Category: Crops

Wine & Grass Seed

  
Photo courtesy of Shelly Boshart Davis. 

It may not seem like a big deal, having a vineyard next to a grass seed field, but the challenges between these two crops have come to the fore front the past few years. 

This week I attended a tour that talked about the compromise and communication it requires to be successful when neighboring farms become more and more diverse in their cropping.   

Monday I will talk more about the issues and why many of us in both the grass seed and wine industry know that we can all be successful in Oregon as good farmers and neighbors.  

Border Spraying

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are jobs in the farm that aren’t so great and one that I don’t look forward to the most is spraying borders. In the past I have compared it to bathroom toilet cleaning type of job. The one where you know it needs to get done and yet you look around and the only person standing in the shop available for the job…is yourself. 

So that’s what I’m out doing today. We need to keep the borders around our fields clean because when you grow crops for the seed it’s very important that weeds don’t creep into what you work so hard to grow. 

  
At this point all of our seed crops have been harvested and we are getting ready to plant for next year. So this is a great time to clean up any unwanted plants that grew while the crop was growing. We can control weeds with less concern over hurting crops. 

  
While it’s my least favorite task on the farm it is one that can be very satisfying, like pulling a weed out of the ground I know I’m only helping our crop for next year get a better start. 

Photo Friday, Small Getaway

Farming is a way of life.  For many of us during certain times of the year that means everything revolves around the life of farming.  Everything from where you will be eating dinner, field or table, to what you can wear today, boots or flip flops.  It’s a seven day a week, 24 hour a day job that never quits.  Until you decide you’ve had enough and you just need a break.  Last week I told Matt it was time to get off the farm for a few hours and have an adventure, so we packed up the car and headed for the Pacific Ocean for the afternoon.


  
 It was great to getaway, to relax and just hang out.  Meanwhile you never really can getaway so the whole time driving there and back, while Hoot napped in the back, we talked about planting schedules, field rotations and plans for the coming year and our crops.  But at least we weren’t physically at the farm, we were covered in sand and happy as clams! 

Then come the next day it was back to work.  We are irrigating our youngest orchard of hazelnuts right now with their last set of water before they start to get ready for winter dormancy.  Ground is being worked to get ready for planting.  Soil tests are taken this time of year to make sure that our soil is happy and healthy moving into the next growing season.  Cleaning up equipment from seed harvest, getting equipment ready for hazelnut harvest & planting.  There is never a dull moment, but it was sure nice to getaway from it all (sort of) for a day.