Happy Memorial Day! We would like to give a special thank you to those who have or are serving our country or have lost family members in service. I remember as a child when my grandpa would take us to the cemetery on Memorial Day to clean our family members' resting places and give thanks and remembrance. There is also the tradition of donning poppies to commemorate those lost in WW1. It was said that poppies sprouted up after battle from the excess nitrogen and lime (from bombs and building that were destroyed). A beautiful and quite sorrowful poem from Lt. Col. John McCrae:
“In Flanders fields, the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard above the guns below …”
For more info on the poppies check out this blog post from Bakers Creek Seeds.
On other farm notes:
We finished pulling the plastic on the high tunnel this weekend with the help of some great friends and volunteers. It took quite a few hands to hold the plastic in place while another person attached the "wiggle wire" to lock in the plastic. There were a few breezy moments but all in all it went wonderful and we can now plant out the remaining tomatoes, eggplant, and hot peppers in the new structure. This high tunnel will give us a longer season providing no only warmth for crops in shoulder seasons (early spring and early winter), but will also help protect sensitive crops from rain damage. We typically lose a lot of tomatoes and peppers in the fall from too much rain.
We applied for a grant through NRCS Natural Resource Conservation Services, a program of the USDA. With this grant we covered the cost of the kit to build the high tunnel. We had to supply the labor, wood and concrete to set the side walls and posts.
Grants and government funding are actually a huge part of our agriculture system. Many staple crops are heavily subsidized by the government. The top 5 crops receiving subsidies going to corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice. Many of which are then used for animal feed or turned into ethanol & high fructose corn syrup. Usually multi-million dollar huge scale commercial agriculture receives these subsidies. Some of these subsidies are also used to provide crop insurance and disaster relief to farmers.
Many smaller non-profit organizations and trusts provide the majority of funding assistance to small farms. This season we have been blessed with grants from Tilth Washington, the National Young Farmers Coalition, and CCOF. With the help of these grants we can complete our transition to certified organic and they have provided us with resources and tools to expand our operation/collaboration project.
We're very excited for the start of the season!!! Some of you are already picking up spring salad shares and personal shares. We are also continuing to stagger some of our start dates and getting more produce out to our members. If you ever have any questions about your deliveries, they can be found in your harvie profile:
https://www.harvie.farm/member/deliveries
See you all soon!
Kelly, Patrick, Lyndsay
