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.

Long term soil development is always on my mind, and I’m constantly trying to learn more about the best ways to maintain a healthy growing environment. If I had all the time in the world, I would continue to add compost year after year and just call it a day. However, I need to get this show on the road as quickly as possible if I want the business to grow, so I’m willing to try some things.

As an addition to our liquid fertilizer, I’ve begin including Humax (12% humic acid derived from leonardite) in the mix. Humic acid is also present in compost, and helps work on clay particles at the molecular level, sort of “un-gluing” them (from what I understand) from each other. Humic acid is also said to improve germination rates; and while I don’t have a strict control to judge against, both the buckwheat cover and our new successions of lettuce have sprouted up quite densely. Yesterday we had our largest salad green harvest to date. Alright!

Next week I’ll be turning the buckwheat under with our new BCS machine (is it a two-wheeled tractor? is it an oversized tiller? people seem to disagree, haha). I’ve used it a couple of times already for seed bed preparation, and it’s worked great. It seems like a pretty efficient machine so far, I’ll probably make my next post about it.

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.

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.

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.

Summer veggies will not be our thing. We’ll keep growing a small amount of them, but the trees will be where it’s at. Our soil will be a year better, so we’re going to try some fall and winter crops while the trees do their tree thing.

We’ve been prepping and finishing the interior stucco. Dan wonders why we are doing it in the 100 to 105 degree heat. I reply that the work is inside and the manure hauling, decidedly outdoor work, is being saved for late September when it cools again.

One of the good things:  Even in this heat, the insulation job we did gets us as much as 10 degrees cooler inside during the worst part of the day.  And 95 really isn’t that bad.

We have a 15-watt PV panel that provides the power for lights, music, and a DC fan at night. It will soon be replaced by a 60-watt panel we are building ourselves. It’s easier than you might think. Check this link out for a description on how to build a solar panel.

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.[[Show as slideshow]]

Hello, the thermometer was reading 95 (in the shade), so I decided to get a respite at the computer center. 

What a difference a little heat makes!  Plants are growing quickly now, peppers are setting fruit, tomatoes are ripening fruit, the late melon wave is sprouting, and the mid day dunks at the river are absolutely necessary for maintaining any semblance of sanity

We finished hand weeding the allium block today, getting it done about a week earlier then I had anticipated.  This was due to my supreme onion weeding posse to whom I am forever indebted to and whom I will shower with onions and shallots as soon as they have been harvested and cured. 

The electric fence has been doing its job, as I haven’t noticed any bear activity since it was powered up.  This could be due to 4th of July fireworks that lasted all day for five days, and the addition of Roy ”Campy” Campanella to the farm roster three weeks ago.  Campy is our rescued American bulldog buddy, and he is enjoying his new home after spending about 10 months in the county animal shelter.  He has been shooing away critters pretty well at night, and managed to get skunked earlier this week, a right of passage into the society of farm dogs. 

Off to the river with me!  Catch you later.

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

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!