It's been a very long and smoky week! With all of the wild fires around us, thankfully not too close, we've been covered in a smog cloud for over a week. This shot was taken today around 11 am. In my 4 years of farming in this area, 2 of those have been affected by wild fire smoke, that's literally 50% of the time! Climate change is already affecting us severely, yet governments and leaders are still avoiding the changes we need to make now, or better yet- 10 years ago. Here's a good article released by CBS last week
Part of why we're farming and why we use regenerative agriculture is so we can directly have an impact on climate change and our local area. We see the effects on our plants daily. The smoke has halted ripening of the hot peppers. Trees and plants are starting to drop their leaves, like it's already mid-way through fall! Temperatures are much cooler due to lack of direct sun.
By supporting us you are also helping to tilt the wheel of climate change to locally produced, ethically and responsibly grown products! Please share with your friends, neighbors and family- talk about the hard to talk about subjects, educate & share what they can also do to help change our local food systems, and Vote with your $$- spend money with companies that have small carbon footprints.
Luckily today we were able to get hold of some KN-95 masks from the Washington Farm Service Bureau! Farming this week will be shortened to the essential harvesting and watering to try to minimize our time outdoors. We've ordered an air filter for our tiny home- but it won't be in till this coming weekend! So we're using a couple of filters attached to a fan in the mean time. Another helpful trick is simmering a pot of herbs or use essential oils (sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, mint, lavender, eucalyptus, really any herb mix will do) with some citrus peel on the stove to help condensate the pollution from the air and aid in freshening and healing the lungs. We'll have some of these herb bundles available online!
2020 has sure been a year full of surprises, turmoil, and changes. Our hearts and thoughts go out to our friends and others that have lost loved ones, homes, been evacuated, or have loved ones risking their lives to put out the fires. “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” – Deepak Chopra
If you can help- please donate to the Small Farm Go Fund Me page (going directly to small farms affected by wildfires), Vancouver Farmers Market Vendor Hardship Fund, or by donating respirators for farmers to Portland Area CSA Coalition.
Thank you all for your support, flexibility and love! As a side note- if the market is still too smoky to operate this Saturday, we'll have pick up at Feral Public House again from 1-4 pm.
Your farmers,
Kelly & Patrick
