Ever wondered if there was an easy way to find out about the soils beneath your feet? Well, thanks to the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) and the Internet – we can all explore what lies beneath the surface…..

Here’s the link: Web Soil Survey

They have a quick link Green Button to run the program but it doesn’t usually work so try the search box instead. All you need is an address in the United States and it will bring up an aerial photograph. From there, you select an AOI (Area of Interest) and it will bring up all kinds of good information.

This a great tool for learning more about Soil Classifications as defined by the USDA.

Happy Surveying!

Freshly Cut Noble, Grand, Douglas & Nordman Firs $10 – $25:

Help us clear out the Christmas Trees so we can grow more food for our community!

We have just begun managing a farm that has a 5 acre plot of Beautiful, Mature Christmas Trees. That’s 3500 trees! We want the trees gone so we can rehabilitate the soil as soon as possible.

Purchase your family’s tree from us and the proceeds of the sale will go directly into the farm: to build soil and purchase fruit tree and berries to plant an Organic U-Pick Berry Patch and Fruit Orchard here in our community. On-farm sales on Saturdays will be donated to Ridgeline Montessori School.

Come pick out a tree!

Wed – Fri: Noon – 4:00pm;
Sat & Sun: 10:00am – 4:00pm
89060 Old Mohawk Rd
Springfield, OR 97478

and

Wed – Fri: 3:00pm – 7:00pm
Sat & Sun: 11:00am – 5:30pm
At the OG Corner Market:
295 River Rd
Eugene, OR 97402

Need Directions or Have Questions? Contact Rachel: 525-5080
Happy Holidays!!!

Now’s your chance to stock up on farm fresh storage crops!

From Willamette Farm and Food Coalition:

“Don’t miss the chance to buy staple crops direct from farmers on Sunday, November 13, noon to 4pm, at Hummingbird Wholesale’s new warehouse at 150 Shelton McMurphey Blvd.”  in Eugene.

 

SLO Farm will be there with Apples, Apples and more Apples as well as our newest product…….

Applesauce!!!

Working with our new friends Paul & Judy at the Sweet Creek Cannery; we have a new product to offer our fruit-loving community. We took our apples – a blend of freshly picked Jonagold and Gala apples – and added blackcap raspberry puree from the Small Farmer’s Project. All local, all direct, all delicious!!

$6 for a 24 oz. jar.

 

See you next Sunday!

 

 

 

 

We have for you…..

 

Strawberries

Blackberries

Shiro Plums

Green Beans

Zucchini

Bietola

Flat – Leaf Parsley

Green Curly Kale

Garlic

Cucumbers

 

 

Enjoy!

Since we live and farm in this mild climate of Western Oregon, shouldn’t we be growing food year round?

Of course! What are we waiting for?

Well, we’re looking for a little advice, some seeds and some folks to nerd out on winter vegetables with us. We’ve got some ideas and are making some plans but we’d like to talk to the folks who are doing this fine thing of providing fresh food through the winter months.

We’ve just sown seeds for a fall crop of cabbages and for overwintering onions. We’ll be direct sowing parsnip, kale and rutabaga soon. We’d like to grow some brussels sprouts, too.

Any thoughts?

We’d love to hear ‘em. Thank you! And Happy Solstice!

This post first appeared on June 24, 2011 at the Willamette Locavores blog.

Visit us in the Fairmount Neighborhood of Eugene tomorrow, Sunday July 17:

Produce Available: Cherries, Green Cabbage, Snap Peas, Bietola, Lettuce, Flat Leaf Parsley, Potatoes, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Fresh Garlic

Plus: Honey and Eggs

The Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is held Sundays from 10 AM to 2:30 PM on the Sun Automotive lot on the corner of Agate St. and 19th Ave. The 2011 season started on June 19th and runs through October. For more information, contact Ned Forman at the Eugene City Bakery (541-485-8380).

Also: Please check out the Crunchy Rice Noodle Salad recipe at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market blog!

Many thanks to Karen at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market blog for featuring our Snap Peas and Bietola and her delicious falafel recipe to go along with it:

Yum!! Read all about it here.

Bietola salad recipes can be found here.

Come see us at 19th & Agate in the Fairmount Neighborhood of Eugene tomorrow, Sunday June 19, 10am – 2pm.

Produce Available:  Strawberries, Broccoli, Beets, Lettuce Mix, Fresh Garlic, Potatoes, Chard, Raab, Basil, Parsley

Plus: Honey, Flower Starts, Eggs

See you soon!!

The Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is held Sundays from 10 AM to 2:30 PM on the Sun Automotive lot on the corner of Agate St. and 19th Ave. The 2011 season will start on June 19th and run through October. For more information, contact Ned Forman at the Eugene City Bakery (541-485-8380).

It’s thinning time! This is a crucial time in the management of the tree fruit crop – we reduce the amount of fruit on the trees by up to 70%, depending on the fruit set.

Here you see the fruit set, and then the same branch thinned to a good crop load. We cut out a lot of fruit – mainly so that the trees don’t overcrop – carrying too many fruits to maturity can stress the tree, bringing on disease and reducing the fruit set the following year. This is also our first opportunity to grade the crop – we cut out small, deformed or damaged fruits, as well as any fruits growing in the shade.  We thin down to approximately one fruit every 8 inches, and one fruit per cluster.

You can use scissors to cut out the young fruits, but I like the springy action of these thinning snips. A long curved blade is helpful for getting between the fruits, especially with a short-stemmed variety such as these Liberty Apples.

Hear ye hear ye, let it be known that you will find SLO Farm every Sunday at 19th & Agate starting Sunday June 19.

Ready for berries?

We certainly are and even with the 5th worst Spring in recorded history here in the Willamette Valley, we’ll be bringing you the early sweet strawberries starting June 19th.

Come see us: 10am – 3pm, Sundays at 19th & Agate.

Our early crops include Bright Red Strawberries, Sweet Snap Peas, Tender Green Cabbage, Lovely Lettuces and More!

We will be updating our weekly list of produce through the Fairmount Neighborhood Market Blog – also a great place for inspiring recipes featuring seasonal ingredients. Check it out here.

See you soon!

It’s wet again… so we’re spending some time inside, spring cleaning our home and taking time to read books, magazines, seed catalogs, and whatever we can find on the ol’ Internet:

One of my favorites is Growing for Market : They have a great website with news updates related to market farming. If you don’t know about it, you should. They have been around a long time and have lots of helpful info for all of us new growers and even the older stubborn types too.

Another fun site is the National Young Farmers Association : a newer site being developed by and for Young Farmers of America. I definitely like the idea of our generation of new farmers having a voice in the great agricultural debates of the 21st century: GMO or no? Corporate Industrial Ag or small family farms? We need to let it be known that small organic farms can and do feed a lot of people and even employ people in meaningful, healthy work. But in order for that message to be heard we need to get together through organizations like this one – we’ll be louder that way.

These online resources are immeasurably valuable to us – we spend so much time on the farm and focused on our business development plans, that we don’t get much time to connect with others like us who are busy wrapped up in their own farm projects. These websites make it easy to stay connected to that larger community out there – to hear what is happening all over this huge, resource-rich country where local organic agriculture is becoming more and more mainstream. We’ve got to keep that perspective to remind ourselves of more of the reasons why we live this farmy life.

We’d like to start making larger batches of Apple Sauce, and Apple-Blackberry Sauce to sell at market. We have a great local organic processor Sweet Creek Foods who is certified to make value-added products for local farmers. This year we may send 2,000 pounds of Apples to Sweet Creek to be sauced and jarred with a fun SLO Farm label.

The Oregon State Legislature is currently considering a bill that would remove the need for us pay a processor to make the sauce for us. Here is a link to HB 2336 . This bill has already passed the House and would allow us to produce and sell our own Organic Local Apple Sauce without the added expense of a certified kitchen. Hooray! We are watching this bill very closely….

The bees are working hard in the orchard today – the sun is shining and its just warm enough for them to do their thing. It’s a beautiful thing to see a pear tree in full bloom, buzzing with bees. Thanks to their hard work right now, it looks like SLO Farm will be harvesting a whole lot of fruit this season.

Thank you bees!

Meanwhile, we are transplanting cabbages and pac choi  into the field, trellising snap peas, weeding the garlic and strawberries and tending starts in the greenhouse.

Now all we need is more Sun to dry up all this rain – and according to our friends at Weather Underground more sunshine is on the agenda. Hooray!

At the start of the season, you can purchase a SLO Farm share, a “Farm Stand Credit” to be redeemed at our Farm Stand in Eugene on Sundays. Our Farm Stand is at the corner of 19th & Agate, 10 am – 2pm, Sundays, July – October.

In this model, you benefit from the ability to pre-budget your spending, the farm receives some early-season income, and you get to choose the size, frequency and specifics of your share. If you need to miss a week, that’s fine, we’ll see you next time. If you really love Asian Pears but don’t like blackberries so much, you decide how much you get.

The Sunday Farm Stand is a mellow location, near the University. There is ample parking and no crowds. Bring the kids! Meet your farmers! We would be happy to help put a share together for you or you can pick your items yourself. We will keep track of your available credit and will remind you when your credit is getting low. This is a non-refundable Farm Stand Credit and you choose how much to spend. In years past, our CSA Shares for the full season of fruit cost $325. If that is beyond your budget, choose a smaller amount. Or if you have a large family and really want to eat a lot of fruit, you can purchase a larger Farm Stand Credit.

This is going to be a GREAT year of fruit for us – we have already had pollination on the plums and Asian Pears. The Cherries are up next and look excellent and the Apples, Pears and berries will also be available in abundance this season.

We welcome your membership with SLO Farm and we look forward to meeting you at Market – either Downtown Eugene on Saturdays or at 19th & Agate on Sundays.

If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Happy Spring,

Rachel

We are what some folks call First Generation Farmers. This is a new term to us, one that provokes further thought…Our families are not farmers. We come from urban areas of the United States. We did not garden growing up. And yet here we are, farming organically in Eugene, Oregon. We did not inherit family land or tools or agricultural wisdom. We have undertaken to teach ourselves how to grow, process and sell fresh fruits and produce for our local community. These are old skills, skills our great-grandparents utilized but were not able to pass on to our generation. We are not truly first at doing what we do but we’re the first in awhile. We are up against the mega-corporate industrial farming entities who supply most of our nation’s food supply.  We compete with them in some senses, in that they have created a system wherein food is super cheap and the people have become accustomed to eating summer fruits all year round. We offer something totally different. Freshness. And almost every dollar we spend is spent right here, in Eugene, in the Willamette Valley, in Oregon. We buy from out of state when necessary but even then strive to support locally-owned and -operated suppliers and distributors. We have some catching up to do as farmers; but we’re learning all the time.

February is nearly done and with March comes a building excitement for the coming growing season. The buds have begun to swell on the fruit trees and we have sown our early snap peas. The garlic is slowly growing and we have cabbage seedlings in the greenhouse.

We are finalizing our 2011 crop plan and selecting a few new seed varieties for trialing this year. We will grow most of the same annual crops as last year, with a few additions, a few subtractions and some expansions of crops we trialed last year. We will grow more kale, lettuce, parsley, green beans and saucing tomatoes. Cucumbers, cabbages, beets and peas will also increase their presence in our fields. We will still grow potatoes and peppers but not as much space will be dedicated to their cultivation. We would really like to grow more potatoes but they need fresh ground and our tiny farm has already run out of room. We are managing to source a larger proportion of our seed needs from growers we know who live in our region. Cabbage seed remains elusive (we buy ours from Johnny’s) as it is a difficult seed crop to bring to fruition.

We have begun recruitment for our farm crew; we plan to hire 3 – 5 individuals this season for part-time positions in the fields, orchards and at market. We encourage folks with experience working on small diverse organic farm systems to apply.

Currently happening on the University of Oregon campus here in Eugene. An impressive gathering of minds from all over the nation congregating to discuss the global food crisis and the possibilities of local economies.

Special guest Dr. Vandana Shiva joins the conference as the closing plenary speaker.

For more info please check out the Food Justice Conference website.

They will be posting video recordings of the panels and speakers, so even if you cannot make it to the campus, you can see and hear what has happened.

Happy New Year!

We’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Season of Feastin’. This nourishing, restful season began around Thanksgiving and is still going strong two months later.

Currently joining us at our table are our good friends, direct from the field: Kale, Parsnip, Parsley, Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage. Also making regular appearances out of the freezer are roasted Ancho Peppers, Bell Peppers, and Snow Peas. And out of the storage closet Garlic, Onions, Pumpkins, Winter Squash, canned Tomatoes and dried Cayenne Peppers. And we are lucky enough to still be eating fresh Apples out of the cooler. And while I’m listing our Feastin’ participants, I can’t leave out the mega-Berry stash in the freezer…yes, this year we put up a lot of Berries: Strawberry, Blackberry, Blueberry and Raspberry.

So Feastin’ is what’s Happenin’ on the SLO Farm.

Buen Provecho!

In local news, we’re happy to report that the Willamette Food and Farm Coalition has posted an online version of their excellent Locally Grown Guide, which is a comprehensive directory and index of Lane County farms, farms stands, U-Pick locations, CSAs and more.

The directory can also be searched online by farm, category, product and keyword.

The 2010 Locally Grown Guide is also available here as a pdf.

The market season has begun for SLO Farm. We have participated in two neighborhood markets here in Eugene:

Saturday, 9am – 2pm at28th & Oak (by the South Town Shops)

Sunday, 10am – 3pm at 19th & Agate (by Eugene City Bakery)

We have really enjoyed being at these two markets and we are excited about the potential for the coming season. It’s great to be in a neighborhood and be bringing quality food to families and folks who want to eat fresh, local and organic without the crowds of the downtown Lane County Farmer’s Market.

Come check us out!

Currently Available:

Potatoes – Fingerlings and pinks, just dug and delicious!

Garlic – Freshly dug and very flavorful

Kale – Pretty, tender and nutritious

Cabbage – sweet, crisp and nourishing

Blueberries – come try some of the best in our area….

Cherry Plums – sweet and juicy!

Our spring gardens are growing well, producing peas, cabbages, lettuce and kale.We are mainly wholesaling now, althoug we did attend one market at the Southtowne Shops at 28th & Oak in Eugene – Saturday 9am – 2pm.

Our early March-planted potatoes are still growing and the few we have dug  were beautiful and delicious. We really just love the fingerling potato. Any way you prepare it, it tastes great.

We’ve been spending a lot of time putting up this greenhouse – our first. It’s huge.

And we’ve got the plastic on, it is even planted with tomatoes which are growing vigorously.

We got so excited about greenhouses, we decided to put up another, although much smaller, recycled greenhouse for field-side storage of tools and such.

Meantime, we are monitoring the orchards for the Codling Moth – one of our major pests.

I have three traps in in different zones of the orchard. I check them every 2 -3 days for moths. We track the data, calculate degree days and figure out when we should begin spraying out the insecticidal virus we use to battle this pest. Our first spray was later this year than usual, as the moths were not doing their thing during the cold wet weather. Now that they are out and its hot, we are spraying every 10 days. We brew up a batch of compost tea to spray the virus out with, so the whole farm gets a good dose of microbiology on a regular schedule.

Also in the orchard, we are thinning our fruit set. We have a lot of apples this year, so the trees need our attention.

We thin the fruit down to about 1 every 10 inches or so – sometimes spaced apart even more if the tree is carrying an especially heavy load. It takes us three rounds through the orchard to get the fruit set thinned to an appropriate level. We are aiming to have a healthy distribution of energy for each tree: if they try to carry too much fruit through to maturity, the tree may not fruit again next year, or the fruit may be small and not as flavorful. We also thin to ensure the trees do not break branches from too much fruit (which they can and will do if left to their own ways).

That’s a bit of what we’ve been up to lately……. more to share soon….

In April, we have the pleasure of witnessing the very first stages of a fruit:

The beginnings of an early plum is indicated by the swelling at the base of a spent flower. In this highly fluctuational Oregon spring with a stretch of warmth followed by cold and wet, we have been a bit nervous about the pollination of the trees. A lot of the early trees (Asian plums and Asian pears) were in full bloom almost three weeks earlier than usual. It was a bit too early for the bees to be out but we did see many native pollinators in the orchard. And the honeybees did arrive on the tail end of the bloom, so we are hoping for the best.

Also, thanks to the early warm weather, we have the pleasure of welcoming an early set of insects. Please meet the Leaf Roller:

and another Leaf Roller with a view of its damage to the leaf:

This little pest has found a nice home in the Asian Pear trees – with their nice soft young leaves, the Leaf Rollers make themselves right at home. These little buggers take their name from what they do: they literally roll a leaf around them, cocooning themselves in the safety of a nice leaf blanket. They eat the leaves in addition to rolling them up, thereby reducing the tree’s ability to photosynthesize: less leaf surface area = less sugar available to the fruit. If allowed to occupy the trees, the Leaf Roller will move on to the fruit once it sets.

Our Organic toolkit for subduing the Leaf Roller includes a spray application of Bt: Bacillus Thuringiensis. This bacteria is helpful in management of many caterpillar-type pests, both in the orchard and in the garden. We have sprayed Bt once so far and plan on a few more applications.

Tom is getting to do some early season tilling in the field. You can see in the background of this photo the thick black plastic that covered this small field all winter so when this dry spell hit, we were ready to work the soil. Tom is tilling shallowly as the soil is still fairly wet, even after being protected all winter long.

Molly and Kyle are here in the last row of the strawberry patch, finishing up the planting. We laid out lines and then dug furrows with the handy wheel hoe. We amended the rows with compost and planted the strawberry roots about 8 – 10 inches apart. We mounded up the soil a bit around the plants and along the furrows to aid in drainage.

We planted Albion strawberries, an ever-bearing variety which should begin fruiting for us this July for about a 10 week harvest. Next season we can expect to harvest an even larger crop of these strawberries from July until frost.

This strawberry planting further diversifies our farm operation. In years when the trees may not be in full production, we will still have quality fruits available.

Fresh veggies are still not quite a reality for most farmers and cooks this early in Spring, but we are getting creative and still eating well in our kitchen.

This morning, Breakfast Tacos filled our bellies, featuring fresh corn tortillas and salsa verde from the Tortilleria El Metate in Springfield.

Spring Breakfast Tacos:

Leeks

Kale

Eggs

Milk

Butter

Tortillas

Salsa Verde

To prepare: melt butter in a small cast iron skillet, slowly saute the thinly sliced leeks. Putting a lid on the pan helps seal in the flavor and keep the juices from the leeks in the pan instead of evaporating. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add a few splashes of milk to create a somewhat creamy consistency. Warm the tortillas in a toaster oven on low temperature. Once the leeks soften, add the shredded kale. Let it cook down for a minute, add a few spoonfuls of salsa verde, then pour in the eggs. Avoid the temptation to stir. Let the eggs cook a bit, stir just a couple times until cooked through. Spoon mix into warmed tortillas, add a little spoonful of salsa and eat!

One of our favorites continues to play an important role in our kitchen:

Oven Pancake with Frozen Fruits

Butter

Pancake mix of your choice

Frozen Fruits of your choice

Simply melt butter in a cast iron, add fruit and simmer until warm. Mix up your pancake batter, pour it over the fruit and put it directly in a hot oven. Cook until golden brown and puffed up, about 20 minutes. We like Pears, Blueberries or Cherries.

In this photo, you can see the development of two types of buds: on the upper left, this bud will become leaves, more vegetative growth for the tree; on the right and lower left, you can see the beginnings of flowers which, with a good pollination window, will become the luscious Asian Pears that grow so well for us here in the Southern Willamette Valley.

The weather has been dry and warm, with cool overnights, and the trees are developing quickly as Spring officially began yesterday with the Vernal Equinox.

The Apple trees are also beginning to open their flower buds, and this year is looking very promising, with an already abundant flower set. A welcome change from last year’s sparse fruit set for the Apple trees at Seavey Loop.