Continue reading »
The City of Watsonville is voting (already by mail-in ballot, June 4 actual election day) on Measure T, which would expand the city’s urban limit line. The proposal would pave the way (pun intended) for the development of 95 acres of farmland, with the stated goal of attracting big box stores like Costco. Included in these 95 acres of prime farmland is the ground we currently lease at the Redman House.
Continue reading »
We really enjoyed meeting those of you who came out for our farm tour on Saturday—it was a great group of folks with interesting questions (and engaged clever children)! In spite of the uninspiring weather, we enjoyed giving you a taste of how and where we grow your vegetables. It’s good for us to step out of our routines to reflect on what we do here and meet the people who keep us going. So thanks for coming out! Stay tuned for strawberry u-picks during the summer.
Continue reading »
The strawberries are playing tricks on us this year. A few weeks ago it looked like they were coming on strong, but after that first burst of fruit we’ve got a bit of a lull before the main crop really comes in. The plants are loaded with flowers, so this is just the calm before the storm and we should have the expected bounty of strawberries before too long. For now, we’ll keep it a mystery. You may instead get some of the first blueberries coming in, the very first summer squash of the season, or those wonderful Shiitake mushrooms from our friends at Far West Fungi.
It’s a beautiful time of year here on the farm with the apple trees in bloom, most of the fields planted into young crops, the surrounding hills still green from winter rains, and occasional sunny warm days. We’ve been extra busy this spring so we put off our Spring Farm Tour, but there will be even more to show you and talk about when we do our tour Saturday, May 4th 
(see details below). The last couple years we’ve done the spring tour at our new Lewis Road ranch, but this year we’ll show off our home farm again. This is the site of our apple and pear orchards, blueberry patch, and various field crops, as well as our habitat restoration area, goats, hedgerows, riparian corridor, and a field trial we’re doing with UCSC researchers on cover crop rotations for strawberry plantings. Lots to show you and it looks different than it does in the fall for our huge Harvest Fair event.
Continue reading »
We’re in the last stages of our spring field work. May 1st is the deadline I usually give myself for getting hard squash and pumpkins planted. Because powdery mildew almost always becomes a problem with these crops late in the season, we’ve found that the earlier we can get them planted the better. As with most large seeded crops, we can’t plant them too early, however, because the seeds will rot in cold soils—it’s all about timing. In addition to planting hard squashes we will be planting another block of potatoes from the seed that we saved over from last year.
Continue reading »
This is a big planting week for us. We had a greenhouse full of young green (and red) starts to get into the field. Steve spent much of the weekend on the tractor preparing several fields for planting. Then Monday our crew of 8 workers plopped the starts into the ground — they planted out about an acre of lettuces, cabbages, and fennel.
Continue reading »
For me, one of the most gratifying parts of life on the farm is watching the land change over the years in positive ways. When we first arrived here at our home site along Harkins Slough thirteen years ago, the upper portion of the property was almost completely devoid of vegetation around the farm fields. In the first few years we planted hedgerows around most of the periphery of the farm, as well as riparian buffer strips and landscaping around the house and outbuildings.
Continue reading »
The salad and braising mixes are a sort of spring special here. We know that the baby green mixes are very popular and we grow them in spring because they can be ready to harvest in about four weeks, which means we can plant them after the major winter rains have let up and have them ready by the first CSA boxes. But salad and braising mixes are a lot of work to grow so during the rest of the season we tend to favor the head lettuces and mature greens that do so well here.
Continue reading »
Continue reading »
Tomorrow is the first day of spring, and we’re celebrating by starting up CSA deliveries for the 2013 season. We’re looking forward to a good year of farming on our beautiful central coast farmland. We’ve had a busy few years, getting to know our “new” Lewis Road property and completing the big projects so we can be more productive with what we’ve got.
Continue reading »
This week we are delivering our final winter CSA boxes. Thanks to those of you who joined us for winter! We’re busy with planting and tending the spring crops for the first weeks of the regular season starting March 20/21. (Check your account and make your payments now if you haven’t yet so that you take advantage of the lower price—see subscription info below.)
Continue reading »
This is the third straight year that we have had a prolonged dry spell in the middle of winter and, according to the latest weather report, there is no meaningful rain in sight. In some respects it has been helpful. Because most of our ground has dried up, we are well ahead of schedule getting ground worked up, and doing our first plantings. Harvesting for the CSA and the Farmer’s Market is always much easier when things are dry as well.
Continue reading »
It’s been a busy couple weeks on the farm. About 80 CSA farmers and other people involved with CSAs from around the country in town for the EcoFarm conference came by last week for a tour of our farm. It was great to meet all these folks who are doing some version of what we’re doing and to swap stories about pests, weather, packing boxes, and all things CSA-related. Steve also attended some meetings about organic strawberry growing.
Continue reading »
What’s in a name? Well, no roses here, but if you are talking about Brassica rapa, Chinensis , there is quite a bit in the name. Not only are there several names appended to this member of the Crucifer family, there are what appear to be several plants as well.
I can remember back to a time that I just didn’t get the appeal of fennel. This course, stringy, strongly scented vegetable didn’t seem worth the trouble to cook. But now I can honestly say that it is among my very favorite vegetables. I fully realize that there are many of our CSA members who still don’t “get” fennel, and if you are among these, you simply must try Jeanne’s recipe for roast fennel and onions.
Continue reading »
Last week we started work on a new greenhouse for our transplant “starts.” About half of the crops we grow we plant out into the field from starts that have spent their first 6-8 weeks in the temperate conditions inside our greenhouse (properly called a cold frame, because it is unheated). There are many advantages to using this technique. Because organic growers do not use the pre and post emergence herbicides that most conventional growers use when direct seeding, competition from weeds can be severe.
Continue reading »
radishes
Walk into many a taqueria and there they are. Sitting next to the pickled jalapenos and the lime chunks, there is usually a bowl of radishes. I asked a friend of mine, who is of Mexican descent, about why this is, and she did not have a concrete answer. Her surmise is about the same as mine-they are cheerful looking and look nice on a plate, and the cool crunch and hint of heat are welcome foils for the sometimes oily meats and density of refried beans.
Continue reading »
Continue reading »
Even though we are harvesting through the winter, the farm still has something of the sleepy winter feel to it. We have cover crops growing in 80% of the fields. Those fields that we are harvesting from now will go into cover crops as these crops finish and we’ll bring them into summer production later.
Continue reading »
The fields are still pretty soggy from the recent rains, and it looks like there is more to come at the end of this week. The rain makes harvest days a challenge, the heavy clay and silt soils at our home site and the Redman field get incredibly sticky when wet, so it can be a real slog to get through the fields. And because we can’t drive trucks out on the dirt farm roads, the crew has to walk the harvested crops out of the field instead.
Continue reading »
We’ve had a busy couple weeks off, catching up on paperwork, preparing the farm before the rains, chasing escaped goats, and fixing fences. (I have a new respect for the occupation of cowboys riding the fence line. It seems that there’s always some place the animals can manage to get out if they want to.) The drainage system on the hoop houses at our Lewis Rd. ranch is working well, and the three parcels we farm all came through the last deluge just fine.
Continue reading »
Thanksgiving comes early this year, and with it the end our regular season CSA deliveries. That helps us to end on a strong note with lots of nice vegetables (though it made it harder back in spring to start so early!) Timing the end of our season to the week before Thanksgiving gives this holiday a special meaning to us as the dividing point of our year, …
