"Lot's happening"

About a week ago, I received a text from Chef John that said, 

"Tomw at the farm. Lot's happening." 

So, the next morning, I made sure to be at the farm
armed with my camera and notepad.
Often as I trail after John or Ray and Matt from Local Landscapers, 

I have to scribble notes so I can keep track of what
they are telling me about everything going on—
not just what's planted where, but the good stuff
about why they are doing what they do—all of which comes naturally to them,
but is new territory for this city girl.

Matt introduces me to a soldier beetle, aptly named as one of the "good bugs"

It's those scribbles that ultimately become this blog.
And indeed that day at the beginning of May,
there was "lot's happening."

 We were all looking ahead to summer as we 

set the stage for a bountiful upcoming season.

The morning began with the guys finishing 

the prep work in the beds—hard work, 

both by hand and tractor to get the farm ready for our planting party that day.

Joining the crew were Seth and Uriel, sous chefs from 

the girl & the fig and ESTATE—their hands-on work at the farm 

confirms their very personal commitment to "farm to table." 

They will truly appreciate whatever they wind up 

creating with the peppers they helped plant.

sous chefs Seth and Uriel

big moment: the FIRST pepper plant in the ground!

It is a wonderful part of the cycle of the farm and our kitchens 

to have the sous chefs work alongside the regular farm crew. 

Executive Chef John Toulze considers his time at the farm some 

of his most precious personal meditative time. 

Hard as the work is to do,
there is a communal energy between everyone.

We all work carefully to give the farm as much support as we can, 

adhering to biodynamic principles and doing as much as we can by hand.

freeing the asparagus plant from weeds

An aspect of biodyanmaic farming that we ramped up 

this season is companion planting. 

We all think the radishes are even tastier than usual, 

so they must like hanging out with the onions!

radish alternating with onions in one bed

photo by Matthew Ruff 

If you want to learn even more, Clare Brandt wrote an intriguing article 

on companion planting. Besides the convincing benefits 

on what is grown near each other, she reminds us that 

some of this is also about what tastes good together. 

For instance, it's hard to deny the perfect combo of basil and tomatoes, right?

photo from Plats du Jour by Steven Krause

The concept of biodynamic farming goes 

beyond simply using organic materials and no pesticides. 

As part of the deeper ethical aspects of all this, we appreciate 

long standing traditions from natural farming that are still working. 

Have you ever heard of "Three Sisters," the Iroquois tradition of 

planting corn, beans and squash together? 

From this tradition, we are reminded, as Clare Brandt shares in her article, that 

"beans (as all legumes do) take nitrogen from the air rather than the soil 

 during the growing season, and so don’t compete for nutrients." 

While we won't have a "Three Sisters" garden at the farm, we know 

we will get some of these benefits to our soil 

from the squash we will plant in the Orchard. 

But we are thinking about nitrogen and how important it is to our plants. 

Knowing that garlic and onion deplete the soil of nitrogen 

we needed to replenish the beds before planting our tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.

As we added bat guano, a natural source of soluble nutrients
high in nitrogen and phosphorus, 

we were harkening back to another ancient farming tradition. 

Did you know that the word "guano" comes from a Quichua language of the Andes 

meaning "droppings of sea birds," and 

was prized as a soil enricher by the rulers of the Inca Empire?

view from the tractor seat

In the midst of the planting party, 

we continued to harvest what is fresh right now at the farm.

So, while we planted that day for summer, we also 

picked pea shoots, garlic and baby carrots

that went straight to the kitchen.

smoked pea sformato radish salad at ESTATE

This particular day in May felt like an important one at the farm,
perhaps the start of the farm's summer?

Hands in the dirt, backs bent over, shovels and hoes, 

plants from the greenhouse that started as seeds going into the ground 

and by afternoon we had planted 100 eggplants, 100 peppers and 150 tomatoes.

tomato starts ready to climb

 A lot happened.

And a lot more continues for us at the farm project. 

More to plant in the upper quadrant, potatoes are growing in the Orchard, 

 John is deciding what else to plant in the other beds, 

a new greenhouse is planned for the half acre behind "the fig"

 and more edible plants and herbs will be planted at ESTATE.

herb beds in front of ESTATE

Follow along the journey with us as we enter the height of the growing season.

And let us know what you are planting 

in your farm project—whether a small backyard space or window sill pots.

Picking something fresh you have grown is a wonder to do and tastes incredible!

What's growing

The weather continues to taunt us, 

with frosty mornings and nights and then spring—like afternoons. 

The farm is responding well, keeping balance 

with the colder temperatures and embracing the warm days. 

Garlic is sprouting at the farm already and 

lemons are bursting off the trees at ESTATE.

lemon tree at ESTATE

So we are not idle in this winter transition time.
There is a lot of work at the three farm locations.
At ESTATE  and in the farm's Orchard, we are pruning trees
and prepping for spring planting.

Fruit Tree "Ninjai"

Matt with the tiller in the Orchard

Behind "the fig," now that the 300 asparagus plants are in the ground, 

our plan is to continue the chard that did so well and add kale.

Soon the chefs won't have to order Dino Kale, 

they can just go out back and pick what is growing. 

we can get a lot of food growing behind the fig

Alongside these leafy greens are rhubarb 

and stinging nettles continue to grow. 

Even though the chefs have to be careful when 

picking them (they wear 3 pairs of latex gloves), 

we use stinging nettles in some recipes:
They are especially tasting in ravioli filling. 

Did you know that stinging nettles—high in protein, iron, fiber,

 Vitamin A & C—are considered one of the "super foods?"

 It needs to be blanched before using it and 

don't forget those gloves as you handle it!  

The FIGkitchen uses so many fresh herbs that
John decided to expand beyond herb growing
in the raised beds and plant some in a larger section. 

raised herb beds

this large area will give us even more herbs for the kitchen

It is important for us to be self sustainable with all that we use. 

All the restaurant kitchens compost and the kitchen scraps go out to the
compost pile at the farm, enhancing the soil and of course, ultimately 

coming back to the kitchens when we harvest what we've planted. 

We also take the ash from
the pizza oven at ESTATE
and spread it on the beds at the farm.

The ash adds nutrients like
potassium and phosphorus.
Did you know that one pound of ash treats
100 feet lightly dusted?

 The winter garden at Imagery farm now has mustard, radishes, carrots
and beets (chioggia, touchstone gold and merlin varieties)

chioggia beets are the candy striped ones

in the ground along with the garlic.

And, we just planted 1200 walla walla onions!

walla walla transplants

These onions compliment the cipollins we planted. 

The name means "little onion" in Italian and they are 

actually a bulb from the hyacinth plant.  

Check out page 166 in our new book, Plats du Jour 

for a tasty recipe for parsnip and cipollini soup.

And the newest and most exciting development for the farm 

has been putting up a green house which will allow 

us to start things from seeds rather than transplants. 

John and Ray and Matt from Local Landscapers 

have a lot of plans for the greenhouse.

Check back here to learn more about our Green House project
and see our progress with the winter garden at the farm.

And keep following the blog as well as the menus 

at the restaurants to find out what's growing.

Post a question or a comment here—let us know how we are doing.