NW Organic Farm Blog

There is nothing better than tugging on your first tomatoes of the season and feeling the fruit give way from the vine.   Gardening is hard work, yet the produce of your labors can be fun and truly rewarding.  

Before planting your tomato plants, be sure to pick a spot which will receive at least eight hours of sun a day.  Also choose soil which is well drained and will keep the roots dry except for when you are feeding your plants.  Soil not well drained may foster an environment for root-rot and other diseases.   A tomato plant needs only an inch of water per week.   

If you have purchased a tomato plant at least ten weeks old, typically at this stage of growth (green umbrella-type foliage) your plant will do well with little nitrogen.  Many gardeners make the mistake of adding too hot of compost or green manure, which is too high in nitrogen.  We have seen many farmers and gardeners who produce big stocky tomato plants with massive vegetation, yet their plants produce little fruit.  This is because the myth is that tomato plants need nitrogen.  Again, if you are planting a ten-week-old plant, the real concern for your plant to properly bloom and produce fruit is to focus on adding calcium, phosphorous, manganese and other elements, which we will get into in the next blog.

Happy Planting!

To me, this is the most exciting time of the year on the Farm!  The deliveries to stores have begun and we're busy filling orders. 

Our Farm's online store offers specialty baskets at prices well below other organic vegetable starts sold online.   My very favorite is the Specialty Greens Basket.  Last year I was excited to plant my own basket and I found over 50 starts of the eight different lettuce and spinach varieties.  They're very easy to separate.   Just gently pull them apart and plant them as each instruction tag suggests.  Each time the lettuce was ready to harvest, I cut it off about an inch above the ground and in that way I was able to harvest the same head two or three times.  We ate lots of organic lettuce and specialty greens for a couple of months and had to buy none at the store.  

The weather has warmed here in Sandy and the smell of summer is in the air!   Yesterday, walking from the greenhouses to the house, two of the roosters scolded me for talking with the chickens.    Some of the children were bouncing effortlessly on the big trampoline, enjoying the sun.  What a great time of the year!

We are committed to the organic process, to the health of our children and our community. "Organic" is a term so widely used, it often can be misunderstood. Organic to us means we use soil which has not had any form of chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides ...) for nearly ten years. We buy our seeds through Seeds of Change, the scientific leader in organic seed production. We start our seedlings in winter in an organic soil-less mix, which contains no wetting agents. We transfer these plants to our greenhouses and eventually harden them off in baskets which find their way to you, or into one of our fields.

Growing organically means ...weeds, and more weeds. The continual process of attempting to stay ahead of these, has given us a further appreciation for the process of life, and the outcome of life's disciplines.

Although the results of Round-Up would give a grower immediate gratification, the unseen results beneath the soil's surface are detrimental to the microbiology of the soil. Just as there is a world of unseen life in the sea, so is there a living world in the soil. The life forms within the soil are inner-dependent upon one another, and create an environment which is beneficial to vegetation. When chemicals are applied, it has been proven the life forms in the soil and its microbial state are negatively impacted. Will plants grow? Of course they will, but what long term impact do these chemicals have on the soil? They affect the acidity and natural base (ph) of the soil, which is crucial for micro-life to thrive. When life forms are killed and/or unable to thrive, this continues to deplete the soil of nutrients. Thus, when we plant vegetation into soil lacking needed micro-life, it affects the vegetation and the food we eat.

Again, a good example of this is life in the sea. Over half a century ago when oil was a newly thriving business in America, scientists stated oil was a natural mineral and an oil spill would not impact the environment or harm life forms in the sea. Obviously, we now know otherwise. Mirroring this, agricultural sprays adversely affect the life of the soil.

It is amazing to see how often mankind relishes the "quick fix" (even our economy) for immediate gratification. Even the USDA and FDA denied in the 1950's and 1960's agricultural sprays used were not dangerous. In the late 1960's over 250,000 Americans died or contracted serious respiratory illnesses resulting from these sprays. The USDA and FDA considered banishing chemical sprays altogether, yet surmised American agriculture was dependent on chemical sprays in order to flourish. Therefore, regulations and guidelines for agricultural chemicals were implemented. Since the late 1960's, the USDA has continued to reassure Americans the agriculture chemicals are safe. Year after year, however, the USDA quietly continues to tighten regulations and the potency of agricultural chemicals.

In the last two decades, more and more children (and adults) have contracted chronic respiratory diseases and dietary allergies. What has impacted our environment in the last decades, which is impacting the health of our children today?

Whether it is fish or vegetation, it is important we know where our food has come from and what has affected it.

We hope you have found this to be beneficial. If you have questions or ideas, please contact us or visit us at the farm on open days.

David, Debbie and family
(503) 320-2995
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This is my first blog post on this website - this online business to be exact!   Some of the sites are under construction but will be up and running soon. 

Feel free to grab a cup of tea and a cookie, put your feet up and take a look around. You'll find heaps of great content and information about my business, and there are plenty of goodies.

I hope you enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think!