Down on the Farm - August 2019

 

 

Busy and busier, hard to catch up as growth has kicked into high gear, especially the weeds. Kari and I hand weed the invasives out as best we can, especially my nemesis "Sahara mustard," but at some point they win and I opt for the weed whacker.  Ugh! Kari has been focused on pulling out the very pesty, .large (8’+) cockleburs from the Creek Hollow Wash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have received our organic certification from  California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and have been blessed by California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), 

 

The big garden has provided a high yielding and very healthy crop of Hopi blue corn, which is now drying with intent to mill into cornmeal. Anyone out there have a stone mill? 

Our twelve zucchini plants are off the charts, already yielding well over 300 lbs. and seem to have a lot of energy left. Please forward your zucchini recipes.,The Heirloom Beefsteak Tomatoes are next with Burbank slicing tomatoes to follow. Yard Long Beans, yes, very much like string beans, but three foot long have done well. Peppers are late, but now coming on strong. We’ve a variety sweet and hot. We should have a decent harvest there. 

 

The nursery greenhouse has filled with plush foliage. Check to see if the potted turmeric’s are in bloom. Turmeric has a surprisingly beautiful bloom in addition to all of its’ amazing health benefits. We’ve harvested over twenty cantaloupe melons from a single vine with more to come. Sweet potato vine needs weekly taming. Moringa trees aka Drumstick Tree (Moringa oleifera), grown from seed can be transplanted soon.  Kari and I are developing our touch at raising native plants, thus far we have potted California Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), we are having success transplanting Scarlet Monkey Flower (mimulus cardinals), Sticky Monkey Flower (mimulus aurianticus), California Sagebrush (artemisia californica), and more.

 

The orchard has grown to about 70 trees now. Early peaches were juicy, sweet and prolific. Trees are young, 2-3 years old and the weight of all the fruit had them bent over to the breaking point. So, I had to knock off excess fruit (a tip from Don)  and shore up heavy branches. Trees are doing well through the summer heat, including the avocado, so far. 

 

J.C. has been busy expanding infrastructure, many hundreds of feet of irrigation, a custom new and improved overhead misting system in greenhouse. Garden fencing with custom built, awesome gates. Did I say, "awesome? "

 

There are now nine campsites ready. Three “glamping” sites on wooden decks, an additional 6 shaded sites leveled with canvas tents, cots, and more ready to go. 

Natural amphitheater being readied in anticipation of upcoming Soto Motion event. JC and our talented outside helper Joshua and crew have designed and erected our new performance stage/deck with input from stage-meisters Wes Chester and Brian Byrne. Kari proposed utilizing a parachute as the shade covering, which we found online for a very fair price. Who knew?
Hot showers are almost here, Yayy!

 

so much more, but gotta' break it up into pieces. 

 

Hope to keep you coming back!

Pete