Soon, very soon

It looks like we will begin deliveries for the CSA members next week. The sunshine as of late has helped us catch up a bit, and the semi-greenhouse we built a couple of weeks ago will also help with the peppers and tomatoes in this area. We transplanted more tomato and pepper plants from Territorial Seeds, which Jeff was able to stop off at on his trip down to the ELCA Oregon Synod Assembly last week. Included are a range of tomatoes that include chocolate cherry tomatoes and Gill's All-Purpose, which Territorial describes as "A cross between Wasatch Beauty and Pepper tomato, Gill's All-Purpose was bred in 1947 by the Gill Brothers Seed Company in Portland, Oregon." We also put in some sweet peppers and Italian pepperoncini, and the corn is finally up!

It was a beautiful day out on the farm, so our Oregon Pioneer Roses are in full bloom, the first to bloom each spring. We're trying out a recipe for rose jelly, where you make a "tea" with rose petals, and then make it into jelly. As Mom put it, "We'll either have some rose jelly, or a nice syrup to pour over our pancakes." We'll let you know how it turns out, and for the CSA folks, you'll know by whether it is labeled as "Oregon Rose Jelly," or "Oregon Rose Syrup..."

We've been doing a lot of planting for the CSA, although the early stuff is quite a bit behind given all of the rain we've had. We've talked with a couple of others gardners, and most of us are running about 3 weeks behind what the normal growing season is. We've put in some corn, planted more lettuce, and planted the first round of green beans.

We also built a bit of a greenhouse structure over two of the beds in order to help with production for the tomatoes and peppers. The latter often suffer a lot out here, given all of the wind we have coming through the Van Duzer corridor from the coast. The tomatoes just need heat!

Hannah, Miriam and our friend Kristy helped us put up the greenhouse. We've also had Beth and Erik over several times working on the the garden, and that has been a big help. Below are some pictures of what we've been up to!