Farm Happenings

Before I became a farmer I didn't know there was a difference in tomatoes. Obviously, I had seen heirloom and cherry tomatoes at the farmers market, but aside from that, I didn't know that the tomatoes you make sauce out of were different. I love to cook and was inspired to play more in the kitchen when I started helping friends who were chefs first and then became farmers. But it wasn't until I moved to Corvallis and started working at Sunbow that I was introduced to the paste tomato. At first, I didn't understand why you would grow a...

Seasoned farmers know how important it is to have routines and we also know that regardless of said routines, things don't always go routinely. With the renewal of our Oregon Food Bank grant, an expanded farm stand and a new wholesale account with Linn-Benton Food Share, we seeded thousands of plants in late winter. Here are many of them in their full glory! There's lettuce, celery, parsley, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages and collards to name a few. We then waited a few weeks and seeded summer crops, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil and tomatillos, they're looking great too! The heat mats and...

Let's talk business... Beginning today, you can sign up for 2023 Canners and Planners, our version of a CSA! Details here. The deadline this year is March 31. Our hiatus is coming to an end. We'll be resuming harvest on Monday March 6th. Thank you for your patience while we gave plants time to grow and recover. It's been a mixed bag of results. We'll have salad mix when we return but the kales and blue collards still aren't looking so great. They got the one-two punch of a high water table and freezing conditions. Keep your eyes peeled for the produce...

It's true that farm life revolves around the seasons and the cycle of seed, transplant, weed, harvest, repeat. I'm not particularly drawn to monotonous tasks but I do find them to have a meditative quality. I can put my head down and get through a long task when I need to. I think if farming were just that, people with more creative inclinations might find themselves bored. I haven't figured out whether it's a blessing or a curse, but farming is so much more than the aforementioned cycle.  We spend a lot of time problem solving, fixing, maintaining, streamlining, and...