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More on Weeds

Last week I delved into weeding and our strategies to combat the looming invasion that comes with plowing and planting. This time of year is especially hard on folks with allergies. My fields look like it has snowed! Living near the river also means living near cottonwoods, and this time of year all my freshly tilled beds are also freshly seeded with cottonwoods now!

If I walked away today and did nothing more out in my fields, there would be a million trees sprouting this Spring and a new forest would take over. Nature is not a fan of bare ground and will constantly look to “plant” something in the freshly tilled ground. I know this. I get it, which is why I try to keep most of my ground planted and only actively till ground that I want to grow vegetables on keeping the rest in pasture, orchard or cover crops.

This week we are planting buckwheat, not to harvest for people food, but to feed our soil and also cover the ground. In this case, I am choosing what to cover the ground with as opposed to letting nature pick! There is a lot more thought that goes into my strategies, but you can sum it up as mimicking nature and working with nature to grow the healthiest food possible.

One of the challenges as a farmer, small business owner, husband, dad, grandpa, coach, volunteer is finding time – time to do anything, and it all feels important. I am constantly juggling. It is the same for most of you. A few of you might be thinking, “What is he talking about?” Well, I am talking about weeds! A lot of our life is more like a garden/farm. Weeds are always entering our world. If there is a free moment, it has 10 weeds that are looking to fill that space. And unless we plan and anticipate, the opportunistic nature of “life weeds” will overwhelm us. Bear in mind, weeds are not always bad, but they are not essential either. This means as the farmer of our lives we get to make room for the important crops and be diligent to limit the weeds – not a small task!

Food is something that consumes a lot of time, especially when you are managing blood sugar or fighting cancer or trying to lose weight. Sadly, the Standard American Diet, aka SAD, is more akin to weeds than food and the whole food system, organic or conventional, is built around processed sugary and/or fat food choices.

May I state the obvious: processed food is everywhere and it is hard to eat a healthy “weed” free diet! That is why we advocate eating more fruits and vegetables and keeping lots of them on hand. We also recognize that weeds are prolific and fill every nook and cranny. Purchasing less processed foods is the first step to keeping less healthy food choices out your pantry limiting their access to your life and your health.

Thanks for eating fresh fruits and vegetables and making Klesick’s a part of your life’s weeding strategy. We want you to be the healthiest you that you can possibly be so you can enjoy this wonderful life.

 

Farmer Tristan

Your local farmer and local food advocate

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Weed Soon and Weed Often

I always know that I am planting at the right time of the year because everything else around me is germinating too! And oh boy, it looks like it has been a good year for the other seedlings – AKA Weeds!

As an organic farmer, I have a fairly high tolerance for weeds and weed pressure. Really weeds are just misplaced plants or in my case, just happen to germinate in mass wherever I want a crop to grow! But I have learned a few things in my 20 years of farming: better to weed early, the earlier the better.

Given my high tolerance for weed, one could say that I have built a fortune of weed seeds in my farm’s “Weed Bank.” And just to be clear, I am not talking about marijuana, although in the 1970’s the largest marijuana crop was being illegally grown across the street from my farm. Now to be fair, this was before my time and the current neighbors. But as lore goes, the illegal crop was planted in the middle of a field of cow corn.  As luck or bad luck would have it, the marijuana outgrew the corn, and someone spotted it from a helicopter. As they say, “The rest is history.”.

Not to be outdone, the Miller Road lore continues. Nissan was filming a 300zx commercial on our road. Boys and testosterone are not a good mix for the windy farm road we live on. Well anyway, the same field that grew the marijuana/corn crop had been converted to pasture and the film crew was a little nervous with the bystanders observing all the happenings. Apparently, Ferdinand the Bull didn’t care for the color of a RED sports car cruising by, so they asked the farmer kindly to put the bull in the back field.

And lest you think I am telling another yarn, there was the time that a young man with a brand-new motorcycle was drawn to the Miller Road (must have a siren call). Just as he was feeling his “oats” (farm talk for being a little too big for “yer” britches) coming out of the first corner heading into the straight stretch he met the “S” curves and laid that bike out about 60 feet into my strawberry field. Thankfully, only his pride and his bike were bruised. Even more thankfully, my daughters had finished picking the berries about 30 minutes before! Still gives me the chills just to reminisce about it.

Boys, testosterone and the Miller Road. Thankfully, the Miller Road is now a dead end and we don’t get near the bypass traffic we used to.

Oh, back to the weeds. I am talking about dandelions, thistles, chickweed, pigweed, henbit, grasses, and Lamb’s quarter. Nothing to this farmer is more beautiful than a freshly tilled and planted field and nothing is more short lived than that memory. In a week it will look like a blanket of green and purple weeds. But if you plant straight rows and start weeding early, you can knock that first flush back. But the longer you wait the harder the work. So around here we try and weed soon and weed often!

 

Tristan Klesick

Your Farmer and Community Health Activist

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From Rain to Hot

I have never direct seeded Green beans in April before. As a matter of fact, I have never seeded Green Beans at the same time as Sugar Snap Peas either. The weather pattern is shifting and after a few years of extra-wet springs followed by a heat wave, I am starting to have to adapt to this new weather pattern.  Last year really caught me off guard. This Spring we started our transplants a few weeks later than normal.

I was getting nervous that even starting 2 weeks later wouldn’t might have not been late enough. But the weather broke in our favor and we were able to empty the greenhouses and transplant thousands of romaine, green and red leaf plus seed those green beans, peas, kohlrabi, cucumbers, yellow and green zucchini, chard, bok choi, mizuna, frisée, beets and sweet corn. This week we will continue to seed more lettuces and winter squash in transplant trays, plus direct seed the list mentioned above.

What used to be a slow warm up in weather and the farming season has become a mad dash to capitalize on the soil moisture and heat. I am feeling pretty good about where we are to date. I am planting my favorite winter squash – Delicata this week. If you haven’t cooked up the Delicata from last week, get cooking, it is so good!

As a farmer and a business owner involved in the organic food world, I can assure that food doesn’t magically appear. I will grant that it is somewhat magical that wind or bees can pollinate a crop of apples or kiwi berries or cucumbers! Absolutely fascinating and magical. As an organic farmer I spend a lot of time thinking about how to enhance the biology and ecosystems on my farm to attract and keep as much wild diversity as I can to. We do everything from bird, bat and owl houses to planting beneficial flowers, to trees for birds to nest in and escape to. We plant cover crops to feed the soil food web, which in turn feeds the plants, which in turn feed us. Working with nature and its wild cohabitators is absolutely vital to a successful farm and food production system.

The solution to Americas health crisis is right here on my farm. It would be also be helpful if the other Washington would implement meaningful food policy that didn’t line the pockets of the chemical and multinational food companies. But I don’t see that shift happening soon, so it will be up to you and me to say “no” to their food and “yes” to real food and real nutrition grown on farms that respect your health and the environment.

Which is why I get up every day and source or grow and deliver the freshest organic produce I can find. Serving local families with healthy food is all we have done for the last 20 years and I don’t see any reason to change now.

 

Tristan

Your Farmer and Community Health Advocate

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Mom is one of the most powerful words in every language. Everybody has one and half of us get the opportunity to be one. Moms are world shapers, molding the future and working hard to make this world a better place.

It isn’t easy to raise children and it is often a misunderstood and daunting task, but because of moms our communities are richer places to live and better places for our children to grow up.

And for those of you who have chosen to be one, ultimately only you know the joys, heartaches and busyness that comes with being a Mom.

 

Thank you for all that you do!

Tristan,

Your Farmer and Community Health Advocate