Whats going on at the farm?!

Well, looking at this beautiful picture of the wheat field reminds me that I had to till it down last week, because it had too much vetch in it. Bumski.  I’m all about an understory of beneficial weeds like clovers, trefoil, alfalfa and the like, but the hairy vetch climbs so tall and smothers the crop, not to mention making it impossible to harvest.  So there we were with wheat in the “milk” stage, and I just tilled in this chest high field as green manure.  Talk about soil building.  Bonus! The next day Dylan seeded a mixed cover for the cows and on we go.  I will be tilling down the cover that the cows are already on and then irrigating and cultivating weeds between August 1st and September 15th, then I’ll get three new kinds of grain sown for harvest next year: Spelt, Durum Wheat, and Soft White Wheat.  Hopefully weed-free, due to “prior preparations preventing piss poor performance”, as my Grandpa would say.

Y’all know we grow grain, right?  We have several varieties that we grow on a rotation and mill right here at the farm store.  You can find it at the market or here at the store or at Locavore or The Stand in Sisters.  We grow grain because we are a full diet farm and we are trying to raise what we eat, year round.  That includes staples, not just salad mix and bacon.  I lean pretty heavily on potatoes myself, (many of you know how much I love the old potatoes this time of year).  But we also make bread, biscuits, cookies, pancakes, pies, tortillas, homemade pasta, granola, wheat berry salads, barley in soups, cheesy polenta, I mean I could go on and on.

Small scale grain production is very rare indeed.  Locally produced organic grain is a bit of a unicorn.  I wish it wasn’t that way, but the cereal crops that are grown in Central Oregon are conventional and leave by the train container mostly to China.  And…… I have my little soap box that I dance around on……  Did you know that most (90%?) of cereal crops (wheat, oats, barley, soy, rye……) are sprayed with desiccant a couple weeks before harvest?  Desiccant is Glyphosate.  Grain is essentially killed shortly before harvest in order to have the field dry down evenly, instead of naturally slowly and patchy.  This is a vulnerable time for a farmer….while they wait for a natural dry down they might experience bad weather or wind that knocks the crop down.  So the desiccant speeds the process and increases the “shatter”, meaning the grain comes out easier.  This improves yield by 10%.  Not a small amount when you’re trying to feed the world.  But, spraying Glyphosate on the food right before harvest, not on weeds in the spring, leaves a residue of that chemical on the food.  Do you think grain is “washed”?  No.

Any ol ways, I think grain is the most important thing to prioritize finding certified organic.  Just sayin’.  Watch out for that oat milk in your latte.

Last but not least, got any amazing ideas for improving the CSA? I’d love to hear your suggestions! My inbox is always open! I really want you to love it and feel nourished.

See y’all soon!
-sarahlee

Dylan seeding cover immediately after Disking in the wheat