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

Proposed Bill Makes Farm Interns Legal In Kitsap

Apprenticeships and Internships in most occupations, including the law, trades, and agriculture were the standard until the early 20^th Century. If you were lucky, you got to work with your parents, mostly likely your father, to learn his trade. It’s all well documented: both the benefits and the abuses. Fair labor laws went a long way to correcting the abuses, but those safeguards also threw up a series of barriers to entry. The two factors, abuses and barriers, make this Small Farm Internship Program a necessity to passing along knowledge and skills to a new generation of farmers.

The Washington Small Farm Internship program extends the initial two-year pilot program for another five years, until December 31, 2017. The bill expands participating counties to include San Juan, Skagit, Whatcom, King, Pierce, Thurston, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Spokane counties.

The 2010 program, which expired at the turn of the year, allowed small growers (revenues less than $250,000) in Skagit and San Juan counties to employ unpaid interns under two conditions: the farm provided workers' compensation coverage (frankly, the most important aspect for the state), and offered agreements that included a defined curriculum teaching farming. Six farms participated.

For Winter Quarter 2010, Kelly, who works for us, interned here through WSU, which is legal and defined her curriculum, but not all farm interns can be students at a university. What Kelly tells us she learned is that farming is a hands-on learning experience gotten only through work experience. She has said to me so many times, it is so different than in the book. We agree, because we are changing how and what is farmed here, as are most all other Kitsap County farmers. We have practiced certified organic farming for 8 years. We have learned a lot and have a lot to learn, too. Working with interns will make us a better farm.

To read more about this, see the January 12, 2012 Capitol Press editorial.

SB 6392 Title: An act relating to a farm internship program. Brief Description: Establishing a farm internship program. Sponsors: Senators Ranker, Kohl-Welles and Conway.

Find your Legislator: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx

CSA PICKUP WEEK and Farm Store on Tuesday 2:00 to 6:30 p.m.

We have some Braeburn apples in from Tomlison's orchard. Certified Organic. Plus there are yams and sweet potatoes. 

Kelly will be picking for Tuesday in this lovely sunny weather.

Here's a great apple recipe plus a Maple Whipped Cream topping recipe.

Apple Custard Pie

1 single pie shell in 9-inch pie plate

4 large apples peeled and sliced for pie

1 Cup sugar

1 Cup whole milk (this is a wonderful reason to try Dungeness Valley Creamery Whole Jersey Milk)

1/4 Cup flour

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 to 2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Peel and slice apples about ¼ inch wide. Mix together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Add apples. Cover apples in dry mixture.

Pour apples into crust, evenly spreading all of dry mixture. Dot the top with butter.

Add milk slowly so that it is absorbed by the dry mixture and surrounds the apples.

Bake 45 minutes. The custard should be set. If not, check every 3 to 5 minutes until it is done. Cool completely, then chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Top with maple whipped cream if you want an incredible experience.

Maple Whipped Cream

1 Cup cream

2 to 3 Tbsp Maple Syrup (depends on taste)

Place cream and syrup into a cold, deep bowl. Chill bowl for about 1/2 hour in refrigerator. Stainless steel, ceramic, or copper is best. Whip cream until it is in folds that stand on their own. Serve immediately.