Managing the Heat

It’s 106° right now. Paul has gone out for the fourth time today (it’s Sunday) to “check water”. Daytime highs are predicted to be around 100° for the next 10 days. Keeping the crops and the field crew hydrated is essential to ensure harvestable produce in the next month or so.

Yesterday I took some photos of things as they manage. It was 100°.

Fennel, Kale, Collard and Scarlett Kale, ready to harvest.

Potatoes (in the foreground) are looking healthy.

These lettuces were planted two days ago.

The bees are very busy in the heat.

Looking across 6 weeks of lettuce plantings; Red Butter, Little Gem, Rosaine, Cherokee and Romaine. We need to cover the Little Gem in the last stage, so it’s not feeding the rabbits!

Summer is always busy. As the heat continues, we are relieved by the decision not to host the Saturday Farm Stand this year. Because we farm year-round, we have to use our energy wisely. Our sense of pace is maturing.

Summertime Hustle

It happens every year. Juggling price changes, seed and box orders, soil samples to send, staff needs, signage plus new accounts, keeps everyone on their toes.

And then there is what’s happening in the fields. Multiple crops are ready to be harvested and sold. 5,000 heads of lettuce are seeded every two weeks, but now every 10 days, as demand increases. More is required of our bodies and our minds. It feels like a miracle that it all comes together each week… the orders are taken, the crops are picked, packed and delivered, the markets happen and we sell.

We are so grateful for our tremendous staff, in the field and at the markets. Our health and ability to make this all happen has much to do with eating our own great products!

Yellow raspberries are really strong right now.

Cherry tomatoes are so decorative.

Flowering potatoes

Irrigation needs patching due to crow damage. Grrr

The culprits …

Kale

I’ll take the sugar baby camouflage.

We’ve been selling sunflowers at our farm stand on Saturdays.

Everyone loves the sweet corn.

Winter squash, melons and cucumbers create such a beautiful blanket.

Lovely delicata!

Acorn is the first of the winter squash to be ready, maybe a month away.

The Rosa Bianca eggplant that won the beauty contest.

 

Busy Spring

The words “busy” and “spring” are synonymous on a farm.

Fields are drying quickly and the cover crop wants to be “harvested” and turned into the soil, creating an instant carbon boost helping with fertility and soil structure. Once mowed the debris from the crop digests for several weeks or until it’s structure is all but gone allowing the finished bed to be even and smooth.

Furrows help dry the soil.

The cover crop consists of bell beans, Austrian peas, barley and oats.

Then the field will be rototilled. Sometimes when a field is tilled, the soil moisture is still too high to plant. To speed drying, furrows are made with shovels on the tractor.

Once a field is flat and weed-free, it’s ready to be planted. And there are many transplants lined up waiting for space.

Transplants and irrigation supplies

The whole crew works the plantings. The irrigation has to be set up. Most everything is on drip lines which have to be pulled and hooked up to the water supply. Some crops require covers. For example, the first tomatoes and peppers (Padron) are in and covered.

Additionally, many things are being harvested at this time of year, adding to the day’s diversity and the community’s health. We are so happy to be able to grow this excellent food.

The artichokes are finishing.

These carrots on drip lines are just beginning to be harvested.

Asparagus harvest today

Picking peas and sage in flower

Raspberries with fava beans in the background

The first peppers in the field have their own greenhouses to give them a little boost.

Spring purplette onions

 

Even the sweet peas at home are growing like crazy.

Is this summer?

It’s pretty warm today, mid-80s and the crew is planting tomatoes. Sounds like summer to me.

The busy front field has been prepped with compost. It lay fallow about a month, after crops of brussels sprouts, dandelion, kales and collard were mowed. The previous crops were digested well enough to plant today, about 1600 plants, early girls and the heirlooms, 11 varieties in all. This is the second planting for the early girls.

Now, the large greenhouse becomes a shade house.

The leeks are beginning to bolt. The need to be harvested soon.

We have some new residence, in a most honorable spot under the Mother Oak tree. They seem in great spirits with flowers in every direction.

New hives! Thank you, Serge.

Spring again…

It’s loud around here. From keeping grass along the roads tidy, to aggressively attacking weeds in the beds among the “cash crop”, mowing and spring go hand-in-hand.

The farm stand spot has been mowed.

Mowing the carrots(?!) and the weeds.

We have seen some signs of spring at the farmers’ market; green garlic, a smattering of artichokes and Easter egg radishes. Asparagus is right around the corner…

Easter Egg radishes were harvested Thursday for Friday’s market. So tender and mild right now.

The crew is planting whenever there is time, as more ground is ready to go.

Onions being separated before planting.

Busy Friday

Friday Farmers’ market comes to Sonoma, establishing a weekly rhythm to the farm as we load the truck with freshly harvested and washed, then boxed up salad, lettuces, celery root and winter squash. One team picks and packs, another sets up and sells.

Lauren and Seth set up the market.

And the customers gather.

After the market, walking around the fields the crew is on hands and knees, transplanting lettuces and kales, chard and collard. It’s physical yet quiet work.

Paul uses the tractor to shape the beds for planting.

The wheat, barley, rye experiment in the lowest field with another cover cropped field further south. The big oak is at the property line.

Still, most of the acreage is planted in cover crop. It’s not warm enough plant summer crops out. A freeze is still possible and we hope we haven’t seen the end of the rainy, wet weather.

The artichokes may be making a come-back.

Though, after a 70 degree day, it’s easy to not wish for it.

Pushin’ in February

Peas

So much is happening. The weather, the great dictator of what happens on the farm, has been very generous to us. It must have been over 70 degrees F. today. Beautiful. We’re planting spinach, turnips, radishes, lettuce, pea seeds in the field. Once planted, some are covered. We may plant beets and carrots this week.

Tomato seedlings

The greenhouse is starting to really fill up with freshly planted flats, some covered, some not. The first planting of tomatoes have blasted out of their flats and pushed the remay into puffy pillows. So have the peppers. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, fennel and onions were all started in the greenhouse flats last week or before.

Lettuce, chard, kales and collard are all being transplanted. Once in the field, they are also covered to insure against wild weather swings. We hope they will feel secure enough to take off.

Covered beds and open ground

Running the water

The irrigation system is engaged with the warm dry weather. The final bit of field turning is almost complete as the pipes are hooked up.

There is an experiment in the new field with planting oats, wheat and barley, side-by-side. Which will be the most beneficial to this soil? We’ll see.

Wheat, Barley and Oats

The signposts are all that remain of last summer’s Farm Stand.

Brussels sprouts, covered bed and beyond the farm

 

Daikon radishes are being harvested out of the cover crop between the rows of regrowing artichokes.

New Year

The greenhouse tables are full of flats. The covers are keeping birds from the sunflower sprouts.

Yes, it’s 2013 and the first tomatoes have been planted in the greenhouse, along with their warm weather loving partners, peppers and eggplant. The heaters and fans are being installed and checked. All of a sudden, the incubator is full.

The crew transplanting lettuce, as Paul pulls irrigation tape and row cover over the finished beds.

The fields are wet and cold but some ground has been turned and bedded up. Other areas have been planted with transplanted lettuces. And there are spots that are too wet to touch and will wait until later.

Cha-Cha-Cha Changes

Rain is expected tomorrow. So much to do to prepare. The crew is racing to finish picking and packing for the restaurant orders and the Farmers’ Market, so they can go out in the fields. Planting, covering beds, harvesting …

Paul is spending his day on the tractor…from one to another, spreading the new pile of compost before it needs to be covered and the fields are too wet to drive on. Getting another application of compost on now, then allowing the rain to soak it in, will do everything a world of good.

Planting

There is a lot going into the ground today. There is a greenhouse of perfect-sized plants, and prepared fields, dry enough to plant into. Plus, it is a dry day before predicted rain! Seeing the opening, last night, Paul quickly made a planting map … the day’s work.

The crew will work all day, filling the blue truck’s bed with flats of plants and driving to the edge of the ready bed. Then one worker, usually Servando, walks along the row, separating the plants from each other and the plastic flats, then as he walks along, he drops the plant in the row. The furrows are marked with a shallow trench by a tractor mounted shovel. The “dropper” is followed by someone on his hands and knees, quickly scooping soil around the seedling, standing it up and pressing firmly around its stem. When the rows are finished and the water is giving them their first drink out in the field, it’s a little thrill.

This planting includes broccoli, celery, fennel, leeks and onions. They were started in the greenhouse in Feb. This is the first large planting of the year. There is room in the greenhouse for more flats to be started. It feels like the real start of the year. The first crop ready to harvest will be Napa cabbage in about 6 weeks, toward the end of May. Celery, leeks and fennel need 80 days before you’ll see them on the farmers’ market stand. Some of the onions need 100 days.