Farm News

News from the Farm | December 9, 2024

The whole crew at last week’s end of the year lunch with our new sweatshirts!

The last CSA deliveries of the year! The final markets too! As we head to the 14th of December, 2024, we are looking forward to a break– as maybe you all are also. Maybe just now you are thinking of the freedom to cruise the wide aisles of your Safeway or Whole Foods and be tempted by the December plums or peaches from far off lands- or asparagus, tomatoes or grapes that might break the potato winter squash dark leafy green lettuce cabbage carrot monotony of a Full Belly CSA Share. For us, in the same moment, we will be looking forward to tending a quiet farm, without the tug of crops demanding attention or the chaotic hustle of crews racing to fields to fill orders- picking/bunching/digging for your table… Though you may appreciate the freedom of shopping your favorite produce aisle, (we have to admit that) we will miss you, but appreciate the quiet of this generous land.

Our crew will be out of here hours after we close for our winter break. Most will be heading off to see family. They are ready for extended time off, enduring a year of working 5½ days per week since January.  Almost all have seen an increase in wages here and have benefited from overtime after working a 40 hour week. The new minimum wage and overtime rules for those who labor in our fields has been applied to all farmers, creating better wages and a level playing field across California farms. We remain intent on building a model for equity and security in housing for our crew here.  

 A relentless farm pace is our recipe for survival as a farm- at least in the design that we have built. We have a model based on having something to harvest or care for nearly all year. There are few breaks in our full year, full production, full employment farm plan. As we approach our break, we are a bit exhausted and ready to crawl inside and enjoy the longer darker colder nights of fall and winter. 

The partners here- Andrew, Dru, Hannah, Rye, Jenna, Amon and I – will be meeting, evaluating the past and making plans for the coming year. We were able to stay one step ahead of the entropy of older equipment and aging bodies this past year, certain that we will be able to assure you all that we will be back at it again this next. 

So, as this year draws to a close, we need to give thanks for many things, but first of which is our amazing farm Crew. Most of our crew is growing older with us. Many have been here for more than 25 years helping to build our farm. They are remarkable human beings who have raised families and become farmers here with us. Full Belly has been built by many hands, and continues each year to be blessed by the care and commitment of this crew of farmers. 

In the past couple of years, a wonderfully talented team has been assembled here at the Full Belly Office. They are also critical to our complex small business but often remain unacknowledged.  

Elaine keeps the CSA organized and informed with her writing while being a connecting link to all jobs in the office. She has the strength and character to stare down a Mountain Lion- and did so earlier this year on her morning bike ride to the office.

Paola does sales to restaurants, stores, curious individuals, and wholesalers, and then communicates orders to all the farm crew. She first worked here packing vegetables and now works the order desk every morning, organizing all that needs to get picked, and distributing order sheets to the field for each day’s harvest.

Stephanie – who will be going on maternity leave for the first part of the next year – is our amazingly sharp HR professional, coordinating health insurance, compliance, medical issues and trainings while being a thoughtful ear for issues that might arise among our crew of 80.

Alexa is our Berkeley Farmers market lead while organizing events here. She plans for school group visits and their education, farm dinners, special events, and was central to the remarkable Hoes Down Harvest Festival this past October. One of the farm’s missions is to create a farm that is both transparent and tangible. Alexa monitors the door, teaches, works with nervous brides’ mothers, and welcomes many to the farm each year.

We are fortunate to have a gentle patient smart bookkeeper here. Combining the sharp skills of exact accounting with a gentle sweetness that is so soft spoken, Natalia keeps our financial house in order. We are hoping that the perks of fresh vegetables and a quiet place in the country keeps her here at the farm for many years. She is great.

Finally we have Perla and Malinda who do part time detail management here. Perla is a daughter of two of our long-term employees and will be learning HR processes while Stephanie is on leave.  Malinda is a neighbor and friend who loves her horses and part time conversations here about her 49ers. 

Orchestrating most all of this is Dru. Her skill and sensitivity keep the crew inspired as she is like the mother hen to all. Most details drop into her lap and she rather brilliantly deals with everything from sales to flower growing or to inevitable small screwups. 

Our farm here will be entering its 41st year in the Capay Valley. That time spans from the nationwide Farm Depression of the early 80’s when the national agricultural scene was losing farms and farmers to harsh economic realities.  This time of exodus was the time of our beginning. The changed paradigm was to reduce the solutions/dependence of modern farming who purchase high-cost inputs to a system that optimizes what the environment of a farm can provide for free: nurturing rather than engineering.

With the rise of the Organic Marketplace, organic farmers began the reorientation of dominant Agricultural production focused on chemically based solutions to understanding the biological underpinnings of soil health, plant health, carbon cycling and the linkages to human health and wellbeing.  Over 41 years, Full Belly has been part of that re-imagining. 

The broad strokes of what defines a culture- food traditions, local connections to place, care and stewardship, right relationships, family, or community – are in danger of being lost to the economic forces that build sameness, consumerism, warehouse shopping, or mall allure. Our sanctuary as a farm and community hub speaks to the hope that we will choose intelligence built on experience, affection, and delight. Our relationships and the culture that we share with you is focused on care of this land and healthy outcomes of that care.   We are bound by what four seasons allow, adapting and at the same time realizing the history of what has been chosen by those who came before us, embodied in each seed that we plant.

2024 as a farming year required adaptability. We were challenged with rains coming at regular intervals through Winter and early Spring. We transplanted lettuce by hand in a wet February. Potatoes and spring grains were planted much later than usual. We saw some key people in the farm move on- to jobs with shorter regular hours and better retirement plans. A week of 115-117 degree heat challenged us with working conditions that required earlier starts and stops to avoid the humid heat in the fields. 

The challenge to plant on time this spring and the struggle with high summer temps was mitigated by the fact that we had resilient people, soils, and enough water.  Our blessings come from good land, rainfall, and the sunlight that moderates heat or cold. It is generally a generous bargain. 2024 was an abundant year with beautiful crops and healthy grandchildren. Our crew ate well, as did we. Our community, including many of you, came to this wonderful land to celebrate, make a wreath, and share a walk or a meal. 

Thank you for being part of our 2024. We look forward to a rest and then the energy to do it again this next year. We hope that you will enjoy the continuing journey with us. Happy Holidays.

Paul Muller

 

News from the Farm | December 2, 2024

a field at sunset

Somehow it’s December and we find ourselves almost at the end of another year. Time flies when you’re having fun. And/or when you’re really busy farming. We’ve got this week, next week, and then a four-week break (until the week of January 13).

The weather and surroundings make it clear that seasons are changing. The sun is noticeably weaker, and it gets dark so early. The trees have been turning colors and losing their leaves. The hills haven’t yet turned green, and the fields of cover crops have yet to germinate, so things are looking a little brown. We know that things will look very different very soon, but it takes time. 

Now that things are drying out, we can do more transplanting (lots of starts in the greenhouse!), planting (plenty of summer crop fields that need cover crop seed!), and taking down summer fields (mowing, pulling drip tape, etc.). There’s plenty to do when it comes to getting the farm ready to take a break, and last week was too short and too wet to get anything done. So it’s a good thing we had a few days off for Thanksgiving to rest up before the final sprint over the finish line.

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News from the Farm | November 25, 2024

transplanting tulips on the back of a tractor

A telltale sign that we’re about to get our first big fall rain is every tractor in use and everyone operating at a slightly frenetic, faster than usual pace. 

Last Monday and Tuesday, every tractor on the farm was accounted for: mowing fall crops, turning over beds, spreading compost, planting cover crop seed (until long after dark – that’s why tractors have headlights!), transplanting, and planting tulips. We even squeezed an all-hands-on-deck hand transplanting effort in the rain on Wednesday before the soil got too saturated. Did we get everything done before the rain arrived? No – the list of tasks is too long. But we still got quite a lot done, and then got quite a lot of rain, 8.5 inches between Wednesday morning and Saturday morning. 

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News from the Farm | November 18, 2024

We are in the season of “lasts” for the year; last tomatoes, last jimmy nardello peppers, last markets (not until the week of December 13!), last box of peach jam, and more. Last Saturday (the 9th) marked our last farm dinner of the year, putting a celebratory end to our 2024 events. As many of you may know, we are not just a working farm! Our beautiful commercial kitchen moonlights as an event space where we host farm dinners, pizza nights, weddings, tours, and other special occasions. 

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News from the Farm | November 11, 2024

corn in the field

I wanted to share a letter we got a week ago from a CSA member:

On Wednesday, we picked up our CSA box. As my husband was prepping the corn, he found a little corn worm. Our kids (5 and almost 3) love caterpillar friends, so as we have done many times, we put the little guy in a mason jar with some food and placed him in our kitchen for the kids to enjoy. He was promptly named Caterpilly. We also got to talk about how other animals and insects we share our world with enjoy the same food we do and how great that is. We love our CSA box, and I wanted to share this story because it is so much more than food that comes in those green boxes.  

Keep doing what you are doing. 

Thanks, Meghan

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News from the Farm | November 4, 2024

Rainbow over a green field

What’d we do last week? Here’s just a few things (a complete list would go on forever) with photos – thanks to Andrew, Becca, Dru, and Mizu for sharing their pictures!

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News from the Farm | October 28, 2024

closeup of chard bunches

This week’s Beet – a short video showing how the many bunches of beautiful, delicious chard last week got from the field to your CSA boxes. Those of you who didn’t get a box missed out!

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News from the Farm | October 21, 2024

Manuel, Arturo, Conrado, Alfonso, and Chica with project plans

Our farm is entering 41 years of exploring the ethical stewardship of place – seeking deeper knowledge of integrated levels of life, from soil underfoot to the heavens. We have always sought harmony with that life, operating with the best intentions to foster health, community, and whole-mind relationships. Over our time here, we have become a group of farmers integrated with a deep ecology of this specific place. Native elders speak and think in terms of seven generations.  We are but beginners at learning that mindset and the practices that allow us deep relationships here; we have so far to go. 

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News from the Farm | October 14, 2024

This time of year, we’re harvesting and curing winter squash. When the squash look ready, we stop watering, then we cut the squash from the plants, line them into rows, then after a few days in the field (the exact number depends on the temperature) we pick them up and store them in bins until they’re needed. The few days in the field is called curing. While curing, extra moisture evaporates, hardening the squash skin and concentrating sugars in the squash. It also slows down the respiration rate of the squash, which is essential for long term storage. Curing also helps heal cuts and scratches and seals the stem. The hardened skin creates a protective layer that will help preserve the squash. Some squash need additional ripening time in storage for the best eating quality.

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News from the Farm | October 7, 2024

The 33rd Hoes Down happened this past weekend – a mix of farm fun, friends, family, and food. A good time was had by all 2,000ish folks who braved the heat to spend time here this weekend. Somehow, the farm is back in action on Monday morning with a relatively short list of remaining clean up tasks.

The fact that we’re a working farm the Friday and Monday surrounding this big event hides what a huge undertaking the Hoes Down is. It requires months of planning, countless little details to figure out, and a lot of hands and hard work in the days before and days after to pull it off. 

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News from the Farm | September 30, 2024

Scenes from the past week:

The transition from fresh flowers to dried. The 2024 CSA flower season has come to an end. Thanks to all those who got a bouquet! There are still some fresh flowers out in the field, but this week, the flower team will need to spend some time with the dried flowers to make sure we have wreaths ready for the Hoes Down on Saturday. After that, we can turn our focus to making wreaths and mixed bouquets for CSA members, farmers markets, and stores!

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News from the Farm | September 23, 2024

Now that we’ve passed the autumn equinox, it’s officially fall, but with a few 100+ degree days this week, it’s not quite sweater weather just yet and we haven’t slowed down. There is SO much going on right now; a full list of activities would go on for pages, especially if we included all of the many things, big and small, that go into planning and executing the Hoes Down Harvest Festival, now less than two weeks away.

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News from the Farm | September 16, 2024

The fall equinox is this upcoming Sunday and we’ve got a week of cooler, autumnal weather in the forecast. In order to have something to harvest when summer crops slow down, we have to plant in the August and September heat. Hot temperatures stress transplants and many seeds won’t germinate in high temperatures, so cooler temperatures are very welcome. Otherwise, we have to be vigilant with watering, using our sprinklers to keep the soil damp and cool enough for seed germination.

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News from the Farm | September 9, 2024

Whew – another week in the summer sprint done!

Some notable moments from last week included:

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News from the Farm | September 2, 2024

I asked if I could write the newsletter this week because I realized it would probably be my last chance, and that I hadn’t written one since 2006! A few of you may know me but for the many that don’t, my name is Jan and I have been the harvest/farm manager for the past 12 years. I came to Full Belly Farm in 2003 as an intern and basically never left. My journey, starting as an intern, has left me very nostalgic as a new chapter is about to begin for me. 

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News from the Farm | August 26, 2024

Somehow, we have reached the end of August. The mornings last week were brisk; it only hit 87 degrees on Friday, and we all scratched our heads on Saturday as a light rain sprinkled down on our valley and left the fields and trees slightly less dusty than they were before. 

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News from the Farm | August 19, 2024

Farming requires being very aware of the current conditions (weather, crops ready for harvest, etc.) all while thinking about the next day, week, month, season, and year. In August, we start pivoting to fall. We’re undeniably still in summer, even with cooler temperatures over the weekend and continuing into this week, but autumnal elements are starting to creep in. Here’re a few examples from the past week:

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News from the Farm | August 12, 2024

One of the blessings – among the many that have been bestowed upon us here at the farm – is how time, and its passing, matures our farm. The work done over many years of planting fruiting trees, fostering shade, and stewarding soil, tracking bluebirds, and making homes for bees and bats allows us to see a maturing pattern to this place. As we age, the farm does the same. The growth here isn’t just in the crops we produce each year, but in the deepening diverse community of life that resides here. 

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News from the Farm | August 5, 2024

Today’s News from the Farm is an interview with Naoki Sakata, one of our interns! He is part of the 2023-2024 Japanese Agricultural Training Program cohort. He came last September and will be with us until early October when he’ll head to UC Davis for a few months of classes before heading back to Japan at the end of the year. We’ll really miss him; he’s become a key member of our truckload team and the Palo Alto farmers market squad and has formed a lot of great relationships at the farm, a testament to a lot of work on his English and Spanish. In addition to his farming and cooking skills, which we discussed during our interview, he’s got lots of other skills and hobbies that we didn’t even cover including that he plays guitar and sings and knits, which he taught himself to do last winter via YouTube so that he could make himself a hat with Full Belly yarn! He’s a real renaissance man.

Here’s our very lightly edited version of our conversation.

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News from the Farm | July 29, 2024

July is always a very busy month, when seemingly everything is ready to harvest. Plus there’s the heat. Last week and the week before have included many long, hot days.

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