Winter, 2008

A typical winter day in the Methow Valley

Winter is still here on the farm
Winter on the Rendezvous is not as quiet as it looks. Nestled between snow drifts and foothills you can hear the sound of the mill humming. Yes, even in the winter Bluebird Grain Farms is bringing fresh milled flour direct to you. We're often asked: "When does the farming season begin for you?" Despite the four feet of snow stacked up outside the office window here, the Methow Valley is considered a semi-desert climate with anywhere from 15"-18" of annual precipitation. Seems like a fair bit for any sort of dry climate, yet most of that comes in the form of snow. And so the beginning of the new year really is the beginning of the farm year. By Valentines Day, the tone has been set for the coming growing season insofar as Valley ground moisture. Despite the sometimes daily ritual of plowing out the driveway and around the granary and all around the out-buildings, not to mention shoveling, shoveling, shoveling in order to keep our operation running smoothly during winter's bite, I look out at all the sparkling snow and am reassured by this abundance of "poor man's fertilizer."

The good news is this will be our third consecutive and solid year of snow-pack. The very good water-table from last year should continue on making planting season all the more pleasant and giving the grain crops plenty of moisture to germinate by. This always gives a much stronger and more even stand than if started under supplemental irrigation. And when it comes time to irrigate the little that we do, there will be plenty of pure Cascade water flowing down to irrigate with. The more challenging news is, it will be another later spring in the fields and our already limited time-frame to cultivate and get planted up here in the Methow will be further condensed. Given a choice, I'm willing to live with it to be sure.

The February sun is noticeably more intense and the the temps. much milder than the past couple of months and I find myself already picking up from last fall and planning on with field work even though it is two months off. Every year, no matter what the weather, red-winged blackbirds return to a local spring-hole down the road here by February 16th. Hearing their lovely song can't help but start the itch for spring even though there is plenty of skiing left and the thought of all the work ahead sometimes is over-whelming. On the one hand, I wish winter could begin again now that we're somewhat rested. On the other, the coming smells of the uncovering earth bring an excitement like no other. Stay tuned!!

Farmer Chef Connection Owners
Brooke and Sam Lucy were able to attend their third annual Farmer chef connection event in Seattle on February 4th. Many wonderful connections were made with restaurants, chefs and individual foodies. Alex Williams of Preston Hill Bakery baked several beautiful loaves of his famous brick oven bread made from Bluebird Emmer Flour. Phyllis Rosen of Catering by Phyllis prepared a wonderful warm Emmer salad tossed with fresh greens topped with a fancy sauce that us country bumpkins can not pronounce, let alone spell, but I will give you a hint it sounded French! This is only a sampling of the AWESOME spread of food that was donated by local farms and prepared by some of Seattle's finest chefs. Brooke and Sam look forward to establishing and cultivating more relationships in the Seattle and Portland area. Next week Brooke will be attending her first Portland Farmer-Chef event. The Farmer-Chef Connections are supported in part by a group called Eco Trust, for more information on their organization and events visit: www.ecotrust.org.

NEW CSA Share & special promotion!
Freshly milled organic flour, cereals, and product mixes delivered to your door once a month!
There are some new developments to Bluebird Grain Farms CSA subscription. A new "Breakfast Share" is offered for $28 per month- this even includes shipping! You will receive freshly cracked emmer cereal, old world blend and freshly milled/mixed pancake mix each month. A FREE CSA is offered to those who subscribe to a ANY 6 month CSA. For more details go to our products page.

Nutritional information is now available
Nutritional and UPC codes are now available on all Bluebird Emmer Products!
Finally (after a lot of up, down, and in between ) we have the nutritional information labeled on all of our Bluebird Emmer Products. This development has come out of the growing interest of our customers wanting the details of what they are eating. Yep, Bluebird Emmer has a lot of protein, fiber, zinc, iron and more! It is unique in that it is very high in protein but low in gluten. When whole grain Bluebird Emmer is paired with a legume it makes a complete protein!