January, 2019

Hi out there! Ok, wow, there are still a lot of you blog readers out there.

It’s been more than three years since we posted with any kind of regularity, so I thought I’d write a little update on what’s happened around here in since 2015.

Our farm has gotten a little bit bigger every year, and in 2018 we grew close to 20 acres of vegetables. We still grow a very wide variety of crops, and our primary sales outlets are Seattle-area restaurants and our ~275 member CSA. We also have a small self-serve farmstand, which is one of my favorite things about our farm.

Probably the biggest change in our operation since 2015 is that we no longer attend farmers marekts. Markets were a huge part of our life and our farm’s identity for the first 10 years, but after our oldest kid started school, we realized that we needed to find a way to take weekends off. We slowly pared down the amount that Jason and I were personally attending the markets, and focused on building up our other sales channels. By the end of 2017, we found that we could step away from our last market (we still love you, Capitol Hill!) without a scary financial impact. It’s been a bittersweet transition – Capitol Hill was our home for 10 years before we started our farm, and our community there is very dear to us. Our kids (especially Felix) just love being at the market, and we really miss seeign all the familiar faces. The best part about it (besides taking the weekends off) is that our friend Rawley, of Early Bird Farm, now occupies our old booth spot at Capitol Hill market. Rawley worked for us for two years, and we “incubated” him here as he started a pastured laying hen operation. He’s now been farming on his own land for six years, and has a cute market baby of his own. Another former employee, Bonnie, is right next door to Rawley at the farmers market, selling the food she raises at Skinny Kitty Farm. We are still there in spirit!

Back at the farm, we have continued to add improvements to our equipment, storage facilities, and farm processes. We’ve increased the amount of storage produce we grow each year, and added a large (32’x16′) cooler to keep all our roots safe and cold over the winter. We have greatly expanded our radicchio production, and in November of 2018 we helped create Seattle’s first-ever Sagra di Radicchio, possibly my proudest moment as a farmer!

Today, I’m (supposed to be) working on our crop plan and seed order for 2019. It’s my 13th time sitting down to do this task. Planning out a whole year of farming (and life) always leads me down a few rabbit holes. This year, I’m thinking a lot about how to design the farm in a way that allows us to stay engaged with the bigger world throughout the seasons, rather than being consumed by the demands of July weeding, August irrigating, and October harvesting. Why farm? Well, why do any of us do anything? Presumably, we are all in pursuit of some kind of meaning and purpose, whether having the most fun possible in our time on earth, or attempting to reverse climate change and give our kids and grandkids a better future. So… what’s your answer?