This year fall held on as long as it could with warmish days and many plants eeking out every last possible fruit. I was able to pick tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant into late October, a first since we moved here. But now the rains have marched in and so has the cold, and as the calendar flipped to November, I realized we haven’t written in a while. We’ve had a lot going on, including changes here on the farm.
A few of the many tomatoes that made it into jars by themselves, in zucchini salsa, as part of jam, dehydrated, in the freezer as sauce, etc.
Not too long ago, we applied for a grant for funding to expand our food production. Bryon and I talked a lot about what we needed most (that fell under the program’s purview) and settled on refrigeration and supplies for me to make baked goods to take to market. But like most local farms who applied, we did not receive good news. In fact, the State shared that “The remarkable level of interest in the grant demonstrates the clear need for investment in local food system infrastructure in Washington.” You don’t say.
We talked and talked and decided we can’t continue paying a lot of money to make just a little money when it comes to farming. So that means downsizing rather than ramping up any more. We already had a butchering date set in early October for male ducks and chickens, so we processed a few extra since we had a few friends helping us. Bryon also took some birds to sell at the poultry auction. And we opted not to purchase more ducks as originally intended to keep up with egg demand.
We think we’ll still sell eggs to our regular customers but not try to expand the business. And of course, we will continue to grow and eat our own food as much as we can. This harvest was our most successful yet in terms of items canned, dehydrated, frozen, and otherwise stored. I also gathered lots of seeds and dried flowers for crafting.
Some of the strawflowers saved this year
In the midst of these tasks and big decisions, I saw a listing for a job with a local non-profit community health center. While I truly enjoyed my part-time job on a neighboring farm, the work is seasonal. But since bills come year-round and the farm income isn’t what we hoped, I decided to go for the new position. I’ve now been working at Nature Nurture Farmacy for a few weeks. The focus on nutrition education, community gardens, and food as medicine is a perfect fit for my belief that everyone needs healthy food from as close to the source as possible.
Here we are at Marymere Falls on a morning we did not have to wake up early and feed all the animals
Before I started, though, Bryon and I got to enjoy our first vacation in a year. We headed up to Sequim and surrounding areas on the northern Olympic Peninsula, where we ate and drank and hiked and read and played board games. It was glorious and a little difficult to head back to the daily grind.
Meanwhile, farm chores are a bit easier with less birds, though the gloomier weather makes it harder to get out of bed. But to everything— turn, turn, turn.