Spring is a wonderful time in the Capay Valley… if you have time to enjoy it. Energy rises — from all the orchards with baby fruit hinting of future sweetness… to the baby chicks protected in their nursery… to the flowers in bloom at every turn. Mild weather, blue sky with puffy white clouds, and a farm full of plans, projects and expectations.
We have been transplanting seedlings into the ground on an almost daily basis — crops that our CSA members may see later in their boxes. We have been mowing and cleaning up edges to try and tame the grasses that have already gone to seed everywhere. We have removed protective covers from several plantings of tomatoes and been astonished at how much the plants have jumped since we put them in the ground and covered them up to protect them from cold. We have said goodbye to the 2018 crop of asparagus and hello to our new potatoes.
If anything was the theme of last week, it was allergies! Cottonwood seeds filled the air, looking like floating puffs of snow. The hills, covered in annual grasses, are the source of the more likely culprit — pollen from the grasses caused headaches, itchy eyes, runny noses and coughing throughout the crew. When we have time, we mow and wack down the grasses on our property. Not only does the pollen cause allergies, but when the grasses dry, the seeds embed themselves in our domestic animals.
Birds have finished their nests in the trees. There are several messy, noisy nests in the eves of our house. Some nights we hear hoot owls in cottonwood trees along Cache Creek, a congregation of them calling across the meadow to each other in a pattern that can go on for hours when the moon is out.
We hope that you all have a great week – Blessings on your meals!
—Judith Redmond
There aren’t a lot of peaches in our orchards — This variety was one of the few whose blooms escaped the cold weather.
This is what our grape clusters look like now. The grapes are the the size of a pinhead.
