Weekly Update: Aug 23

We bought the farm 7 months ago. Every single day has been a learning experience. Some days I feel like we’re getting the grove of it, and other days I feel completely overwhelmed.

This week there was a little of both.

When the feeling of being completely overwhelmed hit this week, I found myself driving to the Pumpkin Patch. The owners, Bob and Kari, have become friends of ours over the past 7 months. Kari and I refer to ourselves as sisters now. This week I ran to my sis, and she gave me a great big hug and then told me a bunch of crazy stories of things that she’s dealing with, which made me laugh so hard that I came back to the farm recharged. Thanks sis.

Most people are surprised that the other farmers on the island haven’t looked at us and said, what the heck our you city slickers thinking? They haven’t treated us like some evil competitors, instead, they’ve literally hugged us when we need it most. When people ask why we decided to take on farming in our mid-50s, it’s 100% because we love living on Sauvie Island. This is an amazing community. It’s made up of people who have lived here for generations and people who have lived here for only a few years. It truly is magical.

Douglas Farm delivering so of the most beautiful produce I’ve ever seen. Last night we were lucky enough to still get to enjoy some of their peaches at our farm to plate dinner.

This week there have been a lot of geese flying overhead. A sign that fall is approaching. There have also been a lot of pelicans flying over. I love when the pelicans are here. Unlike the geese, they don’t make a sound when they are overhead. Somehow they just look like they are out for a stroll, enjoying the view.

Perhaps it’s so many signs of fall, this week, that made hard for me. I’m not ready for summer to end. But I’m also excited to have one season behind us, so we can start planning for next year. Number one lesson we learned this week: plant more cucumbers. Picklers are crazy!!!! We’ve had people lined up before we open to get the perfect cucumbers. It’s been super rewarding to hear people tell us they’ve loved our cucumbers and are coming back to make another batch. I promise MORE NEXT YEAR. That said, please note: cukes are just getting started, we’re going to have lots more over the coming weeks. We are picking every other day right now.

Our corn is finally ready!!! We’ve been selling Bob and Kari’s corn until this week. And the biggest surprise, our strawberries are back and gaining momentum. We planted a bunch of different varieties in early spring. Most produced in June, but some of our ever bearing plants are producing lots of super sweet fruit right now.

Sorry for so few photos this week. I didn’t even remember to take a pic of dinner until we were almost finished.

I love to cook, but with Jim and I working over 100 hours each week, it’s rare that we’ve been able to make the time. This week we took a break one night, to have a mini-celebration. I made a feast of 6 or 7 different vegetable dishes, and a roasted chicken. It was a celebration of our oldest daughter. We would not be able to run the market with out her. Or so many other things. She continues to take on more and more responsibilities. You know when you watch ballet or sports and the dancer or athlete makes it look easy? That’s the ultimate compliment right? They work at it so hard that they make it look easy. Maggie has been making it look easy.

Til next week, xo,

Kat

Sorry there I didn’t take more photos this week. I did stop to take this quick pic of some of our shitshitos being grilled yesterday. Mike, Casey and Justin are going to keep the grill going later again tonight. Come by today (Sunday) between 11:30am and 7:30pm.

The grill hours are currently:

Thursdays 5pm-9pm

Saturday and Sundays 11:30am-7:30pm

Here’s a pic from last week, when the pigs were trying to cool off in the heat.