Weekly Update: Aug 16
Lots of photos of animals this week, but first bees!
This week a researcher from the Oregon Bee Atlas has started coming to our farm to look for squash bees. It’s been very exciting to get a front row seat as she tries to spot them. Elaine comes at dawn, and rotates which squash fields she camps out in. For more info on squash bees at the Oregon Bee Atlas, check out these links. Oregon Bee Atlas and Squash Bees.
Emily and Emma from Bee & Bloom came to check on the honeybee colonies they homed on our farm. We were so excited to see them, that we got a little too close. As Emily warned, they were feeling a little spicy, but that didn’t stop us. An agitated bee headed straight for Jim’s face, stung him, then continued to chase him relentlessly. We ran into our car and quickly headed up to our kitchen and to put a little baking soda paste on the sting. In this case, the old-fashion cure is still the best. Jim was back to normal in minutes.
There are over 500 species of bees on Sauvie Island. And different types of bees pollinate different produce. It’s been so fascinating to learn more about bees from Rebekah, Emily and Emma (co-founders of Bee & Bloom here on Sauvie Island). They will be explaining how bees are responsible for pollinating approximately one in every three bites of food, at our special farm to plate dinner on September 12. For more info, follow this link.
Dave Yudkin, owner of Hotlips Pizza has been a friend and an inspiration for 20+ years. When I met him in the 90s he was passionate about how many miles it took to transport food from the farms where they were grown to his kitchen — only making pizzas with hyper local ingredients. In addition to delivering Hotlips Soda and pizza dough a few times a week to Topaz Farm, he is also responsible for baking the focaccia and old-fashion bread loaves we sell in the market. More recently he’s been experimenting with baking just the right size wheat bread. He also is bakes our amazing chocolate chip cookies, the red and green salsas, hummus and BBQ sauce. Who knows what he’ll come up with next (hint he’s been talking about cinnamon rolls). Dave has also helped us tremendously by sharing some of his expertise and lending us equipment. Everything from fridges and pizza ovens to picnic tables.
More inspiration: Chefs Mike Kessler, Casey Mondry and Dustin Cavin have been killing it on the grill. As they get more used to our farm, they are using the market as their fridge, creating more and more grilled vegetable, fruit dishes, toppings and salads. Above Casey running inside for more produce.
Check out the stone fruit salad, made with peaches, tomatoes, corn, feta, edible flowers and whatever other goodness the Dustin through in. I was so surprised the first time I heard a customer ask the chefs for the recipe. I assumed they would want to keep their magic secret - but the opposite was true. Their passion spills out and they love to share. In this photo, the brat is topped with smoked chipotle ketchup - which I learned is easy to make. Smoke chipotle peppers and smoke onions, and mix with a little ketchup.
MeriBeth visiting the farm with her new wheels!
Odessa in the hen house, putting the animals away for the night.
Michelle from Wilbur Ellis came over this week to walk the fields with me, and inspect how things are growing. Michelle has been an incredible resource, helping us review our soil samples, looking at how things are growing, even figuring out what to grow. Visits don’t always go as good as this one did. We have lots and lots of healthy pumpkins and squash.
Maybe-Bob
Our friend and photographer Abby Gordon came to the farm this week, and helped us take glamour shots of all our animals.
Rolo aka the trouble maker. Rolo will eat your clothes right off you.
Blue. Our dominant male.
Jet-Puff, aka Juniper’s mom.
Juniper was born in June and his like a toddler. She’s either running around or she’s sound asleep.
A close up of Juniper, in a rare moment when she wasn’t running and jumping. She was born in June (earlier than we expected) and was our first animal born on the farm.
We got two baby turkeys recently, both growing so fast. Looks like we have a male and a female. This week I noticed the Tom circling Tuna (our dominate white rooster). Apparently turkeys are more dominant.
This is Bruce, or maybe it’s Lee. These two silkies came to us in the winter.
LuLu came to us a few months ago. She’s still a teenager, very active and really likes to play.
July is the baby, for now, she’s growing so quickly. She came to us on July 4.
And the queen of them all, Sophie. When Sophie first came to us, she wouldn’t eat any vegetables. She had been on a diet of sugar cereal and skittles. Her only treat now is an occasional apple. She’s lost more than 50 pounds and really likes greens now.
A sampling of some of the produce we harvested from our fields this week.
Gorgeous beets.
Scallions aka green onions.
Fava beans.
Shitshitos
Hurakan squash aka grey zucchinis.
Oops I’m out of time and need to stop here and help with today’s farm-to-plate picnic. All picnic boxes were pre-ordered, but if you want to join us for the next one, it will be Labor Day weekend. Weekly dinners and picnic reservations can be made here. Or come and try some of the food on the grill, and enjoy a cool peach lemonade or beer. It’s going to be a hot one today!
xo,
Kat