Category Archives: progress

curious farm pickles

I am ridiculously excited to tell you that Curious Farm Pickles are tasty, fine, legal, and ready-to-mingle.

To begin, we have three varieties: Classic, Spicy Dill, and Summer 2010. For a special introduction, each 32 oz. jar is $7

These pickles are the real deal. The cucumbers ferment in spiced brine for several days before they’re jarred. Curious Farm Pickles are a “live food” that must stay refrigerated. They probably won’t last this long at your house, but the pickles will be ready for your next BBQ a full year after purchase — as long as you keep them refrigerated. In fact, their flavor may improve .

Wait until you taste the spiced crabapple jelly! This is my vision for our small farm: I want us to grow bounty and preserve that bounty, and I want to be able to share as much of that with you as possible.

Certifying the kitchen — so that I can bring these pickles to you (and the preserves to come) — has been quite a challenge. The jars in the photo above are my first fruits.

les pommes/les pommes de terre

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Yesterday I tried to clean up the failed potato patch — only to discover 22 pounds of healthy red potatoes under the straw. The plants didn’t flower, and they gave off every sign of miserable failure. To find such a harvest under the straw was unexpected.

A very happy thing I learned in school is that people in France call potatoes the “apples of the earth.” There is such hopeful beauty in that phrase. A dirt-covered root can be cleaned-up and admired as something delicious and sweet.

Also while I was digging, I felt ever-aware of how fragile these “fruits of the earth” can be. The wrong press of my spade into the earth might hurt them. (I believe that every human being should try to dig up a root at some point. It’s very humbling.)

I was so tired after digging out the potatoes, and I wanted to go in and shower (I was so dirty!), but I wondered about the pommes on the tree out back so I went out to bring in the few that were left on the tree. They are Akane apples — a bright-tasting, very crisp, tart, slightly sweet, early ripening variety. I like them. This is the first year the tree has produced so I hope we learn to tend it well.

Since the potatoes revealed themselves and the pickles have arrived (separate post!), we’ll have a regular farm day this coming Saturday. Think good thoughts toward the sun because she helps the squash and beans grow. The chard, onions, and beets know how to grow even with little sun.

farm days and big news

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Eloise and I had a good time setting up the vegetable stand outside our garden today. We do this every Saturday morning during harvest season, and we hope to keep going through the fall.

We set up the farmstand to help us meet our neighbors. When the tent is out, and there are colorful vegetables there, you all stop by, and we get to say hello. We love this.

But we’re always happy to pick vegetables or reserve eggs for you on other days — just call (503.245.1507) or email. Our Fresh Now page lists what we have available right now.

Fall is coming, and I have some big garden work to do in the next couple of weeks after Eloise starts school. We’ve been so busy that I haven’t planted fall crops yet (ack! I know…). This has been such a weird year weather-wise. After getting going so late, the squash went bonkers and is now winding down. I’ll be clearing those areas and the bush beans to make room for fall greens.

We may have a nice round of pickling cucumbers and hot peppers coming on soon. The beans will keep going strong for awhile. A new crop in a different area of the garden has just begun to produce more pole beans. Today we had the last of Grandma Smith’s amazing carrots to sell, and she’s coming over tomorrow to plant a round for late fall. She has a magic touch. They grow big and strong and stay sweet.

Big News!

We worked really hard this year to turn our big garden into a tiny, urban farm. We’re proud of all we’ve accomplished.

However, behind the scenes, we also were working to certify our home kitchen so that we can produce and sell preserves — the sweet kind (jams) and the salty, crunchy kind (real, old-fashioned brined pickles).

Yesterday we were able to get the kitchen certified so fabulous pickles will be available soon. The cucumber vines in back groaned in relief when the inspector signed the official paperwork. (I’ve held back on picking them this week in order to make sure that my finished pickles will be legal.)

Here, in fact, is a legal pickle:

I’ve been trying to get our pickles to market for almost two years so yesterday’s certification is an important milestone. It means that I can sell Curious Farm pickles directly to our customers here, via a stand at a local farmer’s market, and also at local grocery and specialty stores if their buyers agree to make our pickles available to their customers.

We have big hopes, but we’ll start small on this venture, and we hope to hear your feedback on the pickles and other preserves so that we can make them even more delcious.

As always, thank you for your bright smiles, support and interest. We’re very grateful to you.

garden in august

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I went down to San Francisco this last weekend to discuss business with an old friend. While I was gone…

the weeds grew
the beans began to produce
five hens began to lay eggs
the bird we’ve been watching with interest finally began to crow

How lucky am I to be a “wired farmer”? Yesterday, I posted a quick note to the PDXBackyardChix mailing list about a Buckeye Roo available in Cedar Mill. Today a nice woman came by to pick up our boy to give him a home farther out in the country.

Now we are down to 14 hens. Give us another week or two for the girls to get used to laying eggs, and we’ll have some nice eggs for you all.

We have enough bounty growing out there — greens, beans, squash, and herbs — that I will start some regular hours on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings so that you can stop by for fresh vegetables.

If you want produce or eggs on another day of the week, that’s fine, too. Just give us a call (503.245.1507) or send email so that we can pick what you want and have it ready for you in a cooler outside our garage for when you stop by. We want you to have the freshest produce and eggs possible.

snow peas in july

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Here we are at the beginning of July.

We have gorgeous snow peas this week. It’s a fluke from our spring weather that we even have them at all in July, but they’re tender and flavorful. Also, the pea tips (the greens from the snow pea plants) are still lush.

Today, in anticipation of the hot weather to come this week, I shocked the pea plants by picking every single pod I could find. I hope they might produce another round of pods this week before they wilt and call it quits. So, I mean… we have snow peas right now. Please call or email if you would like to buy some ($3.00/pound grown with organic methods, which is half the price of the organic snow peas from Mexico that a large natural grocery chain is selling them for this week).

But take a look at this…

Since I have good luck keeping peas crispy in kimchi, I’m experimenting with a garlic-dill-snow pea pickle. I’ll know in a couple of days if it’s going to turn out, but it’s pretty, yes?

Other things like beans and squash are just beginning to grow. And I finally planted the cucumbers last week. I know… that’s crazy because it’s July… but cukes are so fussy that I couldn’t afford to plant them until these 49-degree nightime lows end. I am amazed that the beans (most) are starting to grow finally after languishing in suspended animation for two months. I feared they would just rot, but they are perking up. What a weird year.

Yesterday and today I weeded the pathways and beds in the garden. It took about six hours to do all of the areas you can see in the picture on top of this post. I hadn’t weeded the pathways since I finished the beds at the end of April because it’s been tidy enough until recently.

I have to say that my instinct to re-organize the garden into these mounded beds (some double-dug) was right on. The weed problem is a fraction of what we’ve had to deal with in previous years. And actually tackling the weeds isn’t overwhelming and heartbreaking anymore. I can tackle a bed at a time and do the pathway around it in less than an hour. When I tidy up one bed like that, I feel inspired to dig into the next bed. This works for me.

I still don’t have an answer yet about which bed-making method (double-dug vs. layered/lasagna) produces the highest yields for us. We’re getting intense productivity out of the double-dug beds, but I planted those beds earlier with cool-weather-tolerant crops.

Anyway, I wanted to say hello. We’ve been working really hard out there and weren’t seeing results for awhile, and then all of a sudden we have all of these peas and the mustards are flowering, and I’m ripping out broccoli plants that have given enough, and wow…

Eggs soon, friends.

you could have this…

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Or you could have this…

The Curious Farm Salad Mix and The Curious Farm Braising Mix are available now for $3.00 per half pound or $5.00 per pound. We don’t pick the greens until you order them because we want them to be as fresh as possible for you. Find our more about the farm’s first offerings (and how to order some for your dinner) on our home page.

Finally! Yay!

still here…

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Really… could there be any more rain and “cool weather?” I’m still wearing shorts because I wear shorts in the snow, but often I must put on socks.

Good things: My usual June hay fever extravaganza has been delayed, and the weeds aren’t growing in an obscene way.

Bad things: Nothing is growing. It’s like Nature flipped the circuit breaker, and we don’t have any more power in the garden. Beans and squash surface hopefully and then stay in suspended animation or get eaten by slugs.

If we could have three reasonably sunny days in a row, a lot of pent-up growth would be released, and the plants could get big enough to fight fair with the slugs.

So we’re just waiting for that sunny week. I know you all are, too. When I bought a refrigerator this week to keep your eggs safe (the hens are happy!), I talked to the appliance salesperson about vitamin D, depression, and this weather. I think the situation is pretty bad if strangers are talking about vitamin supplementation at the check-out counter, you know?