Thursday, July 15, 2010

Farm Projects

After the crops are planted, we usually have several projects to complete before harvest.  So in between spraying for thistles, other weeds, or bugs we also do the usual maintenance/checking of the equipment in order to try to avoid breakdowns during harvest.  Above is one of the combines in the farm shop with its "header" off.  In the picture is Jay and at the very back of the photo in the white shirt is our newly hired employee, Cody Kinyon.

So before harvest gets here, we have two big projects for this year.   1) complying with the new regulatory laws  that require a containment structure for bulk fuel storage and 2) readying ourselves for an inspection of our farm to be certified by the Food Alliance organization.


For the fuel containment project, we dismantled our old grain storage bin that looks like this (note: by the time I thought about getting pictures of the grain bin being dismantled it was already gone, so these are our neighbors  bins so you understand what I am talking about).




Pictured above is what the dismantled site looks like now. As we no longer do home grain storage we thought the site of the old bins would be good for the fuel containment structure. 
In the event you were interested where the majority of farmers store their crops, this is what the commerical storage containers look like.  Pictured here are the storage containers for Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-op in Genesee.  

Anyway, the point of having a fuel containment structure is to help protect the environment in the event of a major spillage and a concrete barrier is constructed around the fuel tank.   Ultimately this is what it should look like.





We are anticipating an inspection of our farm sometime next week as part of the application process to become certified by Food Alliance.    Food Alliance is a nonprofit organization that certifies farms, ranches and food handlers for sustainable agricultural and facility management practices.  So stay tuned, hopefully I'll be able to be on site when the inspector arrives so I can take pictures to capture the event.  There are a quite a few farms on the Palouse that are already certified and we want to join their ranks. So wish us luck!  =)