Last Call For Local Produce!

Okay folks...this is THE VERY VERY LAST market of 2010!
I'm both sad and happy....
Sad it's over and won't see your friendly faces every week.  Happy to take a little bit of a rest and plan for next years market season!
So...we hope we get to see you today at the Bayview Holiday Market, 10 to 2, INSIDE the Bayview Hall!  We will bringing some fresh produce and lots of great locally grown gift items.
Check out -
* Cabbage
* Leeks
* Potatoes - We will have small and large 10 lb bags
* Garlic
* Jerusalem Artichokes
* Winter Squash
* Onions
* Dry Beans
* Garlic Flakes
* Garlic Braids
* Locally Grown Grains!  Emmer, Kamut and Purple Barley from my friends and neighbors
Also....we have GREAT gift boxes full of Willowood Farm favorites or...buy the box from us and stuff it with locally grown produce and crafts from all the great vendors at Bayview Market.
Hope to see you today!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie

Are we slowing down yet? Heck no!

That's what people keep asking me.  "Things must be slowing down at the farm?"  My answer is "yes and no."
Yes, they are slowing down in the sense there isn't as much daylight so we literally CAN'T be working out in the fields as much.  (Does anybody know a good source for floodlights to light up about 8 acres?  Just kidding!...Mostly.)  However,  when we do have daylight there is sure still LOADS to be done.

What Farmer Georgie looks like after a day digging potatoes!

This last week of dry/sunny weather has been a huge boon for FINALLY getting all the very late maturing dry beans pulled and to cure. We finished the last row yesterday so that means next week we can get back on digging potatoes, only maybe 2000 or 3000 more lbs of taters left to go!  Eek...
And then there are the overwintered crops that need to be weeded, fertilized and even planted....And garlic!  We must start planting garlic!  And overwintered onions!  And we need to pull all the tomato plants out and plant out the greenhouse to winter greens....And harvest the rest of the winter squash.  And pull up all the drip tape.  And disc all the empty fields and plant cover crop.  And, and, and....
Really...a farmer's work never REALLY ends.
And then of course, there are still three more Bayview Farmer's Markets to go as well.  And on that note (notice my very clever transition), let's get down to what I know most of you REALLY care about - what's fresh, young and vegetable like coming to market TODAY????
NOTE - There are NO MORE Coupeville Farmer's Markets til spring (wah-wah).  We have 3 more Bayview Farmer's Markets.  HOWEVER - soon (possibly next weekend) we will be starting "Endless Summer" with Rosehip Farm and Garden.  For those of you who haven't done this before, watch for an email from me.  We will combine available food from Willowood, Rosehip Farm and Garden and Prairie Bottom Farm (all 3 Coupeville area, organically grown - but not certified - small farms), and send you the list.  You order by the specified time.  We pick to order (first-come, first serve).  You come on Saturday to Rosehip Farm & Garden in Coupeville and pick up your food.   It's a GREAT way to keep on getting some great local harvest-time food, and for us local farmer's to keep on selling it!

ALSO - IF YOU PREORDERED POTATO OR BEAN BAGS DURING THE FARM TOUR IN SEPTEMBER - You are welcome to come by the market today and pick up today - what we have.  Due to our cool September we still don't have all the things on the orders ready (beans that still need to be threshed, and potatoes to be dug), but we do have some of it.  I will be emailing everybody shortly that hasn't already picked up at the markets about your preorder. 

And now, for the list...
Coming to the Bayview Market TODAY!
* Rockwell Beans!  That's right, the famous Rockwell Bean!  In 1 lb bags with my Grandma's amazing recipe on it!
* Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. We LOVE our potatoes.  And we've got them in all shapes, sizes and colors - Yellow Finns, German Butterballs, Maris Pipers, Romanze, Mountain Rose, Purple Majesty, Peanut fingerling, Red Thumb fingerling, Ozette Fingerling....
* 10 lb Potato Bags!  This is a GREAT way to stock up for winter.  Reduced pricing and in mesh bags that are great for winter storage.
* Garlic - Food grade including 1.5 lb bags at reduced pricing!
* Garlic - Seed grade!  It's not too late to plant (we plant all the way up until Thanksgiving...).
* Chard
* Kale - multiple kinds!
* Collards
* Mesclun Bags - a new crop!
* Arugula Bags - a new crop!
* Onions - three flavors!
* Leeks!
* Winter Squash - oodles in gorgeous colors and shapes.  Perfect for fall decor and great to eat as well!
* Ornamental mini pumpkins and gourds
* Baby carrots
* Lots of BEAUTIFUL, SWEET HEIRLOOM TOMATOES!  Just about the last picking, so get them while still can!
And something we are surely forgetting....
Ah yes, Mikey from Whidbey Green Goods yes he has quite a few of lovely wild-picked mushrooms!
And since it's getting to be that time when I can actually start to see daylight, I better sign off and go pack the truck.  Hope to see you at market today!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie


 

Ah...Garlic!

DON'T FORGET - It's the Whidbey Island Farm Tour next weekend, Sept. 11 & 12th.  Willowood Farm will be open to the public for the farm tour (we are not normally!).  So come check out the farm!  We will be focusing on garlic, garlic, garlic so come check out all our cool varieties, taste some garlic, make some braids, wander around our historic farm and play with the turkeys! 
And now back to our regularly scheduled topic....

GARLIC! GARLIC! GARLIC! 

The pay-off!  Big, beautiful bulbs!

That's right, garlic gets me so excited that I have to say it 3 times!  In bold!  And capitalized! With exclamation points!
Who DOESN'T love garlic?  (Okay, I know some people don't and that is just, I'm sorry...plain weird!).
Well, at Willowood Farm, we love garlic!  Enough to grow a whole heck of a lot of it.  Like about 20 varieties!
You see, there is garlic and then their is GARLIC!  We grow the good stuff.  Of which there are 100s of varieties.  Romantic names like Porcelains and Rocamboles and Glazed Purple Stripes.  All with big cloves, big bulbs and outrageous taste.
Garlic is a crop you wait for for a long long time.  You plant it in October and then wait, wait, wait....Finally come July you start harvesting.  Then you frantically harvest, clean and hang to cure.  Then you wait.  Then you start cutting down bulbs and trimming roots.  Then finally you have THE WHOLE CROP in.  That's where we are right now.  And so today, we will be bringing out the BIG GUN displays.  Lots and lots of garlic.  Food grade and seed grade (For planting) garlic.

Hoeing young garlic plants in April

As far as seed grade garlic, well, that's the big stuff!  We sort our garlic by size, because, well in garlic, "size really does matter!"  At least if you are planting it.  Big garlic planted combined with decent growing practices should result in big garlic harvested.  Small garlic planted combined with even the best growing practices will result in only slightly larger bulbs.  If you continue to save back your biggest and best to replant eventually you will get big garlic.  So when we sell you big garlic it represents multiple years of our own "saving the biggest and best" so you don't have to! Not to mention, our garlic (we've been growing garlic for going on 12 years now), is well adapted to PacNW conditions, so it makes it a good choice for local home gardeners!
So if you want to come buy some garlic to eat, or buy some garlic to plant in your own backyard, come check out the markets today.  But never fear, if you miss us at the markets, we will be featuring garlic at the farm tour next weekend, not to mention we will continue bringing garlic to the markets and...you can also email me directly and I can pack an order for you to either pick-up, ship or deliver.  Just email me at willowoodfarm@gmail.com.
And other goodies coming to today's markets...
From Willowood Farm:
- Potatoes - multiple kinds
- Chard
- Beans, beans, beans
- Shelling peas!
- Beets
- Onions
- Leeks
- Red Cabbage
- Head Lettuce
- Shelling beans (Rockwells!)
- Fresh chickpea bunches
From Prairie Bottom Farms
- Summer squash
- Scallions
- Carrots
- Dill
- More good stuff....

See ya at market!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood farm of Ebey's Prairie

A Fall Frame of Mind

Fall really is my favorite time of year. As a farmer I love it because I start to see the fruition of many of our endeavors, and anything that didn't work out? Well, it's too late to worry about now anyways so might as well regulate that to the "will do better next year category." But I also love the colors, the temperature, even the "smell" of fall as cooler nights and rotting leaves intermingle with the enveloping warmth of a sunny fall afternoon.
And of course some of my very favorite veggies come on in the fall. Beans, the fabulous beans. Winter squash. I would grow it just for the fabulous colors and shapes. The fact that they taste great is just a big huge bonus for me! Corn - oh, so fabulous. The sweet kind and the outstandingly beautiful ornamental corn. And of course the endless amounts of garlic and potatoes. Food to feed the masses.

We are just starting to get into the fall season, and I'm anticipating a lovely one this year. Lots yet left to do and many harvests yet to complete. But to start getting everybody into the "fall frame of mind" I thought I would post a few photos taken last season by one of our interns, Tali Aiona. Thanks Tali for these awesome, harvest season photos!
And of course, we are still certainly coming to the Bayview and Coupeville Farmer's markets tomorrow. Rain or shine - we don't care what the weather report says, we'll be there! (There is no such thing as a fair weather farmer, so I expect to see all your chipper faces out there, nevermind the dire predictions of forecasters. Who are they to spoil our fun anyways!). Those that are hearty enough to brave the weather, will be well rewarded with a great selection of fabulous fall treats:
From Willowood Farm:
- Shell Beans! The ever famous Rockwells plus several others.
- Taters, 8 kinds!
- Loads of garlic.
- Summer squash, summer squash!
- And some winter squash too...
- Cabbage. Frightening large. Amazingly good.
- Kohlrabi (repeat above).
- Sweet Corn - organic certified! From our neighbors at Ebey Road Farm
- Cucumbers
- Beets
- Chard
- Sunflower, ornamental corn and other pretty "harvest color" stalks to decorate with...
- Onions, several flavors

From Prairie Bottom Farm
- Amazingly fragrant Dill (seriously, I was putting the horse away 100 yds from the packing shed and I was freaking out that my old quarterhorse had seriously eaten something weird. He smelled like a pickle! Then I realized they were bunching the dill 100 feet away. Those bunches throw a powerful pickling punch, I tell you...).
- Semi-savoy spinach
- Mixed salad greens
- Baby carrot bunches
- Scallions
- Lots more summer squash
- Beans

And for those of you coming to the Bayview market, Michael at Whidbey Green Goods is also bringing a nice selection of tomatoes, slicing cucumbers, carrots, plums, figs (I'm really excited about those! I keep trying to plant a fig tree and so far my only success has been at killing them slowly...), and more goodies!
And a final photo from Tali to get everybody hungry...
Happy eating!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie

A Garlic Tale...

Many of you have asked, so how is it that you get all this garlic. What do you do? How does it happen? So here you go. The tale of how we may have garlic (well, actually this it just the end part of how we may have garlic, it really starts in October with planting time!). But, since this is what we were doing this week, here you go!


Here is the tractor wheel. Driving through the garlic. To loosen the dirt. To pull the garlic. So we may all have garlic...

And here areWillow and Eric, doing the garlic dance - shake the garlic, shake the garlic, SHAKE THE GARLIC. So we may all have garlic...(okay, they are just putting it in the truck, but a dance sounds cooler...).





And this, well this is just a big pile of garlic. (So we may all have garlic...).
And this? This is Georgie, showing off the newest high fashion garlic "up do." No really, this is Georgie hanging garlic. So the garlic can cure. So the garlic doesn't mold. So the garlic keeps 6 months (or more!). So we may all have garlic (for a long time...).







And here? Here is the garlic. The glorious, gorgeous garlic! So, yes, we MAY ALL HAVE GARLIC!







And for those of you who would like to know what we are bringing to market tomorrow (Coupeville and Bayview), of course...Here is the list.
From Willowood Farm
- Garlic (of course, although just a few of the other varieties so far, many are still waiting to be cleaned, hung and cured...)
- New potatoes! A lovely mix of yellows, whites and reds. True new taters (with uncured skins), ever so sweet and tender
- Kales. Two kinds and great recipes!
- Quinoa greens. This is seasonal treat. They can be used as salad greens or lightly cooked. Mild, nutty taste.
- Beet bunches - Golden, Red, Chioggia - you name it we got it!
- Baby carrot bunches
- Cippolini onion bunches
- Tropeana Tonda onions (famed Italian "top shaped" red onion...)
- Rainbow Chard
- Fava Beans (try them grilled, we just did it tonite - yummy!)
- Brocolli
- Rhubarb
- Mesclun and Leaf Lettuce mix - perfect for summer salads!

From Prairie Bottom Farm
- Big Carrot bunches
- Beet bottoms - great for canning
- Green Roma Beans! Wow! So early!
- Scallions
- Spinach
- Sugar Snap Peas
- And more...

We hope to see you tomorrow!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie

Windy Days to Market!

Hello All!

All of us here at Willowood Farm has been feeling a bit wind-burned these days on the prairie! It has been a week, it seems, of constant, endless, unforgiving straight off the Pacific Ocean wind...Seems to vary between about a steady 10 mph and gusts into the 20s. Luckily for us, the green fields of barley do look awfully nice swaying in the breeze!


But now to the good stuff - coming to market tomorrow at Bayview and Coupeville!




WE WILL HAVE THE FIRST GARLIC OF THE SEASON AT MARKET TOMORROW!

Yes, that is very exciting, and definitely deserves all caps. These are turban varieties - the very first variety of the 20+ garlics we grow at Willowood Farm. They will be available as true "green garlic," which means they have not yet been cured for storage. We sell them "on the stalk" so you can hang them up as you eat them and let them cure right in your kitchen. They are fresh, juicy, succulent and well, simply amazing!




And now for all the rest of the veggies to eat with your fresh garlic...
From Willowood Farm
* HUGE heads of lettuce. Another great deal - $2.50 each or 2 for $4.
* Brocolli!
* Japanese salad turnips - red and white. These are amazingly mild and juicy, incredible raw.
* Baby beet thinnings
* Chard bunches
* Walla Walla salad onions with greens
* Torpedo onions with greens
* Garlic scapes - Make sure to ask for the amazing "quick pickled scape" recipe we will have available tomorrow, straight from talented chef Joe Scott at Oystercatcher in Coupeville.
* Dandelion greens - for those of you who have a hunkering for bitter greens! An Italian favorite.
* Rhubarb
* Kohlrabi

From Prairie Bottom Farm and coming to BOTH markets (sorry about the miscue last week at Bayview, Wilbur didn't have enough time to pick for both markets so his stuff just went to Coupeville last week. Since this is his last week being a high school science teacher AND a farmer, we will forgive him...).
- Carrots bunches
- Scallions - red and white
- Beet bunches
- Iceberg lettuce
- Spinach
- Baby lettuce mix
- Bulb Fennel
- Fava Beans - FIRST PICKING!
- And more...

I hope everybody is hungry! And here is a silly picture of me taking a "scape break" in the garlic patch...Check out those farmer hands (a girl has her pride...)!