In spite of recent Columbia Country overnight temperatures in the 20's, it is spring on the Katchkie Farm. We just celebrated our two favorite events on Friday, a combo of Earth Day coupled with Farmer Bob's birthday ... how convenient and fortuitous. So where else would we be on April 22nd, but at Katchkie Farm, with a delicious chocolate birthday cake in tow from our Pastry Chef Newton Pryce. And what other day would a future farmer choose to be born, but on Earth Day. (Actually, for Bob, every day is Earth Day.)
Under cloudy skies, Bob and the crew were busy planting onions. It was cold, and you could not have gotten me out there in the fields, riding on the back of the transplanter sticking 5" Walla Walla onion plants in the ground ... even with my new "Earth Brown" nail polish. In the fields, spring garlic was looking awesome (and tasting even better -- I prematurely harvested a few future garlic bulbs), the strawberry patch was growing under a bed of hay and 6" stalks of rhubarb were popping up in The Sylvia Center garden. I had never seen emerging Rhubarb leaves -- they resemble a cross between bulb-like and brain-like heads, and as the leaves unfurl they are remarkably scrunched up -- now I know why. Next in line for transplanting, hearty brassica, the broccoli.
In two greenhouses, the in-ground tomato plants were blossoming, weeks ahead of any field tomatoes and fueling fantasies of luscious local tomatoes by mid-June. This will be my first stop every week now, watching the plants climb from their current height of about 10" to the top of the greenhouse ceiling. The in-ground radiant heat allowed Bob to start this process a month earlier than last year. Step outside the greenhouse for "the smell of hors d-oeuvres" as Bob calls the faint smell from the barn where the furnace runs on Great Performances discarded cooking oil. Talk about recycling on Earth Day!
In the "nursery" greenhouse, it is standing room only as every table is filled with trays of flowers and veggies only inches high. The ladybugs continue to battle the aphids, seeding continues and the promise of the new season fills damp expanse. The miracle of the genetic message in a seed never diminishes. It is remarkable to envision these plants bearing fruit in several weeks.
In a flash, it will all change. They call it spring because it will seem to have popped out from nowhere -- but we are witness to the hours of labor, planting, plowing fields, handling seedlings, planning and plotting -- that go into making it look effortless.
Happy Birthday Farmer Bob!
