s don’t start till June) so that was a success.  Although the garden plan didn’t take into account the off farm job, and the impact that had on the seeding schedule, things are rolling along.  We still have 17 more weeks go to, and we are just now seeding some things for near the end of the CSA for this summer.  Until this week, we have been considering the shares “half shares”.  Week 6 is the first share that we would consider full sized.  Now for a little show and tell.

 

Week Eight

Week Seven

Week Six

Week Five

Week Four

Week Three

Week Two

Week One

We are finishing up the work on our pricing and options for the 2016 season.  Sign up forms will be on-line soon!  Options to include farm fresh meat are part of the mix…  Whole Diet CSA.  We are also talking about a fall CSA.  A little more laid back (bi-weekly pickup?), with a per week rate if a hard freeze ends the season before we expect it to.  It would be a bit of a test run, with one season of a CSA under our belt, and having enjoyed winter greens through the new year this last season, we are as ever, optimistic!  There is also the thought in the back of this farmer’s mind, that if it went well, as in, better than he optimistically hopes it might, the full time farming timetable might get move up a bit.  There are still some capitalization hurdles to get over, but hope is what drives us.

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Things not yet seen.

Oregano. We trimmed this several weeks ago for our CSA, and today I was thinking about how it’s grown back stronger and better since we trimmed it. Although at the time it looked rough.  We feel the same way right now, rough.

Hebrews 11:1 talks about faith in things not yet seen. While that perspective fits with farming on any given day, it is especially true for us right now. We are at the point on our transition to farming, that we need to step out in faith, towards our goal. Right now, that means opening the order forms to start accepting deposits and orders for 2016. It also means making the go/no go decision on a winter CSA/Farm Share. We think our community would like access to local fresh vegetables through the winter, but we can’t be sure. We are also not sure that enough folks would find out in time to put us at the threshold to go for it.  The winter CSA/Farm Share decision is also complected by my full time job. If we offered it, I would need almost all of the daylight hours to get the planting done in August and September, to be able to have the veggies grown for the winter. I have a very understanding boss, but I’m not going to ask him to pay me while I do a bunch of fall planting.

Having faith doesn’t mean making poor decisions though, and there are just a few more details to work out, before we open the store.

If you want to support us, please keep your eyes on our social media. We also will be doing some kind of capital campaign. We have some problems that we need to address before we go full scale.  We are a resourceful people, the Apollo 13 astronauts were able to fix their doomed craft with tape, socks, the cover to the flight plan, some parts from flight suits, a bungie cord and some lithium hydroxide canisters. We are no less resourceful, and although not a space ship, a covered wash station would be really nice.  We have also had folks who are not close enough to be customers ask how they could support us, and be part of the farm.  We want to serve our community, but in truth, the community we are part of stretches from Stanwood to Puyallup, to California, Mexico and New York.  So stay tuned!  If you have questions, please feel free to get in touch!  Farmers(at)adalynfarm.com

Runner Beans.

We were able to spend almost a full Saturday at The Open Gate Farm, with Grammy and Grandpa, before they headed off on their mission trip.  They were kind enough to introduce us to Scarlet Runner Beans, well, more like, our little helper wanted to help Grammy shell some dry beans, and it just went from there.  It helped that the little helper’s favorite color is Purple (Burple).  The beans were beautiful, to say the least.  We also dug a bunch of beets, and picked a couple hundred pounds of apples (sauce, cider, and chips).  I’m not sure what we are going to do with all the beets in our garden now that we have almost all the pickled beets we go through in a year put up.  I’m sure we’ll come up with something.

Note the purple ‘holey shoes’

Beans and pods.

Beans

Littlest hands holding the beans.

Some wonderful memories.

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It’s a brave new world….

For these girls it is anyhow.  They have spent several weeks in the stock tank in the house, then the big brooder in the deck, and now finally, out to one of the chicken tractors.  Mostly green egg layers, and true to form, we will be selling some of these, as well as some one and two year olds.  So if you are dreaming of having a hen, scratching away in your back yard, but don’t know if you want to deal with the ‘chick raising thing’ (possible mortality, the rooster question, and the smell/mess) we might just have your solution….  Just keep an eye on this space, for more details.

For now, let me introduce you to the girls, all wide eyed and full of wonder (and good forage).

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Up a tree…

This is from the farm of one of the friends who I got to help getting into beekeeping this year.  I’ve been meaning to share it for some time now, but finally here it is.  Our friend is great, she’s our on call goat expert, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without a smile on her face.  Her kids are great too, quick to help with our girls and always polite and friendly.  They have a great place, with lots of the same kinds of critters, I can’t remember the cat’s name, but it’s got to be good.  The dog’s name is Guess.

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Happy Pumpkin Day!

Yep, we do it.  We get the kids all dressed up and teach them to beg candy from strangers.  Yikes!  It really is just one small blip on the radar of our holidays.  From now till the 2012 kick off, it’s going to be a race.  Halloween is typically the cut off day for us.  With the exception of ‘turkey transition day’ the rest of the fall and winter chores are done.  We have quarts and quarts of apple sauce, salsa, beans, tomatoes, ketchup, jam, pears, relish, pickles and I can’t even think of the other foods…  Not to mention that the freezer is packed.  I don’t think I could squeeze a frozen cherry tomato in there.  Fire wood is up, garden is mostly put to bed (or winterized for cold season crops) and with the exception of freeze protected waterers the critters are mostly good to go.

And so we load up, in boots, and head to the local pumpkin patch.  Frolic in the sun, drink the cider, and get lost in the corn maze.  Picking pumpkins is almost an afterthought.

Hurry! The perfect Pumpkin might get away!!

I know you can see the exit from here, but you have to stay on the path!

It’s only kind of muddy…  Kind of…

There is some satisfaction found in launching tiny gourds downrange at ghost like targets…

Assistance from a spotter is optional, but highly recommended.

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AAaaaaaaaaaugust…

August.  Hot (finally), busy and filled with fun.  Aaaaa as in, fall is coming and there is still lots to do!  I always know it’s getting on toward fall when I carry a stick with me in the mornings.  It’s either that, or I walk around like a blind person, with one hand stretched out in front of me.  It’s the spiders.  It’s about this time of year, all the little ones have learned to build webs, and have our place festooned with them.  Face fulls of buggy spider webs are not a fun way to start the day..

We have produce coming in as well, loads of beans and peas, the potatoes look like they are ready to dig (really?) and the garlic is overdue.  Blackberries are getting heavy, and the second fruiting from the yellow raspberries are starting to look promising.   We have some cooking apples in the orchard that need some saucing, and I am trying to figure out when we will go pick up our hay.  And then there are the fall veggies to get in.  I have big plans (Broccoli, Pac Choi, Spinach, Basil, Carrots, Beets) and they include a hoop house.  Like I said, big plans (I don’t think I’ll really have the time for it, but I have a hope).

I have all the downed wood from last winter split (thanks to the brother in law) and stacked in the shed.  I still have about 2 cords to finish from this summer and we’ll be snug for the coldnwet.  The spent layers are going into the freezer this weekend, and turkeys are scheduled for November 12th (We have a waiting list if you are interested in one).

So there isn’t much time here, between work, finishing up some client work, and the farm, well, the blog tends to slip a bit…  So here’s something to cool you off (not that you need it if you live in the PNW, but others might find it refreshing, I hear it’s been hot in a few places…)  It’s the last week of swim lessons for big sister (aka ‘the fish’) and it’s going to be nice to not have to keep the littlest farmer out of the pool while big sis has fun…

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New Friends! (about 10,000 of them)

I won’t recount the entire conversation, but the basic gist was ‘there is a swarm in Stanwood, and dinner is a t 6pm, and I don’t think you have enough time for both’ versus ‘a swarm is a awesome opportunity! (although we won’t know till we’ve soaked about $60 in sugar into it, not to mention tying up equipment and the 6-12 hours of time to manage it till spring….) and it would be fun!’

So the wonderful farmer J said “fine, just don’t fall off the ladder” with the same intonations as she might tell our eldest that she could go play in the rain, but wold be doing her own laundry..  Awesome!

The swarm was about 14′ off the ground over a sidewalk, and I could ‘just’ reach the branch with the loppers.  I managed to get them down, and shaken into an empty hive body.  A few bees ended up back on the stub of a branch and after things had mellowed out, I clipped that off and tossed it in the hive as well.  top screen and entrance screen and home I went!

I put a hive top feeder on the colony with about half a gallon of sugar water, and will open the entrance later today, once they have decided to stick around…  I’ll update as things progress, although I’ve caught swarms before, I have seldom had much success in keeping them at home (anyone out there with any tips?).  I’ll do some reading tonight and hopefully improve my success…

That’s about four pounds of bees!
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