We’re excited to share thatepisode 1308 of Washington Grown featuring Urban Futures Farm among others, premieres on Saturday, February 21 across social media and broadcast channels. Broadcast times are below, but double check for local listings, as times often change:
“I’ll be a better gardener thanks to the wealth of information and practical tips that TJ provided during his six-hour garden workshop. He shared just the right amount of detail to help people of all experience levels develop and sustain productive, environmentally friendly gardens.” – Bruce B.
Saturday, March 21 and Saturday March 28, 1-4pm at Urban Futures Farm, 928 Wilson St NE, Olympia
Worried about where your food will come from in these challenging times? Always wanted to start a vegetable garden, but don’t know where to begin? Had a vegetable garden but have not been happy with the results? Been gardening for a while and want to take it to the next level? This workshop is for YOU!
Over the course of 2 afternoons, we will explore everything you need to know to grow a successful home garden. The workshop will be a mix of lecture, discussion and hands-on demonstrations. Topics covered will include:
Site Selection
Understanding and improving your soil
Selecting seeds
Propagating, transplanting and direct seeding
Rotations and companion planting
Selecting the right tools
Irrigation
Composting
Dealing with weeds, pests and disease
Season extension
The workshop will be led by TJ Johnson. TJ has been growing his own food for over 35 years, including the last 10 years as the owner of Urban Futures Farm, a regenerative, community-focused farm in the heart of Olympia.
The cost for the workshop is $60. To register, send an email to urbanagrarian@comcast.net. Payment will be accepted at the first class, either cash or check.
Our 2026 CSA program is now sold out! We are humbled and honored that so many people trust us to grow their food.
It’s a busy week on the farm. Wednesday afternoon I will be attending The Evergreen State College Internship Fair. Every year since we started the farm we have hosted TESC interns. We really value the opportunity to share our knowledge with potential future farmers, or folks who just want to learn how to grow their own food and live a more sustainable lifestyle. Since 2020 we have also hosted WWOOFers (World Wide Workers on Organic Farms). Last week we finalized plans to host our first-ever long term WWOOFer. Sam will arrive Feb. 15th and stay with us through the end of September.
On Thursday tickets go on sale for FarmFest, our solar-powered celebration of music and community July 31- Aug. 2. Those of you who have attended in the past already know that it’s a pretty special weekend, and tickets go fast. This year is extra special because a portion of each ticket sold goes to our effort to preserve our farm forever through an Agricultural Easement with the Community Farm Land Trust.
Check out the FarmFest lineup here. Tickets available Thursday morning at 9am at this link.
This is the week we start planting seeds indoors in our propagation room. First up are onion and tomatoes, and in a few weeks we will be seeding a whole range of Spring and Summer veggies.
We’ve been taking advantage of the short dry spells to prune the fruit orchard, and we’ve made steady progress. Hoping to have everything done soon, depending on the weather. And just in time – many of the trees already have full buds and with a stretch of warm days will likely start flowering soon. Spring seems to arrive earlier every year. Gee… I wonder why? This weekend we will also open up registration for our always popular gardening workshop, Growing Vegetables in the South Sound. Over two Saturdays in March, we’ll share everything we’ve learned over the past 35 years, with hope of helping participants grow their best garden ever. Signup will be available here.
On a sad note, Loki, our trusted farm companion is beginning to show his age. He apparently has a partially torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL). He is taking medication and on restricted mobility for the next few weeks so see if we can get it healed. Loki is accustomed to spending his days exploring the farm and protecting us from intruding deer, coyotes, rabbits and other critters, so he’s pretty sad right now. Hopefully he can resume his duties soon.
Speaking of age, TJ be celebrating his 62nd birthday on Friday by playing music with a bunch of friends and enjoying a Cajun/Creole potluck (after all it is Mardi Gras!).
Please take good care of yourself. These are incredible challenging times, and while we can’t turn our heads and pretend that what we see and hear isn’t happening, we also need to remember to seek out and embrace the people, places and activities that nourish our souls.
We are now accepting new members for our 2026 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Shares are limited, so if you are interested don’t wait too long to signup.
It’s been a while since we’ve provided an update, so this one is longer than normal. However, it is packed with important news and information, so we encourage you to read it in its entirety. If you do, you will be rewarded with information on plans for our 2026 CSA season, including when you can sign up.
I don’t know about you, but these short, dark, wet days make it hard to get motivated and work outdoors. I have been able to duck out periodically to trim dormant trees, take our annual soil tests, pull a few weeds, take a few walks with Loki and harvest the beets, kale, Swiss chard and collared greens still growing in the fields.
Fortunately, there is plenty of work to do indoors to prepare for next season and beyond.
We have started discussions with the Community Farm Land Trust about selling them an agricultural easement on our property. The easement would essentially require the land to continue to be used for agriculture, and prohibit future development. This would not only ensure the farm remains a farm, it might also reduce the taxes we pay on the property, and it would end the barrage of mail and phone call offers we get to buy the property to develop housing (it is currently zoned for dense residential development). This process will be lengthy and complicated, with no guarantee of success, but we are excited to be taking the first steps with an organization that we value and have supported for many years.
We’ve also been working hard to finalize a lineup for the 6th annual FarmFest, our solar-powered celebration of music and community (also a fundraiser for Community Farm Land Trust). Next year’s dates are July 31 – Aug. 1. We will be announcing our amazing lineup in January, and tickets will go on sale in early February. The event sells out early every year, so make plans now to join the fun.
Last month I finalized the crop plan for next year. This involves complex spreadsheets to determine the proper rotations between beds, how many successions of each crop, plant spacing, and indoor start dates. The plan will include a mix of reliable varieties we know and love (about 80%) and promising new options.
I finished the crop plan just before the glossy seed catalogs began arriving from our main suppliers – Johnny’s and Osborne. One thing I noticed immediately was prices were up again this year. Since the pandemic, the cost of seeds has increased dramatically, due to many factors including increasing global demand for food (more mouths to feed), industry consolidation, and climate change (its getting harder to grow seed crops). Another factor are the ridiculous tariffs that the administration has placed on many imports. It’s a dirty little secret, but most of the bigger seed companies source their seed from all over the world. So do many of the smaller companies people tend to think of as local, such as Territorial Seed in Oregon. The shortage of farmworkers, due to the immoral and brutal immigration policies being pursued by the administration, only make things worse.
Beyond increasing seed prices, the costs of all other inputs continue to rise – organic fertilizers and soil amendments, plastic trays and pots for starting seed, etc.
The increasing cost of the inputs farmers depend on has created a crisis in farm country. By July of this year, farm bankruptcies and foreclosures had already surpassed the 2024 levels.
Rather than addressing the problem directly by removing tariffs and creating more coherent economic and farm policies, the administration just this week announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers.
The plan is to take the money already paid by US consumers to cover the tariffs (yes, consumers pay the cost of tariffs!) and give some of it back to farmers, who also paid tariffs on the imported inputs they purchased in 2025. There are many things wrong with this plan, so I’ll just point to two. First, the $12 bailout pales in comparison to the massive problem created by bad farm policy and the tariffs in the first place. The true need is estimated to be closer to $100 billion. Second, the bailout money is primarily targeted for commodity crops – corn, soy, wheat, rice and cotton. These crops are mostly produced by large-scale agribusiness operations. So once again we will be sending public money to the largest, wealthiest, most capitalized farmers, while leaving small and mid-size farmers continuing to struggle. Meanwhile, US consumers continue to pay more at the grocery store and work to make ends meet in our casino economy, where the house always wins the bet.
With all of this as a backdrop, I’ve been struggling to determine pricing for our CSA shares. On the one hand we have a strong commitment to keeping our prices as low as possible in order to make fresh local food, grown without chemicals, accessible to more people. On the other hand, we need to be able to pay our bills and keep the lights on.
The result is that we will be increasing our prices slightly for 2026 CSA shares, but we will still wind up in the lower tier of CSA prices for our region. Still a bargain when considering the many benefits of eating fresh, chemical-free, locally grown food.
CSA signups will begin the first week of January for returning customers, and we will open up unclaimed shares to new members a few weeks later. To get on the wait list, send a message to me at urbanagrarian@comcast.net.
In the meantime, we hope your holiday season is filled with family, friends, music and great food.
As we all turn indoors and settle into new seasonal routines, its a great time to pull out your seed box and take an inventory.
Most vegetable seeds have a shelf life of 2-4 years if stored properly. After that germination rates fall off dramatically, and dreams of bountiful harvest turn into disappointment.
I hate throwing anything away, but some times its the right thing to do.
Taking an inventory now prepares you for the beautiful seed catalogs that will begin arriving soon, and gives you a jump-start on next year’s best garden ever.
Two new additions this week might be new to your palate!
Fennel bulb has a light anise flavor and can be finely shaved onto salads or sauteed for a deeper flavor. Leeks are a member of the allium family, similar to onion, with a less pronounced bite.
These crops herald the advance of fall, used for savory, warming dishes. Here are a few to try:
urbanfuturesfarm.com 