A winter weather break; early garlic sprouting; busy bees; compost turning; hoophouse upgrade; taxes, taxes, & more taxes; a packed calendar; hopeful water news; farm directories

Last week we had a snow that stayed for several days before melting off. The crew took 2 days off from work since my last entry – it was pretty cold – down to 12 degrees one morning. We saw a warming trend starting mid week. By yesterday  and today the high temperatures were just reaching the 50’s. Last night the low temperature was 47 degrees.

As a result the balmy weather, we are seeing a bit more plant growth. I was happy to see that the early garlic variety was poking through the mulch fairly uniformly. The other varieties have not reached through the mulch, although I have found a few sprouts where the mulch is thin. I still can’t say how much of the garlic stand might have been smothered by high water.

Garlic sprouting through a covering of straw mulch. This year we are again trying an extra-early variety called Chinese Pink. Last year I had a complete failure with this variety. I complained to Territorial Seed, who sent me replacement garlic to try again this year.

The honeybees came out of the beehive today to take advantage of the 50 degree January temperatures.

As the weather permits, the crew has been working on turning compost and putting ends on the new big hoophouse.

Here Enrique is using the loader bucket of the John Deere tractor to turn compost on the farm. This huge pile is mostly leaves brought to us by several lawn-care crews. They collect the leaves as part of their home yard care service. They are happy to bring them to us rather than pay the dump fee. Compost is an important part of our farm plan to improve and enrich the soil.

Jaime and Luis have been working on closing the ends of the new big hoophouse. We are putting in double doors, since we will use the hoophouse as a picnic shelter in the fall, after all the plant starts have been transplanted out into the field.

Today Jaime and Luis started work on the other side of the greenhouse. I’m hoping to get the plastic up soon, but first we’ll have to pick up the plastic and fasteners from Stuebers.

January is an expensive month. I’ve been working on monthly, quarterly, and annual tax reporting and payments. We have the 943 (Social Security & Medicare), the 940 (Federal Unemployment), the L&I (worker’s comp.), the Washington unemployment, the WA B&O tax, and the sales tax payments all due by the end of the month.

We are getting close to closing the books on 2006. I’ve got a busy off-farm calendar for the next couple of months – lots of workshops, classes & meetings. Tomorrow night start I start the Livestock Advisor training. Thursday night is a workshop on organic certification.

We had our monthly business meeting a week ago Saturday. We looked more at last year’s financials, our cash flow for the next couple of months, some new ideas for 2007 and talked some about our big challenges for 2007. More on these later.

Last Thursday I went to the Agriculture Commission meeting, which had been delayed one week due to icy roads. I heard one bit of encouraging news - there may be some movement towards allowing farms to collect rainwater in ponds to use for irrigation in the dry season. This is one of those ideas that makes a lot of sense, but is politically difficult. The State of Washington claims by law that each drop of water that falls from the sky belongs to the State, which has total authority on where that drop ends up. The right to use water is a complex and contentious issue in all the western states that has become even more intractable now that salmon that rely on the quality of the water in the waterways fed by the rainfall have been listed as endangered. There is basically a first-claimed, first-served policy, although the fish can take precedence. In most places there is not enough water to go around during the summer. It does become frustrating to have so much water around in the winter that winter crops are at risk. I’d love to be able to have a field where I could dependably grow crops for sale in the winter, where the rainfall is drained into a pond that I could draw from in August when there is no rain in sight. It will take some time and effort to be sure that this kind of use does not adversely affect other water users and to make the whole idea politically possible.

I’ve been working on the farm’s entries in the Tilth Producers and the Puget Sound Fresh directories. Both are good directories that have helped folks find our farm. The Tilth Producers is an organization for sustainable and organic farmers in Washington. The Puget Sound Fresh program was started in King County, but now covers 12 counties around the Puget Sound. Both publish a paper directory, but also have websites worth visiting.

What’s playing in the Jeep CD player today? Garmarna – God’s Musicians