High Ground Organics
Our Home Farm
In 2000, Steve Pedersen and Jeanne Byrne bought the old Cardoza Ranch from the Open Space Alliance, who had acquired the property the year before in order to protect it from development and erosion. The 40-acre farm sits atop a hill bordering Harkins Slough. While far from pristine, the ranch provides habitat for many birds, including several types of raptors, waterfowl, songbirds, owls, and swallows. Several endangered or threatened species of plants also live here.
The Open Space Alliance wanted to preserve both the native habitat
and the rapidly diminishing Pajaro Valley farmland. They did this with
two easements they placed on the deed of the property. Half of
the acreage is preserved forever for organic agriculture
under one easement, and another easement maintains the rest
for wildlife and native plant restoration.
We are currently working with the Resource Conservation District
on plans to eradicate invasive weeds and plant willows and other
native plants on the nonfarmed portion.
Our big winter project for 2002 was restoring the old milking parlor and converting it to an efficient packing and storage area. We put up a cooler then, and put another one up in 2005, so that Mariquita Farm could store their produce here straight from their farm. Now all the produce is here and ready to be packed at 7:00 AM on CSA days.
In 2004 we hired a demolition company to come break up and haul away many tons of concrete-- the foundation for the old barn and silos, plus two or three other foundations for old dairy buildings. It was a big job, but it was great to finally have the place cleaned up! We have planted willows in a drainage swale that used to erode a gulley through the property. The trees and other native sedges and grasses are thriving and any run-off from our fields settles out here and is used by these plants, so that it never makes it down to Harkins Slough. (Farm field run-off into the sloughs and wetlands is very disruptive to the natural water habitat, causing algal blooms and killing fish.)
Working together with NRCS and RCD, we have put in a native plant insectary hedgerow
all along the easement border. These native plants hold the hillside in place (the
property suffered a big land slide several years before we bought it, due to the steep
slopes.) In addition, the flowering hedgerow provides habitat for beneficial insects
(such as predatory wasps that feed on farm pests). Four owl boxes provide habitat for another
beneficial predator--barn owls.
We don't farm the steepest slopes on our farm; these are part of the conservation
easement and we are working on native habitat restoration on these areas. However our
back hill is farmed and is on a slope. We have farmed this land on contour (versus
laying out crops straight down the hill) and have planted carefully so that we would
not have to work the land too much. We always put this hill into cover crops first thing
in fall so that the cover crop would hold the soil in place when the winter rains came.
In 2008 we decided to put this area into an apple orchard to minimize the tillage there and to have trees to stabilize the soil. We can do some planting in between the rows of trees (that's where we had our 2008 pumpkin patch), but we don't need to be working the soil several times per year. We're excited about the apple varieties we've chosen, including Hudson's Golden Gem, an heirloom variety that makes up in flavor for what it lacks in beauty!
At the other end of the farm we've put in an acre of pear trees. This is the portion of our land that is closest to the road, and is most impacted by ground squirrels. The squirrels shouldn't bother the pears.
In 2009 we'll be putting in blueberries on another portion of the property that has sandy marginal soil. Since blueberries like acidic soil, we are working on lowering the pH in this area so that the berries will be able to grow well.
We look forward to showing you our farm at one or more of our Farm Days this year!
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