January is a pivot month on the farm. We go from cleaning up and packing Winter CSA boxes to doing all of that and starting seeds! That is right. In this month of very gradually almost unnoticeable gains in daylight, we fire back up the 4-season greenhouse, build soil for starting seeds in, look at the crop calendar, and start putting little bullets of life into the soil. It is a moment of true joy when the beginnings of the new growing season are touched and nurtured.

While planting seeds can be done on any day, we follow the biodynamic calendar and plant on the auspicious days for that particular crop and always with our heart full of hope and joy and excitement. Planting seeds is a whole heart exercise.

The seeds we started over the past couple weeks are the beginnings of our Summer CSA and next Winter’s CSA. We planted lettuce heads, Asian greens, and green onions for the Summer CSA. These will be ready to transplant into hoop houses in mid-March and will be ready to harvest by May and June.

We also started all the alliums for the farm! That means that every yellow and red onion, shallot, and leek that you get in your Summer 2022 and Winter 2022-2023 CSA share has been started. These are the longest growing crop on the farm and take a true investment of time and space, but they are a foundation of cooking and we feel strongly that they deserve all the attention they get.

We have been working so hard to get the 2022 growing season planned and we are so excited that the planting has finally begun!

We use saved onion seeds for over 50% of our allium starts on the farm! This is a huge win and we love that we get to select the best seeds for our location. First we clean the seeds, then start them on fresh and homemade soil, place them in the germination chamber, and wait for our little eager beaver starts to show themselves.
(photos by Natalie Leder)

Shameless plug here: if you haven’t purchased your Summer CSA yet, now is the time!

Your Content Goes HYou can find more information on our Summer CSAs HERE. And you can purchase your Summer CSA share HERE.

We run a market style CSA instead of a pre-boxed CSA. We feel this provides you with the most freedom to cook with what you want.

Choose the Meat CSA size that fits your needs! All our meats are GMO and chemical-free, pastured, and raised and processed in Central Oregon. Our beef is grass-fed and finished. Our pork and poultry are pastured.

Click on the button below for more information on our Summer CSA. Sales to the public start today and our CSA filled up last year by the end of February so act fast!ere

Here are a majority of last summer’s shares. (Photo compilation by Cheyenne Price @theprimalfocus)