Live Wild or Die!: May 2013

Okay...it's actually May 31st but calling it June means that I can procrastinate a bit longer before writing the next post.

I do intend to post a couple of times a month of course, but farm life is increasingly busy. Good work and a labor of love, but definitely busy.

The problem with sporadic posting is that so many things have happened since the last post, it's difficult to know where or how to begin. I'll begin with the seed distro, since that news is BIG.

We applied for and received a $2000 grant from the Skagit Valley Food Co-op as part of their 4% Fridays program. This money was funding for our seed distro project. For years, we've been growing and distributing a variety of heirloom, open pollinated vegetable and herb seeds. We've distributed them at a variety of events, to individuals or groups or organizations who want to grow their own food.

The growing, harvesting, and packaging of the seed is completed by members and our farm interns, and any supplies needed including seed packets, labels, event table fees etc have been paid out of pocket by our members until this year. The grant money has changed our program significantly and we will definitely try to find a way to access at least a little funding each year. In 2012, we distributed about 1500 packages of seed, compared with 4500 in the first 6 months of this year. Through the seed distro and grant program, we also connected with other organizations which led to some great collaborative efforts.

We continue to grow beds of produce at the Concrete Community Garden for the local food bank, but Jennie also worked with the director of the Sedro Woolley food bank and designed their first onsite garden. We are nearly finished, with just one bed waiting for transplanting. We are planning to collaborate with Community Action on future projects involving local food and education. One idea is to offer at least one day of onsite education at each county food bank in the spring. We would offer personal instruction in basic backyard or container gardening, sending recipients home with tomatoes and other container plants as well as seeds.

Here are a couple of photos of our seed box at the Concrete Food Bank.

We had no idea the seeds would be so popular at food banks, and need to work on funding for a grander plan next year.

By the way, 4500 packages of seed has a retail value of at least $13,500. We will RULE the food bank seed scene next year. Wait. I guess no one else is proving seed...and we're aren't getting paid for it....darn it. Maybe we won't rule the scene, but we certainly do ROCK.

Ack. I knew I shouldn't have put this post off so long. There are so many amazing things to tell but I have to get back out to work with the WWOOFers. Quickly-the Southside Social and Barn Dance is happening NOT on the 2nd weekend as it normally does but will be on July 19th and 20th. Stay tuned for a lineup and more info in the next two weeks. Promise.

We also have a cabin available. Contact info@finneyfarm.org for more info. We would like to find a longer term someone, but until that happens we can also offer it for short term stays (two day minimum, $50 a night).

Here are some photos of the lovely cabin:

And finally, photos of the garden etc.

Baby Ducks at the end of April:

We reorganized the library a bit:

Garlic in April:

May 30th garden view-just about to put up bean trellises...

We transplanted the squash field today. We use the three sisters method, with each hill getting a winter squash, a corn or sunflower, and some Cherokee Trail of Tears bean seeds. The winter squash covers the ground, the corn or sunflower provides a handy trellis, and the beans provide food as well as nitrogen for a heavy feeder like corn. We will cover this entire area with sheet mulch of cardboard and straw, then install a micro irrigation system for a no weeding, almost maintenance free field.

I wish that I could have put someone/thing here to give an idea of scale. Our garlic is freaking huge! The top of that sign is a foot high! They are about 4 feet high!

Potatoes!

Corn! We start it indoors, and it's one of the few crops that we crow in traditional rows instead of raised beds or mounds, and the sweet corn is almost our only hybrid crop. This area contains two varieties of sweet corn (Luscious and Scrumptious), we grow two varieties of popcorn and a colorful dent corn in our squash field.