A place on earth

  The title is a book by Wendell Berry, to me it means the Hood River Valley. My place! When doing farm planning one becomes more attentive to climate, soil, slope, drainage, and 100 other details of the land. The gorge is a special place, especially Hood River. The valley is a place of transition where the west hills look completely different than the east hills do, just a few miles away. If you drive 20 miles to the west the annual rainfall is almost 80" but if you drive 20 miles to the east the annual rainfall is only 14". Many times in the spring the west side of the valley will be getting rained on and the east side will be dry. Several times this fall I was hoping that rain would fall on the garden as I watched rain falling west, north, and south of the valley. We are situated in a huge river gorge between two volcanos in the Cascade Range; weather can be crazy here. Like the willamette valley, we get very dry summers and wet winters. But our summers are hotter and winters are colder and we get less rainfall. I think this place is a unique micro-climate that has great potential for diverse farming.
   One thing we will be trying is dry-farming (that is, not irrigating our crops). Over-wintered things such as garlic, onions, or wheat are natural canditates for growing without supplemental irrigation since they need a dry summer at the end of their growing cycle. Many other crops can do well without irrigation and since we have wet springs the soil will provide ample moisture at the beginning of the plants life cycle.
  The soil in the valley is usually a sandy loam which is great for growing veggies, it drains well in the spring and warms up quickly.
  The main crops in the valley are from fruit trees, mainly apples and pears, but many growers aren't making enough money so some are trying other things such as grapes and blueberries. I'm excited to grow a variety of things (perennials, grains, veggies) and think that garlic is going to become a big crop in the valley. Also I'm looking forward to growing some crops for seed. Our dry summers and fairly mild winters make a great combination for annual and biennial seed growing. I'm hoping that by not putting our eggs in one basket or growing mono-culture style we'll be able to round out a living and be able to pace out our work and income levels. So much to learn!