Field Observations
Everything is getting tall. The popcorn is about hip high and so are some of their companion weeds … I did get about half the popcorn field weeded. The bush bean plants which will later be dried beans are blooming…
Tag organic
The Tomatoes Are Coming
This week I picked my first two baskets of cherry tomatoes! Enough plants had just one or two ripe fruits, allowing me to fill my baskets. The plants still have some more growing to do and the rest of the fruit…
Tomatoes are in the Ground
The tomatoes are planted, all one thousand seven hundred feet of them. In the greenhouse, the tomato seedlings a quite big, filling up their trays and reaching for the sky. But once you’re out in the field the seedlings seem…
Greenhouse Friends
Work in the greenhouse continues, potting up thousands of seedlings takes a lot of time. During my long stints in that plastic shelter I’ve been noticing all the wonderful critters hanging out with me. I spotted hoverflies taking a rest…
Seedlings for Sale
Yesterday I returned to the Sonoma farmers’ market. The last time I was at the Friday market it was a grey cold day in December, I only had pumpkins and popcorn for sale. A lot has changed in four months, the…
Organic Seedlings
The greenhouse is filling up with vegetables at different stages, some seeds have just germinated, some are wee little sprouts, others have put on their first set of true leaves, and a couple are big enough to be potted up…
There is Always Paperwork
With moving land this season the workload is more than just hauling my supplies to a new location and setting up a new field. There is the ever important paperwork. There is the lease agreement of course, the contract between…
Greenhouse Time
Last week I was finally able to spend long hours in the greenhouse starting seeds. I still have a bit more seeding to do before I’m officially caught up but I can feel my stress melting away with each seed…
Growing Farmers
During the first week of February, I was across the Pacific in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. With the opportunity to travel to a tropical island I was not just thinking about beaches and mai tais. I immediately wondered what…
Starting the Crop Plan
This week I started working on my crop plan for the 2016 season. This begins by looking at what I grew last year, what sold well last year, and what new things I think I might want to add to…