16 Wednesday, June 5, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Commentary... Seed to Table Farm joins Farmers Market By Audrey Tehan Columnist The nonprofit education farm Seed to Table is thrilled to join the Sisters Farmers Market on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fir Street Park. The farm9s booth offers the community crisp salad mix, sweet carrots, deep red beets, rainbow radishes, and beautiful plant starts. Despite the cold long spring, the bounty is plen- tiful. This will be Seed to Table9s first year at the Sisters Farmers Market. The farm is excited to further our reach and help provide com- munities with fresh produce and student activities. Spring on the farm brings out a lot of emotion. First, there is pure excitement as the fields and greenhouses come alive with patch- works of greens, purples, reds, oranges and every hue in between. The field will slowly reveal the character- istics of the hundreds of vari- eties we have swooned over all winter. Will the Happy Rich broccoli really produce by the first week in June? Do the Monte Gusto pole beans really grow to 12 feet high? Are the Ya Ya carrots truly the sweetest around? Second, spring brings waves of anxiety reminding us that Mother Nature is run- ning the show, not us. Our carefully crafted crop plan was delayed, then restruc- tured, when a foot of snow blanketed the farm until April. While we were grate- ful for the water, we waited, and waited some more, to plant, squeezing the work- load into shorter timeframes. Crowded greenhouses brought pests we had never seen before. Then came the rain, leaving us feeling like we had suddenly been trans- ported to the west side of the Cascades. The wet weather caused seedlings to rot and allowed cabbage root mag- gots to thrive. Spring in Central Oregon is just hard on farmers. Lastly, spring brings an outpouring of determina- tion. When one member of the Seed to Table team gets a little down, others of us See SEED TO TABLE on page 23 PHOTO PROVIDED Seed to Table Farm’s produce can be had at Sisters Farmers Market. Gate on Road 16 open, access challenging On Friday, May 31, the Deschutes National Forest opened the gate on Forest Road 16 next to Upper Three Creek Sno-Park for the season. Access remains chal- lenging, as the road is wide enough for two-lane traf- fic until Park Meadows Trailhead, then narrows to one lane with limited turnouts for approximately one mile to the junction of Forest Road 370. Beyond that, vehicle travel is not advised due to large snowdrifts the remain- ing mile to Three Creek Lake.