Edible Portland» Diary of a Young Farmer

Diary of a Young Farmer
Artichokes By Zoë Bradbury March 1, 2008 Thirty-odd years ago my parents headed north from San Francisco on Highway 101 and ended up in a little town called Bandon on the southern Oregon coast. What started as a weekend road trip ended with them dropping out of college and buying a short order restaurant. After six months of serving [...] Jill of All Trades, Master of None By Zoë Bradbury March 26, 2008 So here’s the reality: farming is one of those things where you do a little bit of everything. Carpentry, botany, soil science, Microsoft Excel, plumbing, accounting, people management, marketing, grunt labor, welding, mechanics, etc. A lot of farmers get really good at all of them — after enough years. I haven’t had [...] Gratitude By Zoë Bradbury March 31, 2008 I was on the tractor at dusk today, prepping beds for the asparagus and raspberry rootstock that I’ll plant out later this month, when I was struck by the realization that the reason I am able to come home and do this, and hopefully make a living at it, is in [...] Grafting By Zoë Bradbury April 10, 2008 Grafting is the process of joining one thing to another, of taking two things that do not share a natural relationship or affinity for each other — and making them one. In one barn, my sister Abby is grafting a hundred apple trees and as many plums and pears for the new [...] April’s Cash Crisis By Zoë Bradbury April 22, 2008 What I’ve learned in April is that the mythic “cash flow crisis” that farmers face in springtime is no myth. The generic plot goes something like this: farmers spend lots of money in the spring, then make it back in the summer and fall. Springtime = money out. Harvest time = money in. Unfortunately, [...] The Dance for Rain By Zoë Bradbury May 14, 2008 You’re probably all wondering what happened to me. Two plus weeks of silence since my last cliff-hanger dispatch about the cash flow crisis. Did she go belly-up? Bankrupt? Are they auctioning off her pickup, her $100 Earthway seeder, and the steel ribs from her greenhouse (now valued at a whopping $380 [...] It Took a Village By Zoë Bradbury May 29, 2008 There is water. Water on my fields. Water in pipes. Water in hoses. Water on asparagus. Water on raspberries. Water on carrots and beets and potatoes and leeks and artichokes and dahlias. There is water at last. Of course, now it’s raining again. But during those few recent days when Oregon was blasted [...] Barney and Maude By Zoë Bradbury June 17, 2008 I’m long overdue in introducing Barney and Maude, the two Belgians who arrived on the farm in April. They are quite the couple: tireless farmworkers and completely inseparable. Barney is the sensitive one — tall, lanky, and pigeon-toed, with a bleach-blond rockstar hairdo. Maude is mouthy and affectionate, with a personality as [...] Zoe’s Bird’s-Eye View The farm was laid out below in all its straight rows: brown fields bisected by green farm roads, flanked to the north by the river. I could see my strawberry patch, and the mosaic of color that is my block of head lettuce. Young Farmer Gets Older One of the challenges to resettling rural America is land — finding it and affording it. Development prices put farmland out of reach for anyone who doesn’t have a trust fund, or family land, or a fat pension. The Empty Fullness of August This is August. And August is so full, it does to a vegetable farmer what many people spend hours of meditation trying to achieve. August makes you empty. Raining on the Strawberry Parade My strawberries were rupturing in the field, the ripe and semi-ripe berries developing rain lesions as red and raw as open wounds…. Cover Crops and Canned Tomatoes By Zoë Bradbury September 23, 2008 I have been swallowed by September – enveloped in the folds of peak harvest. The heirloom tomatoes are on. The cabbage is ripe and huge and gorgeous. The leeks are fat. The corn is ready. The sunflowers are nodding under the weight of their own seed. The sun is still shining. [...] Addicted By Zoë Bradbury November 25, 2008 It is the eve of my last harvest and I am tucked in by the woodstove while a storm slams at the south side of the house. The weather vane swings atop the roof, screeching as it tilt-a-whirls on the ridge cap. The dog snores in an overstuffed chair by the [...] Dear Winter January 31, 2009 Dear Winter, It’s the end of January. Words like “hibernate” and “dormant” typically go with this time of the year, but man, Winter, you’re such a tease this year! Please explain how it is that I ate my first asparagus out of my field last week, counted dozens of new strawberry blossoms, and [...] Never a Dull Moment Zoë Bradbury’s newest post in Diary of a Young Farmer. Catch up on what’s new: a CSA (already full!), new equipment for the horses, and the beginning signs of spring. Read more… The Asparagus Harvest In this new Diary of a Young Farmer post, Zoë Bradbury describes her first of many asparagus harvests and the accompanying celebration. She made it through Year One! Read more here… Time, Flying A new Diary of a Young Farmer post by Zoë Bradbury. Zoë shares what she’s been up to in her second year farming in southern Oregon — like plowing for the first time with her two horses.