Theme: farm update

News From the Farm | May 30, 2016

May 30, 2016

What’s happening at Full Belly Farm, as June and the official beginning of Summer approach? A morning’s walk around the farm reveal a patchwork of activities, just like the patchwork of fields — all getting sewn together to form the season’s quilt.  Young tomatoes, corn and melons in clean fields, as yet untouched by the onslaught of daily harvests. A crew pounding stakes into the ground, preparing to trellis the growing tomatoes.  Netted fence that has been put up around the orchards to protect the ripening fruit from hungry deer. Onions in burlap bags sitting in the beds, curing. Trucks, forklifts, backhoes and tractors, all at work on various projects.  We’re expecting some hot weather in the next few weeks, so the pace is likely to kick into even higher gear very soon.

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Yesenia Gaxiola Vega, Wendy Arita Paz, and Maria Machado Castro harvesting garlic. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | February 15, 2016

February 15, 2016

It may be time for your seasonal check-in here at Full Belly. It is always fun to inform you of the day-to-day processes of farming. As you open your box each week to see what the farm is providing, the produce reflects work done and decisions made 90 to 120 days ago. We are busy this week transplanting and planting for spring boxes. The break from a wet January has us in all of the fields, tilling in weeds and some of our cover crops while we set up our work and harvest schedule for the spring.

This past week we were watering flowers, onions, and our new lettuce and broccoli transplants.  We are starting to water things like our strawberries, carrots, garlic, peas, broccoli, greens and lettuces planted last November. The produce that you are receiving in your boxes was generally planted as seed last November. Growing slowly in the late fall and cold winter it gathers strength as the days lengthen and average temperatures warm up. We do gamble a bit as we plant in the fall. There have been colder years in the past when December temperatures have all but freeze-killed even our hardiest crops and the months of January and February have ended up being pretty bleak. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | November 2, 2015

November 2, 2015

What is happening at this time of year in Full Belly Farm’s fields? Our CSA boxes give a hint of changes, containing cool weather greens alongside the last of summer’s harvest. Does the change in season bring a change in rhythm to the farm?  We still have a big crew working every day, and one person who can answer these questions and who is very important in organizing the day’s work, is Juan Jacobo Berrelleza, known to us all as Pancho. 

Pancho lives a few miles up the road from the farm with his wife Nina, and two kids Joel (16) and Julia (12). He has worked at Full Belly since 1992 when he was 18, with only a short break for several years when he farmed with relatives. 

I asked Pancho to talk with me about his work so that I could share some of his story with our CSA members. He was a bit reluctant to take time away from a long list of things that he was hoping to get done. This interview wasn’t on the morning’s list. After talking with him, I understood that he carries in his head, knowledge of all of Full Belly’s equipment, the crews, the fields and their condition, and a timeline of what needs to be finished in the window allowed by our climate and cropping plans. [Read more…]

New Farm Sign

August 31, 2015

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Amon and Rye Muller digging post holes for the new Full Belly Farm sign that has gone up at the top of our road.  Next time you visit the farm, you will get to see it!

News From the Farm | August 3, 2015

August 3, 2015

“Here in California

The fruit hangs heavy on the vine

There is no gold

I thought I’d warn you

And the hills turn brown in the summertime”

So wrote Kate Wolf in the early 1980’s.  This song was, and remains, one of my favorite folk songs of all times. Having spent my childhood roaming the green hills of verdant Vermont in the summer, California came as a shock to me upon moving here in my late teens.  It was as if winter was summer and summer was winter, in some strange disorienting fashion.  In fact, thinking of it in these terms has helped to reorient my California seasonality these many years later.  The summer hills here are dry brown, akin to the dead of winter in a January Vermont below-zero season. Things die and are reborn in the spring there; here it is the dry summer that is reborn with the life giving rains in the fall. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

Vegetable seasons are sometimes blurry at their beginnings and ends and June is often a month that really makes that point. It can be an awkward month, between spring and summer.  The asparagus is all gone but the melons are a ways off. We call it the ‘June doldrums’ when the farmers market table is piled high with a lot of food staples, and we keep telling the customers how ‘sweet’ the onions are, and how ‘creamy’ the potatoes taste when really all they want to eat are nectarines and tomatoes.

The calendar says that Summer season begins on the Solstice, June 21st, and until then the heat of the day will drain the tenderness from spring greens like chard and collards. Finally the heat will build up enough, and we will have to abandon the spring crops and make way for the explosion of summer.  At this time of year chefs ask us to add a box of cherry tomatoes to their order, because they know that the cherry tomatoes are around the corner, and they keep hoping that they can scoop all the other chefs by ordering ahead. [Read more…]

News from the Farm | January 26, 2015

January 26, 2015

It feels as though there is so much to write about at this moment in time: the blooming almond trees, the 75° weather, winter/spring cooking, and our new farm babies.  We got news yesterday that our neighbors at Pasture 42 welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world.  Delphine Louise joins Arlo Alois Muller (4 months) and Teodoro Rodriguez Ochoa (3 months) in the one and under crowd here in Guinda, CA.  Since our newest little farm boys have not gotten an official Beet welcome, here they are with their ringleader, Rowan.  We are elated to introduce them to you.

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[Read more…]

News from the Farm | January 5, 2015

January 5, 2015

Happy New Year to all of our Full Belly Farm CSA members. We are happy to be back in action and ready to deliver your delicious boxes for 2015!

Here are a few notes from the field, observed over our break. 

At this time of year we usually have young plants growing in our greenhouses, prepared for transplanting to the field at a stage in their lives when they are less vulnerable to weed and weather pressures than if we grow them in the field from seed. This year, we have probably the largest set of transplants in the greenhouse (lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, greens etc) that we’ve ever had before. But December presented a challenging greenhouse window. Our climate is usually sunny even when it rains, but this year there were more than two weeks of very cloudy, cool, humid weather in December. This created the perfect conditions for rot and mildew diseases in the greenhouse that we have not typically had to deal with. With additional ventilation and care in watering, we were able to pull through and will be transplanting into the field in the next week or two. [Read more…]

News from the Farm | July 21, 2014

July 21, 2014

July Photo Round Up! 

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We woke up this morning to cloudy skies, cool weather, and a few drops of precious rain. It wasn’t enough to do any damage to our summer crops, but enough to remind us of what it smells like after a rain and keep the dust down for a few hours. These tomatoes are just flowering. Can you even believe how many there are?! [Read more…]

News from the Farm | June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014

Summer Transitions

There are periods of the season when we get caught between the ending of one crop cycle and the beginning of another. The end of May and beginning of June is perennially one of these times. We are in the middle of transitioning from spring to summer as we find interesting crops with which to fill your boxes. 

Bound by weather and temperature, the slowly disappearing hard C crops –kalecollardscabbagecarrotschard – make their exit from your boxes along with lettuce, other greens and leafy veggies. These will return next October. I think that most of us are about ready to not be missing these veggies and are looking forward to tomatoes, melons and fruits – the full expression of summer.  [Read more…]

News from the Farm | May 12, 2014

May 12, 2014

A Flower Explosion! 

Last week was our biggest flower sales week in the history of our farm! Our team of flower harvesters and bunchers made well over 3,500 bouquets of flowers last week – each one unique and beautiful and sent off to brighten someones day. We grow a little under 15 acres of fresh flowers on our farm, all of them are varieties that we love. Right now, we are in the thick of larkspur, godetia, and sunflower harvest. In the next few months, zinnias will begin to pop up everywhere on our farm. 

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[Read more…]

News from the Farm | April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014

Springtime at the Farm

Full Belly Farm is bustling with spring activities.  We’ve had plenty of warm weather and within a few days after the last rain, the ground was drying out and the fields were busy.  This is the time of year when the cottonwood trees along the creek start cottoning – so billows of the white fluff, full of cottonwood seeds, blow in the air and settle in every corner.

[Read more…]

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.

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[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.

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[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…]
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