July 31st, 2010
The Farms | Willow Springs Farm
Working clay soil is a little bit of a pain.
I’m new to this, but a little bit of applied research is starting to show promising signs. Although there is a lot of potential nutrition locked inside of clay particles, its dense physical structure and relative nutritional unavailability demand some attention. As is the solution for many other soil problems, adding compost has certainly shown off its efficacy. The added organic matter from our soil block transplants has also helped quite a bit. As a result, the roots on all of our radishes are showing deeper habits and more vigorous growth.
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July 30th, 2010
Home Plate Organic Farm
Hey there web-o-sphere, farmer Dusty here with an update from Orleans.
This week I finally feel like the abundance is ON, we got 100 pounds of tomatoes today, 25 pounds of tomatillos, many onions, lots of flowers, and blackberries galore.
I will get back to you again soon, but for now time is tight. Until next time I will keep on farming.
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July 28th, 2010
Coyote House Farm
Yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis L. (Asteraceae)
Haikus 1-11
1.
Foreigner, you’re green
With a pale exotic gleam –
Like bleached army men.
2.
Blending with midday,
You’re betrayed by dawn and dusk,
Whereupon you gleam.
3.
Dry survivor, you
Dig your taproot down ten times
Your apparent height.
4.
All around you dies,
Parched, surrenders, yet you gleam,
Dull-bright, leather husked.
5.
You can tower up,
Unmolested reach my height,
Or mature bonsai.
6.
Wicked trickster gives
Up his purchase, root comes free,
Next week resurrects.
7.
Invasive means this:
I think I can root you out,
You know you can stay.
8.
Simple story here:
driving past, I catch you up.
Bring you with my truck.
9.
Skilled in density –
One square meter, eight hundred
Tiny little plants.
10.
Procreating king –
Imagine one million seeds
Sprinkling one acre.
11.
Eurasian native,
In Alameda nurtured first,
Now live where you wish.
Tags: yellow starthistle
Posted in Coyote House Farm | 3 Comments »
July 27th, 2010
Coyote House Farm
The tomatoes are starting to provide a return on the ridiculous amount of water they demand. In successive weeks we saw “harvests” of ½ lb, 1 lb, 1 lb, 4 ½ lbs, and 5 lbs. They’re coming in, and in the right order (we have about 7 varieties), but just slowly. We can see that soon we’ll be in full swing.
We’ve seen some splits but not too many. The Romas get a little mushy on the end, but that’s expected with that species. The heirloom breeds we have coming up are of a beautiful ugliness that only a brave or very hungry person can appreciate. I think that means we did it right.
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Tags: solar panels, solar power, stucco, tomatoes
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July 25th, 2010
Driftwood Farm | The Farms
It’s me again.
The new chicks are thriving. The last flock we mail-ordered; this year we purchased slightly older chicks from our local feed store because they had a pretty good selection of breeds. They also sell California-sourced organic starter feed (and the organic layer pellets we feed our other hens), which is a good sign, I think – and also very convenient.
I constructed the brooder (~4×5 ft.) out of recycled cardboard boxes duct-taped into a somewhat cornerless shape (supposedly the chicks can smother if they pile into a corner; sounds unlikely, but no reason to take chances). We sterilized the feeder and waterer from the last brood, attached the heat lamp to a sturdy chair, lined the brooder box with layers of cardboard, newspaper and straw… voilà. Home.
Other new generations getting started are lady beetles (I just love seeing those little black-and-red, alligator-shaped aphid hogs!) and the bees in our hives. The gophers seem to also produce an endless stream of offspring… Considering that some studies I’ve seen estimate per-acre density at 65+ gophers, we’ll probably be trapping for a long, long time.
Tags: brooder, chicks, gophers, lady beetles, organic feed
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July 16th, 2010
Driftwood Farm | The Farms
It is hard to believe so much time has passed since our last entry – I guess we must be having fun!
Apart from the continuous rhythm of weeding, watering, seeding, transplanting, and attending the market, a few things have happened. We harvested the garlic – we didn’t have a ton in the scope of things, but it was a pretty big harvest considering that when we planted, we weren’t 100 percent sure we would be selling at the farmers market this year! So now 200 bulbs are hanging in the barn, nearly cured and ready for sale. Interestingly, banana slugs (mascot of coastal redwood forests) have been drawn to the odor (we suppose). Luckily they don’t move quickly, and we’ve caught them mid-meal before much damage is done. Since we generally don’t have problems with banana slugs, we just relocate them whenever we happen to find them.
Right before the garlic harvest, my mom visited and stayed with us for 2 weeks. On her “vacation,” she did so much weeding in our yard that it no longer looks like an abandoned house! 
She did finally get in a little bit of relaxing.
We also – just today – added 12 chicks to our flock. They’re peeping away in the brooder. I’ll include photos in the next post.
Tags: banana slug, garlic, harvest
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July 16th, 2010
Home Plate Organic Farm
Hello, the thermometer was reading 95 (in the shade), so I decided to get a respite at the computer center.
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July 14th, 2010
Ellwood Canyon Farms | The Farms
Things are really picking up here at Ellwood Canyon Farms. After over a month of cool wet foggy June gloom weather the sun has finally started to show its face. This means happy tomatoes and bountiful harvests, just in time too because I found out last week I was accepted into 2 more markets. I now do Wednesday in Santa Barbara, Thursday in Goleta, and Friday in Montecito. A lot of time away from the farm but I am pleased to have more markets to sell my produce.
The CSA has also been going well. I have 20 members for July and shares have been packed full of summer produce. My mother brought up my 90 year old grandpa and 85 year old grandma to experience a CSA day on the farm this last Monday. My grandfather farmed his entire life in the Imperial Valley and was anxious to come see my setup. They had a great time, helped me out with the harvest, and really enjoyed meeting all my CSA members, a very special day.
Here is a shot of last weeks farmers market booth, the field, and my grandpa helping with harvest….enjoy
Tags: CSA, farmer's market
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July 12th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm
Well, the difficult spring kept me away from the blogosphere for a while… but now I’m back, and I’m pleased to report an abundance of beautiful produce. We’re now beginning week 8 of our 26-week CSA, and we have enough additional produce to go back to the Saturday farmer’s market as well.
I’m still not fully recovered from the weather-related difficulties this year (read: wet soil, perennial weeds, fungal outbreaks, wind-burned & chilly summer crops), but with all the great food coming from the field now I’m a lot less stressed about filling baskets in the weeks to come.
It’s inevitable that by this time every year I feel hopelessly behind, but somehow this year it’s been even harder. I hedge my bets with many different crops and multiple planting dates, but this year hit me with more losses than I’m used to dealing with in a single year. The garlic crop was almost completely destroyed by a rust I’d never seen before, the early peas had a drastically reduced harvest due to a downy mildew I’d never seen before, and I ended up pulling out over a third of the potato patch because of late blight (more on this later).
But enough doom and gloom… The CSA harvests have been nice every week and there are way more things going right than going wrong. With care, planning, love, and sweat, the Earth provides in amazing abundance!
Tags: abundance, CSA, fungus, harvest, weather, wind
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July 11th, 2010
The Farms | Willow Springs Farm
The alarm went off at 4:45 Friday morning…harvest day!
We loaded the coolers and baskets into the quad trailer and zipped on down to the field.
First item: Kale. This was our last kale cutting. It’s been a long greens season due to the rainy spring and it isn’t selling very well at the market anymore. Time to dig it up, feed the stalks to the hogs and plant a quick summer buckwheat cover. We load our greens into coolers right in the field so that the heat is removed as quickly as possible. We try to cut them before the sun hits to avoid bitterness and get them in the icy water fast.
Next up was green beans. We had heard from other small farmers that harvesting green beans can be a time consuming process (read: not worth it) but I enjoy the hunt for the slender tender beans. We are growing french rolande, tendergreen and yellow wax varieties. Not enough plants to really sell at the market, however, we are eating them with most meals. I am hoping the yield will increase with the season. Either way, We will need to increase bean production dramatically to make it worth growing next year.
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Tags: cold storage, cover crop, harvest, tomatoes
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Willow Springs Farm
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