April 11th: Best laid plans

Returning to the market… NEXT weeek!

What’s the saying? “Want to make God laugh? Make a plan”. That should go double for farmers, smaller business owners, and anybody who relies on the weather for their productivity!

We had big plans to return to the farmer’s market this week, but life happened, plans shifted, and we aren’t quuuuiitte there yet. And that’s ok! Our friends over at Little Schack convinced us that heading to the market with a table that’s half full isn’t as productive as we might’ve hoped. So, we’re taking their advice and holding back a week to show up with a full table. We’ll take the Saturday for an extra day of farm work before the market routine sets in.

Changing the farm’s layout has turned out to be a much bigger job than anticipated. More work, but we are almost there. The new wash station looks great and we just had our farm water turned on which means next step: irrigation. Time to learn a whole new set of skills…Fascinating times!!

Foundational Rains

In other news, this week’s heavy rains have been right on schedule. Spring showers bring a sense of necessary weight, not a burden, but a grounding force. As the moisture fills the soil, it feels like someone is laying a foundation for a season of building and growing. Every drop is welcome in the Okanagan as we spend all summer wondering when it will come. The downpours also make the sunshine breaks that much sweeter as the warm light glints off the baby green sprouts in the field. That being said, one challenge of rainy days on our farm is that our clay soil turns to mud rather quickly!

New Crops

Some more exciting news is additions to our crop varieties. Some novel crops that we have started in the past few years and are only getting better at growing are things such as lemongrass and ginger.

They do well with some extra warmth and humidity in our field tunnels but we have had great success so far and are stoked to have such dynamic flavours locally grown. This season we are adding a few more neat crops: turmeric and bay leaves!

We won’t be at the market this week, but head over there regardless and check out the early-season vendors! There is a whole community of amazing farmers and crafters that deserve your time and attention, so why not start the habit of a Saturday shop?

We’ll see you at the market on Saturday, April 19!….

Cheers,

the OK Herb Patch crew.