On The Farm

I can’t believe it has been so long since I have added to my blog. From August to September our days are from sun up until sun down, sometimes even longer than that. Frank has installed a few lights in one section of the garden and also in my sorting shed. When the weather was so hot, during those months, it was a nice time after dark to clean and sort fruit and vegetables when the air was cooler. The time has just flown by with each day filled with watering, weeding, picking, sorting, moving boxes of fruit and vegetables. My favorite thing to do was to pick the fruit trees for an hour or so just as the sun was coming up. The birds and I were the only ones out that early and they weren’t really happy having me up in their trees. When I picked the last of the apples, I found a beautiful bird’s nest and took it to my grandkids. They loved seeing it and Carli set immediately out to make an egg out of a cotton ball and found a bird ornament up in their attic. It has a place of honor sitting on top of a cake plate in their family room. A bit of nature brought inside.
We have since finished our CSA but still plan to offer a fall harvest basket a little later. The pomegranates and persimmons are changing colors and I still have some apples in the cooler waiting for me to make some applesauce. The lemons have started to change from dark green to light yellow and the trees are just loaded with fruit.
Most of the produce fields have been tilled but the tomatoes and peppers are still producing so I just haven’t felt like pulling them up yet. Frank and I planted red and white onions, some leeks, lettuces and beets. The basil still has some usable parts and I saw some cabbage heads that could be harvested. The eggplants have really surprised me with how long they keep producing and I picked a bushel basket full on Tuesday and put them out on my stand. I was surprised how quickly most of it was sold by the end of the day. Oh and I bundled up some Swiss chard and kale and that is out on the stand too.
Annie and Bella ventured with me out to the corn rows in my Gator and we spend a few hours hand cutting down the dried corn husks. I bundled up about 10 bunches, wrapped twine around them and put them out on the stand for my customers. Last year many people asked me for the corn husks around this time so they could decorate their houses for fall and Halloween. They instantly made the front of the house look very fall-ish. Unfortunately, the time got past us when we were going to plant pumpkins so I do not have any this year. I think I had 1000s of pumpkins last year, nearly killed myself lugging them to farmer’s markets, out front at the stand and selling van full to customers wanting them for special kids programs. I do miss them and have received lots of telephone calls asking for my Baby Boos. Sorry about that, I miss them too.
Frank and I are planning on attending an olive curing workshop this Saturday put on by Pam Geisel, Statewide Master Gardeners Coordinator for UC Davis. We took her pruning workshop last year out at her beautiful place called Old Historic Mill Orchard and we really look forward to learn about curing olives. We have olive trees and have put up some in the past just using information we pulled off the internet. They never really turned out that great so this year we will be armed with lots of info from Pam.
We took a short break from all the work on Windmill Farm (AND THE LAST WEEK’S HEAT) and drove up the coast to visit a friend in Port Orford, Oregon. Her area is so beautiful, beautiful beaches for walking, visited a couple historic lighthouses and also took a tour of an old Coast Guard Station built in 1930s. The highlight of the trip for me was a trip to a farm called Valley Flora in Langlois, Oregon. They grow vegetables and flowers for their CSA customers; have a self service farm stand and also provide produce to some local restaurants. Their gardens were so inspirational to me; I just walked down each row looking at the lush lettuces, beets, carrots, fennel, tomatoes, herbs and flowers. They plow their rows using their own draft horses and it is farm run by a mother and her two daughters. I just wanted to get my hands into their dark and rich soil. The one thing about gardening/farming is that you can always learn something new. It was a nice break from our 24/7 working in our own fields. They were having a heat wave, it was 75 degrees!!! Made me laugh because we had just left Gridley a few days before and we were having a heat wave too, 104 degrees. I am amazed what can grow in such cool weather on the coast, just like us but at different times of the growing season.
Already thinking about what I might change in the gardens for next year, might add some new items, maybe even grow some strawberries. Good time of the year to take a few moments and dream! Until next time, enjoy the colors of fall and the cooler weather.

Peach Season Is Starting

So many people are interested in what farming is all about, I get asked about it all the time. Having spent 27 years working inside an office; believe me, being outside digging, weeding and picking is not work, but a pleasure. Our days are scheduled as to what has to be done to keep the vegetables, fruit trees and farming equipment growing, producing and working properly. Frank and I talk at night about what needs to be done the following day, scheduling our time. If it is the day before a CSA delivery, we spend the day picking, sorting, washing and packing the baskets. If it is the delivery day, I get up very early and pick all the leaf produce, such as Swiss Chard, Kale, Basil + herbs, lettuce if it is available, pick flowers for the floral arrangements, wash the produce and sort. Put my newsletter into each CSA basket, eggs if my customer ordered them, the greens I picked, flowers if they ordered them and then I load the van and do my deliveries. When I return home, I unload the van of the empty baskets, put away all the packaging, and containers to be ready for the next delivery day.

If it is not a CSA prep or delivery day, Frank tends the orchards with his tractor either weed-eating, disking or rotatilling a new section of planting for me. He repairs broken drip systems (I unfortunately have a tendency to hit them either with my hoe or my small hand hoer). We water the back pomegranate and small fruit trees using ditch water so that requires a great deal of preparing the fields for the water and changing the water for the different sections after one section is finished.

Yesterday, I raked up all the fallen fruit under the trees into piles. I sorted the fallen fruit to see if some it it could be used for canning or cooking. I hate seeing a waste of fruit but it is a natural event. The apples drop as they plump up, self thinning. I believe the same is true of the stone fruits. We have had the trees thinned in the past, but the last few years we have decided to leave them alone. We may have smaller fruit but they seem to be a good size for eating, taste wonderful and are not the "show" fruit but they are still great fruit.

As I was finished sorting and raking, Frank came around with the tractor and we loaded it up with all the fallen fruit. This helps in keeping down the rodents, flies and nats that come around if fruit is left on the ground to rot. The dropped bad fruit is put in the compost pile.

Once a week, I clean out the hen house, change their bedding, make sure their automatic watering system is working and clean up around it. The nesting shavings go into my Gator and I spread it out on the newly rotatiled fields for mulch and fertilizer.

At least once every 2-3 weeks, I try and start another planting area of something so that we will continually have new produce to have available to our CSA members, for the roadside stand and for us to eat. I recently planted some beets and turnips and next week I hope to be able to plant some lettuce so we will have some in the early fall cool weather.

And at least twice a week, I spend the entire days weeding. I have loved, loved using the straw in between my planting rows, that has really helped with the weeds, but where there is water, they will be weeds. And if you don't keep up with them, pretty soon, you will have a lovely field of weeds and you won't be able to find your vegetable plants!!

Many days, I never even have time to brush my hair but once in the morning. Many days, I have to take an Advil before I go to bed because my hands and back hurt so bad.

Hard to believe that when I was in the business world, I had a manicure every Tuesday; had my hair done every 4 weeks; went to the chiropractor once a month for muscle strain in my neck and shoulders due to sitting and doing computer work; and I was planning out million dollar budgets and grants instead of planning what to plant next!!! Give me this way of life any day of the week-

That corporate way of life is over and Frank and I wouldn't trade our lives now of hard farm work for anything. When we are asked, our advise to people is:

Follow your dreams, trust in God and you will forever be happy and grateful for where it leads you. Our dream lead us to Windmill Farm and we are loving every minute here and wish we had done this farming full time, 20 years ago.

Happy gardening!