Dropstone Farms

We’ve been reviewing our successes and not-so-much-successes from last year, and our resources for this year (including personal levels of energy and time available, as well as space), and making some decisions about when and what and how.

One thing we know: we’re not going to grow produce for sale this year. We’ll grow to feed ourselves, as usual, but not worry about selling. This turns out to be very liberating! We can choose the varieties we want, rather than trying to make decisions based on what might be interesting and do well at market.

One thing we are pretty sure about (dependent on some decisions about pastures): we’ll be raising several batches of chickens and one batch of turkeys for sale. Keep an eye out here to hear more when we are ready to take orders.

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We just got home from the farmers’ market, where we sold out of chickens — hooray! So, no more reservations. I’ll be taking down the signup form.

However, we have left ourselves a buffer of 25 chickens for which we are *not* taking reservations, in case something happens (illness, predators, they get banged up in processing, etc). So it is quite likely that we will have approximately 25 more chickens unclaimed, so I’ll start a waiting list. Comment here or email us at farmers @ dropstonefarms . com to get on the waiting list. We also might have what basically amounts to factory seconds, if there are broken wings or legs as a result of processing, so we may have a few available at a lower price.

Let us know if you’re interested and we’ll give you a call when the time comes!

Thanks to everyone who ordered. We’re really excited about these birds and are glad to be able to provide them for you all.

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The chicks that were imminent in the last post are now here and huge and out on pasture and more than half of them are claimed already. Yay! So — if you want organic pastured chickens and you’re in the Seattle area and can come pick them up during the first week of November, learn more here, and order here.

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Every day I think “Oh I’ll blog about this interesting thing tonight,” or I take a picture and fully intend to post it, and every day I do not manage to do so. Tons is going on here and even though I am now taking vacation from work on Fridays to stay home and work on the farm, we’re still going nonstop. We are fully deployed at the Old New Farm and the New New Farm and are hoping to be at market for the first time this weekend with some plums we happened to find on a spare tree at the Old New Farm.

Tired.

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… but we got to stretch two days’ worth of work out over three days, and a good thing too — it was too hot to work outside between 12 and 4ish every day this weekend, so we got to take breaks and drink gins and tonic and read our books. But all the same, we got a lot done and of course there is a lot left to do. We are at least six weeks behind the season, I feel like, which is especially sad since it has been super sunny and warm here for about that long.

The various (50+) squashes and pumpkins just got in the ground at Johnson Farm on Friday and Saturday. They have been living in the greenhouse in gallon pots. Many of them have several blossoms. I don’t know if that’s good (yay fruits) or bad (plant growth is now stunted?).

Today we cleared out our bolted radishes, chicken-pecked and side-shoot-producing broccoli, and crowded lettuces (destined for lettuce kraut) finally, and fertilized, composted, and got 21 tomatoes, also in gallon pots, into the ground at home. There are probably 80+ plants waiting to go in at Johnson Farm and at our New New Farm (which Garth has referenced but we haven’t yet introduced properly — that’s on my list). Tomatillos and eggplants and peppers are in the same boat.

I shall stop now lest I fall asleep at the keyboard, but suffice it to say, we are feeling pleased and optimistic with FINALLY making progress … and there is more to come.

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So the sun has been shining here, which means we’ve barely sat down at all as we scramble to get things done. This weekend was full of socializing and meeting new people as well as much farm work. In the past few days we have:

• planned irrigation for the New Farm (nothing in the ground yet there since there is no water nor fence yet);
• had our farm inspection, required to sell at our Farmers’ Market — they just want to make sure we are growing and not importing;
• met a new friend and toured his chicken tractor setup, meat chick brooding facility, and brewing/drinking space, as well as meeting the soon-to-be-mutton sheep;
• introduced the Wyandottes, who are now 4 months old, to the big wide world;
• shuffled some things around in the greenhouse to make room for the tomatoes;
• moved the tomatoes back into the greenhouse so they can grow big and strong (we will not be having nearly as many tomatoes as we had hoped);
• watered everything, and then watered again;
• fixed the hanging auto-refilling chicken/duck waterers so that they actually auto-refill;
• watered again;
• hauled much dirt all morning to fill up the flower bed;
• mucked out the chicken coop;
• permanently moved the Wyandottes into the big girls’ section of the coop;
• moved the Ameraucanas, who will be 7 weeks old this week, out into the subdivision of the coop — hooray for no more poultry in the house!!;
• showed off our chicken tractor technology to some folks who want to build one;
• drank iced tea on the porch with Garth’s folks;
• made a list of everything in the greenhouse that needs to be potted up, planted, or otherwise dealt with — it’s a big list;
• potted up some squash we got at the Tilth plant sale, which are still in the greenhouse;
• planted out a few rows of Shimonita bunching onions;
• did two loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher;
• drank a beer.

But it’s just the calm before the storm. This week is OK — some basic things need accomplished like planting out the flower bed, mulching paths and around some of the larger starts, and addressing the greenhouse inventory list, but the next week, we have 6 turkey poults (babies) arriving on Tuesday, and 25 meat chickens arriving on Thursday, and a show to go to in Seattle that same day, Thursday, and then also a chicken slaughter party to go to on Saturday. Need to prepare homes for both these batches of poultry before they arrive! And then there are plans to make about doing chickens for sale … more to come on that soon!

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It’s April, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

1. Tomato seedlings (we’re behind), 2. Swirly egg and speckly egg, 3. QUACK, 4. Garlic and mustard greens, 5. Impending artichoke, 6. When we pulled back the sheet on this hoophouse, it was like opening a present

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

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Lots done this weekend, despite a super-busy week for me with both work and socializing. Followed it up with a busy weekend full of farm chores and seedlings! Yay.

The greenhouse is not yet done, but it is serviceable, so we moved four seed trays out into it. They are under lights but not on heat mats. We rigged up a rack to hold four 48-inch light fixtures, and each end can be raised and lowered independently, so we can have older, taller plants at one end and younger at the other end. I moved the two Meyer lemon trees and one fig tree from the laundry room, where they overwintered, to the greenhouse, and also brought the two blueberry bushes in. All the above are in buckets. Then with the new space on the inside seedling shelves, we started one whole tray of onions, one with lots of leeks and lots of parsnips, and one with a whole bunch of random things, including cabbages, sunflowers, Imperial Star artichokes, and more. I also stuck a row of Mexican Strain tomatillos in the tray that got tomatoes last week, since that tray is on a heat mat and the others aren’t.

Inside the greenhouse!, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Meanwhile, Garth prepped the beds that were tomatoland last year and got ready to put hoophouses on them. Four rows mixed radish seed, four rows Olympia Hybrid spinach, three rows red carrots (Red Samurai), three rows purple carrots (Purple Haze), four rows orange carrots (Mokum). And then we set out the last of the Feb 21 greens, mostly chard and some kale, and also some of the bigger lettuces from the same date.

Upcoming this week is planting potatoes, more peas, getting another table and bank of lights in the greenhouse, and starting to prepare for ducklings (April 15) and turkey poults (early May).

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Mundane news

• Neighbor Claire brought over some rhubarb roots today; she was dividing and moving her patch, growing mostly unattended in the middle of the yard, to her new garden area. The rhubarb we transplanted last year didn’t take, sadly, so we were happy to have some new.
• Started some herb seeds today — seven cells each of sweet basil, Genovese basil, cilantro, dill, oregano, and scallions (I know, not an herb, but my last cells didn’t germinate yet so I tossed some more in this batch).
• I made pasta from scratch for the very first time today. Proof-of-concept pasta, we are calling it, because it wasn’t super wonderfully delicious, but it was good, and we both decided it’s worth learning to do better. We tossed it with homegrown leeks, homegrown Brussels sprouts, and homemade sausage, and garnished with imported parmigiano reggiano and the zest and and juice of an organic, non-local meyer lemon. (I can’t wait for my lemon trees to start doing things and making lemons for me.)

Proof-of-concept pasta, with homegrown leek and Brussels sprouts, and homemade sausage, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Fantastic news

• When we were considering moving here, a friend told us about the Trust for Working Landscapes, which manages some city-owned designated farmland that has been waiting for people to farm it; that possible opportunity was part of our decision to move here. So, a few weeks ago we met with some of the board members from the trust, and last Monday we finally turned in our application. Wednesday we met some board members out at the proposed site. Apparently, the whole process seems to be more informal than I thought, because instead of having a several-week process to review and approve our application, we spent an hour putting stakes in the ground where we wanted the corners of our plot to be. We also got the go-ahead to start buying equipment and seeds, so I guess it’s a go? I guess. Yay! If all goes well we will be selling veggies, maybe eggs, and maybe chickens at our farmers’ market and maybe at an unstaffed farm stand.
• As part of the aforementioned equipment-buying, Garth promptly went out and bought a BCS 720 walking tractor. I don’t really understand it completely, but as far as I can tell it is pretty awesome.
• Araucanas are coming in at our feed store this Friday, so we’ll be getting two more chickens, for an even twelve total, ten laying brown and two laying blue/green.

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Sorry, as always, about the radio silence. Stuff has been remarkably busy for it being only January, er, February … oof.

We are in the process of applying for a spot to farm on some public land that’s managed by the Trust for Working Landscapes. That, plus the construction of our greenhouse, plus making up for the family-visit travel that we skipped at holiday time, has been keeping us plenty busy. I’m already tired and we haven’t even started any seeds yet (so behind already!).

Happy February. Don’t be like us — get your seeds started soon! I have a roundup of other folks’ seed starting info in the works … really.

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It’s been a while since I’ve updated y’all on account of my professional life has been more interesting than I’d like lately and, well, it’s September, there’s vegetables everywhere. So some updates:

I found some neat little things to hold down floating row cover. They come in packages of six for $6 or three-hundred for $50. Oscar feels that I bought too many of them.

Oscar Regards the holdy-downy thingees with suspicion.

I am continuing to add to what I call Compost Island.

See? Piles of compost.

Here is my latest pile of grass and chickenshit and, in a maudlin touch, two bouquets of flowers. It’s already cooking around 125 degrees.

It rots using the magic of chickenshit!

Then I dug a hole to expand the chicken coop. Lauren helped some but, as the brains of this operation, she lost patience with the shovel and pickax pretty quickly. To rub salt in the wound, our neighbors demolished their chicken barn with the help of one of our other neighbors who, you know, owns an excavator. Heavy equipment is really something else.

It really doesn

Prior to digging the hole I had to clear a mess of brush. Oddly, it turns out that ferns have incredibly well-developed root systems.

My brush pile. Let me show you it.

Then I made a bold technological innovation. Instead of making multiple trips to feed the ducks and the chickens I realized that I could implement the Galvanized Pail® method wherein you fill a bucket with feed and carry it to multiple bird enclosures. I know what you’re thinking, but this is just the sort of out of the box thinking it takes to succeed in small-scale agriculture.

The chickens are distrustful.

Distrustful chicken wonders if the pail is edible.

And I’m working on a hooky hanging thing for hats and the like.

I made it. FROM METAL!

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So, network issues at work provided my with a day to research various greenhouse options.

We’ve had such success with the hoophouses that I’m really fired up to get a real greenhouse going in the spring. My first inspiration came from the Westside Gardener whose site is full of Cascadian goodness. Minus incidentals, this is $110 for the frame of a 10′ x 20′ greenhouse. This is awesome. I’m a little concerned about keeping plastic attached in our periodic windstorms and I don’t relish the thought of coming home and finding a springs worth of starts wind damaged. Can’t beat the price though.

What I really want, however, is a shiny, pre-made Solexx greenhouse. I mean, Solexx! It’s got *two* Xs which makes it twice as cool as competing coverings. The deal with solexx is that it’s a semi-rigid double-walled plastic that diffuses sunlight and provides insulation. It’s also fairly expensive at almost $600 to cover a 10×16 greenhouse. It’s got an 8-year warranty though, and I count myself lucky to be able to reuse plastic a second year. Actual greenhouse plastic might last longer though. Plus, solexx wants braces every 16-24″, which means more costs for the frame and more time invested in building the structure.

A third option is clear plastic corrugated panels which cost $30 each. They do have the advantage of being permanent but I haven’t spec’ed out the costs of building a structure robust enough to support a rigid panel that can’t flex in the wind like plastic or Solexx.

My biggest question revolves around whether it makes sense to spring for Solexx? It may be that, in our mild climate, the amount of sunlight is going to limit growth much more than temperature. I’m not planning on heating the greenhouse but I’ll expect to run growlights for seedlings. The other constraint is that I want a semi-portable structure. Lauren and I need to be able to drag the greenhouse around out lot depending on need, soil rotation, and available light. I don’t want to get into anything that would allow justify purchasing one of those tractors I’ve had my eye on.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Requests for starts?

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