Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

Now up on our Freshman Farmer website, applications for next year’s first year farms.

Check it out here, and spread the word if someone you know is interested!

Freshmen Farmers Jared & Sara of Handsown Homegrown Heritage Farm were featured in the North Kitsap Herald!

Read the article: Kitsap’s Redefinition of ‘Farmer’

Our new class of Freshmen Farmers are up and running, and tilling, and planting. Read about the program and the 6 new organic farms that Peaceful Valley is sponsoring this season at www.FreshmanFarmer.com.

Now is a great time to sign up for delicious veggies, all season long!

Sign up for one of our Freshman Farmer’s CSAs right now:

Four Frog Farm in Nevada County, CA

DeepSeeded Community Farm in Humboldt County

EarthDance Farm in St. Louis, MO

Follow the links above and click on their website link underneath their profile!

Or find a CSA in your area here.

Life is too short to hesitate. My 14 year old Grandson, Bronson, raced BMX bicycle competitions from age 8 to age 11. He is a natural born athlete as are many in our family. But he has an unusual ability in this particular sport. He decide to start racing again this summer half way through the season and immediately started winning so he went to the Nationals after 8 races and took 1st in races 1 & 2 and finished 2nd in the finals.

Because he did so well he caught the eye of a pro (Bubba was slated for the Olympics until he shattered his ankle) that invited him to go to his training camp. Well by the time they were done with Brons they told his parents he was good enough to go to the Grand Nationals. So today I sat with my daughter (Bronson’s mom), my mother, husband, oldest son, and several grandchildren and watch this sweet hearted young man beat the pants off of his most dreaded competitor who had the best gate and all the advantage while Bronson had the worst gate and no advantage. HE DUSTED HIM! I could brag for hours but I’ll spare you. The point is he could have let a thousand things stop him and had every reason to be discouraged when he got to Oklahoma but he pushed through every discouragement and won the race.

So how does that carry over to your garden you ask? Let me tell you. Don’t be afraid, press on, just try things. The worst thing that can happen is it won’t work! I get so many questions from gardeners all over the US that want to know if this or that will work in their area. I try to do the best research I can and give the best advice available but I always say in the end, you really don’t know what will work unless you try it. (more…)

We are very excited to announce that applications for next year’s Freshman Farmer program are now available here. (more…)

Over at the Freshman Farmer Site, the next installment of our video series documenting Andrew Meyers’ first year farming journey.

Click here to visit the post.

From Freshman Farmer

“In each of the last two days I have seen a rattlesnake. In years past I considered this animal my enemy, out for my flesh and blood and possibly my car. Now we are devout friends. I encourage them to go after our mutual enemy, senyor Gopher. I like to believe that the rattlers are as vigorous in hunting the gophers as the Gopher Snakes are (aka King Snakes).”

Read the rest of the post here.

Yeah, I know. You’ve heard it a million times. So have I.

“The most important thing about starting seeds is properly hardening them off.”

“Yeah, right, ok, ok.” I said, ignoring the sage advice. But as usual, I was dead wrong.

My last frost date is historically March 23rd, but that does not mean that it won’t get down into the mid 30s after this point (duly noted). I had been moving some sunflowers, nasturtiums, cucumber, and zinnia starts in and out for like…a day…then I left them outside. They fared OK for a couple nights, and then we had a night in which the low was 36^o.

That didn’t go so well.

My excuse is that I’m at work all day and can’t follow a rigorous and increasing hardening off period. Yep, it’s just that – an excuse.

So while I try to save the sunflowers and nasturtiums by moving them back inside for a little while, the zinnias fared ok outside, but the cucumber starts bit the dust. Have to restart them and think a little harder about the next rounds of seedlings making their way outside soon.
So folks, be sure to harden off your seedlings properly. I’m sure Andrew will.

Just finished working on the next installment in our Freshman Farmer series. Watch as Andrew Meyers learns the ropes of working an organic farm.

Click here and go to FreshmanFarmer.GrowOrganic.com to watch the video.