Wooden Pallets Take Note of Precautions

People have been going crazy using the used wooden pallets making furniture, used in gardens or covering a wall for some time now.  Pinterest is full of fabulous pictures of what clever people are doing with the wood.  I have even seen some photos of restaurants that whole decorating themes have been the use of these wood pallets.  You know when the recycling idea has become main stream when you start to see similar items in major furniture stores or catalogs.

I was reading in an article recently about the precautions people need to have in using these old wooden pallets.  It stated that "recent regulations designed to prevent invasive pests from hitching a ride in the wood means some pallets really shouldn't be used in the garden or in the home or even burned for fuel either.

Pallet manufacturers in Canada and US must now either heat-treat or fumigate pallets as a precaution against such pests as the emerald ash borer.  Treated pallets are marked with the International Plant Protection Convention logo and letters indicating what type of treatment was used.  Pallets with "MB" in the logo have been fumigated with methyl bromide, a poisonous, ozone-depleting gas that has been phased out for most agricultural uses.  Pallets marked "MB" should never be used for gardening or fuel, while those with the letters "HT" were heat treated or kiln dried and are safe to reuse.

Even so, it’s wise to approach pallet reuse with a degree of caution. Wood is porous and may have been exposed to chemicals, bacteria, or unsanitary conditions during shipment.  For garden use, seek pallets that have not been used to ship toxic products or food.  Wash any pallet with soapy water or bleach before using." (excerpted from June/July Organic Gardening Magazine).

CSA Starting Up!! Roller Coaster Getting Organized; Flower Bouquets

Well all the planning, scheduling, advertising, rotatiling,

buying seeds, starting seedlings, planting, watering, cleaning the sorting shed, buying boxes and liners, getting cooler cleaned out, putting up supports for peas and tomatoes, spreading straw, hoeing; it is finally time to start the CSA.  But yikes!!!  I am about 30 days earlier than I was last year, no wonder I am stressed out and sort of beat before I have even delivered the first basket.

I blame this on Gridley soil and weather and can not say it enough to anyone who doesn't live here in Butte County.  It is wonderful!!!  Can you imagine, where we lived for over 30 years we never started our garden until after May 15 and between May 30th.  And in those 30 years of having huge, huge gardens, I only had about 4 times that I got a decent sized watermelon, maybe 3 of them; and the corn never got higher than 5 feet with about 10 ears of corn.  This Wednesday, we will be delivering our 1st Community Supportive Ag basket.

Wish I could say I am finished planting but I am not.  I have the peppers to purchase and plant and the tomatoes are due to come on Friday and will go into the ground on Saturday.  We still will end up getting tomatoes in 65-70 days, that means BLT sandwiches around 4th of July.

The first basket we delivered had:  beets, carrots, cilantro, onion, peas, snow peas, kale, kiwi, strawberries, lettuce.  We have a few new members who are all friends that live up in Paradise.  So our trip delivering took us about an hour later than we anticipated due to trying to find our way around Paradise using the fastest routes.  Then we have our evening deliveries to Yuba City and Marysville so for 2 days we are working to ensure our produce gets there in the freshest shape possible and to meet all our member's time line needs.

The flower CSA is just getting going.  How can any flower arrangement go wrong with beautiful spring flowers???  In the bouquets were sweet peas; peonies; lavender; roses; parsley blossoms; mock orange; and leaves from the canna lily plant.
So if you wondered why I haven't shared some news from our farm for a few days, these are the reasons why.  Things will get back into a grove soon-or will it?? Don't give up on checking back on the blog, I just hate not sharing with you what we are doing.