Season updates 2007

December — paperwork snoozing in dusty piles

With our legs atrophied from end-of-the-year deskwork, we wrapped up 2007 with a six mile hike Christmas Eve Day. The hike location can't be disclosed in order to protect the innocent but some locals may recognize the place from these photos.

Four Photos

Wink preparing garlic and many hours later packing finished peach chutney.

October

One of our goals this year was to dabble in "value-added" — that includes many options in ag circles — the obvious way is to process our peaches and apples into something else.

We had to sign up for a commercial kitchen, take a food handlers class in Grand Junction, pass a Mesa County Health Department inspection and pay subsequent fees and rentals.

We recovered enough to schedule another go-round with the apples (apple butter?), but it's taken several weeks! In the meantime the chambourçin (a hybrid wine grape from France) ripened so we decided to bottle in pints. This is our one day attempt at a juice label. Wink talked Max into purchasing a label printer, so now she refers to herself as a One Woman Factory. Grow, pick, pack, process, product design, graphics, printing, promote, and retail! We inch our way forward — towards insanity!

To be fair, you can see from the photos on the right that Wink also is a big part of this production so let's say we're a really a two-person factory with lots of helpers. That doesn't sound as dramatic however.

Also this fall we did more pond work, adding bullrushes to the tiny peninsula and landscaping the rocks. (Pond II) While Dale was at it, we asked him to take his giant claws over to the four acres of ripped orchard to remove boulders almost the size of the peninsula. We will work the field next spring and plant cover crop.

We hosted another Colorado College agroecology class in mid-October. The class harvested the remainder of our apples, helped tremendously in the vegetable garden, collected honey, and once again completed various research projects to help our farm. [more info on this later]

September 23 is the first day of autumn, a rainy day that allows the farm webmaster to sort through photos and memories. Nature nears depletion at the end of another growing season.


I found this photo taken in May on a bright day of hail and rainbows which promised abundant harvests - illusive or not. - M

September

My frequent tractor trips through the orchards afford an opportunity for a close look at each tree and the orchard as a whole. Mowing in preparation for harvest is such an occasion. I was struck that this was Christmas-in-August: the foliage provided a rich and prosperous green background for the brightly colored fruit ornaments.

Silver-winged angels flew up out of the grass ahead of the tractor, wings flashing in the late afternoon light. I soon identified them as our friends the mantises, which are pretty close to our idea of angels for the help they provide controlling insect pests.

Harvest in other respects is a fitting time to celebrate values traditional to Christmas: a time of abundance, of good food well prepared, and of gratitude for the great gift of living in a place that provides so much for us. It is a time for visitors and guests and for sharing with them the cornucopia that is the North Fork Valley.

As with any good Christmas story, this one includes the cooking that keeps the kitchen filled with tempting fragrances. There's the endless peeling, pitting, preserving and drying of peaches and apples that become frozen pie fillings and ingredients for smoothies.

We strive to waste not. Maggie helped. Melissa and Julia, on their respective fly-bys, helped in a replay of last year. Max produces wonderful peach chutneys, apple pies, slow-roasted tomatoes, home-made ketchup, and BBQ sauces in an ongoing delight to the senses. Andy and Nathan roasted peppers over apple-wood coals. And the freezers fill up. Cider and wine-pressed Chambourcin grape juice will soon follow.

Harvest season is the fruition of all the work of the past year. It is exhausting and exhilarating. It tests our patience, our endurance, and our faith that, despite all that can go wrong, the earth and nature will provide yet again. At the close of one such day we were standing around the BBQ eating slices of heirloom potatoes as they came hot off the grill. The air was finally cool and the sunset was turning the mountains red. Our potato farmer philosopher chuckled: "We work like dogs and we eat like kings." And, after a pause, he added: "...better than most kings — not many people know where to get food this good — or even why they should... Isn't that something?" - W

A happy respite for us in September was the Farmer Appreciation Dinner hosted by Zephyros Farm and the Kampe Foundation. The food was prepared by local chefs and grown by local farmers. Our peaches figured into the dessert again this year, and we felt honored and proud to be part of the farm community and supporters.

Monty frequently took himself for a swim in the canal and pond when the temps soared.

July-August

July was a big push to get 6 acres of grapes trained and /or pruned. At the end of the month Miro Kummel brought his CC environmental science class to the farm for a field trip. They visited the CSU Research Station, Zephyros Farm, and spent a day researching and testing water and soil on our farm as well as a couple nearby organic farms.

Friends and family from various parts of the country arrived eager to help with the harvest: green thumbs from a Davis family reunion and a Board meeting of smart-growth activists pitched-in in the gardens and enjoyed the fruits of their labors.

By mid-August we were able to eat mostly from the farm garden. The abundance is always fun to share – Citizen-Powered Media Board munches away.

It seemed that the help we needed arrived at the propitious time. Once the peaches came ripe we were in the orchard every two or three days, gleaning the very best specimens, and every day the help we needed was on hand: Erik, of course, and Brian or Chad or Bill or Derek.

Beginning in the cool of first light we'd pick until about 10:00, after which the fruit is too warm and soft to handle well. With a truck-full of picking totes loaded with peaches we'd retire to the shade tent to sort and pack. We were pleased with the quality and flavor of our peaches and were gratified by the compliments we received.

The Galas came ripe just in time for the arrival of another group of CC students: freshmen on a new-student-orientation trip. They camped in the orchard and, in two days, picked, sorted, and packed the apples – and took some back to Colorado Springs to show what they'd accomplished. The trip was organized by our friends, CC students, Jacob and Sophia. We thank them, and all that fun group, they were truly a gift and we look forward to their return any time.

There's more than meets the eye under all the dirt on the farm!

June, a pond!

The earthworks were extensive in April and May, then the serious equipment moved in. The irrigation settling pond (and swimming hole) was a pleasure to watch as it unfolded, especially when the pond liner unfolded! A project this size deserves a page of it's own, so you too can see how a pond gets built.

And the suspect is... a bee(s)!

While we were installing the 4 new bee hives, Wink took a hit on the lip. This is Day One.	By Day Two, the swelling had moved from the "Simpsonesque" to the "Nixonesque."

What a pleasure it is, through this summer of unrelenting high temperatures, at the end of the work day to cool off with a dip in the pond. After which we love to relax and watch the swallows and night hawks swoop low to pluck insects off the water's surface. Contrary to expectations, we have experienced no discernable increase in annoying insects on account of the pond. The birds and frogs must keep them in check.

We still have some landscaping to do around the littoral verge and, with the help of the Synergy House crew, will install a constructed wetland that will confine incoming silt to one corner of the pond as well as to provide habitat for frogs and other wetland creatures. Our pond is a marvelous addition to Mesa Winds Farm!

Stella, Sweetheart and Rainier sweet cherries arrived for planting.

Nik applied his considerable construction skills on the well wiring.

April, many projects begin

The NRCS EQUIP grant converting the farm to microsprinkler system started at the beginning of April. Other jobs? Priming the pump and installing well storage tank to irrigate the hoop house, planting cherry trees, and the usual springtime farming maintenance.

We added another hoop house to our farm in place of the 300 red delicious trees we removed from the orchard and left part of that ground fallow through the summer. We left the ribs at the end of March because we didn't have time to add the skin!

Irrigation on the farm was delayed by weeks when we had to excavate, then lay new pipes plus build two cement boxes for intake and distribution. The headgate was also reworked by the same crew who built our barn foundation. If it weren't for Aaron and Nik's help beginning in May, we'd still be sunk in the mud!

Soapmaking Soapmaking was one of the projects during a rainy day that we could do inside. Sue and I started with beef and pork suet from local sources, rendered it into tallow. We set the containers in the snow to harden. We used the tallow to make soap later. I've been making soap for several years and gave a June soapmaking class for the Rock Bottom Ranch in Carbondale. - M

Samples of milled soaps.

March construction

Wink's big projects this spring include the first phase of a micro jet irrigation system with storage pond, a papercrete shop and barn with cooler, equipment shed, and pump house for the new well.

We had the help of four Colorado College interns, their Environmental Science prof, and a CC grad over spring break the third week of March. This was a leap forward that invigorated us as well as the farm!

Barn foundations (from top to bottom)

Jack Ranch levels the barn site.	Gravel for the foundation
Tom and Trish McCracken prepare the concrete forms.	Robert and Wink spread the gravel level after the survey.
2300 square feet gravel bed is ready.	Rebar is on, first concrete truck arrives.
Pour gets underway.	Second truck arrives.
Smoothing.	And more smoothing...

February spring inventory

All three bee hives made it through the winter. Max is sweetening them up with sugar water as their numbers increase and honey runs low.	The bees are going to love it when the hyacinths bloom!
Monty takes a break from sniffing prairie dog burrows (photo to the right).	Our northeast field will be soon relieved of giant boulders and prairie dogs with the help of NFRIA (North Fork River Improvement Association)
Wink cleans out kestrel box nest, which really needed it, until we found out that's the way this little falcon likes it!	This is the birdseye view from the nest.
This prunings pile has since been burned and we have more apple prunings to rake and burn again.	We are "deconstructing" the apple carcasses so that we can plant something else in this field next year.
A herd of elk invaded the neighborhood and one was trapped inside our game fence so we had to discover all the ways they'd wormed their way inside. Wink's daughter Andrea and Manu helped.	All through the winter our high tunnel hoop house produced greens and root vegetables. The carrots planted in August are now sizing up for spring eating.

We've done outdoor landscaping with reconstituted pallets and woodchips to combat the mud of melting snows.

January

Highlights: Western Colorado Horticulture Society 2007 Annual Convention, January 16-18 in Grand Junction. Essie Fallahi from University of Idaho inspires us to try new table grape varieties. Lyn Long, Extension Horticultuist Oregon State University, provided invaluable cherry info which we hope to put to use and Walt Bentley tells us how to keep the bugs at bay.

We hosted a French wine tasting of Kermit Lynch Wines selected by Robert, our ad hoc sommelier. The accompanying menu for each of the 7 wines was prepared by our visiting chef, Gus. See menu and photos of our 1st annual North Fork Premieres Vignerons Romp Through Kermit Lynch's Wine List (beginning and ending in Burgundy).

We continue to remove applewood brush piles below the canal, we've almost finished pruning the apples, and soon it is time to order seeds and trees for spring planting. - M