Helsing Junction Farm Newsletter Archive

Greetings from Helsing Junction Farm!

We’ve been busy here on the farm squeezing in seeds and plants between raindrops. For such a cold, damp spring we’ve managed to hit all of our planting dates in a timely fashion, something that is not always possible here in the Northwest! All told we have about 15 out of the 30 acres under cultivation planted so far…

On May Day we planted half an acre of brightly colored gladiola bulbs and some very pretty Asiatic and Oriental lily bulbs. The lilies we planted last year are massive and vibrant; they seem to be responding enthusiastically to the worm tea we’ve been spraying them with. When you grow lilies organically you can have a lot of problems with black mold, which thrives in warm rainy springs. The worm tea fills all the available real estate on the plants leaves with mold fighting microorganisms so the mold can’t grow. Also, fortunately or not (depending on how you look at it) this has been a cold rainy spring so we haven’t had much mold to begin with. This is the first year we have added worm tea to our fertilization regime, though some of you may recall that we have used compost tea in the past of which worm tea is a close relation. We will keep you posted about its successes and failures as the year unfolds, though test plots last year indicated a noticeable increase in vitality of all plants sprayed, most notable were bigger blooms and an overall increase in productivity.

On May 5th (for the second time this season), we transplanted our tomatoes, 4 kinds of peppers, tomatillos and eggplants into 4-inch pots, which now fill every conceivable surface in our 2 greenhouses. Initially, we plant the tomato, pepper, tomatillos and eggplant seeds in long rows in large open flats. Once they germinate and get about an inch tall, they are transplanted into what are called 72s, which are plastic trays that hold 72 soil plugs. When the plants roots fill the bottom of the 72’s, those plugs are transplanted into 4-inch pots. Just in time to make room in the greenhouse for all of those 4-inch pots, the onion, leek and shallot starts got large enough to be transplanted out in the field. Planting onions, leeks and shallots is like planting tiny blades of grass, tens of thousands of them! We will have transplanted nearly 3 acres of onions, shallots and leeks by May 15.

As of May 10th, we have already directly seeded 3 large plantings, a nice early start for the farm! The first planting, which we put in April 8th germinated exceptionally well for such a wet spring and is now sizing up exponentially. We were excited to find knee-high pea plants, cheerful looking lettuces and convincing looking baby carrots when we pulled back the remay yesterday. (Remay is a spun polyester fabric that floats over the top of plants providing both insect and frost protection.) It looks like it is going to be a great spring; we don’t know about you, but we can hardly wait for some farm fresh food!

It seems that some of you had have trouble using your MasterCard or Visa to make payments on our web site, so sorry about that! We are having our web site revamped so that we can directly accept payments ourselves. We expect to have the problem taken care of by May 20th at the latest. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced!

There has been a change to the West Olympia drop site this year. The new West Olympia drop site will be located at 2205 28th Ave NW, 98502, about 2 miles from the drop site we used last year. We will be sending out a newsletter that contains the exact start date of the season and directions to all of the drop sites in early June. We expect CSA delivery to begin June 16th, 17th and 18th (depending on what day of the week you pick up), though we are not 100% sure yet. If temperatures stay really cold, we might delay the start of delivery to the following week, though we will still go 18 weeks from the start date.

For those of you who have not joined yet, there are still shares available. We have about 600 out of the 850 members we expect to get this year, though we expect to fill up by mid-June. Please let us know if you are having trouble making payments, we would be happy to make alternative payment arrangements for you. This year more than ever, we are focusing on making our CSA boxes a very good deal. We are aiming to provide you with at least 10% more produce per week than the $25 you pay for small shares or the $36 per week you pay for large shares. Furthermore, we want this year’s boxes to provide you with all the hearty basics as well as recipes that are cost effective and easy to make. Let’s all let home cooking help turn hard times into good times!

Our neighbor Selma is on board to coordinate our gleaners program again this year. She joined our team last fall to work with people who wanted to help glean leftover produce from our fields, which is then donated to local food banks and shelters. We will be holding several gleaning days for members this year, with dates to be announced in the next few weeks. Our farm donated over 20,000 pounds of produce last year, go Selma! The new website for Selma’s farm Bone Dry Ridge is up and running. Check it out at bonedryridge.com If all meat was raised the way Selma does it, we would live in a happy world. If you are a spinner and/or a knitter you should also check out Selma’s wool pages. She lists her wool for sale by individual sheep’s name, shearing season and color. Her wool comes in many awesome different colors and is very clean. Selma and a few other fiber farmers in the community are starting a small cooperative to educate and offer locally produced fiber to the public. One of their themes is the “100 mile garment."

Provisions mushroom shares are available to be delivered along side our CSA shares again this year. Each week Provisions members receive 2-4 kinds of mushrooms. Some of the mushroom varieties included are shiitakes, pioppinos, white and king oysters, lions mane, wild cauliflower, lobster, namekos and white and yellow chanterelles. We got a lot of great feedback from members who enjoyed their mushroom share last year. Please contact Provisions directly if you wish to receive a mushroom share at promushrooms.com

Our farm to food bank program is going well, despite (or because of?) the slow down in the economy. We have raised over a thousand dollars so far. Thanks so much to all of you who have contributed!

Our new reusable and recyclable plastic boxes are on order and will be ready June 1st; we are really excited to see them. Thanks so much to all of you who have already paid your $15 box fee. We will be billing those of you who haven’t paid it yet soon. Thanks for being so understanding and supportive about the fee and helping us invest in these boxes. They seem like they are going to last for year, keep the vegetables fresh longer and look really sharp too.

Well that about wraps it up for now, we will be in touch in early June with the exact start date of the season and directions to all of the drop sites. Please let us know if you have any questions or problems before the start of the delivery season.

Hope you have a great spring!
Your farmers, Annie, Sue, Rosalio, Bonfilio, Floriberto, Narcizo, Juan, Adelfo, Oly, Selma and Zac

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Helsing Junction Farm
12013 Independence Road, Rochester, WA 98579 | (360)273-2033
helsingfarm@msn.com | www.helsingfarmcsa.com

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