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As I hope you all know by now, Jason and I are expecting baby #3 this August. the 17th to be as exact as babies will be. It's a little boy this time and yes, his big sisters are extremely excited!
Yes, I have been out working hard all season and you can all relax now as I have been banned from lifting heavy things in the last few months and having been blessed with multiple employees and interns, have been able to keep myself doing the easiest of jobs.
I try not to do too much sheep chasing anymore. much.
And yes, you will all have the opportunity to see, meet and/or hold the little one very soon after he arrives! Depending on when exactly he decides to make his grand entrance to the world and assuming that everything goes well of course, he'll be coming with us to the first market that I feel up to attending.
Specifically for our CSA members and definitely for all of our regular customers, there will be some things affected, depending again on when exactly munchkin decides the time is to his liking.
CSA shares will take a break for a week or we may do some sort of alternative. Keep your eyes on your email as we'll likely be notifying you by that method as to what exactly our alternative plan of choice will be.
For our regular customers, We'll try to have our booth at all of the markets no matter what but if for some reason Omache Farm doesn't arrive to market, at least you can make a pretty good guess at what's going on!
So at just about 2 1/2 weeks to go to the due date of Aug 17th, we are excited and busy preparing, hot and of course very tired. Keep your eye out at the markets for news and on Facebook. All of you lovely people are at the very top of our list to hear about our new little bundle of joy's arrival!
Showing posts with label csa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label csa. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
July 23 Hail Storm
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So the newsletters simply haven't worked out as well this year as I was hoping they would. I'm sure all of you lovely folks will understand, given the circumstances.
That all being the case, this seems the perfect time to put several updates down on paper. Well, digital paper anyhow.
The biggest update is about the recent hail storm that passed through the area on Wednesday July 23. Hopefully most of you have had a chance to talk with Jason about it. He was getting our booth set up for the Wednesday market when it hit town and as our farm manager coordinated much of the acrobatics that ensued. There were several amazing folks that, upon hearing about yet another grand sheep escape that resulted from the hail storm, raced out to our farm to help put everyone back where they belonged.
The most challenging loss resulting from this storm is likely our pumpkins and winter squash. Being blessed with more acreage than many folks who grow veggies in the area, we were working on growing nearly an acre of pumpkins and another half acre of various winter squash varieties. The plants were very well established and while they have been growing back amazingly well the biggest question now is if they'll produce fully ripe fruits before the first frost. In just the last four seasons, we've seen first frosts come as early as mid September or as late as the end of October. Cross your fingers for luck for us!
All of our CSA members came down to the market to pick up their CSA shares that day (impressive given the nasty weather) and upon hearing of the total devastation of our outdoor crops completely understood when we told them that it meant a pretty sparse CSA share for the next month or more until we could get fresh crops planted and for the survivors (kale, chard, Zucchini) to grow back and start producing once again.
A huge thank you also goes out to Deep Roots Farm and Affinity Farm, both in Moscow. They have both donated a couple of different items to help us fill out our CSA shares this week. We cannot thank them enough!
Keep an eye on Facebook for photo updates. Jason is hoping to take some photos of the recovery every week (Wednesdays or so usually) so we can all be absolutely amazed at the progress and amazing resiliency of Mother Nature. Believe me when I say I have been most impressed at how well things have been growing back.
So the newsletters simply haven't worked out as well this year as I was hoping they would. I'm sure all of you lovely folks will understand, given the circumstances.
That all being the case, this seems the perfect time to put several updates down on paper. Well, digital paper anyhow.
The biggest update is about the recent hail storm that passed through the area on Wednesday July 23. Hopefully most of you have had a chance to talk with Jason about it. He was getting our booth set up for the Wednesday market when it hit town and as our farm manager coordinated much of the acrobatics that ensued. There were several amazing folks that, upon hearing about yet another grand sheep escape that resulted from the hail storm, raced out to our farm to help put everyone back where they belonged.
The most challenging loss resulting from this storm is likely our pumpkins and winter squash. Being blessed with more acreage than many folks who grow veggies in the area, we were working on growing nearly an acre of pumpkins and another half acre of various winter squash varieties. The plants were very well established and while they have been growing back amazingly well the biggest question now is if they'll produce fully ripe fruits before the first frost. In just the last four seasons, we've seen first frosts come as early as mid September or as late as the end of October. Cross your fingers for luck for us!
All of our CSA members came down to the market to pick up their CSA shares that day (impressive given the nasty weather) and upon hearing of the total devastation of our outdoor crops completely understood when we told them that it meant a pretty sparse CSA share for the next month or more until we could get fresh crops planted and for the survivors (kale, chard, Zucchini) to grow back and start producing once again.
A huge thank you also goes out to Deep Roots Farm and Affinity Farm, both in Moscow. They have both donated a couple of different items to help us fill out our CSA shares this week. We cannot thank them enough!
Keep an eye on Facebook for photo updates. Jason is hoping to take some photos of the recovery every week (Wednesdays or so usually) so we can all be absolutely amazed at the progress and amazing resiliency of Mother Nature. Believe me when I say I have been most impressed at how well things have been growing back.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
V. 1.5 & 2.0
Finally! the hoophouses are up, covered and the first has it's endwalls on and the first plant starts adjusting.
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It was quite the feat. step one: get volunteers committed. Step two, get volunteers re-committed to a new weekend that had less wind and luckily beautiful weather! Step three: get everyone present and on the same page.
Once everyone was here and in place, we tried waiting for a dead spot in the wind but if you're familiar with the palouse, dead spots in winds never come until the hottest day in August. So we decided there would be enough of us and started hauling on the ropes to pull the plastic over the hoophouse. Lots of adjusting and wiggle wire later, we had two brand new hoophouses.
Then it was time for lunch. Pulled pork, baked beans, mashed potatoes and Challah bread with some of HM and A's dyed Easter eggs in the braid. All home-made!
There's more pictures in our Facebook Album. This album should be view-able even if you do not have a Facebook account.
We'd like to thank profusely those folks kind enough to give up their Sunday morning to lend us a hand: Mom & Dad, Josey & Lindsey, Debi & Dave, Eric & Betty, Devon, Alden, Brendan, Nate & friends, Lauren, Derek & Keri, Erin. We could not have done it without all of you!
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Thursday, March 1, 2012
A Pat on the Back...
...To Us!
We realized something the other day.
We took a WSU extension class in the spring of 2008 and a part of it was to write up a business plan. With no real clue as to where we would eventually end up or what exactly we would be growing, we were relatively accurate even with pretty ambitious goals!
As of this year, we've more or less reached all of our major 5-year goals. In five years!
One of our main goals included starting a 10-member CSA. This year, we can check that one off.
Another goal was to have a 20 ewe breeding flock of sheep. This year, we have 31 ewes we expect to drop lambs for us!
A third goal was to be selling at two farmer's markets. Now that we know what it really takes to be selling at just one local farmer's market, we may or may not reach that one this year, but probably next year. We are however looking at selling some specific produce to a couple restaurants and the Moscow Co-op.
Another goal was to purchase or lease a farm property. We leased our farm property at year three in 2010!
The last goal we wrote down was to begin utilizing draft power in year five. That won't be happening this year but I don't think we've yet ruled it out. As we gain a handle on what needs to happen day to day in the next couple years, we'll probably be more able to figure out how to do some or all of that work with draft power. I'm seeing things like cutting hay and pulling mobile livestock shelters from one paddock to the next for sure but who knows? maybe in the next ten or fifteen years we'll have several teams of Suffolk Punch horses doing everything from tilling and weeding veggies to baling hay to planting and harvesting grain and hauling wagons for hay rides for harvest festivals!
When we were writing all these ideas down to create a business plan so long ago, we had absolutely no idea that we would end up here on the palouse, potentially forever. We had no idea that our delusions of grandeur might not have been quite as delusional as originally thought. Although frankly, a flock of 150 or more Jacob ewes grazing across our hillsides might still be delusional. We'll have to pare it down to between 60 and 100 I think.
Now that we've arrived at our fictitious five year mark in relative truthfulness, we'll have to sit down and dream up the next five years... Any suggestions?
We realized something the other day.
We took a WSU extension class in the spring of 2008 and a part of it was to write up a business plan. With no real clue as to where we would eventually end up or what exactly we would be growing, we were relatively accurate even with pretty ambitious goals!
As of this year, we've more or less reached all of our major 5-year goals. In five years!
One of our main goals included starting a 10-member CSA. This year, we can check that one off.
Another goal was to have a 20 ewe breeding flock of sheep. This year, we have 31 ewes we expect to drop lambs for us!
A third goal was to be selling at two farmer's markets. Now that we know what it really takes to be selling at just one local farmer's market, we may or may not reach that one this year, but probably next year. We are however looking at selling some specific produce to a couple restaurants and the Moscow Co-op.
Another goal was to purchase or lease a farm property. We leased our farm property at year three in 2010!
The last goal we wrote down was to begin utilizing draft power in year five. That won't be happening this year but I don't think we've yet ruled it out. As we gain a handle on what needs to happen day to day in the next couple years, we'll probably be more able to figure out how to do some or all of that work with draft power. I'm seeing things like cutting hay and pulling mobile livestock shelters from one paddock to the next for sure but who knows? maybe in the next ten or fifteen years we'll have several teams of Suffolk Punch horses doing everything from tilling and weeding veggies to baling hay to planting and harvesting grain and hauling wagons for hay rides for harvest festivals!
When we were writing all these ideas down to create a business plan so long ago, we had absolutely no idea that we would end up here on the palouse, potentially forever. We had no idea that our delusions of grandeur might not have been quite as delusional as originally thought. Although frankly, a flock of 150 or more Jacob ewes grazing across our hillsides might still be delusional. We'll have to pare it down to between 60 and 100 I think.
Now that we've arrived at our fictitious five year mark in relative truthfulness, we'll have to sit down and dream up the next five years... Any suggestions?
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Internship Opportunity!
Omache Farm has an opening for an Intern for the 2012 season!
Do you want to REALLY see what happens on a small, diversified vegetable and livestock farm on the Palouse? Do you want to have the opportunity to learn about EVERYTHING from planning to planting to caring to harvesting? And from birth to shearing to rotating to finishing? From planning to doing to recording and back? See what it's really like from the OTHER SIDE of the Farmer's Market table?
Check out our Information here: Internship Opportunity
Have we scared you away yet? No? Then shoot us an email or call us. Let's Talk.
Do you want to REALLY see what happens on a small, diversified vegetable and livestock farm on the Palouse? Do you want to have the opportunity to learn about EVERYTHING from planning to planting to caring to harvesting? And from birth to shearing to rotating to finishing? From planning to doing to recording and back? See what it's really like from the OTHER SIDE of the Farmer's Market table?
Check out our Information here: Internship Opportunity
Have we scared you away yet? No? Then shoot us an email or call us. Let's Talk.
Friday, January 6, 2012
2012 CSA
We are so excited to be starting our very own CSA this season! I was looking through one of the many seed catalogs that we've been receiving and very nearly drooling! Fresh veggies are sounding so good this time of year when we are all relying on veggies from our storage larders or even from the grocery store that is bringing veggies in from California or Mexico. I know I didn't can enough for this winter but then again I'm still learning what we actually eat all winter long. and just how much work it takes to preserve all that food.
If you haven't yet decided on where you'll be getting your fresh veggies from May to October, take a look at our CSA Here. For $300, your family could be eating veggies picked the day of or the day before they are delivered at the most. To get any fresher you'd have to be growing it yourself! Some folks say they can't taste the difference but I can't even get our kids to eat carrots that aren't still dirty they're so fresh.
Shoot us an email at OmacheFarm@gmail.com and we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have as well as send you a pdf copy of our brochure. Our brochure has the form we need signed and returned if you decide to participate.
As for preserving food for next winter, we hope to be doing some planned sales for preserving in addition to folks requests for enough of whatever vegetable they'll need for a batch of canning. And even if you're not canning Omache Farm produce, we'd be happy to offer any advice we can to assist you in your home preserving adventures. That is, after all, what a community is isn't it? A group of people who work, live, play and best of all, Eat together!
If you haven't yet decided on where you'll be getting your fresh veggies from May to October, take a look at our CSA Here. For $300, your family could be eating veggies picked the day of or the day before they are delivered at the most. To get any fresher you'd have to be growing it yourself! Some folks say they can't taste the difference but I can't even get our kids to eat carrots that aren't still dirty they're so fresh.
Shoot us an email at OmacheFarm@gmail.com and we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have as well as send you a pdf copy of our brochure. Our brochure has the form we need signed and returned if you decide to participate.
As for preserving food for next winter, we hope to be doing some planned sales for preserving in addition to folks requests for enough of whatever vegetable they'll need for a batch of canning. And even if you're not canning Omache Farm produce, we'd be happy to offer any advice we can to assist you in your home preserving adventures. That is, after all, what a community is isn't it? A group of people who work, live, play and best of all, Eat together!
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