Persephone Farm

Sustainably Grown Vegetables & Flowers – Indianola, Washington

News

End of the Season

By

Rainbow over Persephone Farm
A rainbow over our last CSA harvest yesterday.

Happy (last) CSA Wednesday, everybody! What a season! As the CSA wraps up this week, so does our season here at Persephone. Our last official day of work is Friday, then we’ll all move on to our next steps in the next week or so. Looking back over the past 8 months it is really incredible how much this farm has transformed. Brand new areas have been turned into productive farmland, and all of us workers have grown and learned so much valuable knowledge. This week we’re wrapping up any loose ends, getting as much cover crop in the ground as possible, and harvesting our last rounds of flowers and vegetables. The weather today is a nice full-circle reminder of when we got here at the end of February, and the farm is starting to look more and more like it did when we arrived. Our few over-wintering crops are being prepped for colder temperatures to come, some by being nestled in the greenhouses or others by being sprayed with a cold-toughening kelp spray.

Five Persephone farmers posing with flowers
A throwback to one of our late Fridays making bouquets for market as a crew! From left to right, Brian, Kristina, Rebecca, Taylor, and Brooklyn, Persephone crew 2016

We hope that you all have enjoyed sharing in the bounty of the season with us. By supporting our farm you have allowed all of us flower-novices to learn the full cycle of flower growing, harvesting, and arranging — an experience we will all cherish for a long time. We have also all learned so much about vegetable production as well, and have been exposed to delicious regional treats such as pea shoots, sweet turnips and purple sprouting broccoli! From all of us at Persephone Farm 2016, including all of our pollinators like the one below, we would like to thank you for your kind words and continued support, and hope that you have a nice and relaxing winter.

– 2016 Persephone Interns

Farmer Rebecca holding a flower with a honeybee

August Harvesting & Instagram Acct!

By

Can you believe it’s already August?? Our “new” interns have already been here for a month and are now in the full swing of things. Lately it seems like the majority of our time is spent harvesting, both vegetables and flowers (which happens to be my favorite job!). Each morning begins with harvesting of some sort, and all of Friday is dedicated to harvesting so that everything is as fresh as possible for the Farmers’ Market! When we do manage to squeeze in some time for other tasks, we have been doing a lot of bed turnover. Veggies and flowers whose time has come and gone are getting taken out to become compost, and their space is being tilled and made into raised beds, ready for the next thing to be planted! It’s really special to be able to witness the full life cycle of the farm within just one short season. Today we will be taking out the last annual plant that was here before we arrived, one bed of over-wintered kale. Sad to see it go, but exciting to say that everything (aside from perennials) growing on this whole farm has been planted since our time here! Below are some pictures from our new Instagram account, started by our intern Kristina! Be sure to check it out and give us a follow @persephonefarmer!

persphone's instagram account

Intern Update: Squash, Farmers and Flowers!

By

Yellow and green summer squash
Summer squash ready for our CSA subscribers

Summer squash means it must be summer, right? We were warned about “Juneuary” but “Januly” is a whole different story. Luckily today seems to be warming back up – this sun is definitely a sight for sore eyes. This week we welcomed some new and old faces to the farm! Previous years’ interns stopped by to help out around the farm, and two new interns have been added to the mix (welcome Kris and Gracie). Be sure to say hello if you see them!

If you stopped by the Bainbridge Island Farmers market on Saturday (or saw our Facebook page), you already know we set a new Persephone Farm record of sweet pea bunches – 63! Those and all the other flowers bursting into bloom have been keeping us plenty busy, and us interns are getting to learn more about the flowers and how to harvest them. The most exciting part to me, though, is getting to use them in bouquets! Our intern bouquet making school, taught by Rebecca, is always a highlight of our Wednesdays and Fridays, and we hope you all are loving the beautiful flowers! Here are some pictures of our flowers we harvested this morning, and some of the bouquets we’ve made so far

-Intern Taylor
(Persephone’s note – Brian and Brooklyn are our other awesome 2016 Interns.)

CSA subscriber bouquets at Persephone Farm in Indianola , WA
CSA subscriber bouquets waiting for pickup
Freshly harvested flowers ready for bouquet making lesson
Freshly harvested flowers ready for our bouquet making lesson

Intern Update: Planting and Harvesting

By

Tomato harvest
The interns’ first tomato harvest!

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! We had a lovely day of harvesting salad greens and lavender before our community dinner and fireworks over the water. Over the past few weeks our greenhouse and hardening off tables (where young plants live in between the greenhouse and moving to the great outdoors) have been getting emptier and emptier as the last of our summer crops and successions are moving to their permanent homes. The last plants waiting patiently (some more patient than others) that we have been working on transplanting this week are beans, sunflowers, cauliflower, broccoli, and a few others.

We’re sad to see some of our favorites, such as raspberries, on their way out but are so excited to be learning about new vegetables and flowers! This week us interns learned about harvesting tomatoes, string beans, and summer squash, and soon even more summer delights such as peppers will be on the list! Hopefully our subscribers enjoy some new sights in their boxes this week!

– Intern Taylor

CSA Orientation & First Pickup the Season, June 1

By

My how time flies! Our CSA orientation is this Wednesday, 5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Farm. We’re counting on a beautiful, rain free evening — as it has been for the past 20 years on orientation night. (Yes, this is the 21st year of the Persephone Farm CSA!)

We are very excited to see the program starting for another glorious season and anxious to share what’s new at Persephone Farm. CSA subscribers are encouraged to bring their family and join us for an evening at the farm. See our summer vegetables growing! Learn about add-on shares, these are delicious ways to support other local producers, and an opportunity to collect an even more abundant basket each week. Meet our awesome, hard-working 2016 interns, enjoy hors d’oeuvres, tour the garden, and of course, pick up your produce. (Subscribers received an email from Rebecca with additional details.) See photos from a past orientation.

If you know of others who might be interested in joining us, please spread the word. There are still shares available, and, if you refer someone who subscribes, we’ll thank you with a free box of veggies, and, of course a huge hug and many thanks. We look forward to meeting all our new subscribers and seeing the familiar faces of friends and neighbors. Contact Rebecca if you have questions.

spring-flowers-640-LN
Farm flowers in the field.