I’m Tom Thornton at cloud mountain farm center up in Everson Washington. This project came about from conversations with market farmers in northwestern Washington concerned about limited access to larger markets due to high production costs. Currently sally green production in western Washington is direct marketed largely through farmer’s markets CSA operations and the food co-ops. The market is interested in product year-round, and growers are very interested in improving their strategies in baby link production.
The first phase of this project was to plant some variety trials to screen selections of brassicas lettuce and spinach for season extension crops. The replicated trials were planted at cloud mountain farm center in Everson Washington as well as at WSU northwest Washington research and extension center in mount Vernon achieving good stand establishment labor intensive production process labor intensive production currently is hand seated hand transplanted and harvested by hand. All of these factors lead to reduced margins. The climate in northwest Washington is ideal for salad green production with our cool moist air in the spring and fall it’s very conducive to salad green production.
The second phase of this project is to look at on-farm trials. We are working with five farms to introduce growers to different production strategies that include selected varieties and mechanized equipment. Each farm has planted four to five varieties to test these new production strategies. Our production cost reduction strategy is to utilize two pieces of equipment to mechanize seeding and harvesting. The cedar is a high density drop seeder where it accurately places seed up to five seeds per inch in rows three inches apart. The bed is then firmed to assure adequate seed to soil contact.
The harvester consists of a band saw with an adjustable cutting height. The product is then lifted by a conveyor that drops the product into a harvest bin. Several challenges and questions have come to light. One are we improving profitability and how does this vary across participating farms and two what are consumer preferences in these leafy green types.