It is remarkable how busy our farm continues to be, even with short days and cold mornings. It is true that there are fewer crops to harvest, but we also have a smaller crew. The year-round crew is here of course, but a lot of folks take extended time away during the winter. People will start returning in a few months. Our Farm Dinner dates have been announced, as well as our Spring Open Farm Day (Saturday April 25th). We are also trying to figure out schedules to enable many of us to leave next week for the Ecological Farming Conference in Asilomar. In the office, we feel tax season on the way — no sooner have we closed December payroll than we have to create W-2 and 1099 forms for everyone.
Intern Max seeding greens just before rain.
Our crew raced to get a few fields planted before the recent rains. We have planted flowers, plus some cool weather greens that will be ready for March or April harvest. The greens take longer to get to harvest when the weather is cold. We have a group pruning our orchards, a slow job that takes a lot of close attention given to each tree. As Arturo explained, when they are pruning they have to think about keeping fruit-bearing limbs low which assures less dangerous ladder work during harvest; they want to keep a beautiful open form to the tree so that there is plenty of air flow around the fruit; and they want to prune out unproductive limbs.
The pruning crew, Arturo, Jose and Alfredo
On cold mornings, when it is raining or drizzling, the crew still turns up, ready to pick the vegetables for our CSA boxes; prune the trees in hopes of a great peach crop come summer time; and care for the animals so that the eggs keep coming. Many thanks to the Full Belly crew!
—Judith Redmond
We are lightly cultivating beds in this photo, preparing them for planting. Note the difference between the cultivated beds and those on the right that have not beed worked yet!
