While we in the North inch ever daily towards the darkness of winter, where sometimes the brightest light is the Moon or Stars shining upon a crisp snowpack, I work diligently on the task of counting my small blessings, my seeds! While the wind blows the snow in crashing swirls upon my cabin's windows, I sit inside surrounded by seeds as I work to thresh, count, and package them. Saving seeds is not something you do on a whim, for they are promises for the future forged in the past. In their tiny shells and bodies, they gather up all the sunshine, wind, and rain from last season, memories of microbes, animals, and insects, and hopefully, memories of me, first planting them into the soil, then brimming with joy as I watch them grow, walking past them to see what they need, and finally harvesting them in fall so that they may find new homes this winter and maybe be planted by your hands this spring. If you too want to help them grow, check out my online farm store for available varieties and you can gift yourself or someone you love a few little promises for the future while we sit in the cold darkness of winter. The returned Winter Weekly Pop-Up for picking up Microgreens, Seeds, and other farm delights will be Thursday from 12-1pm at the Libby Chamber of Commerce. This gives me a chance to get out of the cold and you a chance to see what else there is to do in winter. I won't have a everything on display but I'll bring all available items along so check the website for what's available even if you just wanna email me your order and pay when you pick up. Seeds are available to ship as well! These are Plantain seeds. Some of the chaff is still present after doing the bulk of the threshing. The most common way to separate the rest is the real messy bit! It involves using a fan to create a gentle breeze as you let the material (chaff, seeds, and all) fall through the breeze. The heavier seed falls down onto your tarp or blanket and the chaff blows away. I've been waiting for all the seeds to be at this stage so I can clean up only one mess instead of many :) And even if views like this are only a distant dream right now, another promise for the future to look forward to is a spring and summer filled with ways to learn on the farm and in the woods. I'll be teaching a series of foraging and plant id classes on the farm as well as in Troy so that you too can wander the wilds with confidence and recognize a few new plant friends! More details will be available closer to spring but you can check out my website by clicking the 'Find Out More' button way down below to, well, find out a bit more until then. Even if it's cold, dark, and windy outside remember to bundle up and get a little bit of daylight (even if you can't see the Sun, it's up there!) Because, we northerners know that cabin fever is real and it's even worse when you and your seeds are itching for spring to come so we can sow out little promises for the future together. What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
The Microgreens will return next Thursday for local pickup in Libby from 12-1pm at the Chamber of Commerce. Order online for local pickup or ship of Seeds, Crafts, & Botanicals!
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... and we turn with it. It's been a packed month of conferences, projects, and planning. And with the weather *finally* turning to winter, everything changes again. The next few months will be filled with lots of reading and classes (as a business owner I get to call it Professional Development 😆), website updating, crop planning, new product development and design, and making crafts of old and learning new ones. Even if winter means the plants get to rest, the Farmer (kinda like the soil and all the little beasties in it that help the plants to grow), just turn our labors to inside things. The things that support a business that aren't usually seen, just as we usually don't see the bacteria, fungi, and insects that support the plants even as we enjoys the fruits and flowers that it produces. As I look forward to curling up in a warm cabin with four furry lap warmers and a warm cup of cocoa reading, writing, making and generally growing all the skills that help me grow the plants (by supporting all those plant-supporting bacteria, fungi, and insects!) I'm using the last days of unfrozen ground to provide those little soil beasties their version of a winter spent in a warm cabin, with warm friends, and warm food. Building a relationship with them and learning what they need to thrive is a foundational principle of relational farming. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village of soil life to raise healthy plants! What a glorious evening!!! Mid-October was the inaugural Montana Cut Flower Association (MCFA) Conference I've been a minor player in the background as a founding board member of this young organization. We met in Helena for a full day of presentations and discussion. It was magical to meet all the wonderful flower growers in our state and share our triumphs and frustrations. Many hands make work light, many minds make ideas bright, and many hearts make the problems all right. One new project done, for now, is a new (to me) '75 camper! It's in need of a lot of repairs, partly from age and partly from a bear break in which means 3 windows to replace. Add that to a leaky roof and previous modifications that weren't 'to code'. It's wrapped up for winter to wait until spring! One big project that is done and dusted is the electric bear fence around the hens. After the visit from the chicken-eating, front door-pawing relocated Grizzly from Whitefish, the hens have stayed safe behind the nose-zapping wire as I made it winter-ready. It's the best way to keep then hens safe, me safe, and the bears safe. An almost done project is the seasonal planting of the Tulips & Daffodils. Because I perennialize them (most cut flower tulips are grown as annuals), I need to protect their juicy, tasty bulbs from my hungry, hungry gophers. Each year I add a bed or two of trenched ½ inch hardware mesh. This year its a full 50 feet to house the 700+ tulips and daffs (the daffs don't need it but I plant them nearby for ease of harvest). The tulips just arrived as I wait for the rains to wet the ground. As long-time readers know, my longest running project/headache is rebuilding my high tunnels to withstand the winds that tore them down 2 years ago. And I've finally finished the ground-work on tunnel #1!!! 🎉🎉🎉 The end walls are reinforced with posts sunk deep into the clay and the sides are attached to 6 - 6 foot t-posts pounded over 5 feet in. Next step is attaching all the channels that hold the plastic tight. I've also expanded the hardening-off area next to the Dragon Dome and added grass-blocking fabric around the shed to help keep all the gear I use to grow accessible and tidy! The cats are my ever-present shadows as I prepare the farm and field for wintry weather. They are eager to get outside whenever they can, even if the new weather is not always to their liking. When they do come in, they are just as eager to find a warm spot for naps and cuddles Where to find it all?
Stay tuned for a whole new lineup of Everlasting Flowers, Handmade Crafts, and Wild-Grown Botanicals! (and even the triumphant return of your favorite Micro-but Mighty 💪-Greens) As summer transitions into fall, heat gives way to frost (yep I had a deep 25F one), green gives way to brown, and blooms give way to seeds. As such, the seed harvest is underway and I am the only entrant in a slow race against the changing of the seasons. There is much to do with the land as the seasons change beyond harvesting seeds like cleaning and repairing tools, organizing the chaos that became of the work spaces after the speed of spring and summer, saving every last bloom to hang and dry, digging for fall planted bulbs and seeds, preparing tender perennials to survive the coming winter, and working on all the human-based building projects to provide the spaces that I need to work with the land. And as the fruits ripen and the grasses die back, all that work begins now. As green gives way to gold, all that work begins now. As the frosts creep back into the morns, all that work begins now. My favorite part of that work, the part that makes me feel the most rooted, the most connected to this place, this valley, this mountain range, this forest and field, is harvesting seeds. Seeds are a little packet of future life that is gifted upon the land by the plants that live now. I am bestowed with both the duty and the joy of saving them, caring for them, and then planting them. My method of saving seeds works as a metaphor for how I approach tending, growing, and farming the land. It is purposefully 'messy and lazy'! As I collect both grown and wild seeds, I'm purposefully not carefully collecting every single seed. If you watch the birds in deep winter congregating around the few grass stalks that stick above the snow, or clinging to the tall stalks of Mullein, or scratching under bare branches, you will notice that I am not the only one that needs these seeds. I leave many for the birds, squirrels, and other tiny beings that survive winter upon these seeds. Thus from a modern perspective, I am lazy because I leave many seeds behind and I am messy because I let many fall through the grasses and I leave many weeds standing. This is my small way to rebel against the modern ideal of productivity, efficiency, and labor while rejuvenating and healing my relationality to the land and those I share it with. Because the seeds of next year grow abundant for all, not just me or you, but we! Where to find it all?
Look for the return of the Microgreens this winter! Plus lots of Everlasting Florals and, of course, lots and lots of Seed Packets ❤️ As the autumn chill creeps in and my day job with the forest service comes to an end, I return to the familiar pace of fall farm work. Outside of the few larger projects that are key to complete before the snows arrive and the ground freezes, I look forward to days in the warm sun and chill air collecting seeds, prepping beds for next year, and newly winterizing the chickens behind their electric fence. This fall and winter will be full of the usual planning and preparation as well as a lot of learning all about marketing and business stuff, as being a good grower or gardener is all about raising good plants but being a good farmer is about selling them and running a business. So, it's back to school for me! And I make no promises, but I plan to return the farm to a full wholesale and market schedule next year. A lot of things have to happen over the winter to make that possible but having the year off from full-time growing and business management has given me time to imagine, dream, plan, and decide. Now I have to act, learn, and do. A lot. So I'll let you read on and I'll get back to the 'doing'! Just a few of the flowers I'm saving seeds for this fall! Saving seeds using landrace principles means letting the plants with the most vigorous growth set seed and collect only that. Thus the entire ecology, weather system, geography, and pest pressure selects for the best traits resulting in plants grown for here (NW MT) and not there (usually the SE, Midwest, or Cali) The Dahlias thrived in the Dragon Dome greenhouse and I got a few nice blooms before the epic level of grasshoppers and earwigs found them and began munching on everything! Next year, the plan is to keep them safe in the high tunnel with netting at all openings to keep out those pesky pests â–¡ Cause we want more of these beauties to enjoy! Luckily, there is also just time enough to get to collecting all the wonderful wild and farm-grown herbs for infused oils and salves. It's my magical time when I get to collect the plants for what I've been telling them about all year (yep, I let them know what they'll be used for so they can look forward to helping soothe people's pains and problems). It's pretty easy to make oils, even from fresh herbs, but a lot of the specialness is about your intention and timing. Just as in any aspect of farming, context is key and the details matter (spoken in Virgo season by someone with three planets in Virgo â–¡) All these details and intentions will come together over the winter with an expanded range of herbal oils, salves, and balms to be released next spring! The kitties also enjoy me being home more often as they aren't used to me being away from home so much (which also means they got limited outdoor time as they need to be supervised â–¡). They get to help me collect seeds, plants, and catch a few grasshoppers (and lots of gophers!) from time to time. Plus with the nights being cooler (and thus the cabin) they get more snuggly cuddly whether its with each other, me, or the clean laundry. What's available this week?
It's been an wild month where the wild things grow! The summer flowers and foliage are really starting to grow up, the grass is tall, and we had a few nights of bear visits (going after the chickens). Everyone it tucked up safe now, behind their electric fence and the farm chores continue. If you are looking for some colorful and lush summer bouquets, add them on to your regular CSA pickup from Hoot Owl or get one of their Farm Stand boxes any week. The edible Petal Power mix of nasturtiums and pansies is also back (and available from Hoot Owl) for the summer for as long as the spicy blossoms last! You can get your fresh Salad Mix greens at the Amish Farm to Market Store. And...if you want wholesale blooms look no further than the new Flathead Flower Collective that 5 other growers and I have begun. We use the RootedFarmers.com platform to help sell together and grow together! It's a great way for local florists, event designers, or diy brides to get their hands on all of the best local blooms. All bouquets benefit from foliage as well as flowers. These are the unsung heroes of cut flower design and they help those pretty things to shine all the more. (Can you pick out which ones of these are 'weeds'? None are 'weeds' to me, only low-maintenance, self-sowing beautiful native or naturalized foliage) The Lupines may be long gone from bloom (the quick heat made them go really quick!) but less cut for fresh flowers means more that will be seeds! Just like flower or veg farming is a year-round planning process, so is seed production Who wouldn't wanna have a bushel of badass bushes of these in their yard?! Yep, that's where a bear tore into one of the chicken huts. All in all it wasn't too bad. There were a few losses, a little bear spray, and two nights of watching the yard, but Kim Annis from FWP came to trap the young collared Grizzly (they caught it at my neighbors who lost all their birds), let me borrow an electric fence to protect the rest (I only lost 4, the rest scattered into the thick grass and weeds!) I'll be installing my own electric fence to keep both my birds and the bears safe. Kim had to euthanize the young Grizzly as she was habituated to hunting chickens. And I'll get help paying for it from the Defenders of Wildlife program that will help you protect anything that Grizzlies might wanna eat like livestock, fruit trees, garbage by paying half of the fence cost so that no bear needs to be killed just because it's hungry. What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
Find the Veggies at the Amish Farm to Market Store in Libby! Seasonal Bouquets and the Edible Flowers are available through Hoot Owl Farms CSA/Farm Stand Yep, the flowers are blooming and the bouquets are back! Since I'm not doing the markets regularly this year, the only place to get your hands on them is as part of Hoot Owl Farms CSA or Farm Stand boxes. You order them, then I pick the freshest most beautiful blooms, bunch them together and you get to pick them up from Hoot Owl. As the season moves forward some flowers will fade and begin to set seed (yay!) and other will begin to show their own true colors. Each different and unique and beautiful. The Ranunculus are just beginning. They may look delicate but they are a hardy plant that can tolerate light frosts and have an exceptionally long vase life. Usually they are dug up each fall so their corms won't rot in the frozen soil but I missed some and and they overwintered under our deep snow like champs! There are always beautiful flowers around, if you know where to look and don't judge so much whether it is called a 'weed' or not. This handful is a mix of filed grasses, weedy wildflowers, and some Sweet Rocket. A deliciously sweet fragrant pale lavender biennial bloom in the mustard family. I had actually forgotten that I had planted out their rosette of basal leaves last summer and you bet I'm gonna use the easily spreading nature of most mustards and let some of this go to seed and begin to 'grow itself' in the perennial rows. Letting the plants grow and spread where they want to is an intentional part of my Wilderness Farm. I still have to 'weed' the slower growing or more tender crops but a lot of those weeds end up in bouquets or my dinner plate! Next week, keep an eye out for the return of the Salad Mix at the Farm to Market Store in Libby. It's been a little slow growing in this cool damp spring but the fresh sunshine and warmth that is helping the plants to bloom is also freshening up this tasty, crispy lettuce and it's almost ready for it's return! What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
Find the Veggies & Flowers at the Amish Farm to Market Store in Libby! Seasonal Bouquets and Edible Flowers are available through Hoot Owl Farms CSA/Farm Stand The amount of green is almost overwhelming! Supposedly, human eyes see the most variation in the color green and there is so much green to look at right now. There is so much it is usually calming and magical, all until the guineas start chasing the tiny roosters! My most favorite season is usually the one we are in, but all the plant life and vibrancy feels especially special. And even though the days of pouring rain and subsequent soaked through clay soil means I have to shift priorities and sometimes delay planting, I still feel that I can never soak up enough of the green-ness myself. It's restful yet so alive. But....with all that green comes lots of weeds 🙃 and while many of them are yummy edible plants or pretty or medicinal, I don't need quite as many of them as they like to create, so see below for this year's first farm event. It's free, there will be snacks provided, and you get a chance to soak in all that green-ness yourself (hey, some places it's called 'forest bathing' and people pay a lot of money to get out of civilization and feel alive and free again,... just sayin' 😉) oh, yeah, I'll have eggs, microgreens, dried flowers, seeds, and potentially salad mix available for purchase during the event! Farm Weeding & Fun Day (free event whether you pull any weeds or not!) Join us on Sunday, June 12th for the 1st ever volunteer Farm Helper Day! The weeds are getting taller and growing faster than ever with all this rain and sun so this farmer could use a little help from her friends to pull those weedies out from around the crops. If you wanna help, you can show up anytime between 1pm and 7pm on Sunday, June 12th at Dragon's Breath Farm outside Libby, Montana. Bring gloves if you like to use them! I'll have some simple healthy snacks and drinks available but if you wanna bring some food or beverages to share or not share, that is always welcome as this will be an afternoon to play as much as work! You'll get a chance to see the farm, play with some wild hens and crazy kittens, and help the plants (and this tired farmer) to thrive! You can ask me all your gardening/farming questions, learn about how I manage a 'wilderness farm', and get as stuck into the dirt as much or as little as you want! Email me for directions to the farm so I have a general number of people planning to come out! Some specifics: -bring gloves if you wanna pull thistles -please wear comfortable shoes, preferably closed toe as there are pokey weeds and odd bits around -wear/bring appropriate clothes and hats for the weather. It's an open field so the sun is strong! -kiddos are welcome if you wanna put them to work! The hens don't like being chased by idle tiny humans so if they keep trying to do it, I'll find them 'fun' tasks to keep them otherwise occupied -please no dogs as I'll have the hens and kittens let loose and it'll be generally too much chaos as they are not used to cute puppers Some farm visitors are occasional, like this young moose, and some become near permanent residents, like the lone wild turkey that has taken to hanging with the hens and guineas. When I'm gone for a bit and the hens needs to stay inside the turkey usually mopes around from coop door to coop door wondering why it's friends can't come out to play The greenhouse full of flower and lettuce seedlings is slowly getting planted out! Can you see a difference between using weed blocking fabric and not? hehe, I can! Don't worry though the quack grass finds a way to come back later if not sooner and those weed fabric beds will be as thick and the non-weed fabric ones :( The microgreens add even more green-ness to the already overwhelming green of everything. And did you know the Sunflower Shoots are back?! They are extra crunchy and sweet and perfect for adding to meals or snacking on them alone! Even as many seedlings get planted out, more are still waiting in the wings. Many of the flowers will get planted soon, but some things like the Salad Mix is seeded, sown, and planted every few weeks from spring until fall. And, because the spring is so busy, I plan it so that new perennials are sown in the summer and planted in early fall, otherwise they get left behind in the crazy days of springtime on the farm What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
Find the Veggies & Flowers at the Amish Farm to Market Store in Libby! Seasonal Bouquets are available through Hoot Owl Farms CSA/Farm Stand Planting season is later this year as the cold of winter lingers longer, but it means more time to get all the flower seedlings in so they can grow big and lush. It's a busy time, but somehow the rest of the season is just as busy with weeding, harvesting, packaging, and making notes for next year. The tulips are popping but they aren't for harvesting this year. Cut flower tulips are grown as annuals, with the whole bulb being pulled to harvest. These are being perennialized and there will eventually be a multi-year rotation planted so I can have cut flower tulips every year, but for now they get to grow on and rejuvenate their bulbs. Oliver also thinks they are even prettier for their deep sustainability! Some special seedlings are finally germinating with the warmth in the greenhouse. These were seeded in winter and set out in the snow, freeze, and cold. Then moved into the warm dome which then helps them germinate. Some things are worth the wait! The microgreens are super lush since being moved into the greenhouse too. A little bit of sunshine and a little bit of warmth, with a little bit of water helps everything to green up nicely! What's available this week?
The Daffodils are beginning their bloom here, always the latest to start around these parts. But it's a wait that is worth it for the joyful spring exuberance they bring. I won't be at the markets this week as I start my 'day job' but the micros will be available at the Farm to Market Store. When not at the day job, I'm busy planting all the seedlings that grew from the seeds planted the last 2 months. People like to say that farming is a marathon not a sprint but it sure doesn't feel that way during the big spring planting rush to get all the long-season flowers put out. The weekly deliveries of microgreens to the Farm to Market store continue and they've been extra lush as the micros got to move into the Dragon Dome last week and get out from under their winter lights and into the warm full sunshine What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
Find the Veggies & Flowers at the Amish Farm to Market Store in Libby! It's opening week for both The Farmers Market at Libby and the Troy Farmers Market! I hope to be at both with a small booth filled with microgreens and Daffodils, but it depends upon the Daffs (and the weather, 🌞=🌷). For now, I've been using my few weeks before the 'day job' starts to get farm chores done, especially while the parents are here and I have extra helpers! Gotta prep that soil for some new beds and places to plant. As I transition to a no-till system, I'm doing one last major tillage so I can re-position the beds. Having 12 inch pathways was way to hard to walk down when the plants got big, kneel in to plant or harvest, and hard for visitors to know where it was safe to step. Wider pathways will make everything more accessible for everyone! New toys...erm, tools, make some tasks easier. Like our new small battery chainsaw for limbing and trimming. Look at that grin! It's so much fun!! What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
Find the Veggies at the Amish Farm to Market Store in Libby! I plan to be at both The Farmers Market at Libby on Thursday 3-630pm and the Troy Farmers Market on Friday 330-630pm with a small booth for opening day! But no promises 🤞 |
AuthorI'm Farmer Megan with a life full of cackles, clucks, quacks, weeds, crazy kitten, and one tiny, senior, blind dog. Archives
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