The Open Gate Farm On Camano Island, Washington

The Peonies of Peace

Dear Friends:

The peonies are in bloom.  If you go to our website, www.theopengatefarm.com you will see them.  Or come out to the farm and you can purchase some blooms from these heirloom flowers to take home and fill your house with the scent of memories.  Originally planted in 1943 by your farmer’s Grandpa Mac, these magenta and pink and white flowers are in their prime right now.  You may want to bring your cameras.

And while you’re here, fill your salad bowls with the best lettuce we’ve seen in ages.  Huge heads of sweet crunching that keep waistlines trim and bodies healthy.  The Red Sails and Merlot are particularly stunning, though that butterhead, French Marvel of the Four Seasons, has been flying off the stand.  Toss in a few of our snappy red radishes, a little oil and vinegar or creamy dressing with a bit of parmesan cheese on top and be ready to enjoy some fine dining right at home!

So print out this page of the newsletter and you’ll have your shopping list ready for Wednesday through Saturday, 9 to 5 (o.k., we are slow to close so maybe closer to 6):

The year 1943 was a year of pain.  Their daughter, Joyce, had just died from tuberculosis and in their grief a garden of peonies was planted.  We don’t know why Grandpa and Grandma chose peonies, but we’re glad they did.  Doing something in memory of someone dear who dies has long been known to help with the healing of the broken heart, with the gaining of strength to carry on through the blinding pain.

When we lose the ability to care for someone we love, to then care for something as a substitute can provide a channel for the affections and emotions which will not stop, but which have to be redirected.  Love is not controlled by a switch, to be turned on and off like a light.  Once love is in place, so is commitment to care for the rest of our lives.  That is part of the magic of parenthood…we discover we’re holding more than our baby in our arms, we are holding a commitment that will last all our lives long.  We are holding a powerful emotion in our arms that will form and shape our days until we die.

We know ourselves how this can be.  Having lost a seven year old son in an accident back in 1985, your farmers long ago realized that the dream of our farm could help carry us forward out of the valley of the shadow of death into the light of this new tomorrow.  That was a dream that lifted us up in dark hours and has finally become real here at The Open Gate Farm.  Here on this land is a place we can live out our commitments to each other, to our children, to our God, and to the life we do receive.  So when you come visit, you are walking in our living memorial all of that.  And if you look carefully, you might spot our special planting for Luke…a forsythia which often blooms around his birthday in March.

But one of the powerful testimonies in Grandpa and Grandma Mac’s peonies is that those bereaved parents stayed together through the hard, hard times the death of a child can bring.  Statistically, 90% of all couples who lose a child get a divorce.  But they didn’t.  They somehow worked together through the pain, perhaps joining hearts with those who began losing children during World War II and then this loving couple lived to see their 50^th wedding anniversary.

It may be that you or someone you know is going through a painful time, death, divorce, job loss, or loss of relationship.  If you don’t, you may someday.  And when that happens, perhaps you can find a bit of soil somewhere which you can dedicate to more than a grave, soil you can dedicate to life, the life of that which was and for which you and they can still care.

What would happen if before a judge granted a divorce, the couple was made to plant a tree together in their yard to memorialize all that had brought them together in the first place?  Or if your marriage is on the rocks, you planted a bush with your spouse in the same spirit?  What would happen if every parent of a wayward child took that child to a nursery and purchased a perennial and they planted it together and the child was told that forever more, every time the parent saw that plant they would be thinking of their child?

At Ben Franklin Elementary School in Kirkland, Washington, is a tree.  It was planted those many years ago by the front door of the school in honor of our son, Luke. It lives on not just to help a community remember a child, but also to remind the children that accidents can never be anticipated, that they do happen, to be careful in all they do, but that when our lives are shredded and torn, there will always be a future.

There will be leaves that fall as the days get shorter, but new ones will come in the spring if we just wait.  Days will lengthen once more and new life will stir again and we will be called out of the darkness and pain of our personal winter and into a new summer where we can smell heavenly peace in the sweet scent of forsythia and peonies.

Come to the farm.  Come smell in the peonies now the memories of all that should have been but perhaps for you never will be.  And come see the colors of leaf and blossom which call us into a new future.

So go in peace, plant, remember, and be healed.

Happy Hoeing,

Jon and Elaine, the memory planting farmers, Snickers the plant sniffing dog, Mystery the plant watching cat, Harley and his flock of hens who hide in the peonies, and the Parson Dudley Brown and his flock of compassionate ducks who protect the forsythia, all of whom live joyfully at

The Open Gate Farm

The long awaited peony bloom is at last here!  Come by the farm and see our 60 foot wall of soft beauty…pink and white and a touch of gentle red…well worth the visit.  And it’s free to see too!  You can cut some to take home if you decide you want to.

The Open Gate Farm

269 Russell Road,

Camano Island, WA 98282-8512

Almost an Omelet at The Open Gate Farm

Dear Friends:

It’s summertime and the lettuce is crunchy!   And sample some leaves from the fava beans.  A great break from spinach.  Don’t forget the radishes!  They are big, juicy and gently spicy!

Come on over and meet our Anne-Lise when you do.  She’s here for two weeks, working hard and learning lots about farming in America.  And we’re learning about France!  Like this week was “Music Day”.  A day devoted nationwide to the celebration of music in our lives.  What fun!

The nursery is awash in color now.  If you want something to replace that one that is struggling in your planter, stop in.  We have all sorts of plain and fancy flowers ready for you.  And when you do, here’s what else you’ll find…

It wasn’t the robins.  And we don’t think it was the house sparrows either.  Perhaps a towhee or an Alaska song sparrow.  And we don’t think they will be back for it, either.

This morning while harvesting lettuce, laying on an outstretched leaf of Merveille des Quatre Saisons (Marvel of the Four Seasons) lettuce was a small, blue with brown spots bird egg.  Either some bird has been to architect school and is trying new housing styles by living in the lettuce or perhaps a predator bird had snatched it then coughed as it flew over our lettuce.  Either way, it had a perfect landing in a natural safety net.

Sadly, sitting there in the dew of the dawn, that egg will never be able to be hatched.  It’s been gotten too cold.  Once an egg is chilled, any hope of a baby bird coming out of it is gone.  Warming it up does no good so we did not tuck it into a safe pocket and hope for the best.  No.  We cradled it in our hands and took it into the house to add to our “natural history from the farm” collection.

There actually is a fair bit of that goes on here at The Open Gate Farm.  Usually in the idea department though, not so often with eggs.  We get great ideas and somewhere, somehow the plan gets mislaid and our idea never hatches into the fullness of life.  Somewhere out there is an idea to build a cover over the nursery area to protect plants and customers from inclement weather.  Or one of the first ideas your farmer had…to clear cut the whole place and put in fencing and cross fencing and get a cow for the manure.  That one is so far from happening it doesn’t even make it to our budget hearings.

Which is a good thing.  Our woods have apparently provided room and board for some bird who lays eggs on the fly.

Happy Hoeing,

Jon and Elaine, the harvesting farmers, Snickers the bird chasing dog, Mystery the bird watching cat, Harley and his flock of loafing ladies, and the good Parson Dudley Brown and his flock of cheerful ducks, all of whom live joyfully at

The Open Gate Farm

269 Russell Road

Camano Island, WA 98282

www.theopengatefarm.com

Now open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9 to 5 for naturally grown produce, approved bakery, and nursery fun!

The Negotiators

The Open Gate Farm

269 Russell Road

Camano Island, WA

June 7, 2011

Ducky Negotiating at The Open Gate Farm

Dear Friends:

If this sunny weather has not left you with pulled muscles, you must live in a condo or in a cave.  Everyone here at the farm is stiff and sore so we’ve made arrangements to have Theodore Fogarty (aka “Teddy”), a charming licensed massage therapist come by on Saturday the 18^th from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. or so to give your shoulders and upper backs a free working over.  Come on by and get in line.  We’ll have hot coffee to go with the cinnamon rolls while you wait for your turn with her magic hands!  The backrub is free and the conversation excellent!  Rain or shine!

Seems there was a little rain today.  Just in time to save watering the kale and lettuce and orach.  Orach?  Yes, we will have some young and tender baby orach leaves up on the stand.  This charming and tasty addition to your greens repertoire will tell the world you really know your veggies.  Pop by and taste a leaf and see what you think!

Pop by save some time too!  You can either sit in traffic through the construction site up by the Plaza or turn onto Sunrise and come to us the back way and take your sitting time here with a cinnamon roll and hot coffee instead of tapping your wheel with your fingers and listening to the news again and again waiting for the flaggers.  Your choice!

And your choice from below can be picked up at the Snow Goose Bookstore in Stanwood on Saturday morning at 10:00!  And just for you, we will make which ever bread you want for that Saturday delivery.

Right into the teeth of all the ecologically proper and greenly righteous farming we try to do, your farmer must confess to a real thrill when he turns on the fuel, climbs up in the seat and fires up the old 1951 Ford 8N tractor.  The thrill of explosions will never leave these old bones it is feared.  Foul fumes fill the air and then clicking it slowly into gear, pulling the gas lever down and letting the clutch out slowly, the old war horse roars and pulls out of the barn with enough noise even the neighbors know action is imminent at The Open Gate Farm.

Today that meant rescuing the truck and trailer full of manure from the slippery slope on the north side of the hoop house.  It made the turn out of the lane just fine on it’s way to being unloaded on the flower garden but lost traction on the slight upgrade.  Rather than spin on and destroy slow growing grass, we stopped and turned to the tractor for help.

It was ready and able and waiting in our new barn with the patience only a farm tractor can have.  Once fired up and on the way there though, a field of sitting ducks had to be negotiated.  And negotiated is the operant word.  How is it a 2 pound duck can sit in the grass and stare down a 2,000 pound roaring behemoth?  With one glance, Scooter, Parson, Mary, even Quackers, Cheese, and DD can bring those 5 foot high tires to a halt.

One does not negotiate with a duck from on high.  They won’t listen until you get down to their level and speak their language.  This means throwing the tractor into neutral, slowing the engine, climbing down and walking over to their negotiation table.  Once the case is made for why they might want to consider forming a committee to look at the idea of creating a task force to examine the possibilities for later evaluation of why they might want to move, they do generally hoist themselves up and amble off only as far as they think they need to in order not to get squashed.

Why they don’t flee like the chickens, running helter, skelter and hoping for shelter is beyond us.  They look at us from ground level and somehow they know our hearts.  They know no matter how much we yell from the tractor that we will eventually get down to talk and explain the situation and would even pick them up and set them in safety under the WWOOFer trailer if necessary.  “Not necessary.”  They said today in gently indignant voices.  They took a few steps and waited until the tractor was rolling so they could see exactly how far they did have to move before finally clearing the path for the old Ford.  And they went not a step farther than necessary.

It’s important to drive slowly, when passing a sitting duck.  Both here on the farm and in life in general.  As we are out there in the hustle of life whether at school or in an office or sitting in a committee meeting, we must be sure the tires of our tractors don’t squash anyone.  It’s important to slow down and take the time to explain in words the ducks of life can understand, not yelling from our high and mighty seat but at their level and in their language as to what we need to do and how that would be possible only with help from them.  And if, like our ducks, yours only move just enough to get out of the way and comment on your driving skills as you roll slowly past to your task, perhaps we can all just smile and realize that they are who they are, not who we want them to be, and that is o.k.  They are who they are and they will do what they will do.  Which in our case was once the truck and trailer were towed by the tractor into position and the manure unloaded on the flower garden, the ducks came on over and enjoyed inspecting it with the now calm and happy chickens.

That’s how life is, here on the farm.  Maybe it can be that way for you too, where ever your tractors take you.

Happy Hoeing,

Jon and Elaine, the soft talking farmers, Snickers the duck dodging dog, Mystery the chicken loving cat, Harley and his flock of tractor dodging girls, and the Parson Dudley Brown and his flock of stonewall negotiating ducks, all of whom live joyfully at

The Open Gate Farm

269 Russell Road

Camano Island, WA 98282

www.theopengatefarm.com

Now open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9 to 5 for produce, bakery, and nursery fun!

A Bee's Eye View

The Open Gate Farm

269 Russell Road

Camano Island, WA

May 31, 2011

Getting Buzzed at The Open Gate Farm

Dear Friends:

Popular demand has changed our hours for the produce stand!  We are now adding Wednesdays to our Thursday / Friday / Saturday 9 to 5 schedule.  Tell your friends and come on by yourselves and enjoy all the goodness you find listed below and more!  And if there is a particular bakery item you would like, let us know and we’ll have it ready for you on your schedule!

And those of sharp eye will notice the return of the Merlot lettuce.  It is a deep, deep purple which means a bounty of vitamins and health in every bite!  Order yours now for delivery either at the farm or in Stanwood at the Snow Goose Books!

Don’t forget the movie, “A Sea Change” this Friday night at the Blackbird in Stanwood!  We’ll be there to learn about a grandfather’s search for his grandson’s future.  But here’s what’s on the menu these days…

Last Saturday, the book of our day on the farm had a front cover of panic and terror and a back cover of peace and delight.  First thing in the morning an adult bald eagle with about a 10 foot wing span swept down by the play structure and grabbed Scooter the duck.  But his error was he needed to turn around to take off and with both a dog and farmer running at him yelling at the top of their lungs, he got confused, dropped the duck, turned and lifted off.  Scooter, true to her name, shot under the peonies, pulled on her camo suit and hustled off to the safety of the duck’s swimming pool where all the others had gathered to recover from the trauma.

Then the back cover of the day’s book began as the last customers were selecting lettuce and petunias.  A charming neighbor girl appeared on her bike.  “Our bees have swarmed!”  So off went your farmer who confirmed they were probably reachable by putting a step ladder in the back of the pickup.  Home to build a bottom board and grab a hive box or two, bee suit, smoker, tools, and head back up the road.

After climbing into his big bee suit and donning the veiled hat, firing up the smoker and putting the ladder in just the perfect place in the truck bed, he took a cardboard box and clambered up to the quiet and peaceful swarm.

It hung from a cedar bough like a huge brown and gold wisteria blossom 2 feet long.  These bees had left a nearby fir tree where they have lived in a deep hole for many years.  They did leave behind a nucleus of other bees who will repopulate the tree and continue the tradition.  That they have survived for years without the “benefit” of medications and fungicides common to contemporary beekeeping is amazing.  Yet that is how bees always used to live.

One theory as to the cause of the well publicized “colony collapse disorder” plaguing the world of honey these days is that the commercial bees have been weakened by this constant barrage of medications, that their DNA is no longer producing bees naturally resistant to the mites and molds of life in a hive.  If true, then these swarming bees would be able to produce “organic” honey!  Just like our other bees who have gone 3+ years without any medications and done just fine.

Bee swarms are most interesting.  When a hive gets too crowded, a large cluster of bees weighing 3 to 5 pounds will gather on the front of the hive.  The queen will join them and once she is safely in the center the entire swarm will fly off with a loud buzzing and humming.  Slowly they fly away as a noisy but generally mellow mass and finally settle on a branch of a bush or tree.  There they wait while scout bees go out looking for a new home.  Once one is found, the swarm takes off again and after landing at the likely residence, they all move in.  If a swarm can be captured while hanging like a bunch of buzzing grapes from a branch, the beekeeper can put them in a hive, take them home and with care and attention help them settle in and become honey producers.

The capture is the cool part.  Holding the cardboard box under the swarm, a sharp shaking of the branch dropped the cluster into the box like jam off a spoon.  Then, carefully climbing down the ladder and out of the truck with the box, your farmer poured them out on top of the waiting hive bodies (boxes).  This 5 pound pile of bees in the matter of about 2 minutes had melted down in between the frames of waiting, empty honeycomb and the lid was put on top.

Not that all the bees thought this was a good idea.  No indeedy!  The bees on guard duty were buzzing and humming and offering to sting if they could find any flesh to latch onto.  Heavy clothes, a bee suit, a veil pulled away from the neck and face and a smoker to calm them all made it possible.  Since the truck window was still down, your farmer thought it prudent to walk home the ¼ mile and come back near dark when everyone should be settled down in the hive and out of his truck and he could duct tape the hive shut and load it safely into the truck.  Even after walking all that way, there were 50 or more bees hitchhiking on his back, waiting for him to take off the protection so they could make their feelings felt.

That’s when you find out who your real friends are.  Your farmer has one in his wife.  She bravely took the bee brush and swept off those determined ladies, ducking and dodging their attentions to her until finally cleaned off, he was able to shed the gear and they laughed together at all the fun a couple can have with a few acres and good neighbors.

And so closed just another typical Saturday at the farm, another day in our happy book of life.  From eagles to bees with a steady stream of customers and friends enjoying the lettuce and plants and cinnamon rolls this place can produce in between, it had been a great day.  It is good to know how to do a few fun things and to be brave in the face of flying needles, to have friends both new and old and close who share our values of finding joy in living close to the earth.  We have so much to be grateful for…and it just doesn’t seem to end.

Well, here’s hoping you are being brave, that you are finding yourselves with friends new and old, that you too are able to collapse at the end of a day and laugh with joy at all that has happened.

Happy Hoeing,

Jon and Elaine, the bee buzzed farmers,  Snickers the bee biting dog, Mystery the bee ignoring cat, Harley and his flock of bee chasing chickens, and the Pastor Dudley Brown and his flock of eagle dodging ducks all of whom live joyfully at

The Open Gate Farm

269 Russell Road

Camano Island, WA 98282

www.theopengatefarm.com