Our honeybees are here!

We are quite excited to welcome honeybees to the farm this spring. Our primary intention with the bees is educational. Both Dave and I are interested in learning the life cycle, seasonalities, personalities, and obstacles of the modern honeybee. Honey will be secondary (but well appreciated if supplied).

We bought two five-framed nucs from a local honey company (Sunrise Honey Company). They are by no means organic from the start. I think we would have had to order from a very distant land to get naturally treated colonies of any sort, and we plan to transition them into Integrated Pest Management and as many natural (and perhaps biodynamic) practices as possible over the next couple of years.

We are looking forward to in depth learning this whole new side to our garden.

2012 Internship/ Apprenticeship

We are currently seeking interns for the 2012 season. Our hope is to create a mutually beneficial exchange in which everyone works hard, feels satisfied, and comes out having learned from each other. Our farm currently produces vegetables and cut flowers, and are planning to add honeybees this spring. We farm using sustainable, soil-focused techniques, though we are not certified organic. We sell at our local farmers market in addition to local restaurants and local food markets.   We ask for four days of work in the garden, participating in ALL aspects of production: seeding, preparing beds, transplanting, harvesting, washing, processing, and selling if you are interested in coming to the market with us. In exchange, we provide primitive but comfortable and private housing, lunch and dinner on work days, produce for your personal use, and a small stipend.

Sandpoint is a wonderful place to spend the summer. There is bikable access to a large and refreshing freshwater lake for swimming, boating, etc., plus access to the amazing wilderness of North Idaho. We are not as isolated as it might sound, and our town is host to a realtively strong arts culture and progressive community. If you are interested in getting a part-time job, we can try to help you with the resources that we have.

We STRONGLY prefer interns who are available from May through October. Slightly shorter stays will be considered, but short-term stays are not eligible for the apprenticeship program. If you are interested, we would love to learn more about you. Please email us at emilyredwheelbarrow@gmail.com .

On September 18th, Luke Mason from The Bistro came out to the farm to prepare a delicious meal made with all local ingredients. We had about 30 people and three fabulous courses on a cloudy but lovely evening in Sandpoint. Ever had chevre whipped cream on top of a grilled nectarine? I didn't think so. But you may want to find one.

A huge, giganitic thanks goes out to Sophie, one of our lovely interns this summer. We laughed, we cried, we picked a hell of a lot of beans. She didn't tell me until a week after the last market that she hated washing carrots, which she did every week for two hours without a peep of complaint or frown. She taught us about biodynamics and REAL compost piles, and made the best damn salad dressing, which is important on a farm with so much lettuce.

Thanks Sophie! Come back next year! (wink)


(Check out Colleen from Solstice Farms in the background of this photo. She must have been lounging at the sunny picinic table when a customer appeared at her booth.)

A mid-summer update

I guess that this farming thing really is quite time-intensive. I haven't written ia word all season, which I believe also occurred last year. It's now august, and the garden is all that I dream of in those cold winter months. Te beans put out their first harvest today, and the cherry tomatoes are just now beginning their transition to golden, purple, yellow, or red. It was a long cool spring to say the least...everything is about two weeks behind last year, ando that wasn't exactly a warm season itself. Our vegetables were just featured in a wedding as t he centerpieces ando brides bouquet-that's a first! I suppose she must have been my kind of lady, to recognize the beauty in a head of broccoli like she did. Pictures to follow...

Plants a-groweth!

Spring is here, the snow has melted, and WHAM--the workload just quintupled in an instant. The ground is dry enough to play in, so its prep time! I dug some parsnips yesterday--the gophers left a few for me. They were so sweet and juicy sauteed in butter with steak and fresh greens last night. YUM! We've been sleeping in the greenhouse with our plant starts, just because it's nice to sleep under the stars without the rain/sleet/snow/frost action that spring can deliver. Here's what it looks like at night just before bed. Dave added an extra rack this month suspended from the ceiling that you can see in the top left. Now we can fit 13 more flats, plus they are great for warm-weather crops like tomatoes and peppers.

Deep breath...and in we go!!