Hi Folks,
As usual we are having typical challenging spring weather here in Central Oregon.  However  we have two field tunnels filled with starts of lovely spring greens.  The first plantings of carrot and peas are also in the ground waiting for a bit of warm weather to pop their heads up.  The irrigation water should start flowing this evening.  The honeyberry bushes bloomed in the midst of this cold snap so we probably won’t be seeing any berries from them this year.  All the other fruits have held off blooming.  The garlic is a good 8 inches tall and the rhubarb is up and growing.  We continue to have plenty of eggs and Wild Rice.
Good food is coming soon!

Nothing like a nice spring week to get us thinking about gardening and the outdoors…only to be slapped with more snow and cold weather to remind us that winter is still here.  I hope everyone’s winter was restful, and in case you don’t remember me, it’s Jeremy from the Intern’s Insight blogs of last summer.  While I won’t be working at Fields Farm full time this year, I am staying involved, and this blog is to inform you about this spring’s Fields Farm school field trip season.  Ten area schools have signed up to come out to the farm in May and early June for a half day of touring the farm, meeting the farmers, and learning about where food comes from.  The available trip times filled up fast, and I think it is a testament to how much our teachers want to teach their students about food…thanks teachers!  Now, you might be wondering why I’m posting this blog on the website, and there are a few reasons:  1. If you come out to buy produce or eggs at the farm you may be there the same time as a field trip, so please drive slow and watch for kids, 2. Maybe you are interested in being involved with the field trips as a volunteer guide or by donating some materials!  As I began recruiting volunteers I thought, “what better group of people than those already on Fields Farm email list…they are probably passionate about educating others about food!”  The volunteer guide will be leading a small group of students to different stations around the farm, and leading a hands-on activity at each station.  If the thought of this is appealing to you, please read on!  If the thought of this scares you, don’t worry and please read on!  I am working hard to create a binder with enough information on agriculture, the farm, and how to teach the activities to make YOU an expert for the day.  The field trips are during ten days in May and one in early June, and are morning trips that last until noon.  This will be a wonderful chance for you to pass on your interest in food and agriculture to the next generation, so please consider taking a morning to be a volunteer guide for one of the field trips.  No teaching experience is necessary as there will be a volunteer guide training on a Saturday before the field trips begin.  And if you would like to support the field trips by material or financial donation, your support is greatly appreciated…the schools are nearly budget-less and yet these teachers are pulling together enough resources to get a bus for the day and come out to the farm!  Please contact me with any questions, and to sign up or donate…zorndylan@hotmail.com or 541-390-1558.  Looking forward to spring and seeing you out at Fields Farm!
Jeremy

Hi Folks,

We’ve got a frig full of eggs, stop by and pick up a dozen or 2 or 3.

We have eggs and lots of them.  The chickens think spring is definitely on the way and are laying like mad.  Come on by and pick up some eggs.  We’ll try to get the last of the potatoes and shallots out tomorrow also.  The arugula and onions are up and growing well, kales and lettuces have germinated and the garlic is bigger than we ever seen this time of year.  Baby chicks arrived on Sunday.  Life on the farm is starting to hum.

It’s that time of the year when arugula starts sprouting reminding us that spring really will come and our diet will change from root vegetables to greens and lot of them!  In that spirit CSA shares and Farm Bucks are now available for purchase.
CSA shares are $610.00 for the full season with pick-up here at the farm.  For those who want to try out our produce or are growing some of their own Farm Bucks will be sold for $95.00 for $100.00 of Farm Bucks or $180.00 for $200.00 of Farm Bucks.  Farm Bucks can be used at the farm or at the Bend Farmer’s Market.

Some Winter reading:A thoughtful article today in the BendBulletin about local Agriculture implies even more issues than it brings up.  Included are some juicy quotes from Jim.The article is ironic as it tells the story of small local farmers who quit because of the difficult market.  Unmentioned is what is creating this market, our industrialized food production system.  Countervailing this are small Farmers like Fields Farm who are on upsurge catering to massive crowds at Farmer’s Markets and long waiting lists for CSAs.So while Big Agribusiness is killing small local farms, at the same time, it is giving rise to…small local farms.

We want to thank all of you for supporting our farm, enjoying our veggies and berries and your pleasant company.  We so enjoy being part of this community.  We wish you a very happy 2010.  Look for our CSA announcement the end of February.  Eggs will continue to be available through the winter.

We’ve got fresh eggs, including some delectable turkey eggs.  Potato varieties for this week include Red Norlands, All Blues, Colorado Rose and Russian
Banana Fingerlings.  Mild red and yellow onions as well as shallots are also available.  My brother brought a fresh supply of Wild Rice at Thanksgiving.
Wild Rice is available in 8oz bag for $3.50
                                         2 lb bag for $13.00
                                         5 lb bag for $30.00

Are you looking for some unique foods for Thanksgiving?

We have 4 varieties of specialty potatoes;
        German Butterballs, makes a lovely creamy yellow mashed potato
        All Blues- cook your All Blues with a little vinegar for brillant blue
                          mashers
        Colorado Rose- beautiful smooth red skins with creamy white flesh
        Viking Purple- purple tinged skins with white flesh
        Russian Banana Fingerlings- best for rosemary roasted potatoes
Stutgartter Onions- nicely dried onions for storage that won’t make you cry
Shallots- have a particularly delicate flavor for sauces
Wild Rice- a nutty flavor to add to your turkey stuffing

If you haven’t got your locally grown free range turkey call;
         Mike and Debbie Holmes  322-6992
         Elena Peters 504-6850 (extra large turkeys 30-40lbs)

Happy Thanksgiving from Fields Farm

My internship is officially over, sure as the increasingly intense frosts brought the farm’s growing to a slow crawl.  It is amazing how glorious rows of produce can be thriving in August, only to be reduced to brown and wilted stalks a month later.  In October we spent a lot of time tilling in finished beds, spreading cover crop seeds, planting next year’s garlic, pulling out old, dead plants (all those tomatoes!).  When the irrigation ditch shut off in the middle of the month, all the pipes were pulled off the field and laid along the fence; now the mice will have a place to nest for the winter in the long, steel tubes.  Without irrigation there is no more water for the mighty kale plants in the greenhouse tunnels.  Their growth slows almost to a halt.  Freezing nights, windstorms, the return of geese, the first snows…all signs of a changing of seasons.  These events signal a time of rest, of pause in growth, a time to let things be undisturbed.  Several people have asked (somewhat hopefully) at the market and at the farmstand, “do you grow anything during the winter?”  I suppose it could be done; other farmers in Oregon do it.  They pump heated air into sealed greenhouses to keep the plants alive, despite the cold air outside and short days of light.  The drawbacks include using lots of gas and electric power to grow those greens, a high potential for pest and disease infestation, and no rest for the workers.  Financially, perhaps some farms have decided that it makes sense to grow through the winter.  But the economics of it contradict nature: winter is a time for rest.  A time to let freezes kill bacterias and insects.  A time to give the soil a break.  A time to make meals out of the storage produce put aside…potatoes, onions, garlic, shallots, winter squash, and any canned and frozen foods you prepared during the summer.  My fiance and I have frozen some kale, peppers, and soups made in summer, and we canned applesauce and tomatoes…all part of an experiment in being more local and self-sufficient, in part inspired by my work at Fields Farm and by Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.”  It takes a lot of work!  But it will be worth it when in February we can eat local, organic produce.  It is quite a change of personal paradigm when you try to eat seasonally; you have to accept that certain things are available only at certain times, and you must enjoy them to the fullest at those times!  It is certainly a challenge, and though you may not have canned or frozen anything this year (the above mentioned storage vegetables are still available for sale at the farm!), I challenge YOU to try and eat seasonally and locally through the next year.  I challenge you to ignore that asparagus you see the stores now; it traveled too far and is far from fresh.  Know that in April and May it will be available in the northwest, and its flavor will be all the better from the long wait.  I challenge you to put back those bananas and oranges, and instead turn your eyes to the apples and pears grown in our region.  Enjoy them now while they’re fresh, and can or freeze some for next year when you are craving apples in May and the only ones you can find are from far off Chile.  These are the small steps it takes to be a little bit lighter on the land, but when many people take these small steps, big changes are possible.  See you next year, and enjoy a restful winter.