Last week was an extraordinarily busy week at the Farm because we had a couple extra things on our "plate". The first thing was our annual Organic Inspection last Tuesday. I'm very proud to be a Certified Organic Farmer/Farm and take it very seriously! I'm known for taking it so seriously in fact that I'm serving my 2nd term on the Iowa Organic Advisory Council (appointed by former Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey) where we discuss with IDALS (Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship) about different topics, concerns, etc involving Certified Organic Farms in Iowa. After our next meeting I will go into more detail about what we do in a month or two after our next meeting. Because I take being Certified Organic so seriously the Inspection brings back up feelings like when I was in College and going into an exam or big presentation. I know everything is done above and beyond the National Organic Program rules, but always afraid I've forgotten to "cross my t's or dot my "i's"! I've never been found in noncompliance for any of the requirements to be Certified Organic (nor was I this year) but I always have that anxiety like "Test Day" in college ; )!
Another big thing we were doing was being a vendor at the Hinterland Music Festival in St. Charles, Iowa. Live music was/is a very big part of my life but once I started Farming it became more and more challenging to get to see live concerts because of a bigger passion of wanting to grow Food for my local community. Last year was the first year I was invited by the great folks who put on Hinterland to be a vendor selling our bounty to both campers and prepared food vendors alike. This last weekend was the Hinterland Music Festival and while it made for extremely long days, I'm glad to have gotten the opportunity to combine by two biggest passions, feeding people and seeing live music! Heartland Burrito (out of Iowa City) was a big supporter of the Farm in purchasing produce and I finally got to try their food! It was a lot of fun attending this event and spreading the word about Wabi Sabi Farm!!!
This most likely will be the last week Scallions will be available this season! I had intentions of having them available all season but once the rainy wet Spring happened that plan was dropped in order to try and keep on schedule with all of our other Spring plantings. We'll be seeding a perennial variety this week in the greenhouse to plant out into the fields in around 6 weeks. The intention is to have perennial scallions growing in the field and we can harvest them continually for many seasons to come!
I'm happy to report that we did our first Jalapeno harvest of the season! While there will not be enough to share with everyone this week. Your Cherry tomatoes are just starting to ripen and and we're looking forward to harvesting the first pricking by the end of the week!
Have a great week,
Farmer Ben and the Crew
