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Author Archives: jim
The blueberries are planted
The weather, schedule, and several other factors finally aligned yesterday and we were able to plant the blueberry patch. I’m more excited about blueberries than anything else we’re going to plant this year, for a lot of reasons. First off, … Continue reading
The local community
Moving to a new place can be hard- making friends, finding out what’s going on, getting involved. We really lucked out in this area… while we’re working away to get the farm started, we’ve come across a zillion other fantastic … Continue reading
The surprising FUN! plan that works
One of the hardest challenges for beginning farmers is financial. No one really wants to lend them money. However, with most of the country’s farmers over the age of 60, there is a growing need to get more people into … Continue reading
Investing, Pacific Northwest style
I just got this interesting article from a friend. It addresses one of the big problems in modern-day, non-industrial agriculture: financing. Most traditional lending institutions aren’t interested in small agribusinesses. As a result, people like us have to be creative … Continue reading
Test results are in
Soil sample results are in. After some consultation with the extensionist, it looks like we’re OK for the most part. Most elements are within tolerance. I’m going to have to spread Borax to increase the boron level (and get good … Continue reading
Mechanical Muscle
The really environmental purists frown on using diesel to get work done on a sustainable farm, but sometimes, it’s just too practical. The site where we’re going to plant the orchard is in pretty rough shape; it was logged several … Continue reading
Soil samples
Today I took soils samples to send to the lab. I really don’t know a lot about it, so I had a meeting with the OSU extensionist a few weeks back. She was very helpful, and began by telling me … Continue reading
I guess that was timely
The last post talked a bit about food security and health, two topics that continue to interest us. It keeps coming up in our day-to-day lives; Emily just read in a magazine that 49 million people in the US suffer … Continue reading
Happy New Year
Here we are in the first week of the new year… a year that is a very big one for us. Settle in, this is going to be a long post. This year, Emily and I are farming. We came … Continue reading
Posted in News, Theory
Tagged diabetes, food desert, food security, guatemala, peace corps
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Farmer vs. Blackberry
Emily came out to help me in Day 3 of “farmer vs. blackberry”, an epic battle that is just getting started. You see, much of the really GOOD land we want to plant on is covered by an impenetrable thicket … Continue reading