Flying Time

June 7? That was my last blog post?  I was thinking it had only been a couple of weeks!  So much for keeping up with blogging, I guess.

I suppose it's indicative of the season - there is SO much to keep up with this time of year that it's not too surprising I fell off the semi-regular posting wagon.  We are almost half way through the CSA season here at One Step at a Time Gardens, and have been busy visiting other farms around the state and hosting family.  We had Eli's 12 year old nephew (also named Eli) here with us for a week, and visits from Eli's sister and mom on either end of that week.  We're also wading through this heat bubble along with much of the rest of the country, and are finding that 10 hours outside in 100+ degree weather is enough to make a pair pretty tired at the end of the day.  Tack on on-going chores like bread-baking and jam making, and some things (like blogging) fall to the wayside.  Ah well.

We've really turned a seasonal corner in our crops over the last week as we saw the end of cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach, radishes, scallions and peas.  While we're sad to see those crunchy items go, I'm really excited to see the onset of more heat loving crops like zucchini, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, and, the summer vegetable star, TOMATOES.  Each CSA member got one tomato last week, we at the farm at BLTs 3 times, and we anticipate doling out thousands of pounds more of the juicy vegetable  over the next month or so.  Tomatoes just seem to sing summer is here!
  
The farm seems to be humming along. It feels really good to be here a second year and see crops through a second rotation - I have surprised myself a number of times this season with how much I've learned over the last year.  While there will always be more to learn, more to try, it is incredibly gratifying to see how much more I understand after just a season and a half.  I suppose the real test will come once we're forging our own way, but for now I'll take the sense of satisfaction that comes with knowing one has learned something valuable, however small the lesson. Time does fly, after all.

On Beginning

Beginning.  It's a word that carries a bit of weight for me. It is, after all, the meaning of my unusual first name.  From very early on I remember my parents telling me, and telling anyone who asked, they chose the name Genesis because they hoped I would represent and embody a new beginning in a broken world. The only specific new beginnings I remember references to are "beginnings for women-kind." A little vague (and maybe a little heavy?), but the general intention has stuck with me.  I admit to having felt a certain (self imposed. definitely self imposed) pressure every time I have a major beginning - will this job be it?  Will this friendship change my life?  Will I live up to this amazing but intense name my whole world identifies with me?  Can I make a big enough impact?

And I finally feel comfortable saying yes.  Yes, absolutely my impact will be big enough. Producing food and building local community and economy and health and wealth (of spirit anyway) will most certainly be enough. More than enough.  And the best part is I am still just at the beginning. The very very baby beginning of this impact.The truth is I'll probably still be at the beginning 5 years from now, but that is really okay. There is much to learn, and many hard, hot and long seasons to get through but I'm still so excited to have that in front of me.  You people are probably really sick of hearing me say that.


Most of this is spurred by a really fantastic field day that Eli and I went to on Sunday at Gardens of Eagen, a 50 acre organic farm outside of the Twin Cities.  The all day event was centered around market gardening for beginners, and featured two farming couples who both had been incubated by the mega-farm. The first couple has been farming for 8 years and are just starting to feel like they have a grasp on things, and the second couple is farming for themselves for the first time this year and are flying by the seat of their pants. But they are in fact flying, which is important.   It was really information and inspiring, though, and I left feeling really energized about our path and really ready to get a solo season under our belts. Next year will come soon enough.  

In the meantime, we are trying to survive the mid-August weather that is visiting us in June (highs close to triple digits) and getting more comfortable in the harvesting routine.  We're also continuing to fill out our own little market plot and enjoying more faces on the farm. As we've moved into the harvest and delivery phase of the year we've brought on more of the high season farm crew to help, and it makes each day a little different, depending on who we get around here.  Kind of a nice change of pace.

A couple photos to end the post - Eli tilling in a buckwheat cover crop to our little plot, and some lettuce waiting to get packed up for the CSA delivery.

Rhythm and Routine

June starts tomorrow, which means so do One Step at a Time Gardens' CSA deliveries.  All the number crunching and planning that Tim and Jan did over the winter and all the prep work the 4 of us have done since the beginning of April begin to culminate now.  It is the beginning of a 18 weekly deliveries of vegetables to various locations in Des Moines and smaller communities in North Iowa. 

It is the beginning of highly ordered frenetic activity that will probably border on chaos at least once. It is also the most routine time of the farming year.  The work just doesn't stop, nor does it even slow until well into September.  The to-do list will, reliably, never get done.  And yet,

It is so exciting!!

June means beginning the harvest each Tuesday and Wednesday morning first thing.  It means processing the bounty through cold flowing water, trimming roots and pulling discolored leaves. 
Weighing and portioning so each farm member gets their share of the loot.  Setting aside blemished or damaged produce for our own consumption.  Packing boxes and loading the van, sending Jan or Tim down the road to deliver the fruits (vegetables) of our labor to families around central Iowa.  Assessing which crops need weeding most urgently.  Moving chickens to fresh pasture each morning. Dragging hoses and setting up sprinklers. Finding the short in the electric fence. Going to market on Friday.  Trying to scrounge some end of the day energy to freeze and can for our own winter use. Sleep, stretch and repeat.

Rhythm and routine of work and satisfaction, work and satisfaction. 

Musings on the Middle West

For a long time I said with great conviction and depth that I couldn't imagine moving back to the Midwest.  I was never quite sure where exactly I'd end up, but I was sure I knew where I wouldn't end up, and that was the very region in which I grew up.

Even when we moved to Iowa last May, I wasn't ready to commit to being a Midwesterner again. Yes, I was ready to break from the Pacific Northwest, at least for a time. I remember explaining it to family and friends as a need to stretch my wings, just like I'd needed to stretch them 8 years earlier when I left my lifelong home in Indiana at 18. But rest assured, when folks around here asked where we were from I was quick to answer: Oregon.


It's not only far away, the state is known for something - for lots of things really. An outstanding and breathtaking array of outdoor environments and a thriving and utterly progressive urban population are two of Oregon's qualities that most readily come to mind, but there are countless other things that make the state so special.  And, for a kid from IndiaNoPlace, Indiana, being there for so long somehow felt like it made me more special, especially when I came home. I guess it's a little conceited to admit to such a feeling but I do so because I am certainly not the only kid from the Midwest who felt like they barely escaped a dull life full of euchre and macaroni casserole by getting out while I could.

Only, now that I've been back in the region for a while, I totally don't feel that way anymore.  Not even a little bit.  I feel excited to be here. I feel like I am bringing something really valuable to the region and like I have a lot to learn from other folks doing the same.  I feel like I get this place in a way I could never quite get the Pacific Northwest, yet I am seeing it through much more appreciative eyes. It's like a really good pair of shoes that I shoved in the back of the closet for 8 years and am now totally psyched to rediscover. Jeez Midwest, why did I write you off for so long??  Kinda makes me feel like an idiot. 

But at least I'm an idiot with a place to belong. I belong here because this is where I was shaped.  I belong here because I understand and appreciate the subtleties of Midwestern culture and life.  I belong here because I can actually withstand the heat and humidity.  I belong here because I have the option to make a quick weekend trip to see my family, no flight reservations needed.  But mostly, I belong here because I want to be here.

Middle West, I may not (actually, I probably don't) always agree with your conservative politics, your love for car racing, or your weight problem, but I will never dog you as a whole again. Thanks for welcoming me home - after 27 years I am finally glad to be here.

Hot and Busy. And ramps.

The former just today, and the latter since last Monday.

It's 7pm and weather.com says it is currently 100 degrees. The calendar still says it's May 10, but I could have sworn all day it was August 10.  Remember the posting about snow?  That was 3 weeks ago.  They say farming shouldn't be this hard. That it didn't used to be so unpredictable.  Welp. 

I'm not exactly sure what to make of it, but then again I'm not exactly sure what my middle name is either after a day like today, which followed a week like this week.  We started planting last Monday and I've been dreaming potato mounds, precision seeders, and broccoli transplants ever since. We had about 3 weeks of plantings to catch up on and while we haven't totally caught up, we have put a pretty good dent in the list. 


Many thousands of feet of potatoes, onions, leeks, scallions, radishes, peas, arugula, tot soi, bok choy, lettuce, spinach, and probably some other stuff made it into the ground.  now we just need some rain. But not too much! 

In other news, the woods across the lake have something very, very delicious to offer us: ramps. 

We foraged these wild leeks late last week and have been incorporating them into as many meals as possible.  They are wonderful added to scrambled eggs, and I made a pretty mean ramp pesto for lunch today.  They have a really distinct, almost sharp flavor that is reminiscent of both onions and garlic.  Two absolutely indispensable items in my kitchen, so this is basically a wonder food to me.   They grow wild all over the forests of the Midwest and Appalachia (maybe the East Coast too...not sure), though this is the first time I've even known to take note of them.  I do love the small tidbits of knowledge I pick up from country folk - such a different breed than city folk.

Here is one former city girl happy to currently be a country girl, even when it is 100 degrees in early May.  (I was not wearing all of those clothes today...this was a couple of days ago!)

 

It's early Sunday evening before our fifth week of work for the season, and it's a week I'm really looking forward to.  Spring has finally started to seep into the landscape here in North Central Iowa, and everybody is itching to get into the fields.  Even the corn farmers have been getting nervous about the on going cold and wet, sure that delayed planting will mean decreased yields.  We've seen a number of clear days, though, with more in the forecast.  Winds in the 40 - 50 mph range don't make it very comfortable to be outside but they do help the soil dry out.  Whoever said talk of the weather was boring was most certainly not a farmer.  It occupies much of my conversation and thought these days, and it hasn't bored me yet. 

The weather has put us over two weeks behind schedule here, so dry soil and clear days means one thing this week: PLANTING.  There are radishes, green onions, storage onions, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and broccoli my oh my SO much broccoli just begging to be plunked in the ground.  Our fingers are crossed that the weather will hold, the soil will continue to breathe, and our backs will be ready for some good old fashioned bending and hunching. Hopefully for the whole week.  Getting a little sore just thinking about it, but in a lovely I-just-accomplished-something kind of way. Oh, farm thrills! 


Speaking of thrills - my biggest thrill of the week came today, and it looked like this:

Asparagus! Finally!  We don't produce it commercially so it's not exactly the most well tended asparagus patch, but it's there and it is starting to grow, and I am oh so excited about it. 

Another consistently big thrill looks like this:

The man I love and our garden plot. It really, really is thrilling to be pursuing a common passion with the person you share your life with. I count myself lucky, 50 mph hour winds and all.    

Hoophouse Take 2

Just a quick note to say - we got the hoop house up!  Well, most of it anyway.  We ran short on supplies to put in the very last side panelings, but all the other parts are done.  End walls, roof, and the bottom of both long sides are tightly secured in plastic. And just in time, too. We finished up about 8pm last night after a 12+ hour day, and here is what the view was this morning - 

 

The new hoop house is on the left, and the existing one stands on the right.  As you can see, it is still not quite spring around here.   Just a little sleet and snow to make sure we really knew it.  

BUT, this does illustrate the importance of having structures like these on a vegetable farm.  Anything planted out in the field would have been total toast after a day like today, but veggies planted inside these babies stay nice and cozy and warm.  It was a balmy 68 degrees in there when this photo was taken.  Hoop houses really are crucial for extending the season, and extending the season is becoming more and more crucial to turning a profit.  Which is crucial for running a successful farm.  A hoop house just might be on my Christmas wish list this year.

Hoophouse Take 1

One of the biggest projects on the list for the last year or two here at One Step at a Time Gardens has been to get a second hoophouse built.  Tim and Jan bought the structure a few years ago, and its parts have been waiting patiently in a seldom used corner of the barn.  We started putting the thing up last fall, and have diligently continued working on it over the last 10 days.  So diligently, in fact, that just yesterday we finished putting in all the requisite parts so that it would be ready for just the right day. A day that dawns blue and warm, with (and this is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART) absolutely no wind. 

This is uber important because trying to maneuver 100 square feet of thick plastic over a metal frame 90 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 16 feet tall is complicated enough as it is.  Adding in the slightest breeze, the slightest excuse for that plastic to pick up all that wind energy and start flapping around, is everybody's nightmare.  At least around here.  

Anyhow, a spring day with no wind on the prairie is like a day with no rain in Oregon in January.  It happens, but it's super rare.  Imagine our surprise when Tim and Jan came knocking on our door early this morning to say, this is it! This is plastic day!  Holy cow, we thought - what impeccable timing.  We just finished getting the thing ready for this day yesterday!  So up to the hill we went, skipping and smiling all the while.

We got everything ready - rolled out the plastic, laid out the wiggle wire. It looked like this:

We tied softballs into the plastic, and tied long ropes around the softballs. We lobbed the ropes up and over the frame, scrambled to the other side to start heaving that 200 lb. roll of plastic up and over.  We got a great start!  It looked like this:

We got the two ends secured, and were poised and ready to start locking in the sides and.....WHOOOOOSSSSHHHHHH.

 
A big.ole.gust.of prairie wind.  The kind that makes you think you might get carried on over to Illinois if you're not careful.  Sigh.  The ropes burned our hands as it whizzed through. The plastic flapped. And flapped. And flapped. It was loud. And panicky for a few moments as we rushed around to undo what we'd already secured.  Holes in that baby would be bad, baaaaad news.  So we let the plastic flap itself on over to it's original side and sat in the tractor bucket licking our (figurative) wounds for a while.  It was not plastic day after all.

In fact, it turned into repairing fencing day.  Not a bad day to spend a Wednesday, but definitely not as good as completing a six month project.  At least the dry run is over!

From the Get Go: Season Prep 101

We’re back on the farm almost 2 months earlier than we showed up last year and getting a much bigger picture of what it takes to run a successful mid-size farm.  In 2010 we started work the last week of May, only 1 week before harvest and deliveries started for the CSA, farmer’s markets, and wholesale accounts.   That means that the bulk of the fence repair, tilling, bed prep, transplanting, direct seeding, and first big weeding flush were already done by the time we came on the scene.  The farm was already in full swing, and we jumped right in. 

This year, because we showed up at the beginning of April instead of the end of May, we’re getting some feeling for what the “warm up” to full swing production feels like. When we arrived 10 days ago, the farm looked and felt much as it did when we left at the end of October.  None of the fields had been tilled, nothing planted, no fences repaired.  This is not to say that work hadn’t taken place. Lots and lots of seeds have been started – both Jan and Tim’s basement and the basement at our Little House are full of seedlings at various stages of growth.  Broccoli, tomatoes, lettuces, spinach, cabbage, and a variety of herbs are inside getting a head start.  The lion’s share of the marketing and planning for the season were done over the winter. Conferences were attended, equipment was purchased. The time for the more cerebral parts of farming happens during “slow” winter season – ideally one wants to think through, plan out and write down the entire growing season well before it even starts. 

So, here we are at the very start of the season, almost 2 full months before we actually harvest and sell anything.  And boy do we have a list of things to do.  High on the priority list is to finish the hoop house we started building last fall.  The planting plan calls for tomatoes to be in the ground under the cover of this structure two weeks from now, and here it stands:  

Doors hung, frame built. Now we wait for the calmest of calm days to come around so we can drape the thing in a piece of plastic 100 feet long and 100 feet wide.  We’re also making compost piles with the heaps of manure that have collected in the barns over the winter from the chickens and the horse and trying to get some cover crops in the fields that won’t be planted until May or June.  Also potting on broccoli and tomatoes and steadily filling the greenhouse with bigger seedlings.  Definitely no shortage of stuff to do.  I realize as I’m writing this how utterly mundane and boring it could all seem, but want to assure all you lovely reader how cool is all is to us. Eli and I feel like we are in such a prime learning phase, and are pretty excited by it all. You should have seen the smiles when the compost pile hit 170 degrees this morning!

I’ll end with two pictures – the first is what a hand should look like at the end of the day, and the second is a sample of the exciting weather we had here last night (look hard in the upper righthand corner). Be well everybody!

 

Settling In and Reconnecting

After 5 transient months Eli and I landed back in Iowa at One Step at a Time Gardens last Wednesday and boy oh boy are we happy to be here!

I'm also happy to be back on the blogging bandwagon, though my first efforts last summer were definitely less than consistent...let's hope for a better showing this season.  With an independent garden going this year and farming for ourselves, by ourselves, close on the horizon I'm really gonna try to make this a more regular avenue of contemplation and communication.  I think giving this space a focus (what we had for lunch this week! how many hours did we weed?  How our market garden is progressing? Still trying to narrow down to something interesting...) might help.  For now, though, just some updates.  If anyone is still interested.  ;)

Our 5 months away from the farm was just what I hoped it would be – full of long family visits, trips to see old friends, new places to explore (hello Florida!) and a permeating sense of utter autonomy and freedom.  We had no deadlines, no schedule,  no employers expecting us back, no landlord needing a rent check.  We spent weeks on end with family we usually only see a couple of days a year. We visited childhood friends in their adult environments.    We set a new camping record, sleeping 34 nights straight in our tent.  We laid on some amazing beaches, saw some incredible wildlife (including a panther, we think!), and put over 11,000 miles on the car we bought at the end of November. We covered 26 states in 3 months. It.was.sweet.

Yet by the beginning of March we were a little road weary. A little ready for some structure and routine.  More than ready for some focus.  We attended the Midwest Organic  & Sustainable Education Services (MOSES) Organic Farming Conference at the end of February and got our farming fires totally stoked.  We spent 3 days trying to be as sponge-like as possible, and left the conference ready to dive head first into our second farming season.  But we had a month to wait – spring still hasn’t totally committed to North Iowa, and it was even further away back in February.  So rather than continue wandering the country we headed back to central Indiana for the month of March.  It was by far the longest stretch of time I’ve spent in my hometown since I moved to Portland 9 years ago, and it provided just the right amount of familiarity and comfort. We were able to regroup and refocus in a way that would have been tough(er) in a new or changing location.  We spent some good time thinking and talking about our future beyond this summer with Tim and Jan while still gearing up for this upcoming season in Iowa. In the end it was a really good decision to hunker down there, and it was great to get reacquainted with Indiana, and specifically Indianapolis - so much exciting stuff is happening there, and we do know some pretty fabulous people in those parts. 

So that brings us to the present. We arrived here last Wednesday, and finished our first full day of work today (Monday, that is – it will probably be Tuesday by the time I post this).  It feels .oh.so.good. to be back, on a lot of levels.  Most simply we are happy to know that we will be in one place for a while.  Happy to have some space of our own again.  Happy to not be concerned with every item in our possession, constantly evaluating things for their space worthiness.  Happy to see the farm in this brand new stage of the season.  Happy to know that we will move the farm through all of its stages from now until the end of October.  Happy to know that we are at the very beginning of a long season of learning, both literally and figuratively.  We are both so excited about this vocation and the chance to be apprenticing on such a successful farm feels like such a gift.  I don’t mean to wax too poetic here  - farming is hard, hard work and I may not feel so excited once the weeds, mosquitoes, heat and humidity set it, but I’m willing to let myself wallow in the positive feelings while they’re here.  

This season definitely promises to be a new and different experience.  Tim and Jan take their roles as mentors to heart and have put a lot of thought and effort into making this season a growing and learning opportunity for Eli and me.  We’ll take on more responsibility around the farm and will have the chance to be more involved in some of the day to day decision making.  We’ll participate more in CSA delivery drops and farmer’s market and will have certain tasks around the farm totally handed over to us.  It’s a great opportunity to get tons of hands on experience with the farm’s management and we are both really looking forward to the challenges and learning curves heading our way.  It’s still a perfect season, after all.  Just look at all this garlic poking up!  How can things not go perfectly when you've got such a good spring garlic start?

We'll also embark on our own little mini-venture, taking over a small plot of land to grow some things for market for ourselves.  It is a super small start, but it is a start nonetheless.  We're planning to fill out Jan's market table with about 6 or 8 items she usually doesn't have at certain points of the season and hoping to gain some experience and some confidence  along the way.  Perhaps that's the focus this blog will take?  We just dug up and prepped the first garden bed for this little venture  - planning to get about 10 feet of early carrots planted before the week is up.   Beets are next.  Here is Eli, hard at work (yes I know he is sideways...too computer illiterate and impatient to fix it right now!): 

So, that is the update for now.  More soon, I hope!

Procrastinating From Portland Central Library

That's right. Procrastinating. It's a good thing I haven't followed the legions of my peers into a public health graduate program somewhere because it seems I still have not kicked the procrastinating habit I developed (perhaps in the womb?) in high school. I have one medium sized task to accomplish before our 6 week stay in Portland comes to an end in about 2 weeks, and it's not done. Old habits die hard I guess.

The task seems like it should be relatively simple, but it is time consuming and slightly intimidating. It is a planting plan. Part of Eli's and my experience as second year interns with OSTG next year will include a small business venture of our own. We're planning to raise about a half dozen crops to complement the farm's booth at the North Iowa Farmer's Market. We'll grow some veggies they don't grow at all, and will experiment with some succession planting and heat resistant lettuce varieties in an effort to provide greens to the market all summer. Sounds great, right? I think so too - but I am still having a hard time sitting down with the calendar, the field map, the seed catalogs, and the Excel spreadsheet to lay it all out. We won't actually be putting stuff in the ground until March, so what's the big rush?

Why oh why did I inherit my mom's work habits instead of my dad's??

So, instead of knuckling down and busting it out I am updating the blog instead! Almost 2 months has passed since I last wrote, but I can't say much has happened. We left the farm at the end of October and high tailed it west through a terribly ferocious wind storm. What was supposed to be a meandering week long camping trip through the Mountain West turned into a 3 day marathon drive back to Portland against 50 mph winds and through the first dustings of snow in the passes. We moved in (temporarily) with our good friends Meg and Robb who live right up the street from our old place on Tillamook St. and have a spare room. We are splitting housing expenses for the time we're here and are super appreciative for the friendly and cozy place to stay. You know you have good friends when they don't hesitate (not even a little bit!) to let you move in for 6 weeks, and even seem a little sad that eventually we'll leave again. 6 weeks is a terribly long time to have house guests, but so far so good.

Eli is working super hard (shocking, I know!) back with Neil and Northwest Kitchen and Bath, installing high end tile, marble and slab in big houses all over town. I am babysitting here and there, but mostly filling my days with long walks about town, almost daily jaunts to the library, lots of cooking and baking, and a bit of knitting here and there. I am also reading a couple of farming books we bought over the summer, and scouring the interweb for interesting farming blogs and informational sites. Of these, I have found many, which is what prompted me to update this here blog. I figure if I am not actively working on this planting plan, I should at least be actively updating and inspiring myself about other related farming stuff, and it's definitely working. I'm still super inspired about this path. =)

I do think that we will be pretty ready to put down some roots, even if they're shallow, by this time next year. Everything I'm reading and all the farmers I've talked with stress the importance of each farm's (and farmer's) individuality. Every place is different, every farmer has their own ways. The best teacher is experience, and while we're gaining valuable and necessary experience as interns, it's not the same as farming our own land with our own time-tested methods in our own community. Portland is an amazing city, but it is not our place. Iowa is teaching us SO much, in so many ways, but it is not our place. I guess I'm not exactly sure how to identify where our place might be - but I'm hoping once we get there it will just feel right, and we'll know. Kind of like how we knew farming was it. It was just a feeling, really, but an undeniable one.

So, I can feel myself getting a bit antsy in that regard. We're not yet building the community and network that will sustain our (hopefully) long term business efforts because we are not yet located in our long term place. So much of this work is rooted in meaningful relationships, with people and with place, and I feel eager to start building those webs and networks and partnerships and friendships. The prospect of all these different kinds of relationships is admittedly one of the most alluring parts of farming for me, so I guess it's no wonder I feel really drawn to developing that stuff first.

It's a good thing Eli is more of a systems guy - maybe he can handle the planting plan!

Not sure when the next post will come - after the holidays maybe? We are heading to Indy for my brother's college graduation and Christmas, then to the Catskills for the New Year, and then it's a bit ambiguous until we return to the farm in late March or early April. A leisurely trip down the eastern seaboard seems like a good idea in theory, but I'm not sure it will be so pleasant in January and February. We are hoping to join Eli's brother and sister-in-law in the Florida Keys for a week or two, and a cheap ticket to Hawaii would be pretty hard to pass up. Other than that, options are wiiiiide open. And man, I have to admit that feels good!

Lots of love, and drop a line!

Hellloooo hellloooo hellloooo!

Ahem. I knew it had been a long time since I last posted on this here blog, but I'm a little embarrassed to see that it was almost a full two months ago. Wow. There is much to report, though, and I hope to keep this little online journal going, sporadic or not, for whomever maintains interest in reading about our little life journey.

We are still on the farm in Iowa, although not for much longer. Yesterday was scheduled to be our last day until plans changed just a bit and Tim and Jan asked us to stay on a couple of extra weeks. We finished up our CSA delivery season the last week of September, and are spending these last 3 weeks doing various clean-up and maintenance chores around the farm. They also wanted us to stick around to help put up the second hoop house (also called a high tunnel). This is a much bigger project than I thought it would be, and I can now add pouring cement and using various power tools to the skills I've learned this summer.

So, what next? The big news is that we've decided to spend another summer here in Iowa at One Step at a Time Gardens. We'd decided by about July that we'd like to do another internship next summer and had started tossing around ideas for locations, size of farm, etc., when Tim and Jan approached us and asked if we would be willing to stay on with them another year. It was a little out of the blue for me - we really hadn't considered staying here - so it took a little while to think through the pros and cons of staying here vs. getting to know another operation.

Ultimately we decided that spending another season here gives us a more realistic view and understanding of what it will be like to run our own farm someday. We'll get to participate (are participating some already) in the off-season data analysis and planning for next year. We'll get to see the crop rotation and participate more in CSA deliveries and farmer's markets. Eli will get to learn more about the tractors here and will take a larger role in bed preparation and cultivation. (I would too, if I fit on the tractors. They're all 1940s models and I would have to be a contortionist to reach both the clutch and the gearshift at the same time. Oh well.) I will get to participate more in the outreach and marketing side of the business. I loved how Eli's mom put it when we told her we are planning to stay on another year: Oh good! she said, graduate school for you both!

So that's where we are. The last month has been has been really exciting as Eli and I are settling into the knowledge that this is the path we want to follow. We want to farm, small scale and organic. We'll take our first steps next summer as Tim and Jan help us with our own small scale venture that will be just ours. We're not exactly sure what it will be yet (leaning toward doing our own market) but whatever it is will include a business plan. We'll set a budget, identify our market, keep a lot of detailed records, and hopefully make at least a little bit of money. Owning and operating a successful farm is as much about (maybe MORE about) smart business practice as it is about growing stuff. You can't do one without the other, people keep telling us. So we'll spend some of our time this coming year trying to become savvy business people. Ha. Who could imagine??

Not much grows in Iowa in the winter, however, so it does leave a bit of an employment gap. We're heading back to Portland at the end of this month where Eli has lined up some work with his old tiling job, and I'll try and pick up some restaurant work here and there. I think we'll be on the West Coast about six weeks before we head to Indiana for my brother's college graduation and Christmas, and then likely to New York for New Year's Eve with Eli's family. Then there are 3 big wide open months of nothing planned until we're due back at the farm the beginning of April, 2011. Anyone looking for a couple of good natured couch surfers??

Love, love, love to all reading this, and I hope it won't be so long between posts this time around! Hopefully we'll have some good road adventures to share about through the winter, and there will definitely be more stories to share from the Iowoasis for at least another year. =)

Big love!! And a photo of me supervising the hoop house construction:

Sitting and not swatting!

I am sitting on the front stoop of our little house in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

This is amazing. I mean, really amazing.

I haven't swatted a single mosquito for almost 10 minutes, and there is not even a hint of a sweat mustache on my upper lip. Granted, it is only 8:18 am, but this type of leisurely sitting-out-of-doors has not been possible for months, it seems like.

The farm is in full swing, though Tim and Jan tell us we are on the cusp of beginning to wind down. That is hard to believe as we are harvesting hundreds of pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, sweet peppers, a little cabbage yet, potatoes, green and yellow beans, and the list continues. I'm learning that the amount of daylight dictates growth patterns more than temperature this time of year, so we should start seeing some ebb in vegetable production soon, despite the record temperatures we've had.

Eli and I did market by ourselves yesterday - what a cool feeling. The attendance was, ahem, underwhelming, but it was really fun to get up super early, do some last minute 6 am harvest, get the booth all set up, and then while away the morning chatting with folks. I made some baba ghanouj to take a sample, and we sold out of eggplant. We ate lunch at the only local foods cafe in Mason City and ran into quite a few people we had just talked to at the market. I am still kind of amazed at small town life - anonymity seems to be an unknown condition here.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays this way - one gets acclimated to the heat and humidity to a certain extent, especially when out in it all day, but it is much more pleasant to be out and find lots of energy for work when things are a bit cooler. It also helps the moods of some of the folks who are only here a couple of days a week!

We are off to the state fair for the day - everyone has been saying for weeks we should go, so here we go. I grew up six blocks from the Indiana State Fairgrounds and only ever went to the mid-way for elephant ears and make-you-want-to-puke carnival rides. We'll at least try to squeeze in the Fiddle Championships and a wool packing contest today at the Iowa State Fair.

Much love and cool thoughts out to everyone in the big wide world reading this!

We are still here, and still working hard. Or hardly working? Depends on the time of day, I think. ;)

This week we are harvesting:

Cabbage - red and green
Tomatoes - so many varieties!
Kohlrabi
Onions - red, yellow, and white
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Beans - yellow and green
Kale
Chard
Eggplant
Bok Choy
Maybe some other stuff that isn't coming to mind right away. It is high season on the farm!

The farm's 15th anniversary party is this Sunday, and there is lots of preparation going on. I think I'll try to write an origin story for the place before the week is out. The bugs remain bad in the meantime, and so I shall say hello and goodbye for now!

Making plans.

I am a plan maker. I like to have the order of things, the sequence of events, more or less mentally lined up before I get started. I like to think through the tasks of the day before I get out of bed. I like to know when the onions are going to get chopped and the water put to boil before I step in the kitchen. You could say I like to know what to expect.

Part of coming to Iowa this summer was a lesson to myself in being more comfortable with the unknown ways in which life continues to unfold. Sure, we knew we were coming to work on a farm for the summer, but what next? This internship only lasts until October, and what then? This was probably the most common question we heard (and continue to hear) from friends and family as we shared news of our move, and the most difficult question for me to (not) answer. Shrug the shoulders. I don't know. We'll see. Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.

We're not exactly ready to literally cross the bridge, but we are approaching the half way point of our time here. It is time to start having conversations about what we want to do and where we want to go from here. And (I can't decide if this is surprising or not) we are pretty much in agreement - the plan should be to find another internship. One more year on another farm with different systems and different markets. If we do another CSA farm we'll likely try to get on somewhere bigger, to get a feel for what a larger operation looks and feels like. We're tossing around the idea of trying to get on with some kind of livestock operation. If you know us even moderately well (or taken one look in the fridge), you know the deep relationship we have with dairy products. Maybe we should learn about cows. It would probably save us a lot of money in the long run.

So, that's where I am in the long term planning process. Now if we could only pin down an area of the country to shoot for. Much as I'm loving our time here, I don't think Iowa is forever. East Coast? Back to the Left Coast? Southern Indiana?? So many more decisions yet to make. Plus, even if we line up something that starts in March, that leaves a little over 4 months to fill this winter. Deep breath. Good thing I have some practice at not having every little piece and parcel planned out. Even if it doesn't always seem like it, a little mystery is good to have around.

A day in the life for real.

So what exactly do our days look like here at One Step at a Time Gardens?

They have a real rhythm and routine to them, which is pretty great when one really looks forward to and enjoys the tasks that repeatedly fill the days. It's also helpful that the rhythm and routine includes quite a bit of quiet down time at the beginning and ending of the work day, since we don't have TV, internet, or even phone service in our little house. And, since the mosquitoes have been so swarming and hellaciously bothersome this week, I've had even more quiet down time since I'm not willing to brave the outdoors after work. It is such.a.nice.change. from the pace of life I was keeping in Portland with two jobs and an active social life. The active social life part I could stand a little more of here in north central Iowa, but I'm perfectly content with a single job.

But, back to the day-to-day routine. We're woken in the morning (usually about 5:30) by the singing and chirping of dozens of varieties of birds. The combination of the 500 acre wetland reserve across the road and the diversity of the landscape and crops at the farm makes it a lovely place to be bird in the summertime. It's pretty astounding how loud they all are.

We're up by six or so, and coffee gets made and stretching happens. Lots of stretching. I've gotten back into running a few days a week, and on those days I try to be out the door by 6:15. I've got a couple of different routes measured for distance, and depending on energy level, humidity percentage, and how good the chapter of my book was the night before, I try to run between 2 and 4 miles. Another round of stretching and a quick rinse off shower before breakfast about 7:15. Dishes get done, we check the weather, shoelaces tied, pockets get packed with snot rag, earplugs and watch, sunblock is applied, and water bottles get filled for the morning.

8:00 starts the work day, and we gather in the pack-out shed to run through the priorities for the day. Our crew is a little different each day, and we range anywhere from 5 to 11 present for work.
The priorities are a little different each day as well, depending on where we are in the CSA delivery schedule, but there are a few chores that get done every day. The greenhouse gets watered, the wash station sinks filled, and the electric fences turned off by one person. Another two people head out to move the chicken tractors to fresh pasture and refill the chicken feed. Someone else wipes down the pack-out counters and may fold CSA boxes.

There is a wholesale delivery on Tuesday, and a CSA delivery on Wednesday and Thursday each. We try to harvest for those deliveries the day before, so we spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning harvesting, processing, and portioning produce. We usually go out in a couple of different groups - one group harvesting broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and chard and the other group going after peas, raspberries, and green beans, just as an example. Freshly picked food is brought back to the wash station and dumped in cold water, swished and swirled around to remove as much dirt and bugs as possible, and put into large tupperware containers in a large walk in cooler.

It's 10:30 or 11 by this point, and the cook of the day heads off to start making lunch. The rest of us work on portioning what we've just harvested and processed - 65 bags each of: 1 lb lettuce, 1/2 lb spinach, 1 lb. snow peas, 1/2 pint raspberries, 1 head broccoli, and whatever else it getting put into the box that week.

About 12 or 12:30 we break for lunch, heading to the kitchen to find out what the cook concocted using whatever veggies and pantry staples are on hand. We've been eating lots of salad and lots of stir fry so far. No complaints here. =)

Afternoons are spent either finishing up last bits of harvest that we didn't get to in the morning or working on general farm and crop maintenance projects. This translates to weeding. We are spending lots and lots of afternoons weeding these weeks, but Jan and Tim keep saying this is when the weed pressure is the highest. If we can yank the weeds that have already germinated before they go to seed then we'll reduce the seed bank for later in the year and next year. It is tedious work, but satisfying when you look back at a row that was not recognizable and see hundreds of perky little beet leaves waving in the wind.

We head in from the field about 4:30 to take care of end of the day chores; tying up chicken feed, watering the greenhouse again, wiping down harvest totes, cleaning the wash station, and generally end the day right about 5:00.

That's also right about when a beer gets opened and consumed on the shady front steps of the little house, boots and socks stripped off an lying on the grass a few yards away. This is generally when something mindless like Facebook surfing happens, and maybe a conversation about what should be for dinner. Showers ensue and by 7 I'm putting something together for dinner and trying to decide if I should read for education or for entertainment that evening. Sometimes a Netflix movie gets put on, but rarely does it get finished. 4 nights out of 7 I'm asleep by 10.

So there it is. That's the daily routine, more or less. I gotta tell you it feels a lot more exciting than it sounds! We do a lot of laughing and talking throughout the day, ask a lot of questions, walk a lot, do a lot of quick counting and calculating, and just generally pay attention to the world immediately surrounding ourselves. Did you see the beets germinated already?! Those bean plants really need to get harvested. Another couple of days before we can harvest a good crop of raspberries again - there's a good amount yet but they need to ripen a bit more. How many eggs did the hens lay this morning?

There is much changing detail to discuss within the generally structured framework of the week. Some of it is obvious and in your face (did you see how big the squash got?!) and some of it is more subtle. I'm really appreciating the variety of scope there is in this work, even within the predictability of the day to day tasks. Now for some more visitors......anyone?

A day in the life. (Or, why it takes me so long to write a new post sometimes)

Helllloooooo world! I think it's been almost 3 weeks since I posted last, and there are at least a couple of notable things and events I should have already shared. My folks came for a very short, but very lovely visit. They jumped right in harvesting lettuce and trimming onions, and were present for the inaugural use of our air conditioning. ( I chose to roast a chicken for dinner on an almost 90 degree day. Maybe not the smartest decision I've ever made.) My dad noted that all the birds chirping and flies buzzing seemed unnatural - where were the sirens?! But overall he gave the farm a "cooler than I expected" rating. It was really great to have them here - made it all seem a little more permanent and real to be able to share the experience with them.

That same week I had the chance to attend a state-wide "working group session" at the Leopold Center for Sustainability (at Iowa State University in Ames) convened for the purpose of creating a Food and Farm Plan for the 2011 Iowa State Legislature. It's slightly involved and complicated to explain, but it was essentially a gathering of folks involved in local food systems at every level (farmers, livestock producers, aggregators, grocery stores, economic developers, legislators, academics, etc.) intended to hash out what kinds of local food systems already exist, and what the barriers are for expanding local food systems further. The result will be a plan of action presented to the legislature with the goal that they will enact some policies aimed at increasing the local food network, and access to it, in Iowa. It's a pretty exciting time to be involved with local food here, and it was a real experience to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. It was amazingly inspiring and really got my wheels turning in thinking about all the different directions there are to go with this subject. Super exciting. Did you know you can get a Master's in Sustainable Ag with a focus in Sociology??

The next exciting thing to happen was a trip to Madison, WI to see Eli's sister and brother-in-law. Holy mini-Portland. I kept having deja-vu and thinking maybe we never left the Pacific Northwest at all. Fixed gear bikes, skin tight cut off jean shorts, full sleeve tatoos, Chacos, boutiques, cafes, and jogging strollers were all present in abundance. It was amazing.

Even more amazing was the time we got to spend with Erika and Michael - they absolutely took care of us and showed us an incredible weekend, complete with the country's largest farmer's market and an evening on one of the lakes in a 1981 competition ski boat. I got to drive.

It was really fun to be in an urban environment, but I was surprised at how closed in and sped up I felt. We'd only been on the farm 5 weeks by the time we visited, and already I'd adjusted pretty completely to the rhythm on this rural place. Kind of baffling, considering I've spent 26 years as an urban-ite.

This would be a perfect segment to the topic I intended to sit down and write about - what a day on the farm is like. BUT, I've been trying to make these posts shorter. If I was just an innocent reader I think I would think it tedious to read through looooonnnggg paragraphs of my mental rambling. And, it's 6:47pm and my belly says it is time to eat. It also leaves me good fodder for the next post, which will hopefully come sooner than 3 weeks from now.

This week we are majorly battling mosquitoes ( like, MAJORLY battling. I've never seen anything like these suckers, to be honest), harvesting green beans, lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi, sugar and snap peas, and broccoli. We are also weeding like crazy, and I am finding such a strange satisfaction every time we finish a row. Also planted beets and carrots, and have some peppers to transplant. I'm going to Friday market tomorrow with Jan, and Eli is off to Saturday market for the first time. Down to Grinnell (just outside Des Moines) for a Field Day on weed management on Saturday afternoon, and then hopefully a low-key day on Sunday.

Thanks, thanks, thanks for reading (and by extension caring), and feel free to drop a line letting us know what all you loved ones are up to. Much love!

Un-original title. Week 4.

It's been a busy week since I last wrote - a trip to southeastern Iowa for a Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) field day, a full week at the farm including snow peas and broccoli coming on, 3 inches of rain and 2 bouts of hail, an amazing solstice party and prairie walk with Slow Food Iowa and a chance to accompany Jan to the Saturday Farmers Market in Mason City. We're 4 weeks into the internship and the days are absolutely flying, despite the fact that these are the longest days of the year. All this light means everything is growing like crazy, and it's a challenge to keep up with all the harvesting and weeding that needs to happen, especially when violent storms are thrown into the mix.

Thunderstorms were one of the things Eli and I were both really looking forward to when we started thinking about being back in the Midwest, but I had forgotten just how powerful and scary they can be when the conditions are right. Thursday night brought some really nasty weather to the area, including a half mile wide tornado that brought a lot of destruction and at least a couple deaths to Southern Minnesota. Albert Lea, one of the towns that had a lot of damage, is only about 60 miles north of the farm here and many of the vendors at the Saturday farmers market in Mason City come from Albert Lea to sell their stuff. Luckily none of those folks had damage, but they all seemed to kn0w someone who did. Shiver shiver down my spine.

No tornadoes here at the farm, but we had some amazingly powerful (and destructive) wind and rain. We sat outside after work on Thursday evening just transfixed by the pre-storm sky - it was a spectacular show of clouds and colors that gave me a little adrenaline rush just watching it. Slate grays, deep ominous blues, scalloped clouds rushing past, and finally just a solid wall of darkness about 8 pm. The thunder, lightning and rain started about 8:30, the hail about 9:30, and by 11 when we went to bed (wind eerily whistling through the cracks around the door) it was still blustering and blowing.

Friday morning brought much of the same sky conditions without the actual rain fall so we spent the first part of the morning trying to salvage what we could of the lettuce and spinach before it started storming again. Most of the greens were shredded by the hail and while it's still edible, Jan and Tim have super high standards for the aesthetics of their produce. They don't send out greens missing just the right hue of green, let alone leaves that are deeply bruised and tattered. These were the rows that were supposed to supply the next 3 - 4 weeks of CSA shares with leafy greens, so it is a pretty significant damage. Last week we put a pound of lettuce and a half pound of spinach in the boxes expecting to put the same in for the next few weeks. Not this week. But, no lives taken and no structures badly damaged which puts things into perspective.

This weather episode really highlights what I think of as one of the most important aspects of being a member of Community Supported Agriculture. Jan and Tim have already received the support (financial and moral) from 120 members that they needed to put into process the organic production of a lot of different kinds of vegetables. Because of this support, the 20 minutes of hail that basically wiped out the entire crop of lettuce and spinach won't ruin the season for the farmers. Sure, it's unfortunate, but the hail storm brings only a little bit of misfortune to 120 people instead of a devastating amount of misfortune to 2 people. Through the CSA model the financial risk of organic and sustainable food production falls to the wider community of eaters rather than just to the very narrow single household producing the food. When there is plenty, everyone gets plenty. When there is not so much, everyone gets not so much. It's a system that makes sense to me.

I had a chance to go to Mason City with Jan yesterday for both the farmers market and for a short meeting with some other local foodists about starting a Buy Fresh, Buy Local chapter in North Iowa. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what exactly a Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter does, but I think it essentially provides some communication tools - advertisements, directories, and other public recognition efforts - for people and businesses who produce and support local food and products. There are BFBL chapters all around the country who all use the same imagery (http://www.foodroutes.org/buy-fresh-buy-local.jsp) so it is partially an effort to be part of one larger alternative food systems networks out there. It was a really good chance to get to see some of the behind the scenes work that has to happen in order to build vital food communities, and I left the meeting feeling pretty jazzed.

My point in mentioning that meeting, which happened right after the market, is that I'm really starting to see why this kind of work has been quietly calling my name. I've had some really great (and some really not great) jobs over the last few years but I haven't found anything that fit just right. I loved The ReBuilding Center and my outreach work there, but it was oh so hard to sit an office much of the day. I loved connecting with and supporting my AmeriCorps members as an AmeriCorps Team Leader but it was oh so hard to deal with ever shifting climate of the social service agency we were with. I don't think I'll ever say that I loved waiting tables, but I really did like the active and inter-active nature of the work. I liked having a brisk pace and defined tasks to accomplish. I think I probably kept a restaurant job through both of my office jobs because I needed the variety in my day-to-day. That, and the AmeriCorps stipend leaves just a little to be desired.

I find work on the farm to require a real balance of physical and mental work, which is what I think has been missing in my employment situations so far. The office work didn't give me enough physical movement and human interaction and the restaurants didn't give me enough mental stimulation and variety. On the farm, there are the obvious physical chores that get done everyday - moving the chicken tractors, harvesting vegetables, building fences, weighing and prepping veggies for CSA boxes and market, planting, weeding, walking the fields and inspecting the crops, looking for growth, pests, any pruning needs. And, there is an endless amount to think and talk about regarding both the physical work of the farm and the mental work of addressing and changing food systems at a much broader scale. This is a big issue that includes a big number of players. There are academics, politicians, entrepreneurs, and everyday joe-schmoes like myself trying to find their way and their place in this conversation. There is a whole generation of children and young people who, for the first time in modern history, have shorter life expectancies than their parents, partially because of their diets and the food they have (or don't have) access to. There are thousands and thousands of acres of land that have seen nothing but corn and chemicals since the 1970s. There are so many issues around food and food systems that need both more small farmers and more voices. I know the two don't traditionally go together, but Jan and Tim are two folks setting a much different example, and it's pretty inspiring to be spending so much time with them. Sets a girl to dreaming big dreams. =)

I think that was a really long and ramble-y way to say that the longer I'm here the more I'm getting out of it, and the more my wheels are spinning. I'm not even remotely sure as to where those wheels are taking me, but for now the fact that they are spinning like they are is plenty.

We have a busy week coming up yet again with all the normal farm work plus a visit from my parents (hoooraaay! haven't seen them since Christmas), and a visit from Indy friends Forest and Alex. We're also planning to take an early day on Friday and head to Madison, WI to see Eli's sister and brother-in-law, Erika and Michael. Haven't seen them since their wedding last summer, so we are really looking forward to the week and connecting in person with so many excellent people we don't get to see very often.

Think dry thoughts for us, and much love to all!

Jan and One Step at a Time Gardens produce at the Mason City Farmers Market on Saturday morning.

Tim cleaning up some of the damage from Thursday night's storm. The picnic table was our daily lunch spot.


Capturing some sun.

Sunset on the prairie.

Couple of happy folk.

Brief notes and some photos

Well, mostly a photo blog this week, I think. It's been rainy and stormy here in Iowa which means some of the planting and other field work has been postponed, but it also means we've had time to do and talk about some of the behind the scenes work that happens here. It also means time for conversation with some of the other crew members - most notably the ultra conservative Regular Baptist (can anyone tell me what that means??) teenagers who work a couple of times a week. How to keep a level head when a 15 year old boy tells you a woman shouldn't been a minister because it's not a woman's role to teach??? He seems to take direction from our fearless female farmer just fine, so I sense some cognitive dissonance. Perhaps an issue to slowly and persistently address over the course of the summer.

CSA Boxes this week included lettuce, spinach, green onions and radishes. We just picked the first of the snow peas (below) for market tomorrow, and those will get included in next week's share. They are delicious - crisp, crunchy and just a little sweet.

Eli and I are headed to Clarinda, IA (southwestern corner of the state) tomorrow to attend an organic farm "field day" put together by the Practical Farmers of Iowa, a nonprofit that works to improve communication and knowledge sharing between Iowa farmers of all types. The farm we're headed to transitioned from conventional to organic corn and soy, and introduced a couple acres of veggies to their production as well. I'm looking forward to seeing another operation now that I have a fairly decent understanding of the one we're on. Hopefully I'll find some time and energy to report and reflect on how the weekend goes. In meantime we are sending lots of love!

Snow peas harvested for Saturday Farmer's Market.

One of the old, but still useful, farm buildings at OSTG. See the clouds in the windows?

The front pasture, lane, and East Twin Lake.

Row of lettuce just before harvest in the hoop or "high tunnel" house. Tomatoes on the right.

My current blogging and general communication location, until the the flatbed needs moving. =)