While more and more signs at the farm are pointing towards summer and the warm weather to come (it will come!), this week has had us bundling up in blankets and drinking lots of hot tea!  While the Cream of Jerusalem Artichoke Soup I made last night was delicious, I’m really looking forward to moving beyond winter soup weather and into summer grilling weather.

A few of the hopeful signs of warm weather around the farm:

Future Strawberries! Hopefully will start producing sometime in June.

Future Tomatoes! Should be ready to harvest in late July.

We’re planning a series of kids’ days at the farm for this summer – mark your calendars now!  Join us with your children to explore, learn about and play on the farm – 4th Thursdays of each month, May thru October (weather permitting).  The formal gathering time will be from about 10-11am, with time afterward for snacks or lunch.

Stay tuned for more details!

The mild winter and good soil drainage allowed us to get an early start on the season this year.  Back in February, Agustin was out preparing the ground for planting, and we were able to get a lot of seeds into the ground.  After planting, we covered the beds with a rowcover, which adds a few degrees of warmth and protects from frost.

Last week, we had our first major harvest of new crops for the season: arugula, green mustard, cherriette and French breakfast radishes.  It’s so exciting to have fresh, local greens in April!

This week, we’re adding baby bok choy and spinach to the mix.

The busy season is quickly sneaking up on us – we suddenly went from our skeleton crew of 2 very part time workers to 5, and we are moving from the short list long project mode of winter to long list short task mode of summer.

It was just over a year ago that we signed the lease on Tahoma Farms 40-acres and began the work to get the farm in shape for the 2009 season.  We were ready to go: the tractor was delivered the same day to start plowing, seed and supply orders were waiting to be placed.  The beginning of April is pretty late to start a farm from scratch, but we were determined to make it happen.  Apparently, determination goes a long way, as we all feel 2009 was a great success.

Alex Moore of Cascade Harvest Coalition interviewed Amy in September, a good month for a retrospective on the season:

What’s Fresh Now Interview with Amy Sills of Tahoma Farms

Now it’s a year later: we just completed our first harvest of 2010 (radishes, arugula and green mustard); in another week or so, we will have spinach and baby bok choy; lettuce, kale, collards, broccoli and strawberries have all been transplanted into the field; the 3 greenhouses are filled with trays to be transplanted out over the next weeks and months.

The earlier start this year will allow us to expand some of our crop mix with items that take longer to mature, and some early spring crops.  We will be adding sugar snap peas, strawberries, cherry and slicing tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, garlic, onions, celery and celeriac!

Welcome to 2010!

Here at Tahoma Farms, we greet the New Year with joy, enthusiasm and gratitude: 2009 was a successful first year of growing certified organic vegetables in the Orting Valley; we learned a lot about growing food on our new land; we felt the support of our community; and we have some quiet time in the winter months to reflect, rejuvenate and plan for the upcoming season. And are we planning! Seed catalogs arrive in the mail daily, we are constantly revising our “to do” and “wish” lists and filling our computer screens with excel file upon excel file. As Amy says, “If you don’t have all of your planning done before the first seed is planted, you will be behind for the rest of the season.”

Which brings us to the purpose of post: we are hoping that you can help us out with our plans by signing up now for our 2010 CSA season. Tahoma Farms’ Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) is a way to support a local farm directly, especially during the low income months of winter and early spring. If you pay for your membership now, it will help Tahoma Farms buy seeds, supplies and equipment. In exchange for your membership, you will receive a box of produce, grown just for you, every week (or every other week) during the growing season (approximately June through October). This community effort helps makes small scale agriculture viable.

Thank you for your continued support of local farms. We hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely, Kim