Corvus Landing Farm Neskowin at the Oregon Coast

Reach us at:
503-392-9327
carolina@corvuslanding.com
8605 Slab Creek Road
Neskowin, OR 97149

Founded in 2010, Corvus Landing Farm is located in Neskowin, Oregon, 3 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. We grow delicious fresh vegetables for sale to the local community. We use all natural methods to preserve and protect the health of our land and our neighbors. We specialize in crops that do well in our cool coast climate, particularly greens, carrots, peas, potatoes, and much more. We also grow veggie starts for coastal gardens, including cool-season tomatoes, mixed vegetables, and over-wintering crops.

Find us on facebook!

Corvus Landing Farm

A friend of Food Roots

Believing in the power of local food to transform the communities, economies and the land on the North Oregon Coast

I think I'll fertilize those peas a little less next year...

tomatoes in the greenhouse, summer solstice

potatoes in the field

why we have an elk fence

Farm stand opens Tuesday, May 22nd, 10 to 4 at the farm

Come by to see how the farm is doing and get fresh salad, radishes, komatsuna, bok choy, tomato plants, and more! We will be open ever Tuesday until Thanksgiving.

Lincoln City Farmers Market
now open Sundays

Visit us from 9 to 3 on the lawn of the Cultural Center (540 NE Hwy 101). For more information about the market, visit their website. We will be there every Sunday through June.

Carolina on the radio

Farmer Carolina was recently interviewed by Pati D'Eliseo on the show ChefTalk, on KCUP 1230 AM out of Newport. Topics included growing vegetables at the coast, why buy organic, different farming methods, and more. You can listen below, or visit her website to download the podcast.

Farm Happenings

Dibbers inspects the new chicken coop.

3/11/12
This week we made the jump from winter to spring. A whole week of dry, sunny, and occasionally warm weather, combined with lengthening days and the approaching equinox, gave a signal to all the growing things around the farm that it's time to get moving. I wasn't immune to the signals either, and I was grateful for the opportunity to accomplish several spring tasks that have been on my list for the last month.

I particularly enjoyed watching our behive this week. On the warmer days, there was a small swarm of them at the entrance, and for the first time this year, I saw several carrying home large loads of pollen to feed their young. I kept running into them around the farm, as they foraged on flowering salad mix, greens, dandelions, and even an early-blooming rhododendron. Upon opening the hive for inspection, I was thrilled to find frames filled with bees, several still loaded with honey, and an ever increasing number of eggs and larvae.

Timing my farm activities with signals from the natural world seems to bring success. When plants are flowering, new birds are starting to arrive, frogs are croaking, and bees and other insects are getting active, that's the sign that it's time to get my own world into gear. The time frame on these things varies from year to year, you may remember that last year was an exceptionally slow one to get going. So far this year we've had a pretty average spring: not too cold, not too wet, not too dry, not too warm. I'm glad: my first 2 years on the farm have been two of the wettest, coldest, most challenging early seasons most growers I know have experienced. I suppose there's still plenty of time for things to go wrong, but for now I'm enjoying these relatively easy conditions.

Spring is the most challenging season on the farm. The weather is variable and unpredictable, but it is a crucial time for many processes to get underway. Bloom and pollination on fruit trees is a big one (though we don't have fruit yet). A spell of warm days will push trees into bloom, but successive cold wet weather can keep pollinators from being active, or hail or frost can knock off the blossoms. If conditions don't line up properly during this time, a fruit grower can lose most or all of a year's crop before the season even gets fully underway.

For vegetable growers, the consequences are usually less drastic, but still important. I start my sensitive plants in the greenhouse early (first tomatoes are already up and going), but a March like we had last year puts a great deal of stress on them. Even hardy plants already in the field can suffer from sitting too long in wet soil; last year I lost probably half of my garlic when we didn't see the sun for the month of March.

Wet weather also makes it difficult to get into the field and prep the soil. Tractors can get bogged down in mud, and particularly in heavy clay soils you can do a lot of damage by working them when they are too wet. Without an extended spell of dry days a grower can get behind very quickly. Fortunately, here at the coast our soils have fantastic drainage, so a spell of 4 dry days like we had this week was enough for me to get out and work up a lot of ground. I'm very relieved to have gotten one pass with the plow through all the beds I need before May, but some years I won't be so lucky.

One of the nice things about spring is that when the weather dries up and a window opens, you're on. But then the rain comes back and you can take things a bit slower. I've steadily been filling the greenhouses with salad mix and a couple of beds of early carrots. Flats of starts for planting and to sell to gardeners are coming up in the greenhouses. I'm working on building a chicken coop and will be bringing home a dozen chicks next week. The CSA is almost (but not quite!) full, and I've enjoyed reconnecting with many of our customers that I haven't seen since the fall. Our harvests are well underway, with salad and more going out to the community through the farm, Trillium, the Grateful Bread, and now the Bay House. The tractor got its yearly tuneup, we're stockpiling supplies for the season, and spring cleanup projects are happening all over the farm. Little by little, the gaps are filling in, and before I know it we'll be back into full production.

1-17-12

What a dry winter it has been. I have been perplexed by how little rain we've had, and how much sun. I love the rain, and I worry about all the plants, the rivers, and our climate as a whole when we have such aberrant weather. I am happy to see that the NOAA marine forecast calls for a full week of rain ahead.

One of the reasons that I like the rain is that I have a hard time staying inside and doing computer and organizational tasks when it's sunny out. And that is what I mostly need to be doing right now. Winter is a time for planning, researching, aquiring supplies, and mentally preparing myself for the season ahead. The days are too short for crops (or weeds) to grow, and I don't want to till up any ground for fear of erosion. Instead, I spend my days with books, catalogs, and computers. When I get stir crazy, I go to the greenhouses to work on preparing them for the season, and I hope to begin a few building projects soon. I like the rhythm and the balance this time of year: there are no immediate deadlines; most things need to be done sometime between February and April. I have the time to fully explore questions that came up during the season, and then to contemplate them in context while working in the greenhouse or walking through the muddy fields. I have time to visit some of my farmer friends and compare our triumphs and tribulations from the season.

2011 was a fantastic season for us. The soil began to come into full production, and our harvests were 2 1/2 times what they were in 2010! We also did a better job keeping up with everything, and took advantage of two additional greenhouses to add several hot season summer crops that we were unable to grow previously. For 2012, we mostly hope to continue what was so successful last year, with a continuing focus on refinement and intensified production. We plan to implement a longer-term fertility program, and focus on increased spring production.

The biggest changes we expect are in our marketing. We so enjoyed the CSA this year that we plan to expand it significantly, which will sadly involve scaling back our farmers market offering. We are looking into attending the newly forming Neskowin market in the peak summer months, though we plan to definitely be in Lincoln City for at least the spring. We also hope to increase our nursery offerings, with more vegetables, more flowers, possibly another location for sales, and larger containers for your porch or garden.

January is certainly a month for dreaming and scheming, but before long I'll get anxious for the days to lengthen so plants can grow. In the meantime, though, I'm enjoying stretching my mental farming muscles and exploring ways to make Corvus Landing a more successful, sustainable, and spirited place. We expect to begin having greens in early February, and CSA information will be available soon afterwards. We will keep you posted!

Older posts have been moved to the about page