Category: Farm

Do farmers blog less than others? I’m looking at my series of blog entries and realize they are very intermittent. I have a cousin who writes in her blog at least once a day. When I get up the first thing I do is look out the window to see what the weather is doing and decide what I can do outside. In the winter, it’s often inside work because we don’t work out in the field when it’s too wet or snowy. On Whidbey Island we don’t have much snow, but every once in a while we do and this year has had quite a lot (for us). Coming from southern New England and having lived in Denver for many years, it doesn’t compare. This is a banana belt compared to those places.

Even when I’m inside, though, I’m consumed with the tasks I’ve put off in order to do the work outside. So, there is precious little time to write in a blog, much less think of something remotely interesting to write about.

Today will be different, though, because I’m visiting my son who lives in a city far away and I have the luxury to kick back, gaze out the window and think up something that might be interesting.

The weather! It’s January and constantly like this – windy, spotty rain or more, chilly…. It’s hard to get out to finish the pruning. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we can also transplant. It’s actually a good time to do it, as long as the weather is above freezing. The ground is very juicy and the temperatures are cool enough that the plants are dormant. The only problem is getting up the gumption to go out and do it.

Lt Rain37°F (3°C) Humidity: 82 % Wind Speed: ESE 21 G 26 MPH Barometer: 30.31 in (1026.70 mb) Dewpoint: 32°F (0°C) Wind Chill: 26°F (-3°C) Visibility: 0.00 Miles

I just hired another Coupeville teen – now we have two 14 year olds working here. I like to think of kids as my “other” crop. This last summer we graduated three that had been with me for several years – one had been here since she was 14. It was a proud moment as well as being rather poignant – to go to their graduation and cheer them on their way to college. Meanwhile, Spencer, the new kid at the farm, has been doing very well. Yesterday he dug out the dirt and grass from the fence around the vegetable garden so we can replace the fencing. It’s old enough now that the voles and rabbits can just chew through it and get into the garden to eat OUR food. Spencer said he didn’t mind it at all, was listening to music as he worked. I think iPods and other portable players are such a gift – it makes working so much more pleasant!

Each year we have a holiday party and the three new college kids (who have left Lavender Wind Farm to go on with their lives) came, one with her boyfriend, and they were happy. Each one was growing in her own direction, and because they are still freshmen, that direction is still rather fuzzy.

This year we got our first company sweat shirts.

This year we have lots of new stuff planned for the upcoming season. And this winter we are taking care of lots of background paperwork. This is usually a chore I avoid, but to avoid being outside in this weather…..

It’s 4 am and there is a slight line of light in the eastern sky. Spring has passed, but the weather is not yet dependably nice. But, the light in the sky this early in the morning means that the warmer season of light is just around the corner. It’s a relief to have more and more light, but it also means more and more weeds and work.

Our new gift shop is having it’s opening today. After lots of work and worry it’s done.

In these days tiny (micro) farms, like mine, who are in tourist locations without a huge population base nearby to feed may need to have places to visit and things to do in order to survive. It’s taking the idea of multiple streams of income seriously. Here, on Lavender Wind Farm, we also take the concept of Triple Bottom Line very seriously. When we do things we want to be sure of three things
1) It helps the financial health of the farm
2) It is sustainable and good for the earth (at least not causing it harm)
3) It is good for our people who live here, work here, or visit and for our community.
The gift shop is subtle, you don’t notice it from the outside, it’s just a room in the garage. It’s also part of the operation because lavender drying wires are strung across the ceiling there, as well as throughout the garage. In harvest season we are scrambling to get the lavender dried and then put away for use during the year. There is an attic in the garage where the ceiling rafters are, at their highest point, 5 feet high. Even I, at 5’3″ bonk my head – frequently. But it’s a great place to dry lavender – warm, dry, and, because of the fan, moving air. You can see the empty wires across the ceiling in the new gift shop, waiting for June when the first part of the harvest starts.

The wind is blowing into the 30 mph range this morning. It’s coming from the southeast which is where the storms come from in the Puget Sound trough. This farm is on the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca which means when there’s a west wind it barrels down the strait and hits us full force. We don’t have hurricanes, but from November through March we’ll have hefty wind storms when it blows more than 70 mph.

It’s depressing. The wind batters the sides of the house as well as my mind. It is unrelentingly pushy. The Beaufort Wind Scale has the various kinds of winds classified – right now it’s blowing a “Near Gale”. I watch the shipping go by in this wind as the ships and tugs and barges go out the strait or up and down to the Strait of Georgia on the inside edge of Vancouver Island. The waves break over the bows as they plow their way through the violent water.

Kari, my new weeder, is coming to work today. I hate to have the weeders working in the fields when it’s like this. It sucks all the warmth out of the body, it blows into our ears and makes them hurt. The ground is wet enough that at least the dirt doesn’t blow up into our eyes.

Life is not genteel and tranquil all the time on a lavender farm.

It’s 5:11 am and I’ve been up for an hour and a half or so and have finally taken the plunge into the blogging world. I’m a lavender farmer now. It wasn’t always so, but now that’s what I do. People come to the farm and ask if I do it full-time and I answer “Yes”. Of course, it’s more than full-time work even with only 2 1/2 acres planted at this point. There are even people who get paid to work here, besides me.

But the sad reality of farming life is that it’s not possible to work full time on farming without an extra something – either another job or working partner or silver spoon. Why on earth do farmers do what they do? Work from dawn to dusk outside and then more hours in the dark either inside the office or inside the barn. Do folks in the city have any idea what it takes to get them food? It is my hope that they take trips and visit the farms around them to see just what happens to get them food and other things that are made from stuff that grows on farms – like lavender!

Here on Whidbey Island we are putting together a farm tour, maybe even two of them, to get people and farms together. I’m excited about it!