Time

It’s been four weeks since I wrote the last weekly blog. I guess it’s not realistic that I’m going to write weekly this time of year. Even this morning, when I though I could carve a little time, immediately something came up, but at least here is a little update.

This year has already been so exciting. We have just enough experience that we are trying to do a bunch of things differently. Everything is a balance. A good friend of mine who is an architect, said she tells her clients you can have something fast, cheap or good. Pick two but you can’t have all three. Those words ring so true as we enter this season. We want desperately to do everything better, but we also can’t keep investing to the point we’re continually losing money. This is the season I keep telling everyone that we have to break even. So many of the ways we are planting take more time and more labor. So how do we save time and labor? We are trying to overcome obstacles by being creative.

Two big ways we’re making changes this year, which will hopefully still be high quality and less labor are our mazes and our concerts. We will still have a sunflower maze, which will be much bigger than last year (and we are planting clover along with the sunflower seeds which makes the maze a giant cover crop to enrich the soil for next year). However we will not be NOT PLANTING A CORN MAZE.

Instead of corn, we are planting a much more sustainable sorghum maze. Sorghum takes a lot less water, which means less labor and less cost (our electricity bill for pumping water on the fields is nearly five figures). Corn really needs a lot pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers to grow well in the PNW and we’re committed to no-spray (no chemicals). And sorghum, which looks like corn (but no ears) and can grow 10’ tall, is often used as a cover crop to improve the soil quality.

Or course this is a total experiment. We don’t know how it will grow, and if it will hold up to the October wind and rain. But when we looked at hour many hours we watered and fed the corn mazes, we knew we needed to find a crop that didn’t require as much labor. And we’re committed to sustainability and regenerative farming, so this just feels like the right thing to do.

The other big change is how we are having music this year. The past two years have been incredible with live music under the oak tree. But . . . it has been incredibly stressful because it has required so much labor to move everything up to the oak tree each week; food, ovens, grills, drinks, coolers, generators, etc. It is an all hands on deck event for an entire day. Not only did it require every employee we have, but we couldn’t have done it without help from a lot of friends and volunteers.

That is how the change came about to have music down on the “Great Lawn,” behind the market. There is already power there, folks can get food and drink from the market/grill area without us having to move anything, nearby restrooms, etc. That said, everything is a balance. One of the reasons we liked the music under the tree was to be a little further away from the road and the river, where music and travel more easily to our neighbors. So this year, we are also a ending an hour earlier in an effort to be better neighbors. We are also featuring an all Americana series with some great artist both local and farther away. We’re able to do this for a much lower ticket price. So hopefully we’re turning the move into lemonade and making it a lot easier for family to come sit and listen to music on Thursday nights in July and August. Details and tickets here.

Speaking of neighbors, one of our neighbors who have been so generous to share this knowledge and experience is Sauvie Island Growers. Brian and Jesse having been farming for decades. Their farm is certified organic, which is really impressive and expensive to do. They have had to really figure out how to farm efficiently, and they have shared with us so much. In fact today we are planting with a starts planter that we first saw in action on their farm. Recently this article came out about their regenerative practices. Jesse and Brian grow some of the best produce in the area, that you get to enjoy in a variety of local restaurants. They also grow top quality seed that we get to buy and grow with on the farm. Please check them out and support local.

There is so much more I’d like to write about, but we have sun, and need to take advantage of the weather. Hopefully more next week.