Theme: farm update

News from the Farm | February 24, 2014

February 24, 2014

Signs of Spring!

Everywhere we look, Spring seems to be popping up!

photo 1We had the most beautiful baby pigs born at the farm last thursday. Our sow, Candy, was bred with a wild boar so the piglets were born with a wide array of colors and markings. They are as fast as can be, and some have almost doubled in weight since their birth!  [Read more…]

News From the Farm | Week of January 13, 2014

January 13, 2014

Or rather, winter farm?  It’s been so warm that even the bees think it is time to come out and look for flowers.  They are finding the odd mustard flower and a few wildflowers, but it is slim pickings.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen I was little, growing up in New Mexico, an artichoke was a huge treat.  My family of five would get one artichoke, and carefully divvy up the leaves and the heart.  The first time I ate artichokes at the farm, I was floored when a huge steaming platter of them was brought to the table and everyone ate at least 3!  It is still a huge treat, and I can’t wait for these little babies to be ready. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | Week of November 4, 2013

November 4, 2013

At this time of year, as is the case year round, the harvest of crops dominates daily activities for many crew members, but we also have time to get a lot of projects done.

potatowash

[Read more…]

News From the Farm | September 30, 2013

September 30, 2013

A walk around the farm usually happens when the work day is done. The forklifts are parked, the trucks are loaded and ready for their next trip, and the crews have gone home. At other times, the office is buzzing and the fields are full of people. On a walk at dusk, the farm is quieter.

sheep

[Read more…]

News From the Farm | August 19, 2013

August 19, 2013

In past columns, I have written about old timers that come to visit Full Belly Farm to see how things are going. One of the visitors used to be Richard Gladney who ostensibly came to visit his barn, now and forever called “Richard’s Barn” which, when we moved here, was full of vintage cars and tractor implements, not to mention tins of chemicals and junk.  Over the years, we moved Richard’s stuff, the accumulation of years of farming, out of the barn, but his visits still linger in our memories, and continued for many years despite his lacking the excuse that he was checking up on his things. 

Another time, in May of last year, it was an imaginary old timer who visited, the possible driver of an old Allis Chalmers behemoth tractor that has been sitting idle under a Full Belly walnut tree since I moved to the farm 25-years ago (and for who knows how long before that.) The visitor met up with one of the farm kids and had a tour of the farm, with news of how things had changed since he parked the tractor after its last big job. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | Week of July 29, 2013

July 29, 2013

It is quieter walking around the farm on a Sunday because only a few crew members are around. Antonio is usually here the earliest, come to take care of the animals. Chickens, pigs, goats and cows – they see Antonio every day. Eddy comes a little bit later to load truck for the Monday morning run, sorting the boxes, checking lists, palletizing orders, organizing the load. Even later still, the next crop of campers arrive with their families who visit the creek, check-in with the camp counselors and leave their kids behind knowing that they are in good hands. 

Our cherry tomato crew has been picking more than 200 boxes of cherry tomatoes on a daily basis for several weeks (each box has 12 baskets in it).  We have a lot of varieties this year: sweet 100, sun gold, cherry roma, black cherry, green grape, blush and juliette for example.  The crew is picking from several different fields and trying all the time to project for the sales team how many boxes they will be able to get out of the fields in the hot summer days to come.  Although the work is intense, they are happier if our sales keep up with production.  None of them want to try and sort through fruit on the vines that is overripe. One of our prettiest cherry tomato packs is the Mixed Medleys, a mixture of red, black, pink yellow and green varieties.  On our walk we saw the cherry tomato sorting table where the crew sorts the tomatoes in the shade of the walnuts. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | Week of July 22, 2013

July 22, 2013

This has been a very hot summer so far. Our thermometers are regularly showing the high 90’s and not uncommonly several digits above 100°. We tell guests that we’re lucky to have Cache Creek to cool down in, but with the heat comes an intense farming season and there have been few sightings of farmers in the creek.

There are several months of each year when crop production in each of the fields is so prodigious that even our veteran crews will be overwhelmed trying to keep up. We run out of picking boxes, we have too little cooler space, there is no time to pick the specialty crops that we grow in small quantities, and we do not have enough trays for the fruit that we dry in the sun. 

Standing in any particular place on the farm, no matter where it is, and catching ones breath while looking around, this farmers is struck first by a sense of amazement at the loveliness of some of our fields, and second with a checklist of all the things, from that specific vantage point, that should have gotten done yesterday: Johnson Grass (a nasty weed) taking over the fields, tomatoes that should have been staked and tied, plants in the hedgerow that have died, flowers that should have been picked to dry for winter projects, and a compost pile that needs to be turned.  [Read more…]

News From the Farm | Week of June 3, 2013

June 3, 2013

This past month of May 2013 has disappeared into a place of memory and reflection, with notable events that are valuable to share with you. The Beet works to chronicle the many things that shape our farming existence, and sharing these things with you helps to bring wider understanding of our farm into your kitchen. The importance of information sharing was evident on Saturday when some 75 or so folks came out to our farm day. The tour allowed Hallie, my eldest daughter, to enthusiastically talk tomatoes, point out Magoon our new calf, and welcome our farm supporters, charging them with her love for the work and business of Full Belly. At the same time I was allowed a stage to be long-winded about soil, crops, microbes, carbon or ongoing experiments. We hope that sampling strawberries, dipping toes into Cache Creek, wandering the fields or being exposed to our farm philosophy bridged a gap about the image of a farm and its reality. Thank you to those who took the time to come up. We met some very new subscribers, non-CSA small farm supporters, lots of healthy kids as budding tractor drivers, and the long time friends of the farm who have been coming for years, offering a perspective about its growth and maturation.

[Read more…]

News From the Farm | May 13, 2013

May 13, 2013

Our crops are all a bit ahead of usual for early May. Here you can see that our first planting of sweet corn is already knee-high and growing fast.

corn

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News From the Farm | April 22, 2013

April 22, 2013

It might be time for a spring report on the activities that occupy our Full Belly days. The early year has been marked by both a lack of precipitation and warm weather that has had some significant impacts. We can attribute our abundant fruit set to the fact that with so little rain, there was less disease pressure on the fruit bloom. Peaches, plums, apricots, almonds and even early figs have passed the period of frost danger and we appear to be headed for a good fruit season.  Early tomatoes, corn and summer crops are on a timeline to come by mid-June and fill out our normal June doldrums when we usually finish our spring greens and await the summer crop push. 

The first spring potatoes will appear next week. Planted on our Valentines Day target date, beautiful lush potato growth has been accelerated by the mild days. In a couple of months we should have fresh potatoes. We are working to keep up with weeding, cultivating and the pest management that warm springs bring.  Aphids are difficult to control and it appears to be a banner year. We apologize if you found aphids in your produce and we are working to get the little buggers under control. Many of the fields have lines of flowering alyssum planted with the crops. Its white flowers attract beneficial insects that offer a counter army to go after the aphids. Lacewings, big eyed bugs, ladybugs and their offspring – aphid lions – offer some help, but are slower to build their numbers. The alyssum flowers offer these insect friends the pollen and nectar they need to settle in and start a family. We are working to get the timing right on our plantings and develop strategies to get the beneficials into the field sooner.

[Read more…]

News From the Farm | March 18, 2013

March 18, 2013

Saturday March 16 was a banner day at Full Belly Farm: one of the earliest days in recent years that we were able to plant our first tomatoes. A crew of 8 carefully transplanted the tomatoes from their warm safe spot in the greenhouse out into open fields. ‘Open fields’ except for the fact that the beds that the tomatoes went into were carefully covered with black plastic to warm up the soil, and also, were covered with a special cloth to protect them from cold night temperatures.

The wonderful warm, dry weather that we have been enjoying is a mixed blessing when it comes this early in the spring. The dry spell started back in the winter when it should have been raining and because it hasn’t rained in so long, we have been able to get a lot of work done very efficiently – planting, weeding, and mowing the orchards!  But we’ve also got the irrigation going already, trying to get water out to all the thirsty greens and cool-weather crops.

[Read more…]

News From the Farm | December 4, 2012

December 4, 2012

News From the Farm

A powerful winter storm passed over the farm last night bringing deep soaking moisture. By mid-morning, Cache Creek, running along the eastern border of the farm, had peaked at nearly 15,000 cubic feet per second, and was a fierce power, sweeping whole trees, piles of floating cattails, and debris past the farm at incredible speed. Our relationship with the Creek is a bit like having a semi-wild creature for a neighbor. We respect its beauty and marvel that it is a sanctuary for so many animals, birds and other life forms. Yet its power can be at times a writhing, churning, brown powerhouse, licking at bank edges, uprooting plants and trees, transporting millions of tons of sand, silt and gravel past the farm and to the basin near the Sacramento River. Within six hours the creek level rose from 2,000 to nearly 15,000 cfs, and 12 hours later was back down again — an astounding change.

The value to the farm of such a downpour is substantial. This is the best weather start to a fall season in many years. Our wells are getting recharged as small feeder streams are running full. Walnut, almond, fig and peach orchards are storing moisture deep in the soil profile, lessening the need to pump water next summer. Winter hay and grain crops are lush and healthy, off to an early start, and now with reserves to root deep and withstand prolonged cold or dry weather that may come.

[Read more…]

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