The Weekly Herbfarm update
For the past six and half months, I have been volunteering at The Herbfarm, not at the restaurant but actually at the farm. They have a five acre field in Redmond/Woodinville, and it is absolutely amazing. I have been enjoying working on the farm and taking care of the animals but meeting the people has been the best part of this volunteer program.
Here is Bill Vingelen, the head gardener at The Herbfarm, behind him is the quails that we drove to Puyallup, WA, and picked up over the summer:
Beside learning about organic gardening, we also take care of the Mangalitsa Pigs,Chicken, Ducks and Quails.
Here is a picture of the wooly Mangalitsa Pigs hungrily gobbling up the food that I just gave them. They are known for their seven inch layer of fat and they love good hard scratches on their back and around their faces, especially behind their ears:
Every Friday I go to Hopelink, a food bank in Kirkland, and gather as much bread, vegetables and fruits as my car will hold, for example my first trip to Hopelink in the spring, which is quite a lot as you can see, the bread was literally spilling out of my car when I opened the door.
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Next month, The Herbfarm from November 5th to 15th is doing “Makin’ Bacon” menu, which should be an absolute must if you are a pork lover, so call and make a reservation before they are all sold out.
Currently these are the crops that we are growing and harvesting right now: cabbage, kale, rutabaga, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, daikon radish, turnips, parsnips, salsify, burdock and beans.
Here are some sunset beans that I spent some time harvesting on Friday. They are so beautiful and astounding to see for the first time, the purples and pinks are just brilliant and glow in my hand. (The iphone does not do these bean any justice at all.) The first picture is us cutting it open to see if the beans are ready to be picked. As you can see in the second picture, the beans are a pretty good size. The far right picture shows them hanging from their vine, ready to be picked by me.
Here some purple kohlrabi peeping out of the ground. They will not be ready to be picked for awhile and are very hardy and can get as large as tennis balls.
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That’s my update for the week, check again next week to see what else is going on at The Herbfarm. Below is a beautiful maple tree from behind the restaurant and its fallen leaves on the ground. Happy Fall Everyone!
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