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Persephone Farm

Sustainably Grown Vegetables & Flowers – Indianola, Washington

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Playing the Game of Farming

September 24, 2020 By Persephone

Farming is inherently a gamble, Rebecca explained to us over our morning salad harvest. You ultimately have to play the hand you are dealt, and what a dealer we’ve had in 2020! Even if you play your cards right, sometimes the game just won’t work out. At least the weather has been favorable.

Persephone Farm, Indianola, WA, Dahlia, flowers

This is not a scary newsletter, if that’s what you’re thinking, but it is a glimpse into the reality of farming in all this chaos. From the beginning of the season, we recognized that certain parts of this style of farming were at risk due to Covid. In March, our fields were brimming with early spring produce and we had a greenhouse full of plant starts we’d carefully potted up to sell at the Bainbridge Island Farmer’s Market. And then, no market. And then still no market. And by the time a safe plan for re-opening was formulated, the season of selling all those little seedlings had nearly passed.

One after another, the wedding flower orders we had booked were cancelled or postponed. We wondered, is this the year to just till in the flower crops and focus on growing only food? Or will this be the year people need to brighten their homes and hearts with flowers more than ever?

We also rely on restaurants to buy our veggies, and our fresh sheet (which is a list of all of our offerings) has still been sent out to local chefs every week.

Everyone is concerned about viability for themselves and for their favorite places. We’ve seen beloved restaurants close, or struggle to stay open at partial capacity with Covid. Just when we learned the rules for how to work this modified restaurant system, then came the fires. Wildfires continue to keep people in their homes, staying safe from the smoke and away from the farmers market.

It seems that 2020 has dealt our local food system an exceptionally unpredictable hand. We’ve been growing and picking beautiful veggies – we’ve had some legendary harvests – note the copious cauliflower recently (check out the photo below!) and yet there’s always a chance that it won’t work out. As farmers, we recognize that we are tied up in a vulnerable system, one that could change at any moment. We have to follow the ebbs and flows of the world in motion and make it work. This year, Mother Nature’s ups and downs have been the easy part!

WHOA! This cauliflower weighed a whopping NINE POUNDS!

Mostly, we are so grateful to have a CSA full of wonderful folks, and that we can bring this food to you all. Without it, this food would have no home. But even with the largest CSA we’ve ever had, we’re still trying very hard to make sure that we don’t let food go to waste. With fewer restaurant orders due to Covid and wildfires and with smoky markets keeping folks home, we’re still uncertain about meeting our financial goals off of the care and time we spend weeding, harvesting, and washing our crops.

We’ve donate produce to Sharenet and Helpline House and participated in the Farm to Food Bank program, but farming on a small scale, it’s not in our budget to be able to give much food away and still remain profitable. In the upcoming season, our CSA subscribers will be able to donate to our local food banks through us. That money will be translated directly into produce that goes to these valuable organizations, and ensures that we are able to continue doing what we are doing.

With all of these gambling metaphors, I’ve just been listening to The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, and enjoying the fact that the sun decided to peek back through the smoke and fog today.

Until next time,

  • Caitlin
    (she/her)
The dahlia field
Persephone Farm, Indianola, WA, Beans, Vegetables
Doc, the dog, helping with the bean harvest
Persephone Farm, Indianola, WA, Flowers, Zinnias
Buckets of Zinnias

Filed Under: CSA, Flowers, News

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Visit us at the Bainbridge Island Farmers Market
Saturdays, April – Nov, 10am–2pm

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@persephonefarmer

We just made flowers for a rainbow wedding🌈!! W We just made flowers for a rainbow wedding🌈!! We love to create all kinds of bouquets and had so much fun getting creative with all of the colors. The bride asked for rainbow with sage and ferns. We love how it turned out, isn’t it beautiful 😍✨💐

What a perfect way to celebrate pride month and the start of summer! 🏳️‍⚧️🌞🏳️‍🌈 Let us know if you want to work with us for your wedding flowers. We do custom arrangements and love to see your vision come to life ✨🧚
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#persephonefarm #flowerfarmers #womenwhofarm #spring #CSA #kitsapfresh #smallfarmers #bainbridgeisland  #indianola #kitsapcounty #CSA #summer #bouqet #pride #rainbowwedding #rainbowbouqet #ferns #sage
Grills just wanna have fun! 🤩 Happy Father’s Grills just wanna have fun! 🤩 Happy Father’s Day! Our radishes and sweet walla walla onions 🧅 are great on the grill and a perfect fixture for this Father’s Day! 🦸‍♂️⚒

Fire up those grills and christen them for a summer of ‘grillin! 🧅🍺🍔

Catch us at the @bifarmersmarket this Saturday and online at @kitsapfresh
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#persephonefarm #flowerfarmers #womenwhofarm #bainbridgeislandfarmersmarket #CSA #kitsapfresh #smallfarmers #indianola #kitsapcounty#CSA #grillseason #grillling #fathersday #radishes #wallawallaonions #onions #springonion
We know we have been absent from the market for a We know we have been absent from the market for a bit but we have been hard at work and are back and ready to roll. We will be at the @bifarmersmarket this Saturday from 10am to 2pm with so many goodies 🌸

We will have peonies, the first basil of the year, walla walla onions, gallon size tomato starts, basil starts and more!!

If you want to get tomatoes this will be the last week we will bring the starts to the market. 🌱

Peony season is only a few short weeks long so get your peonies while you can 💐

See you at the market!! ✨
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#persephonefarm #flowerfarmers #womenwhofarm #bainbridgeislandfarmersmarket #spring #CSA #kitsapfresh #smallfarmers #indianola #kitsapcounty#CSA #tomatoes #basil #peony #peonies
We finally have peonies! 💐 Tune into the @vnpla We finally have peonies! 💐 Tune into the @vnplantcast that launched this week to listen to their episode on peonies featuring our very own Rebecca Slattery. Learn all about growing peonies, the botrytis fungus, how to deal with sick plants, and more ✨

Rebecca is such a wealth of knowledge and we are so excited to see her featured on this podcast. To listen go to your streaming platform and find - valley nursery plantcast 🌱 or click on the link in our story! 
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#persephonefarm #flowerfarmers #womenwhofarm #spring #CSA #smallfarmers #bainbridgeisland  #indianola #kitsapcounty #CSA #summer #plantcast #podcast #peonies #botrytis #rebeccaslattery
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