Zephyr Organics

Zephyr Organics Community farm in Gales Creek, OR growing organic vegetables for CSA, farmers markets and wholesale.

Our Mara des Bois are perfuming our harvest days. This year we have them available to purchase at the café , where they...
06/07/2026

Our Mara des Bois are perfuming our harvest days. This year we have them available to purchase at the café , where they also appear on the menu, which is an honor. Go there to eat, drink, and be merry.

Reducing this year's production has afforded the luxury of resting half our fields in cover crop, which itself affords t...
05/24/2026

Reducing this year's production has afforded the luxury of resting half our fields in cover crop, which itself affords the eye the serenity of its greenery.

About wearing greenery-- or "wearing the May," in old French:

"On the first of May, it was necessary to s’esmayer, that is, to wear and to plant the mai to celebrate the arrival of the most beautiful month of the year. “To wear the May” consisted of attaching to oneself an element of greenery: a crown or necklace of leaves or flowers, a hat made of plants, ferns, or branches stuck to one’s clothing. These elements had to be green or predominantly green. To be pris sans verd, that is, not to display on oneself a single element of this color, neither plant nor textile, led to becoming the object of mockery and harassment. Images from the late Middle Ages offer us many examples of this ritual. The most famous is found in the calendar of the Très Riches Heures by Jean de Berry, a splendid manuscript illuminated for that great patron of the arts and book lover in the years 1413–­1416. The miniature representing the month of May shows a princely procession at the edge of a forest. Three young women are dressed in green, the pretty vert g*i (light and bright) mentioned in wardrobe inventories and chronicles, and the sixteen figures are all wearing the mai: necklaces, crowns, leaves, branches."

from Michel Pastoreau's thrilling work on the color (2014)

The brambles have flowered, here olallies and boysens. The third slide shows the wedge shaped plot where our caneberries...
05/24/2026

The brambles have flowered, here olallies and boysens. The third slide shows the wedge shaped plot where our caneberries are laid out, between the grapes and the vegetables. They're beautiful like some kind of wallpaper, except they're better, because wallpaper doesn't normally improve when it gets older but these are actually going to get way better, and even smell and taste better, once the fruit comes along.

From "Utopia" by Thomas More (1516):“For what justice is there in this, that a nobleman, a goldsmith, a banker, or any o...
05/12/2026

From "Utopia" by Thomas More (1516):

“For what justice is there in this, that a nobleman, a goldsmith, a banker, or any other man, that either does nothing at all, or at best is employed in things that are of no use to the public, should live in great luxury and splendour, upon what is so ill acquired; and a ploughman, that works harder even than the beasts themselves, and is employed in labours so necessary, that no commonwealth could hold out a year without them, can only earn so poor a livelihood, and must lead so miserable a life, that the condition of the beasts is much better than theirs? For as the beasts do not work so constantly, so they feed almost as well, and with more pleasure; and have no anxiety about what is to come, whilst these men are depressed by a barren and fruitless employment, and tormented with the apprehensions of want in their old age; since that which they get by their daily labour does but maintain them at present, and is consumed as fast as it comes in, there is no overplus left up to lay up for old age.”

Thomas More (1516)

for the nearing winter solstice, claire-louise bennett's reflections on tidying the garden for winter:“I was suddenly de...
12/01/2025

for the nearing winter solstice, claire-louise bennett's reflections on tidying the garden for winter:

“I was suddenly desperate to get rid of all this dishevelled foliage, it’s true, but the reason I soon realised was because I wanted to get to bare soil–I missed it–it was all covered over and I wanted so much to push everything aside and see the earth. I’d had quite enough of leaves and flowers, all that rustling and blooming and liquid light, it was time for all that to pack itself off really. except of course it doesn’t go anywhere it just lies around like a lot of burst things and shrivels and withers and becomes very soggy and swamp-like. oh, f**k the leaves and f**k the flowers! I want to see naked trees and hear the earth gasp and settle into a warm and tender mass of radiant darkness. I want to see the marks of hooves, not eleventh hour disposable barbeques. I want most of all to get inside there. that’s right, that’s always been true. it’s the first thing I can remember. standing at the back window, looking at the lawn, and knowing exactly everything beneath it and wanting to get back there. you don’t know how passionate it is down there.”

claire-louise bennett, pond (2015)

You could be forgiven for thinking we live in our propagation house since it is disproportionately the setting for our p...
09/21/2025

You could be forgiven for thinking we live in our propagation house since it is disproportionately the setting for our photos. The diffuse light makes a moribund still life into vibrant social media content!

Strawberries for next year. We'll be planting out even more as we puzzle out how to coax the best fruit from them. The s...
09/02/2025

Strawberries for next year. We'll be planting out even more as we puzzle out how to coax the best fruit from them. The second slide is several different native bunchgrasses, on the recommendation and with the planning support of nrcs we will be working to establish these around the farm, along field edges in hedgerows and beetle banks as well as throughout the natural areas. Very grateful to Lynda Boyer in particular at Heritage Seedlings for her advice on propagation and help with sourcing small volumes of seed.

late summer... the landscape is dry, the shadows are long, the douglas aster is coated in sweat bees looking for scarce ...
08/23/2025

late summer... the landscape is dry, the shadows are long, the douglas aster is coated in sweat bees looking for scarce forage, growth and regrowth perceptibly and precipitously slows, and the rush to w**d and prune becomes a rush to clear the fields for cover crop. the air is hazy now but the clear long vistas of fall are almost here.

When we talk about the importance of providing food sources for native fauna, deer don't typically feature into the conv...
08/13/2025

When we talk about the importance of providing food sources for native fauna, deer don't typically feature into the conversation, it's more about bird habitat and bee forage-- yet nonetheless here we are.

The long sigh of the FrogUpon a Summer’s DayEnacts intoxicationUpon the Passer by.But his receding SwellSubstantiates a ...
07/29/2025

The long sigh of the Frog
Upon a Summer’s Day
Enacts intoxication
Upon the Passer by.

But his receding Swell
Substantiates a Peace
That makes the Ear inordinate
For corporal release -

Emily Dickinson

Address

53247 NW Old Wilson River Road
River Road, OR
97117

Telephone

+15035832028

Website

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