Organic Re-certification - Annual Inspection

The world of dark chocolate has named a candy bar after me. This seems appropriate since I LOVE dark chocolate!

America's Best Organics is marketing this chocolate bar, and they even spelled my name correctly. It's supposedly the first USDA Certified Organic and Fair Trade candy bar. That makes perfect sense if they're going to use my name! The only thing that's missing is my pic next to the candy bar. They could pay me in dark chocolate to do this for them.

Our farm, Diamondback Acres, grows USDA Certified Organic fruit. We have an official certificate that confirms that fact. Every year in late June, we meet with Jeff Collins who works for the Washington State Department of Agriculture for an annual inspection. This begins with the completion of our application for re-certification that's due in February. In our application, we stated we would have a new site, the blueberries,  that would be organic this year.

Most of the inspection involves paper work, so the meeting takes place at our house. We had an earlier inspection this year because of the new site. Jeff wanted to be sure to get the paper work completed before we begin harvesting at the beginning of August. The packing shed and / or retailers we deliver our blueberries to will want to see our official Washington State Department of Agriculture Organic certificate and our Safe Quality Foods Certificate.

When Jeff does this inspection, he asks to see all of our spray and fertilizer records for each of our blocks to make sure that all the materials we've applied were certified organic. If he doesn't know by memory, he uses his laptop to go to the National Organic Program website for verification. This is somewhat nerve racking as there is always the possibility that we've applied something that was certified organic last year but came off the list this year. If that were to happen, we'd be kicked out of organic certification for that block. And don't forget, it takes 3 years of organic practices to become certified organic.

Jeff also verifies our production and the income we've had from that production. We pay the state a percentage based on our gross sales, so the more we make the more we pay. He's making sure we're paying what we're suppose to pay. These dollars are how the Washington State Dept. of Ag. funds the state's organic food program.

Growers that try to market their fruit as "organic" without certification are scamming the public. Don't be rooked!

Look for the green, white and brown USDA seal or ask to see the grower's certificate. 

We have national organic standards that are defined by the National Organic Program. That is what the USDA Organic seal represents. Each state uses those national standards to issue organic certificates through their department of agriculture. 

This is the Washington State seal. Our Diamondback Acres organic certificate has two seals: USDA Organic, Washington State.This year the US and EU signed an agreement on organic trade. The organic certification and enforcement standards of the US and EU are "essentially equivalent", so this will allow us to market our organic apples and cherries in the EU.

Finally, Jeff reviews our site plans to see how we control certain problems such buffer zones, weeds, and pests, then he'll do a random spot check on site to visually confirm our information. 

After all that paper work, it was so nice to get outside prepping the garden. Bill is telling me a gardening joke:

The wife asked her husband to buy ORGANIC vegetables from the market. He went and looked around and couldn't find any. So he grabbed an old, tired looking employee and said, "These vegetables are for my wife. Have they been sprayed with any poisonous chemicals?" "The produce guy looked at him and said, "No. You'll have to do that yourself."

Oh, hardee har har Bill! 

Warmer Days

Spring has finally arrived! Our apricot tree has been in bloom over the past week. Yesterday, we were at 634 blossom degrees compared to 531 last year and normal at 820. Our spring is still late this year but not as late as last year. We've been in the upper 50's to low 60's for the past week.

Our Rainier cherry block will be the first to bloom. Right now it's at stage 5 open cluster on the WSU cherry bud stage. Bill turned up the windmachine thermostats to allow for more protection against potential low night time temperatures. Frost hasn't been a problem so far.

Yesterday, I called our pollen people to send us cherry pollen for the Rainiers and Skeenas. Bill called our bee contractor to let her know we're close to first bloom in our cherry blocks. The apples have a ways to go.

A contractor working for the city is dumping the excess dirt from a project in town in our ditch. It's very exciting how it's changing the topography of our property. Bill uses Lola to smooth it out.

He's pushing a boulder into the ditch in this picture. We'll be getting irrigation water from the Isenhart Irrigation District this spring, so this work is to prep our home property for future planting. The irrigation water has been a goal of ours ever since we moved here 30 + years ago. When the water starts flowing through the pipes, it will truly be something to celebrate!

Proof of spring has been the recurring trapped birds in our wood burning stove. I wonder what goes through a bird's mind as it decides to climb into the stove pipe on our roof and free fall 2 stories to land in the hearth? I've successfully rescued two so far.

Besides rescuing birds, I'm prepping our raised beds for planting, so I want to share with you some of my plans so far.

Last year we grew Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. They're so sweet and prolific. Salads have pizazz with some of these thrown in. 

I'm planning on a couple of heirloom tomatoes, Black Krim and Mortgage Lifter. I've not grown them before but they sound mouth watering. This is a Black Krim that is from Russia and has rich sweet flavor with thin skin. Shyla gave me a package of seeds for Christmas. She also have a good feeling about them.

This is the Mortgage Lifter. They are 2 1/2 - 4 lb. tomatoes! Wow, wow, wow! The cool thing about heirlooms is that if you like them, you can save the seeds to use again next year. As Guy Clark wrote, "Only two things that money can't buy, That's true love and homegrown tomatoes."

These are Suyo Long heirloom cucumbers. I'm planning to trellis these and the beans this year.

Matilda pole beans will be new for me.

I'm hoping to grow some Ozette fingerling potatoes. Slow Food Seattle has been raving about these.

We have to have small sugar pumpkins for pumpkin pie and ale.

Every year I grow sunflowers. This year I want to try Cutters Delight. 

There's so much to do!

Grandpa's Campaign

Grandpa's been busy working to improve the Chelan Public Library. This makes perfect sense because Grandpa was a college professor for 30 years, and reading has been his life blood since he hitched his wagon to Grandma's some 50 years ago. Grandpa's passion for reading/learning new things and lively discussion has inspired all of us. The tables in our house are always covered with library books, paper backs, and now we even have a Nook.

Do you want to know what we're reading? OK, I'll share:

• Natalie - Just finished book 3 of The Hunger Games
• Bill - The Hunger Games book 1
• Grandpa - The History of Thought, Insurrection & The Evolution of Adam
• Me - Death Comes to Pemberley 
• Grandma - One Thousand White Women

Our lovely Granddog Lady has even taken up reading! My daughter Shyla/Lady's mom reads continuously and has obviously impressed her love of reading upon Lady. And none of this would be possible without the public library. Grandpa knows this, and he wants the library in Chelan to be top notch so it inspires everyone to gather for reading/learning and lively discussion.

As president of Chelan Friends of the Public Library, Grandpa and others are trying to raise $160,000 in donations for the expansion and renovation fund. As of April 11th, the committee has received a total of $71,754. Grandpa doesn't have time to sleep because he and his committee are on a timeline to get this done.

Currently the library is located in an old building in a remote part of town where a serious sewer odor lurks. It doesn't evoke feelings of inspiration or pride.

But all that is going to change with the efforts of Grandpa along with the rest of the Friends and the City of Chelan, when they rebuild the former Masonic Temple on Emerson Street creating an inspiring library in the heart of Chelan.

http://chelanfriends.blogspot.com

Yay, Grandpa! We appreciate everything you and the Friends of the Library are doing!

Time to Rock n' Roll

We had a nice time with family over Easter dinner on Sunday. I'm not gonna lie. There was some pre-dinner excitement with the thermometer, the ham and the cooks in the kitchen. Every time I would pull the ham out to check it, Bill would jab it with the thermometer and Farmer Dave would hurry over to stare at the digital results. As the designated meal time came and went, I knew my entire cooking career was on the line. My guests were reaching that point of intoxication where confessions begin, so I decided to pray for divine intervention. And then out of nowhere, Bill declared the ham done. Yay! That was just after Grandpa confessed he was a lifelong liberal Democrat. Wow, what a miracle (that the ham was done), and as a result I still have a cooking career! Such joy!

I guess the anxiety over the ham really wore out Bill. He looked like death on a biscuit after dinner, so I discreetly suggested he grab a little nap somewhere. Truth is farmin' has gotten very busy. Frost season started the end of last week, so we were getting phone calls in the wee hours of the morning from Farmer Dave to let us know wind machines had started. Bill would then drive up to check on each of the machines to make sure everything was working properly. On the first morning with cold temperatures, one of the machines didn't come on, so he had to start it manually. Hopefully, the service person is coming up today to repair it. 

These cherry fruit buds are slowly swelling up. Fruit development will really start moving if the days start getting warmer. Our 7 day forecast actually indicates spring may have arrived with daily temps expected in the range of 60 degree plus. We are at 470 blossom degree days this morning, compared to 440 this time last year, and 670 on a normal year. Our growing season was ~ 2 weeks late last year. That was how we came to have a wedding, a surgery and a cherry harvest all at the same time. 

It's very interesting how Washington, Oregon and Northern California have been below average temperatures this spring, and the eastern half of the U.S. has been 8 - 10 degrees above normal. 

We've been working to calibrate the sprayers. Part of that process involves calculating the speed of the tractor in the expected gear for a specific distance with a stop watch. This is all documented in our Safe Quality Food record book. And yes, we've already had our SQF internal audit for this year which means I have a list to complete in 30 days to be SQF certified. I like lists. A lot. I feel really good about it because:

1. The Food Safety Specialist at Stemilt is nice and helpful.
2. I'm no longer dreading the SQF internal audit - it's over 
3. I can see clearly now how to get it done because I have a LIST!

When the equipment is deemed ready, Bill will start writing spray recommendations, and then our applicators will begin spraying. This year we're going to try writing our spray recommendations online.

The irrigation system is going in at Chelan Falls for the replant.

These were Golden Delicious trees in Union Valley. We're grafting them this spring, so the guys are giving each tree the final saw before the grafters arrive. Most of the crew is tying limbs in our cherries. Currently they are cross tying in the Skeena block. We still have blueberries and Honeycrisp in the canyon to prune. Bill explained the cherry tying is the priority because as the the fruit buds get bigger, they knock off easier during tying.

On to State!

I think I mentioned it's been annoyingly cold this spring, but not cold enough to slow down smokin' hot Cousin Leah. This is the spring of her senior year, so she's got kites to fly and fish to fry.  

Her foot apparel nicely represents her diverse interests this year: horses and dancing? 

We journeyed to Wenatchee a couple of weekends ago to watch Leah and her partner Selah compete in team sorting in the district high school equestrian team competition.

 The two riders had to work against the clock in harmony to cut out the correct numbered cattle and drive them to the pen while keeping the wrong numbered cattle back.

 Leah is riding Barbara, a quarter horse borrowed from her uncle Tony. 

Aunt Linda is on the edge of her seat. Uncle Dave is just about half way on the edge of his seat .

The Chelan Equestrian Team's coach is watching with pride. Hey, wait! Is that Uncle Tony? Yup, that's right pardner! Uncle Tony is also the coach. 

As you can see, Cousin Leah and Selena had some unruly, uncooperative cattle, but that's OK because the girls had a yummy BBQ at the end of the day. Last weekend, the girls took first in Working Pairs where they did synchronized riding to music in costume. Leah took first in Reining two weekends in a row, so she and Barbara are off to the state competition in Lynden, Washington. Good luck, Leah!

Crazy Weather

We named our backhoe, Lola!

Lola has been loading Loretta with rocks picked from the acreage with the new planting. 

Thank goodness for Lola! There have been a lot of rocks throughout this project.

Digging out space for the posts, wire anchors and irrigation lines.

To prepare for frost season, Bill and I took the 4-wheeler around to all the wind machines to check the accuracy of the thermometers. We started with lots of sunshine and  a cooler with ice and water to dip the thermometers. The lowest temperature reading should be ~32 degrees, anything lower or higher means a defective thermometer.

Each of the thermometers has protective housing. 

While we were in Union Valley, Rodolfo came by raking brush. We need all the wood on the ground from winter pruning to be minimized, so we can begin dormant sprays by the end of this week.

As we buzzed around on the 4-wheeler, we encountered a rain shower that was brief then quickly followed by bright sunshine. At Last Chance we could see another weather event headed our way from up lake that actually looked like snow. Luckily, we were wearing multiple layers of winter clothing. As that storm got closer and closer to us, the temperature kept dropping. By the time we got up the canyon to the Tri-C Honeycrisps, the rain was more like snow, and we both were getting cold. We wondered why we needed a cooler with ice to test the temperature since the outside temperature was probably 32 degrees. We ran for the truck when we finished and turned the heater on high. By the time we got down the road a couple of miles, the sun was shining, and we promptly overheated. Crazy weather!

The next day, on Saturday it actually snowed all morning, so Bill had an impromptu meeting for our hired guys who will be spraying this year. They reviewed the spray binders we made for each of them over coffee and donuts. Each binder had multiple tabs for the following: a separate index for each orchard, maps, fruit bud development charts, expectations/tractor safety, calibration documentation and the organic apple/cherry program narrative. The spraying job is a big responsibility that involves careful reading of the spray recommendation Bill writes each time, math calculations for partial tanks and documentation.They have to be on call throughout the season so the spray can go on when the weather permits.