Theme: fall

We think of the cooler months being a quieter, slower time. That was not the case last week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent trying to get as much done as possible before it rained. Thursday and Friday (especially Thursday when it was raining hard) were all about getting the harvest done as quickly as possible so folks could get home and get out of the rain and mud.

Amid all the rush and bustle, I did get a few pictures to capture some of that activity:

Paul planting winter cover crop seed after the sun dipped below the hills in the field that was the Hoes Down sudan grass maze. That’s why tractors have headlights! The grain drill was in almost constant use last week getting this very important crop planted. Learn more about cover crops and why we plant them here. 

What happened last week?

Rye and a hardworking crew planted next year’s strawberries on Thursday, 13,000 plants in total, all by hand. We had an amazing strawberry crop this past spring and we hope these humble looking crowns will do just as well, if not better!

After planting the crowns, the most important final step is to make sure that the irrigation lines are correctly set up to keep these plants hydrated and happy.

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!

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!

Farmers are always talking about the weather but this Sunday’s rain was definitely worth talking about. We got between 0.85 and 1 inch of rain, depending on which rain gauge you look at! We’ve been continuing to ease our way into fall as the days cooled down, except for a few mid-90s days last week, but this rain seems like a more concrete transition away from summer to autumn. 

Beyond the weather though, what’s been happening the last week or so? [Read more…]

Our warm and cool seasons in the Capay Valley are very different seasons, marked by different crops and different weather. We find ourselves in a period of transition when the cool and warm seasons are briefly overlapping. The tomatoes and melons and other summer crops are winding down, the winter squash are reaching maturity and many varieties have been cut and cured, and we’ve started harvesting the leafy greens and roots that are signature crops of colder periods of the year. The weather also is overlapping. It was in the mid-60s on Saturday and even briefly rained, and next weekend it’s forecast to be in the 90s. Most of the days last week were beautiful days in the 80s with cool, crisp mornings.

The spectrum of things we’re currently harvesting is pretty amazing – fruits, nuts, greens, roots, solanaceous crops (eggplants, peppers, tomatoes), cucurbits (squash and cucumbers), and of course, flowers. We’re a diversified farm and always are harvesting an impressive number of things, but right now, that list of options is even more abundant. In our CSA boxes and on our farmers market tables, we’ve got a spectrum of crops spanning both seasons, though you’re less and less likely to see summer crops in CSA boxes; with each passing day, it’s slower and more difficult to pick some of those crops.  [Read more…]