Organic Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers & Wool
Harvesting Olives —
Living on a farm brings Nature’s timetable to the forefront of daily cycles. In the summertime much of the focus during the day is on selling, harvesting and packing the bounty from the fields. Now, in the early Fall we are still selling a lot of produce but pods of activity on the farm are devoted to various crop harvests that will hold us through the winter months and a lot of energy is devoted to getting fields planted and the farm prepared for the winter. [Read more…]
Last Week’s Box: gloriously cold greens and warm yellows, orange and reds! by Maria Grazia —
I tend to work a lot in the busy Full Belly office which is one of the farm’s most important information and communication Hubs, providing its own frame of reference in terms of News From the Farm. This is where the daily work of selling crops, providing service to our CSA members, taking care of bills and invoices, managing payroll, and keeping up with the comings and goings of our 90-member farm crew are just a few of the activities on the list. We have definitely moved on from the days when all of the phone extensions on the farm picked up into one (or maybe there were two…) party line and we had heated discussions around whether or not the farm should be accepting credit card payments. [Read more…]
Crew harvesting Red Kuri Squash —
If our CSA program can shed any light on bigger trends in the world, people are leaving northern California in droves. Usually we notice this in August when everyone gets in their last vacation before school starts. Usually at that point our farmers markets slow down and we process lots of “skips” for our CSA members. But in the last couple of weeks, we have heard from an uncommon number of members who are moving out of California completely; taking very extended leaves of absence; or moving in with the folks for awhile. A good time to get out of Dodge? Perhaps a good time to get out of the heat and smoke, but you better make sure that your absentee ballot is taken care of! [Read more…]
Lightning in the hills south of the farm on Monday morning —
It has been some time since I have taken time to write a Beet. In the middle of August, on a quiet Sunday, it seems a good time to change that. Yesterday, Saturday the 15th, we had temperatures reach 112º by early afternoon. Temperatures experienced by those picking in the rows of tomato plants were probably many degrees higher. We get our crews out of the fields when we experience those high temperatures, an environment in which it can be dangerous to work. This next week, we will be starting earlier, drinking more water, taking more frequent breaks, getting the pick done as early as possible and bringing crew inside to pack in the shade while watching one another for signs of heat stress. [Read more…]
Amon looks at the soil in the no-till plot. It was irrigated several weeks ago, but is still moist despite all the heat —
We have arrived at July, a month when harvest and market are top priorities at the farm. A lot of other activities play supporting roles but the quantity and diversity of produce coming in from the fields dominate the senses and take up the bulk of our attention.
We have had a number of members express their wish that we could allow them to customize their CSA boxes in various ways, for example by choosing what produce they get. While we have developed a system for adding-on various items to the standard produce in the box, the sheer volume of activity in our packing shed and the multiple demands of the farm in general, make customization really challenging. The places that can customize produce boxes are usually one step removed from the farms that supply them; they are usually operating at a different scale of marketing than us; and they have the ability to make big investments in technology. We completely understand the interest in getting to choose what goes in the box, but our set-up is designed to keep you on your toes. [Read more…]
I had an opportunity to walk around the farm this morning just to take in the early summer crops and enjoy the mildness of the morning weather. What made the walk really engaging was the patchwork of constantly changing crops and fields. Here were some young eggplant — and there were some older ones. Here were beds of melons, sunflowers, beans, corn and summer squash, next to an irrigated pasture soon to be home for chickens and cows. [Read more…]
What a challenging time, navigating fears, isolation, suspension of touch and comfort-giving and millions of unemployed. Our Full Belly community sends hope that all of you are safe, strong and resilient. Dru and I shared a notion when we were parenting our 4 children and there was a particularly challenging moment: It was, “this too shall pass” – a small comfort, but generally more than true. [Read more…]
Artist in Residence, Anna Martinek Brait with an armload of citrus blossoms collected by her husband Andrew while mowing —
I’m sitting at our patio picnic table looking out across a cover crop field that was recently mowed and has already dried down in the last couple of hot days. As I was sitting down to write in the Full Belly office, the power went out, the second time it has done so during the Shelter in Place. Somehow, when there is so much emphasis on keeping everything clean, it seems cruel for the power to go out because it means no water for awhile out here where we rely on pumps to keep the water flowing. Hopefully the battery in my computer will carry me through for this writing. [Read more…]
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. [Read more…]
We are enjoying dry, mild weather with only light winds and wonderful crisp cold nights and warm days. A walk around the farm still reveals signs of all the wind we experienced last week, with twigs and trash needing to be cleaned up. The lovely Fall weather we experienced this week is very much appreciated.
Many seasonal crew members have left the farm, returning to lives in Mexico, about which I know very little. Despite our best intentions of rounding out the work cycle, we still love to grow those tomatoes, melons and summer crops, all of which require that we increase the number of people working here during the 6-month busy season. Our year-round, permanent crew knows that the work days are getting shorter — a mixed blessing for them with more family and personal time, but lower take-home wages. [Read more…]
Alex and Frederick raking the almonds into a central line, ready for the sweeper (shown below) to pick them up.
An Ode to Thank the Capay Valley Farm Shop for the Use of Their Awesome Forklift
It was late on a summer’s night
Many hands had not been on deck
Projects were piling up
bellies were growling
Worry wrinkles were deepening [Read more…]
Here are a few photos snapped on a Saturday at Full Belly:
Leo bringing in the Jimmy Nardello peppers coming out of the field by the bin.
Rye sorting Red Lasota potatoes. [Read more…]
Our wonderful intern crew transplanting broccoli —
This column, News From the Farm, is a chronicle in the life of the Full Belly Farm organism, through the eyes of various writers who are ridiculously immersed in every aspect of farming and thus want to reflect upon the hidden underbellies, layers and intricacies that are part of the life of a farm. I want to state at the start that I understand that not everyone finds farming quite so fascinating, and only mention this because I have a fear that such might be the case with this week’s topic which touches upon farm liability insurance and the reasons why the Full Belly policy was abruptly cancelled. The reader has now been warned and may move on to other more scintillating topics, as he or she might wish. [Read more…]
Our onion harvest is quite picturesque at this stage, with burlap bags full of onions lined up along the beds. First we undercut the onions with a tractor blade, then we pick them up off the beds and fill up the bags. We have about an acre of onions ready to be harvested, the question is, how to fit the onion harvest in between giving our attention to all of the more perishable crops that need our constant daily vigilance? [Read more…]
Alfredo’s crew picking tomatoes —
I want to comment on an Opinion that appeared on July 16 in the New York Times, “The Sad Lesson From California.” The article laments the lack of union representation for farm labor in California despite statute that allows union organizers on farms. The author states that despite the right to collective bargaining, farm worker “wages and conditions are for the most part arguably no better than decades ago.” [Read more…]
Each season’s weather passes forward its imprint on the following season’s crops. Late spring rains are remembered when there are diseases in the peaches during the summer. A spike of heat in early June can interrupt the pollination in ears of corn resulting in kernel blanks when the corn is harvested.
Sometimes those predictions come true, but not always. Our stone fruit trees are looking great, contrary to the worries during all the rain we enjoyed last spring. On the other hand some of our corn does have blanks in the ears, each missing kernel representing one silk strand that wasn’t successfully pollinated. High heat is a common explanation for blanking in corn. [Read more…]
July already. The crew just brought in four bins of orchid watermelons hopeful that they would all sell well before the July 4th holiday. This is the first big watermelon harvest of the season — each summer brings it’s string of ‘firsts’ as we look forward to each crop.
Walking across farm fields, down furrows and over graveled roads I know that crew members have also walked these furrows over and over, year in and year out. Every square foot of ground has been travelled by many other eyes and grown uncounted seasons of crops. Walking down a field of freshly prepared, unplanted beds I came across a pile of feathers, all that remained of a bird — Probably this was the scene of a fierce struggle the previous night. It was fresh and I think that I was the first to stumble upon it. [Read more…]
Two huge oak trees toppled over last Tuesday night, apparently simultaneously. —
“If we could eradicate mosquitos from the face of the earth, do you think it would be a good idea?” I heard this not-so-hypothetical question recently on a podcast. The host maintained that because mosquitos are vectors of so many human diseases all over the world, there can be no possible reason not to energetically pursue their extinction using the full arsenal of human inventions. [Read more…]
At times of the year we could use a thousand hands to get all of the work done. We are in the midst of our spring transition after that long spell of rains that graced the farm in January through late March. When all of that rain stopped there was a good deal of catching up that was needed… we are getting closer to catching up, but the season brings new tasks that pile on. So many of the tasks are simply keeping up with the pick of lettuces, greens, flowers, asparagus, new carrots, onions and garlic. We have more than 40 crew-members out each day with the pick, and another 10 in the shop packing the orders that we harvest. [Read more…]
Happy chickens in their pasture.
1. All six of the farm’s owners live on the farm. This is great because they are around to do miscellaneous after hours chores and keep an eye on things. In the spring they can close greenhouses on Sunday night. In the summer they can turn off irrigation water in the evening. In the Fall they can unload an early morning delivery. In the Winter they are on frost watch and can turn on water to protect plants if the temperature dips too low. [Read more…]
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