The false spring has gone replaced by intermittent snow and rain showers. The High Tunnel was crispy warm all day then dropped to freezing when the snow began to accumulate last night. We lit the heaters because losing the High Tunnel is not an option we will give in to. Before we began sweeping the low hoops the snow had changed to rain. Throughout the night it alternated rain and snow. This kept the accumulation down, but it introduced the worry of ice accumulation. This morning snow has fallen then rain, keeping up the pattern of the night. Now a thin layer of white can be seen on one side of the garden, and the rest is clear.

The greenhouse is usually heated since there we start our plants. One heat table is filled with veggies and the other is half full of flower starts for our spring flower bowls. They should be ready in early April. Soon, the other half of that heat table will be filled with the starts that we will be selling at the Poulsbo Farmers Market (opening April 7) and at our farm store.

The winter greens from the High Tunnel are mature and beautiful, and some are still available at our farm store, along with potatoes. The crew planted the Hoop Houses long enough ago that they had to be weeded yesterday. The winter-over kale is sending out new leaves that you will be able to enjoy in a few weeks. These tiny leaves are very sweet which means they will be delicious when large. The strips of garlic left for garlic greens should be ready to being harvesting about the same time. We continue to harvest potatoes. Some of these were Purple Majesties and others were Yukon Gold. The Alby's Gold potatoes we planted in January have put out filaments with tiny fish egg sized potatoes. We are looking forward to new potatoes in May.

This between the seasons weather seems to confuse the plants less than it does us. As the earth moves in its orbit, the stronger light comes our way and the days lengthen. We now have a few moments beyond ten hours of light a day, which is when plant growth begins with renewed vigor.

Yesterday we entertained friends from San Jose, CA. They shivered in the warm part of the day, and I cooked a large mid-day meal for us all. The mature Indian Red Mustard went perfectly with sautéed Purple Glazier garlic cloves. I made my Potato Onion bake – alternating layers of thinly sliced purple majesty potatoes and bulb onion. Each layer was seasoned with dried herbs from last summer with a touch of salt and pepper. The Purple Majesty potatoes keep their dark purple color when cooked. It takes an hour to bake. The centerpiece of dinner was a chicken from last summer’s meat birds. I butterflied then baked it. The only dish not made with our own ingredients were the baking powder biscuits made hedgehog style.

Below is a poem called Spring Snow. The author, William Matthews, lectured at the University of Washington after I finished my graduate work. I was still part of the social milieu, however, and met him and heard him read. I found it this morning as I was looking for a nature poem to share, but I thought you might enjoy this fine work of observation and introspection.

Spring Snow
By William Matthews
Here comes the powdered milk I drank
as a child, and the money it saved.
Here come the papers I delivered,
the spotted dog in heat that followed me home

and the dogs that followed her.
Here comes a load of white laundry
from basketball practice, and sheets
with their watermarks of semen.

And here comes snow, a language
in which no word is ever repeated,
love is impossible, and remorse. . . .
Yet childhood doesn’t end,

but accumulates, each memory
knit to the next, and the fields
become one field. If to die is to lose
all detail, then death is not

so distinguished, but a profusion
of detail, a last gossip, character
passed wholly into fate and fate
in flecks, like dust, like flour, like snow.

The rewrite of a bill, E2SHB 2253, has again pitted farms and farmers against the Washington Department of Ecology (WDOE) and (of course) urban and suburban growth. The bill as it is now written allows mitigation of urban and suburban destruction of wildlife habitat to be placed on our farm fields, pastures and other working and recreational lands with no way for the farmer to object. Now and in the past, developers and the WDOE had to abide by the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). In this bill, SEPA is left out of the picture.

The effect of the changes in this bill narrow the exceptions REMOVING prime agricultural land and land currently in agricultural use. The WDOE could do as it likes without having to abide by other rules. Specifically Section 1, part 3(a)(ii) allows environmental mitigation projects to be exempt from SEPA.

Not good for the future of agriculture or our rural working lands. WDOE will be writing the rules without oversight or public and landowner input. The WDOE has a history of being hostile to farming.

There will be no farms. There will be no local food.

If you are reading this, you most likely know why I am very concerned about this: every time it rains, we suffer flooding and water pooling that damages our fields. However, there is history here, with another unregulated part of government, Kitsap government, for storm water management. This is old news that happened twenty some years ago when many houses were built about a mile or so north of us. My father immediately noticed the change in the amount of water on our farm. We talked about that and the storm water management practices are done elsewhere. My father called the county, spoke with the man in charge, whose name I do not know. The call was brief and we are still living with its results. The man told my father, “you are the f****** storm water management.

The Spring CSA starts next week on Tuesday, February 21 . You can pick up at our farm on Tuesday or Wednesday, or at the Port Orchard or Silverdale pick up sites on late Wednesday afternoon.

What is a CSA? It’s a way for people who eat to see where their food grows and meet the people who grow it. It’s a way to support local farming. It’s a way to support family farms. Click here, and read our section on this.

Why are family farms important? Because small local farms, if enough existed, could provide a community with a significant amount of their food. This is one reason why we are working to figure out how to grow larger quantities of vegetables year round. We need to do this for meat, too.

Kitsap County is a great place for a family farm revival. WSU Extension Agent, Arno Bergstrom, tells how people have asked him what is wrong with the soil in Kitsap after they have driven past hundreds of two to five acre lots with one house and fields of weeds. Where others may see failure by the landowners, I see opportunity.

Those empty fields could all be filled with crops or animals. The landowners don’t have to turn themselves into farmers, since most have jobs. Those fields could be lent or leased to people who are farmers or who want to become farmers. Since most of that land has lain fallow for years, the problems of toxic herbicides and pesticides are less, while the weed problems for vegetable farmers will be more for a while, we know this from our experience.

I know that picking up from a CSA or a farm store is different from going to the supermarket, but think of both the increased healthfulness of the food, and the increased economic healthiness of our community.

Monsanto vs farmers update: This arrived in my inbox Monday Morning from Inside Council, a legal review journal I read. CLICK HERE to go to the article.

Early Spring
Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875 –1926)
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,

hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.
###

For a week or two the False Spring of Puget Sound will warm us. If it lasts too long, the fruit trees will begin to bud. Today, the farm looks just as Rilke described a day in his poem Early Spring (above). When the cold rain returns, they may rot depending upon how mature they are: the more mature, the more delicate. This respite from the cold rain offers a promise that won’t be fulfilled for months: true Spring.

This is the February that I remember from all those years I’ve lived here. I remember sunbathing (well sort of, we just hiked up the skirts of our dresses) on the front lawn of Central Kitsap High School. My parents liked the sunny days because it gave the creek time to carry the excess water away and let the fields drain.

The False Spring is no guaranty that frigid weather is done. It may snow or sleet. I promise that the cold rain, which tries to turn our garden into a clay pit, will return.

We maintain Spring in our High Tunnel which is producing like crazy. Out in the fields, last week the crew picked our over wintering Purple Majesty potatoes. They will be in the shares and at the Farm Store. See what else is in tomorrow’s bag by clicking here. If you feel like rejoicing in the sunshine, make a potato salad from them.

New Potato Salad
1 pound small new potatoes
2 hard-boiled eggs, cold
1/3 Cup mayonnaise
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 pound dry onion, chopped
2 medium celery stalks, chopped
1/2 Cup chopped green onions
1/4 Cup julienned sweet red pepper
1/4 Cup minced fresh parsley
Boil new potatoes whole or quartered 12 to 14 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool for 30 minutes. Slice eggs into 1/2-in. pieces.
In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper. Add the potatoes, eggs, onion, celery, green onions, red pepper and parsley; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until chilled.

The chickens and the ducks are laying. We have many dozen eggs. If it is not Tuesday, please give us a call so someone can help you at 360-692-2504. If you are here, look for Cliff's number posted in the cooler house.

SPRING SHARE STARTS FEBRUARY 21/22

WINTER SHARE LAST PICK UP DAY FEBRUARY 7/8