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Through our friends Jessica + Michael (gracious hosts when we landed in Portland and our first visitors out here on Easter..) and their friend Jesse, we got to meet with the woman who runs a private Farmer's Market at Nike. We thought it was a simple, off the cuff market, but it is a full-on, really neat sounding event with 30 vendors. We met with the woman who runs it and she gave us a detailed introduction, tour and has invited us to be a part of their last two market days in August and September and one that is just starting at Columbia Sportswear, too.
Today after harvesting in the morning for Bon Appetit, we worked on our market signs and display. The ladies loved that we were home, since we let them roam when we are. They are constantly exploring, taking dust baths, finding new perches and hiding spots, herding each other around to new foraging areas. The Australorps (vultures...) are officially iridescent green sheen over their black feathers today and yesterday was the official pullet puberty voice change to early cluck speak versus bird singing. And their feathers are all so soft. Big personalities and only about 3 months old.
Much sign painting, fabric and wood activity occurring. Also we sold our first peppers of the season! And finally unleashed our Papalo herb out into the world. It was our best harvest yet. The only slow veggie is the eggplant, high demand, plants look great, but the fruits just maintained status quo this week. It's been cool and cloudy with some rain and they are not putting out until there is some more HEAT, but they are so pretty and the eggplant we've eaten so far is sooooo good, we've put it in everything from burritos to eggs. Dusky and Oriental Express. Excellent. 
Our earliest pepper is the Islander in it's meaty deep purple state. Jalapenos are hot and the Hungarian Hot Wax are pretty, yet mild.Here's a new drawing Neil just finished for a show he's in with Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, MA.
We're also sending off a piece we made together - the horse and fish over there on the right of this blog - to a show at UWM, where we met back in the day... titling it 'Hollywood Hills' after the place we made it while doing a bizarre art residency, which we'll have to write about someday.
This morning was our second harvest with Carlos for Pumpkin Ridge with some very welcome rain. The family is on vacation for a couple of weeks. Carlos rocks, he is great to work with, very pure energy, sharp with the numbers/baskets and best ways to harvest, wash and prep and he's funny.
It was nice after so much sun and dryness, to be out in the rain. In the stillness of the early morning, digging carrots and sorting them in piles of ten for a total of 580+ Many delicious yellow and green zucchinis and patty pans (the yellow color is so helpful for picking in those giant squash leaves). Beets, potatoes, scallions, onions, garlic. Enormous rainbow chard leaves and kale - both growing in the greenhouse to tropical proportions and basil.
I've been checking weather on weather underground, but I'm not sure they're the most accurate. It showed a very slight chance yesterday and did not show it was indeed actually raining from 3:30am on through the day, just cloudy and a 20% chance, while it was raining. We got a better tip last night from our friend Courtney's husband, Michael who was on Mt. Hood with good weather sources... and he was right. She's guiding a trip in Yosemite and hopefully they will visit us soon while they are up around here.
So I'm going to compare NOAA and see if there's a strong difference. Any other good sources?
(Pink Bee Balm, Goldilocks Rudbeckia, Red Crocosmia... flowers look especially vibrant on a rainy day to me. Harvesting and making bouquets for customers while Polly is away, too).
We had our first harvest for Bon Appetit this morning! We are selling with Steve who is an established Farm to Fork vendor. He captured our first harvest of spinach and butterhead lettuce and our drop off at Intel with the talented (and funny) chefs Micah and Jesus. Micah is also a CSA subscriber, very cool, and all around big fan of Steve (as are we!).
Since we are farming by the seat of our overalls... we are working on our succession planting and planning, but we've got a ways to go in this department to catch up with the opportunity. We've got greens coming on for a few weeks and more in the works and then there are all those tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, edamame, (Neil's cantaloupe project..), assorted veggies, flowers and herbs. It would be really great to get a steady supply of produce going out locally year-round, while also making and selling our own concoctions of teas and other products locally and beyond. It seems like the numbers can work in the future, through some serious planning and more continued hard work. We've talked about possibly partnering with Steve and Mishelle on the restaurant produce in the future. Lots of possibilities. Modest as our sale was today, it was thrilling to have produce to sell and a person to sell it to. Our sincere gratitude to Steve for his energy and excitement about farming and his generosity in helping us get started. Thank you!!
Our earliest pepper is the Islander in it's meaty deep purple state. Jalapenos are hot and the Hungarian Hot Wax are pretty, yet mild.
