Spring Weekly Farm Updates (transfered from CSA Newsletter)

May 11-12
Hello All,
Sure you all enjoyed these last few great Spring weather days. More to come next week, they say. We're in full swing with Spring work now and really busy with long days. Had a nice visit from the Redmond Family ( A current CSA Member.), last Saturday. Their timing was really good. Descent weather but not without a few freaky cloud burst with rain hail and snow all at the same time. . We just had a new batch of baby pigs born. The kids were amazed when they had a real baby pig held up to them to touch and actually seemed a little frightened by it. We had a new baby calf born early that morning and when I took them into the pasture to see it we were surprised to find another new born had just joined us as well so two in one morning. Took the little kids into the warm hoop house and the kids quickly discovered the strawberries that were just beginning to ripen. They didn't seem too interested in the other veggies like most kids. The warmer days are bringing up new growth of greens we planted last October for the Winter CSA but too late to avoid the deep freeze of the blizzard last Thanksgiving. Rhubarb popping up. Sorry that many of you are opting out of the Summer Produce CSA. You'll be missing out on a lot of the early veggies thanks to the work done to support the Winter Program. Sign ups for the Summer Program have been going well though. We now have 27 Members for the Summer and more pending. We will be going to the big Garden Show at the Spokane Community College this Saturday to introduce the Program to other folks. Stop by to visit if you come too.

May 4-5
Time to remind you of the next delivery. Nothing very event worthy here on the farm. Same ole things just working at planting the garden and fields between weather extremes. Like farmers everywhere the weather has delayed us by weeks. Every day after May 1st for planting worsens the prospects of crop success. If the weather cooperates we hope to do field planting by the end of next week. "SO" is busy filling every corner of the hoop houses and green house with a back log of potted plants to transplant soon as weather allows. We are also continuing to plant under low tunnel hoops as much as possible.
If you have decided to miss a delivery please let us know!

April 27-28
Would you believe this is the seventeenth week of the Winter-Extended Season CSA Program? For some Members the next five weeks of deliveries are optional if you haven't skipped any previously. *_We will continue to bring you a delivery unless you notify us not to._ * We had several drop outs during the Early Spring session which hurt a little but thank goodness new folks showed up to take the place of those that dropped out. Just last week 4 new Members signed up to save the Winter Program. Welcome and thanks go out to them and all the other Members who have kept the faith!!!! The Winter program ends the end of May. The new Summer program begins the first week of June. The Summer Meat Program is full up. We still have shares available for the Produce/Eggs Program. If you haven't sent in your Member Agreement yet please do so soon!

The news said yesterday that this is the coldest Spring in recorded history for this area. It's also been very wet. Good thing we've got more hoop houses to use thanks to the Winter Programs preparations... All of you who sponsored the Winter Program have provided a real boon for the Summer Program Members. Can't thank you enough!!!

We're doing our best at re-planting the outdoor garden between storms. About 20 60 foot rows planted so far. This is in addition to re-planting in the larger hoop houses. Stole one of the first winter grown strawberries today. We hope to get out a t least one serving to everyone by the end of the Winter program. There are even some tomato plants starting to blossom. Keeping my fingers crossed. Peas blossoming too. Fresh carrots this week. Beets not far off.

Had to stop field cultivation again, this time due to the mud from the soaking rain. Moved the cows to pasture the NE back 40 acres which is a forested parcel. Took most of the day to fix fences from tree Falls caused by those two heavy wind storms we had this Winter. Also moved Scrappy into the furrowing barn for another litter of piglets pretty soon. Egg production coming back up steadily; hope this heavy rain and cooling again doesn't stop the progress.

Curly's baby calf doing fine! We also added 5 more weaned calves I purchased from a friend of many years who raises beef the same way I do. They were heifers and we hope to keep them for breeding stock if the demand for beef not to high. Beef prices continue to be sky high and increasing. Local stocks are declining as many take advantage of the sky high record prices. Nearly all my Spring hogs already sold as well as all Spring-Summer beef. Meat for Fall can still be ordered but prices will be higher as the inflation continues. Those that ordered earlier will be getting a real bargain.

Poultry sales have been down. Visited Huckleberry's Natural/Organic Super Market on Monroe. Found chicken prices far less than last year under a different brand name. Also many brands of eggs lower price than last year but a few were hi9gher than us. I have to believe that compromises are being made on the feeds being used. I can't even come close to paying for the feed with the low prices they are asking. I don't believe people are getting something good for nothing! Consider that old quote; "You get what you pay for!" I believe as fuel prices increase more grains are being used to produce ethanol and bio diesel thus generating more Distilled Grain Bi-Products for a cheap source of feed. So real feed prices are going up cause of fuel use while the new plentiful supply of bi-product feeds from substitute oil processing is going down.

Thanks too many for responding to the ground beef survey. Had a complaint that worried me. Found out from you and my own trials that it was unfounded. Did learn that when you process a grass/forage only fed beef in the Winter, it is leaner and lacks some of the sweet grass taste quality but it is still a healthy and a superior ground beef product.

April 20-21
Sorry about late Newsletter. But here goes. Big Events here we're Curly, My wife's pet cow, had her calf yesterday morning (See attached Photo) Grand Daughters were here to visit for Spring Break and were able to witness the Blessed Event! Otherwise everyone’s been busy with Spring work between nice spring days and the regular regressions back to Winter. We are trying to plant all we can under small tunnel hoops and cover so we don't have a big loss to late frosts like last year. Last two days have been hard frost here.

April 13-14
Starting Spring work with intensity. Spring and Fall usually the busiest on most farms. Getting field equipment ready - servicing and last minute repairs; very costly. Rounding up garden seed and field seed ( Also very costly.). Cultivating and seeding fields and garden, repairing and constructing hoop houses and tunnels. Delousing pigs and cows for winter parasites, Checking and fixing fences. Clean up and spreading manure. Starting baby chicks, turkeys, duck and geese. Moving and sorting livestock. ETC!

Started about 50 turkeys this week. Will start more soon. Hope to process turkey earlier this year and delivery frozen at the end of the Summer CSA Season. Blizzard just before Thanksgiving last year made processing and delivery very risky. Have 350 Broilers already 3 weeks old. Taking beef to butcher next week so should have some steaks again soon. Had to wait two weeks to get scheduled. So later weekly delivery will have more beef to make up for weeks now when you’re getting more pork. Sorry Egg production on the increase. Lots of Pee Wees and small size from new layers.

April 6-7
Just returned late yesterday from our family visits on the West Coast. New Granddaughter 8lb1oz. Parents doing fine after a little drug reaction problem with the Mother which finally receded. Took older ( 11 & 12) Granddaughters to the Seattle Zoo, one was having a birthday. Zoo animals didn't cooperate very well because of the cold and rain. Survived the traffic nightmares of Seattle and went to Tacoma to visit my Brother who is recuperating from a sever stroke last Christmas. Doing well but still very weak, was unconscious or under sedation for nearly 14 days last December. On the way home picked up a couple more tons of ingredients for the pig and poultry feed. Things cost about twice what it was last year. Add this to the grain which is nearly three times the price of last year and it’s a little worrisome. Will probably offer less shares of Variety Meats CSA's this Summer. Still recovering physically from this trip. "SO" put in a Bionic Woman Day getting all the CSA orders ready and tending to the greenhouse plants and flats. Finished installing an automatic exhaust and ventilation system to control humidity and temp highs, just before we left. Seems it worked a little too good and dried some things out excessively.

Special Discounts offered for early orders and CSA Sign ups are over after this week. Sorry but I'm reeling from new prices and costs. Anyone thinking of ordering custom pork or beef carcasses for freezer meat should order soonest as orders have been coming in fast. Expect to be sold out by June even with pigs. May have some more pigs’ late Fall-Winter pigs available. Not many orders for poultry yet. Because of the high costs we don't order many birds without orders being received in advance. Just do enough for the CSA Members weekly deliveries and holiday turkey.

March 30-31
Been a busy week getting started in the garden outdoors between the continuing rain storms. We managed to plant about six of the 50' rows of new strawberry seedlings and cover them with low tunnel row covers. Also did six rows of shallots, spring garlic and onions, which were covered by tunnel hoops as well.. Re seeded about half the flats in the greenhouse with new greens and salad mixes.. Planted more lettuce, pok choi and leeks in the high tunnel hoop houses.
Grandson worked on installing the new automatic exhaust fan and shutters in the greenhouse for the soon to come sunny and warmer season (We hope!). Several of the greenhouse grow lights shorted out on us and fried their insides and blew bulbs. These light bulbs are $40 ea. The Light fixtures are about $350 each. Called the supplier and they didn't deny a problem and admitted getting reports of the same problem many places. They won't replace them but are sending substitutes which will require us to change our installation scheme. A big hassle. In case you’re wondering - "Made In China."! Also the light master timer went out of service mysteriously on Day Light Savings Day; it was supposed to adjust automatic. Supplier says relay switch burns out. You guessed it , also "Made In China".
Had to get the new supplement ingredients to mix more chicken feed and pig feed for the new season. Things like calcium, kelp, flax seed, minerals; etc. Have to buy them in pallet size lots over buy Moses Lake and haul them home for storage. About $3000 worth of stuff. Grandson Bryan spent several days recently mixing-grinding tons of new feed. Just when I think I'm getting ahead financially with the chickens and pigs, this operation cleans out my checking account. Have experienced major price increases just as with everything else. You might be interested to know that right now the auction commodity price for an old cull cow is as high as it was last year for a prime yearling . Don't even ask what a yearling is going for! Butcher pigs at auction have gone from 42 cents/lb last year to 88 cents now.
Sow had a nice batch of baby piglets recently who are doing well. Also had 50 baby ducks show up. Lost about a dozen the first few days. Doing fine now. Chicks we started last week doing well. Layer chicken egg production is creeping back up and two days ago the ducks started laying again. Since that last late blizzard we haven't been able to supply all our customers. Our young Japanese Wagyu Bull started chasing our older Bull all over the pasture until now the older Bull stays in the farthest corner all by himself. Guess the younger bull finally learned how to use his horns to be a bully. Older Angus bull has no horns. Not sure how this is going to work out!

March 16-17
Well it’s officially the first day of Spring! Time to get really busy around here! Heard someone say that the weather outlook for this Spring is supposed to be record rains till early June. We'll see but not such a bad thing.
Miss Piggy still hasn't had her baby piglets. Some of you have asked to visit them. I'll let you know. Friday 300 baby chicks arrived for meat birds. Their still cute for awhile! Now that the snow is all gone been trying to do Spring cleaning as much as the mud will let us. Those Winter windstorms blew an odd assortment of things all over. Plastic bags and balloons that land a real menace to baby calves and pigs when they try to eat them. I'm looking forward to my first day of driving tractor doing field work on a nice sunny day. SO is real anxious to get her hands in the dirt outside, complaining that there is no more room in the hoop houses and greenhouse.
March 9-10
Been a busy week as usual. My Son Jeff was in town to play several local clubs. He's a musician and visits Spokane to play about every three months. He's a good friend of the owner of ZOLA, Dan Spalding, who plays in his band when their in this area. I got him to promise today to play at our Farmer's Market this Summer. His whole band came down with a cold with our recent weather. Those guys from the W. Coast aren't as tough as us.
Meanwhile "So" has been transplanting more into the hoop houses from the greenhouse to replace what was harvested as well as planting more seed into flats. She got into such a hurry a few days ago that she decided to run on snow-ice with a bucket of eggs; went flying face forward on the snow and badly bruised her right side/ribs but managed to keep the eggs intact. She's amazingly tough but my sympathy is still expected often right now.
Had to mix the boars and open sows altogether with the moms and the piglets cause the water line to the adult pig pasture froze for a few days. Don't even think about trying to hand water a dozen adult pigs. So we now have pigs in a natural herd like I do the cows. It seems to be okay for awhile because the Berkshires are more Casanova then Brute and seem to enjoy the small piglets too. This isn't the case with some other domestic breeds. Later when the snow is gone we'll have to sort out again.
Meanwhile Bryan and I have been busy mixing up 10,000 pounds of chicken feed. So naturally it decided to rain and snow again and turn the area into a mud hole to work in. Had to get it done cause we ran out waiting for the road restrictions to be vacated. Finally had to just risk a ticket with the truck. I hate to burden you with the shock of new prices for feed stuff. I think something dramatic is going on but I'm no economist. I am old enough to remember the late 1970's when something similar went on. Hope we don't see gas station lines around the block , energy blackouts and double digit inflation again but I have to say it's already going on in Agriculture.
I have been very stressed about having to raising prices because I suffer from sticker shock all the time at my age. But I want to make sure, with your great support and help . that I stay in business and fulfill my agreements with you all. We're so pleased that 16 of last year’s Members have already told us they are renewing for the Summer Season. Last week we spent about $500 on seed for Spring planting and the support was sure a big help!
Well enough of the gloom and doom. Basically I am an optimist and don't give up early. "So" is an optimist too cause she just doesn't have any pessimism in her soul.

March 2-3
Hope you all remember to meet up with us for your delivery this week; the first one of the Early Spring segment. We'll be at Millwood Wed, 3-6PM and Perry Street, Thurs, 3-6 PM (Indoors across the street from" the Shop" coffee place). Please come to the same market as you did last delivery in Dec. We've had our ups and downs on our farm operations with the weather and the winter growing efforts but I think we'll do fairly well this Spring, if not as good as planned. This most recent blizzard was a real blow but not a disaster. Fortunately no piglets or calves decided to be born. during the cold.. Ducks and quite a few chickens went on strike but should have enough for the CSA deliveries. Not sure yet if the effects of the sudden cold shock (We had a 40 degree drop in temp. in one day down to 20 below zero) is just temporary for them or if it put them into early molt. You'll notice some other color eggs besides brown cause one batch of chickens we ordered came with mixed breeds of chickens.
Already had 6 members sign up for the Summer Program so that is very encouraging. From trends I have been seeing on the internet CSA's are becoming ever more popular so anticipate more demand this year. We are already at capacity so I'm holding space for all prior year Members till end of March. Most of SO's transplants to the three smaller hoop houses survived if they were in the low tunnels but not sure about some outside the tunnels. Was able to add a little heat just in time.

February 24
Thanks and nice to see you who came by at market last week. Wasn't it great? Almost like Spring but things sure changing fast now. Got the critters to the USDA Processor Monday just in time to beat the arctic cold blast projected to start tomorrow. Rounded up all our propane bottles and refilled them for heaters to protect the Winter Produce. Grandson hauled and mixed a few tons of feed to hold the pigs thru the storm that's supposed to come. Stock piling hay bales in the Winter pasture area for the cows in case were snowed in. Bedding all the huts tomorrow with fresh straw for the pigs and new calves.. .Did the same for the chickens yesterday, with the help of my Grandson Bryan. Hope the Weather people are wrong. Thankful that two cows had successful delivery of calves yesterday. Strange - looked at my records and the same two cows calved together last year . The bull must be a two timer.

If we don't get snowed in we'll be at market Thursday. This is the last week before we re-start the Winter CSA deliveries. Great news for us; we have already had two families sign up for the Summer CSA Program. We'll reserve March for all last year's Members to have first chance to sign up before we open to new members. We'll have beef, pork, chicken and eggs at Market as well as the last of the potatoes. Sorry all the extra carrots and squash are gone but we're saving some for the future CSA Deliveries. Some of the winter greens were about to get too mature so we'll have some fresh salad mix also. Don't forget about next week as we've been planning a generous delivery to kick things off again!
February 17
Hello All,
Sorry late with this letter. Been busy constructing Low Tunnel Hoops insider our other three hoop houses. SO transplanted young plants into them that were grown first in the Greenhouse to start them. If you plant inside a low tunnel inside of a hoop house that gives you an extra layer that's supposed to gain you a month growing time in the Spring or Fall. Have portable propane heaters ready just in case it gets super cold again.
Had another new calf born. Several more look close. We had enough hay this year that the cows have stayed in good shape all Winter and the yearling calves have done very well. Our first batch of new broiler chickens scheduled to arrive March 12. They cost about 50% more in price this year. We have 22 feeder pigs growing and most will be ready this Spring; some right now. Today they were playing their game of turn over every rock they could find around the fringes of the field. Must be finding some worms. Feed grain up to $210 /ton today from $72/ton last Fall. Export demand and hungry bio-diesel refineries?
February 10
Hello All;
Hard to believe it’s only 3 weeks more till the Early Spring part of the Winter - Extended Season CSA starts again on the first week of March. when we will begin going to Millwood on Wed and Perry St on Thursday again. Looking forward to it!
We have re-established our inventory of Beef, Pork and Chickens. Lamb and Goat are scheduled for processing on Feb 22nd so by 2d week of Feb should have some of that meat available as well.
Recently the growth rate of greens has been increasing. Must be those 40 degree days when the greenhouse and hoop house got into the 80's inside. Root crops like carrots and beets are growing but are slower to progress. Never fear; we still have good carrots and potatoes to go with the greens to start and of course the eggs.
Last week at Perry Street Market was great with so many of you visiting. For those of you who can't wait till March we will have: pork cuts, beef. cuts chicken and eggs. First bacon and ham not ready till next week. Also some salad mix from the green house as well as some carrots and potatoes at market this Thursday.

Winter - Extended Seasons CSA Report

The Winter Program ends in just 2 more weeks. Thought it would be a good time to report on our lessons learned , since this was our first try at growing through the Winter. We were able to try this because of the support of some very special CSA Members who decided to share the risk with us and provide the necessary financial support with their participation.
We started getting ready for the Winter program in October. This was our first mistake! We should have started much earlier. One reason was because we needed more time and money to build the necessary structures and make improvements to existing structures to support cold weather growing. With out the help of my grandson and some of his buddies we could never have done it. After building the structures we found out all the lights, heaters and fans needed, exceeded the power we had available in the existing garden shed. This was my first clue that we had taken on more then we bargained for. The last electrical circuit of three had the conduit and cable buried just the evening before our first blizzard and deep freeze around Thanksgiving, end of November. The ground froze that night. Meanwhile, "SO" was busy planting like crazy under the protection of all the new structures while still harvesting and storing the root crops like carrots, beets, potatoes and winter squash.
I ordered a book about growing for market through the Winter. It's supposed to be a Bible about what we had decided to do. Good thing I didn't read it earlier cause I would probably have had second thoughts and given up before we got started. This book taught me about my next big mistake. The title wasn't Winter Growing as I was thinking but rather "Winter Harvest". It took awhile but as the days turned darker and shorter along with snow covering all the hoop houses and the greenhouse; the light finally turned on in my brain and I realized I was approaching this all wrong! We had radishes that would only produce greens but no bulbs (A plant any little child can grow, right?) Same thing for beets, turnips and carrots and many other veggies behaved in a similar way. To grow these plants for Winter they must be planted in late August and September. Late October is too late. Luckily we still had plenty saved from Summer to last for awhile. Fortunately with a little artificial light and heat most spring greens will grow pretty well. We grew these during the Winter break in January thru February. We spent a lot of days clearing snow and digging paths through the snow to the garden structures. Every time it snowed we had to sweep the snow off all the hoop structures because we used plastic pipe for all of the bows. The third big mistake. Plastic pipe may do all right for Summer and warmer climates further south but not in the winters around here. We should have made metal bows. Now we know! We had a lot of our low tunnels collapse and the high hoops were damaged and needed constant attention to keep even a couple inches of snow swept off.
The book talked about low tunnels with hoops and row covers with wickets. Then there are high hoop houses and green houses. Now of these there are supposed to be cold houses, cool houses,warm houses and hot houses. All these are for different times and conditions. Didn't know what this was all about, but now we do and we have them all now.

Low tunnels are intended to cover plants growing outside and for holding them thru the cold. They are also used for early planting for an extended growing season and the low tunnels protect them till harvest time. Row covers on wickets (wire hoops) are similar, but for shorter periods as they are cheaper and faster to build, but not so durable. These are cold housing and hold plants into the Winter.


High Tunnels are similar, only they are big enough to stand in. We have several 12 feet wide of different lengths from 8 feet up to 66 feet long. Some of these are also Cold Houses which means no supplemental heat. You can start growing in them in late February.

Sometimes you can put small tunnels or row covers inside these high tunnels and provide limited heat inside the tunnels. These would be considered cool houses. Then you have high tunnels that have two layers of covering with an inflated air space between covers for insulation like a storm window. With these you can heat them and keep them warm enough to heat some in the coldest Winter months; these are known as Warm Houses.

Then there are the Hot Houses which are what most think of as a Green House. These are kept very warm to grow plants fast in the coldest conditions. I now know why they call them green houses even though the are white in color. Its because they take all your green (Money) paying the utility bills! My next big mistake! Not planning on utility bills that exceeded $800 a month. Having fresh salad greens to eat in the winter is nice but it is very expensive to grow them and not profitable in the coldest months.

Our Winter - Extended Season CSA Program included eggs and Variety Meats such as chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and some lamb and goat. We combined this with the Produce under the plan that if produce was sparse we would provide more meat. Which we wound up doing at great expense. But, the next mistake was not anticipating how hard it would be to get poultry and animals processed in the Winter. Also during winter, animals are stressed more by the cold, grow slower and lose quality. Also I never anticipated the extreme increases in feed and fuel we had during the Winter which made the meat more costly to supply. These were costly errors which will take some time to recover from.

In summary we learned a lot and now have far more capacity to grow earlier in the Spring and later in the Fall. We can also grow some veggies under cover we couldn't grow before. Summer CSA Members should benefit a lot from this. If we do this program again next winter the Produce will be separate from the Meat. Meat will not be offered unless it is already processed and in the freezer.