Finally the heat let up and the chickens got to leave the stackable livestock condos for their expansive new homes in the country. They look smaller out there on the pasture, and very happy. All the farmers are much more happy with the milder temperatures as well. That little heat spell was a trying time. Our green bean plants are still cranking, just pumping out the green beans, like they don’t even care it was a hundred degrees out. Maybe they like it. This is the first year in the history of our whole farm that the deer did not nibble all the plants. I had no idea what a whole un-bitten bean plant even looked like until now. I now have some ideas about the yielding capacities of those plants that are different from my past experience. Once our deer fence is complete, we will need to change our field plans to grow the right amount of produce just for us, not the amount for us plus the herds.
There are still plenty of beans available for your bulk orders. Call now!

Oly Oly Sweet Onions? Yes, well, they are sweet onions grown from Walla Walla Onion seeds. The good farmers of Walla Walla put a trademark on the name and only those onions actually grown in Walla Walla can be called by that name. One of our helpers years ago coined the term OLY OLY and we’ve stuck with it ever since. We also grow two other types of sweet onion, two cippolini types, two reds, and two yellow keepers. The leeks are looking great out there, too. I just love the entire allium family, from garlic to scallions and everything in between. One of my books tells me that there are 300 species of onion within the allium genus, seventy of which are native to North America. I wish I had enough land to grow them all.

Beans are easily frozen for long term storage. Blanch in boiling water for two minutes, rinse in cold water to stop cooking process, drain, and pack into an airtight container such as a zip-lock freezer bag.