Category: Radish

Farm Update

This farmer is slowly getting back out into the fields. It hasn’t been easy, this time of year much of the work on the farm is more physical than I could be after a csection just a few weeks back.

So Millie, the boys and I have improvised and have taken to more gentleman type approach….a more farming the pavement kind of thing….basically we drive around a lot and do a little walking. And on a beautiful day, down long dirt roads, it isn’t the same but it isn’t all bad.

Everything is growing like crazy right now! The grass is shooting heads of seed, hopefully ones that will be nice and full for a good yield. The clover is blooming and gorgeous!! And our spring crops like radish and squash are in the ground and starting to grow.

We also are doing a lot of orchard work, for example scraping the orchard floor to get it ready for harvest, even though it won’t be for months. Leveling and getting rid of debris, keeping suckers at bay, and making sure to protect against insects and disease keep us very busy this time of year.

So there’s my update, quickly typed up between fields while out driving around with my new little lady in tow.

Radish & Wheat

We went out to look at some fields this morning.  So here are a few pictures from our radish and spring wheat fields. 

The Easter Sunday radish is doing great!  It popped right out of the ground and so far so good!


And the spring wheat is pretty happy also!  Seems to have grown faster than the slugs can eat it, which is a huge plus!


And at least this year we aren’t worried about irrigation yet.  Which is a small…very small…silver lining. 

Happy Friday folks!!

Happy Easter from the Field

When I mentioned in my “Happy birthday to my Farmer” post that Matt works at the beck and call of the weather, I wasn’t kidding!  It’s been doozy of a wet season here in Oregon.  We have been waiting, and waiting…and waiting for enough good days in a row to get crops planted, which means that our Easter plans turned a bit from the traditional.

Matt was up early to head out to the radish field.  We had to get preplant fertilizer spread, pre-emergent sprayed, work the ground another time, then finally it looked like we might get the window to get the radish seed in the ground.  Meanwhile I woke up early with the boys, threw Easter grass from the Easter Bunny all over the house, and headed to church with a few cousins.  We decided that someone better pray that we got this radish field planted ( and ask for forgiveness for working on Easter Sunday!!) The boys and I delivered lunch to the farm (because if you have people working on Sunday, you better keep them fed!), headed home for naps and then back out in the field (where the boys want to be all the time anyway!).  Hoot proved that farming can be done without pants without any problems (good to know!).  And Auggie almost kept his Easter clothes clean before we made it back to my parents for Easter dinner.

Things all went pretty smoothly, even for a Sunday.  The weather cooperated and right around dinner time the guys came in from the field, tired and hungry, we had a big dinner all ready for them.  I don’t know if they have ever earned their Easter dinner so much as this year.

This is exactly why farming can be so stressful, so risky, and such a seven day a week job.  We work when we can, because those days in some years so limited.  And I’m so grateful that I work with folks who understand when I come up to them and timidly ask if they could work on Easter Sunday, they look at you and don’t even hesitate to say yes, because they know I wouldn’t even ask if it weren’t a necessity.  They showed up, they worked hard, and we got at least one of our spring crops planted for 2017!!!  I know we weren’t the only farmers who worked all Easter to get crops in the ground, and I know that we will talk about the Easter that we planted radish, for a long time to come!

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