What to say of the year 2025? It will go down in history for the headlines we all read every day, an unrelenting barrage of assaults on everything we have come to know as normal, as lawful, as decent, and tasteful. I’ll spare us the details here, but I mention it because we here are not inured to the changes and injustices sweeping our land and the world around us. We need to take notice, and acknowledge that all’s not well, even as I go on to describe the good feelings and well-being that the natural world and our meaningful work bring to our farming life. We here on a small plot of land are blessed, but we understand that many in our country are not.

The weather is a good place to begin counting our blessings. Our year was without extremes for the first time in many years, and good weather is a foundation for healthy crops and easy living, lest we forget. All around us farmers commented about their crops and good yields, and the fruit trees responded with limb-breaking loads of apples, pears, and plums. I grew more tomatoes than necessary, mostly just to taste new kinds and select new favorites, but the yields were prodigious on top of that, so I felt especially ridiculous. Our onions last year were a flop, and in my determination to rectify that, we produced enough to feed several families. “Onions for everyone’s Christmas!” I declared. Success in seed growing is all about the weather during seed ripening and harvest. Rain and cool weather can turn growing success into a harvest of anxiety and disappointment. There was none of that in 2025, and the living felt easy.

As we’ve approached our inevitable retirement, downsizing our production and our crew, Victor has taken on more of the harvest duties for our contracts, freeing me to focus more on breeding projects, refreshing seed stocks, and our home garden (tomatoes! onions!). There is so much that is unfinished to keep us busy, and what a blessing for such things. We added twenty new items to the catalog, including a new category; Grains. This was a tiny idea, but growing grains as food or ornamentals is very satisfying, and we will no doubt do it at a larger scale in 2026. Like legumes, cereal grasses can play an important role in crop rotations, and I have long wished to have an appropriate group of commercial crops that could fill that niche. Farming; ever about next year.

Karen has been taken by natural dyeing for several years, now. Her indigo fascination has rubbed off on me, being a combination of horticulture, chemistry, fermentation, and processing. I can see where this is going, and already have a pink flowered selection of Japanese indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) in the works. There are other varieties and species to explore.  The colors derived from safflower can be stunning in their sunset transparency of golds and coral. Marigold, coreopsis, dyer’s chamomile, and many other garden species are options.  If natural dyeing appeals to you, check out the offerings from Grand Prismatic Seeds in Utah. Our friends there, James and Guy, have an incredible collection of dye plant seeds and links to knowledge on dyeing, and more.
Part of the satisfaction of 2025 was seeing how fertile and well-structured our soil has become after many years of transition to skim tillage, disturbing no deeper than 2 inches. I’ve written about this topic several times during the transition (check the “Articles” section), before we knew what the outcomes would be. There’s another article there this year, where I discuss what we see in the ground and in the growth above after seven years of restructuring by life. If you think about it, what could be more optimal than soil managed by its own well-fed inhabitants?

Here's to next year! May it be better than ever.

FHM    12/31/25

Frank and his big buddy, Orach; friends of 40 years

Karen collecting safflower petals for dye

Victor, tending 'Jimi's Flag Mix' and breeding lettuce

'Quartet Rainbow' under 'Blue Skies' 

Karen, her 'Fave' Zinnia, and Korean Mint at harvest

'Wild Tobacco,' Nicotiana rustica

'Grandpa's Carnival' Morning Glory

Victor finds the coolest flowers  (photo: Victor Sauvie)

Victor's next Strawflower breeding project

Sesame is a Bumble Bee's best friend.

 Antheraea polyphemus on big-leaf maple

Polyphemus Moth larva

'Amazing Grey' Poppy capsule caps    (photo: Victor Sauvie)

Working 'Jimi's Snowflake'

'Jimi's Flag Mix' 

This poppy against the sky would make a good flag

'Jimi's Purple Haze'

Syrphid flies are good friends. Their progeny eat aphids

'Rose Peony' Poppy

Another find by Victor. Truly "Buttered Eggs," if stabilized

Crimson clover, one of the best cover crops

'Soulmate' Milkweed

'Anemone' Rudbeckia, selection '25

Chicory, blossoms as blue as the sky

Skulpit; salad, herb, and flowers (coming soon!)

'Quartet Rainbow' Stocks, its fragrance rocks!

Autumn

Waves of 'Oscillator,' 'Coral Fountains,' Orach, Asparagus, el al. climb the hill

Thinking of Autumn

'Coral Fountains'

Peppers at Thanksgiving. Such a mild year.

'Goodie' Tomato, great taste of '25

'Utrecht Blue' and 'Black Eagle' Wheat with 'Burbank's Hulless' Barley

Wild Garden Seed; born with wings and seed freedom