Thousand Flower Farm is located on Waldron Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. We grow vegetables, fruit, and flowers, raise sheep, weave rugs and knit hats for sale mainly in Friday Harbor, WA on nearby San Juan Island.
WE are in a very low area and it feeling rather chilly out there this evening. If we don't get some cloud cover and/or a breeze tonight we could get our first frost. After all, it is almost October. But that means doing things like bringing in the pumpkins which are in a very low area
I am so happy to be back to weaving. I hardly get a chance to touch a loom during the summer. I'm working on some cotton chenille fabric and as soon as I get this piece finished I have 3 different placemat warps to weave up.
This time of year this is what I see out the studio window as I work at the big loom. It's so beautifully green.
Every year we dedicate one of our 3 hoophouses as a drying shed. Here we spread out the onions, garlic, dry bean plants and any seed crops. This year Joel is growing seed from purple sprouting broccoli and Purple Cape broccoli.
A new dry bean for us this year is white cannellinis. Last year we had trouble getting these to germinate in the cold wet soil so we saved the seed from the few that did survive hoping to breed some cold soil resistance into them. It was cold and wet this year again and we got a good crop so maybe it is working. The best reason for saving your own seed is that you end up breeding strains that work really well in your garden, in your microclimate.
I've made enough blackberry jam for the next couple of years but there are still beautiful lush blackberries out there. So I made up a batch of blackberry whiskey from fellow blogger The Weaver of Grass from Yorkshire, UK's recipe. It's 1# each of blackberries and sugar and a bottle of cheap whiskey. Let sit for 2 months shaking now and then and then strain out the berries. It's good to sip before a winter fire.
Okay, I haven't lost my perspective. There is no drought and the temperature has not been 103. But ask my broccoli what it thinks. It hasn't rained for several weeks and the temperature has been in the high 70's and low 80's. A serious change from our earlier summer weather. So although the brassicas are not happy the pumpkins and squash are ripening up. Above are some Long Pie pumpkins. They look like hugh dark green zucchinis at this stage but they ripen up to bright orange and are the best tasting pie pumpkins we've ever grown.
Equally happy are the Cinderella, or Rouge vif d'Etamps pumpkins. They are huge this year.
And it is great weather for drying beans
and harvesting the wheat.
Our Farmers market moved to its new site today at the Brickworks in downtown Friday Harbor. Many, many volunteers have been working on getting this place ready for use for over a year and it was so very exciting to actually hold a market there. Setting up such an event at a new place is always confusing so we got there really early this morning. Things went amazingly smoothly.
The customers found us and people appeared to be having a good time. The new place has a lovely feel to it. Our old place was arranged in a straight line with vendors on both sides. This is more of a circle and it had a friendly feel to it.
It's right in downtown Friday Harbor in easy walking distance of the port and just off the main street.
This is our new booth setup with our flowers, vegetables and some of my rugs. Sales were good. We had a great day.
Yesterday was my last day out at Roche Harbor for the season. Some of the artists will open their booths for a few more days in September, weather permitting, but I need to get back to the farm and the loom and start thinking about the winter markets.
