Solid Rock Farm - A Brief History:

"Irrigated Land Available" says the index card posted at the Vogue Coffee Shop in Chelan, WA.  "6 Acres, you pay water."

We call during a break in the Friday night concert at the Vogue.  Cherry farmer Bruce Spencer is drumming for his band — a lot of us who have been talking about local food and local economy are at the Vogue on this night, June 1, 2007.  Paul Palumbo has been having visions of a local farm, Virginia Palumbo gardens with passion, Jeff Berman and Josette Pelletier farm at 25 Mile Creek,  Danni Lovelle works at Sunshine Farm,  Will and Marci Moody graft trees, grow their own food and  have lived and farmed in Ecuador.  Anne and Lars Clausen are here too. 

"Yes," says Bonnie Southcott, "the land is available.  I own 17 acres here on Howard Flats.  We used to have an orchard, but the land has been in alfalfa for three years, and I just want it to be used. I have six acres that are excellent for farming. You are an answer to my prayers."

Recipe for a farm in two weeks - 2007
The next morning, Paul, Bruce, Lars and Bonnie walk the land and take a soil sample which turns out good.  LoriAnn from Twisp, WA volunteers all the excess from her greenhouse starts that she sells at the Twisp Farmers Market — hundreds of tomatoes, peppers (lots of hot ones) squash, and eggplants. 

Next Saturday, John and Joan Brownfield, organic fruit growers just down the road from the potential garden site, arrive with their orchard foreman, Umberto, and their tractor.  Forty-five minutes later we have a tilled half-acre.The next week is all about: water, water, water!  Kelly's hardware in Chelan, WA generously donates irrigation supplies.  We sign a ten-year use agreement with Bonnie for land and water.

Next Saturday, June 16, we rototill, transplant starts, and put seed in the ground for corn and squash and zucchini, beans and peas.  Dahlia bulbs and flowers are planted.  

By late August we have one hundred donated, mature Lavender plants, and reap a bountiful vegetable harvest, with plenty to harvest for ourselves, for the foodbank, and even some Farmer's Market and Hungry Belly sales.

We finish the season on a crisp October afternoon, planting garlic for the next season. Vicki adds her expertise.  Sherri Palmiter, too.  Kids who got their hands in the soil include Emma and Rosa Palumbo,  KariAnna and Kai Clausen, plus friends.

Recipe for a second year farm - 2008
We hold meetings at members' homes during the winter about what to plant, how to do memberships, how to get a shed on the land, what is our vision, and did we plant the garlic deep enough to survive winter?  A seed and starts committee with Virginia, Marci, and Vicki gets us going for the season. 

We display at Earth Day.   Riverwalk Books and Ruby Theater generously host a Solid Rock Farm night and showing "King Corn."  Donations this evening cover the costs of drip irrigation supplies.

The Solid Rock membership continues to grow.  Scott and Ruth Parsons from Wenatchee, farmer-chefs, ask to participate in Solid Rock.  They agree to farm a quarter acre, creating produce for their business, and a demonstration for all of us on their techniques.

In the spring, we prepare the land with expert help from John and Umberto of Brownfield's orchards.  We have a series of planting days — Marci and Joan, Vicki and Virginia lead this work.  Perennials in the ground now include strawberries, raspberries, and asparagus.

Marianne and John provide essential focus and leadership on watering the garden and Gene Barklay lends his building expertise for construction of the tool shed, while Lake Chelan Building Supply generously donates materials.  Soon we have bees!  Sherri Palmiter brings a hive. 

Another year of bountiful harvest, including carrots, tomatoes, melons, greens, peas, lettuce, potatoes, sweet corn, herbs ... the list goes on and on. 

As the warm fall sun sets on the land, we celebrate our first Farm Potlock Dinner with tables set by the garden, loaded with deliciously prepared food from the farm. New participantes this year include Suzanne and Michael Keller, Nan Bolomey, Stan and Sandy, Brigitte, Harmony, Linda Crego, and Deborah Donner.

As we review our successes this year we think about the possibilities for the future, including:  decisions on what and how much to grow, better communication on garden work, defining membership participation, and selling produce. 

Recipe for a third year farm — 2009
Winter Action — we meet and seek an "architect" for the farm — someone to help us coordinate our efforts and live into our vision.  Scott and Ruth Parsons volunteer to lend their 35 years of experience in small-scale agriculture.   We create a Steering Committee to keep things moving — Vicki, Nan, and Lars generously donate their time and join Scott and Ruth in this effort..  We agree to meet on the 4th Saturday morning of each non-growing month at 10:00 a.m.  

February 2009:
We're writing this in February of 2009.  Garlic is already in the ground again.  Spinach and other greens were winter seeded in December.  The first Broccoli starts are planted.  We have a membership plan, and a financial plan due to the dedicated focus and expertise of Suzanne Keller.  We have an irrigation plan due to expertise of organic orchardist, John Brownfield. We have commitments to display at the Downtown Merchant's Association on the first Friday of March, and at Earth Day in RiverFront Park in April.   We have a commitment to grow an abundance of food with a group of dedicated, excited people who pay a yearly membership to Solid Rock for the opportunity to experience the joy and work of growing food. 

March 2009:
Seeds ordered, starts planted - thank you Vicki.  8 foot by 4 foot cold frames were constructed to help get plants started and hardened for planting out.  Troybuilt Rototiller donated and tuned.  First tilling on the land.  Scott has already planted greens on the XtraHealth Square.

The 2009 Growing Season:
Another year of excellent harvest.  Raspberries were enjoyed for the first time.  we harvested a few asparagus at the beginning of the year.  Tomatoes, tomatoes, so many tomatoes. And Potatoes.  And weeds. Those weeks sort of got away from us in the middle of summer.  Next year we'll plan better for their abundant growth. 

The 2010 Growing Season:
Scott and Ruth got busy with Riverwalk Inn - farm leadership gravitated back to Joan and Vicky who engineered a beautiful planting for the farm.  

New to the farm this year -
Gene Starcher - growing strawberries.  It's an independet operation, completely separate from the community garden, but we're good company from each other. At the end of the season, we formalize that Scott and Ruth's section of the farm will be independent of the Chelan Community Garden.

Notable harvests: 
Raspberries were PROLIFIC!  Potatoes were fantastic.  A cool summer kept our tomatoes green until late, then the longest fall allowed us to keep eating tomatoes.  Kale grew and grew.  Fall carrots - super sweet, and more than we could manage to eat!

Weeds were under control this year, thanks to a combination of timely howing, handweeding, and tilling of the rows.  Getting those weeds under control boosted the look of the farm and the confidence of the growers.  Lars Clausen volunteered to be farm "manager" for the 2011 season.  Through the winter ahead we'll be talking about ways to make the farm more "user-friendly" to new members of the community,  ways to grow more food with less weeds,  and creating an emphasis on growing food to share with the food bank and others in need.

Finally - I suppose its still the 2010 season - we harvested carrots in January!  Sweet, cold, delicious carrots that we found by digging down through a foot of insulating snow.

Solid Rock Farm - 2011
2011 brings a big addition to our planting area.  Last fall we decided to give our original trianlge a rest and plant it into cover crop for this season.  A large area to the north,  some 150 feet by 400 feet was disked last year by Umberto and planted into rye and oats for the winter.  This spring Umberto brought his tractor out and rotovated the field - John and Rob added irrigation - and Joan and Vicky led the planting.  That space which seemed so HUGE when we tilled it up last fall is now almost filled with plants as I write here at the beginning of June.  The original triangle was planted in rye last fall, then tilled and planted into dutch white clover this spring.  We've added some flowers to the area, some giant Big Max pumpkins thanks to Brynnes seeds, and also some dry beans that we'll use for cover cropping this summer and hopefully harvesting this fall.

In the new area potatoes are notable - we had lots of starts, and lots of space.  Same for tomatoes, over 150 plants in the ground now.   Over on the rocky triangle the garlic we planted last year is simply gorgeous - its fun to watch that being the first plant up, even poking through snow to begin its growing.  We've been harvesting asparagus - best harvest yet - our original plants are now four years old.  Raspberries are putting on growth - strawberries are showing red.  (We think we have a solution to strawberries weeds, we've put down a cover cloth and will be setting strawberries into the cloth rows as time permits.

More to come - 2011!

If Chelan Community Gardens sounds like it might be for you, click here to see about joining the farm.