Its been a while since our last post, but we have been keep’n busy on the farm.

We have stored some of our harvest this year like freezing strawberries, sun drying tomatoes, many seeds saved from herbs to beans.

Still in production are the greens; Mustard greens, Kale, Chard, and the baby lettuce in the greenhouse. 

Last year there were many additions to the property, mainly permaculture like strawberries and trees. These were investments that will only produce more as the years go on. 

The additions were from reproducing the current strawberry plants from the offshoots, as well as buying some new breeds that we bought from our son’s school, which bought them from a local organic producer. 

Then we bought many trees mainly from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, which were two almond trees, Lisbon Lemon, Improved Meyer Lemon, Valencia Orange, Brown Turkey Fig (which produced figs the first year), Cherry, Lemon Guava (also produced first year), Peach, Plum, and Olive trees. 

We already have a well established golden apple tree, and a four year Fuji apple tree that do very well, with Concord grapes and Ruby Red grapes, blackberries, and of course the strawberries. 

Recently we’ve been working the beds to prepare for planting; covered some of the bases of trees with bamboo skirting and hay, to help with frost on new trees; winterized the bees, with wind breaks for the entrances and reduced the entrance and fixed any damage from animals like skunks and raccoons, possible domestic cats too. 

Currently in the ground as well are shallots, garlic, yellow onions, various potatoes, asparagus, artichoke, and more. By no means are there acres of each crop, some are small test plots, some are larger areas, like the strawberries and calendulas. 

We also have many herbs, medicinal and gourmet types, like Marshmallow, Echinacea, Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Roses, lemon balm, lemon verbena, Cilantro, Oregano, Thyme, Dandelions, plantain, mints, and many more, which will all be available for the CSA soon. 

About a 1/3 of the chickens are still producing in this cold winter time, which is roughly 10 eggs a day, I could improve on this by adding a heat lamp.

Also we have six ducks that should be lay’n full swing in spring. 

There is much more going on: we are mainly focused on greenhouse planting of early spring plants, and working the ground to prepare for warm weather crops. We will try to keep this updated in the future. 

Please feel free to ask questions, if you’d like further details on this down and dirty lifestyle.  Peace Out       -WM-

  Today as the sun shines, in what has been the driest, sunniest most beautiful wind free winter in our 9 years on the northern coast of California, I feel myself wanting to get a jump start on the planting season. I am reminded however of an incident that took place this past summer, whose beginnings were rooted early in the season last year. In mid August several farms in our area were lamenting the fact that a large portion of their onion crops were bolting (going to seed) instead of bulbing.… Read the rest of this article »

The New Year has arrived, yes January 1, 2012, and I was outside in the SUNSHINE picking fresh PEAS for dinner. The northern coast of California has had an unusually mild winter and I am reaping the bounty of it. So very thankful! Read the rest of this article »

The heat of Summer has passed and the chill of Fall has arrived. The last red ripe Strawberries and Tomatoes were picked several weeks ago. We enjoyed a great harvest of Apples, grapes, blackberries, strawberries, onions, potatoes, sunchokes, tomatoes, chard, kale, cabbage and much more. Our fig tree we ordered this year from Peacefull Valley gave us a dozen delicious figs. All the animals on the farm are doing great. All four Bee Colonies are healthy and thriving. We harvested a few jars of honeycomb… Read the rest of this article »

“Value-added” is a common buzz word these days. It typically means getting every last bit of profit available out of your product.  Having added sheep to our farm this year I was a bit curious to explore all the possibilities. I was presented with an exciting opportunity to attend Fiber Mania last weekend. Fiber Mania is a gathering of folks who represent the entire scope of fiber production, starting with the breeding and raising of animals (yes, live animals—  llamas,… Read the rest of this article »

Hello to all, I finally finished the portable chicken pen and it is working!!! (UPDATED with additional information on Nov. 13, 2011.) My goal here was to use the chickens to keep the growing beds weed-free through the winter rainy season here on California’s north coast. This is a “before” photo of the weeds that had overtaken the bed. This is the “after” photo, having left the pen on the bed for 5 days. After a quick rake to remove larger debris, and a second pass… Read the rest of this article »

Mother Earth News magazine just listed their top 15 Vegetable Seed Companies and PEACEFUL VALLEY Farm and Garden supply is on it!  Well done! Read the rest of this article »

Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply is now shipping leeks, garlic, onions and shallots!  Leeks are a wonderful winter crop. Here on the north coast of California they will grow now until mid spring. They add a lot of character to the otherwise dull landscape of the rainy winter season. Swiss chard and kale are two additional crops that add delightful color contrast to the beds. Chard now comes in a rainbow of colors and textures as does the kale. These crops also mingle very well together… Read the rest of this article »

I’m not sure if it is really flying, but somehow September seems to have just disappeared. The mornings are becoming very crisp and I can feel the impending season knocking on my door. By afternoon, however, the heat of the day assures that there is no time for rest. Not yet anyway. I haven’t opened the Tuesday Farm Stand at our house for two weeks now because my veggie supply has really slowed down. Not to mention that the last two Tuesdays Garrett has been off from his day job, so we… Read the rest of this article »