Re-Creation

This last weekend Lisa and I went to the coast for the weekend for some re-creation. The Farmers Market in Grass Valley was canceled for Saturday ( yeah I know ridiculous) so I take advantage and take a few days off. By this time of the year even though days are shorter in time and work load I'm burned pretty crispy. I've decided that next year I will take a Sunday/Monday off. Just one day off a week from Feb till now adds up. And if I'm stupid and don't take a Monday off I'll go away for the Sunday. To much work and no rest makes me grumpy, well not grumpy, but just tired and to close to everything to enjoy the Joy of my life.

We had a great time in Fort Bragg. The Sun was shining, and so we sat on the beach, with our dogs, wine, cheese, snacks, and just sit, talk, and relax. I'm pretty good at relaxing, so's Lisa. Then we'd go out to a nice dinner, and relax some more. Very nice, and re-charging.

So things in the field are good. Carrots are all weeded, Garlic/ Onion beds are sprouting weeds waiting to till fertilizer in then we'll start planting Garlic. The Onions didn't like all this heat we've been having, I finally put up the shade cloth to shade them in the afternoon and now they look great and should size up well for transplanting. Summer vegetable harvest is slowing quite a bit but I don't mind as there are a few projects I need/want to get done before it starts getting rainy.

I have to rebuild greenhouse #1. It's been here since the start, the hoops are now 9 years old and ready to start breaking. And I didn't put proper end supports in when I built it so that will get done then I'll recover it and replace the side boards also. Then It will be ready to go for another decade 'cept for recovering it every 3/4 years. And I could realy go thru the shop and do quite a bit of organizing, and then on the back I really need to put up shelves and storage cause it's really shabby and quite a waste of space back there. I don't have all to many big projects which I'm glad cause it's really a bitch working your ass off all spring and summer then working like crazy in the fall to bulid some development project before it gets to mud. Boy am I glad all that's over.

Last week after doing wholesale delivery's in Grass Valley instead of going to the Farmers Market I went to my friend Andrews Farm. Well it's not just Andrews he works it with a friend Logan and lots of other help. I rolled up just as they were sitting down to lunch ( good thing or else I might have been put to work) so we all had a great chat then the crew went back to work and Andrew and I walked the Farm. Wow. He's ( and Logan and all his help) gone from 1 acre last year to ten this year. What a leap. A bit crazy but what the hell, take a big bite, if you choke spit it out, pick it up and start chewing all over again. It is really cool to see what young Farmers are doing for this World. They take what they got and go with it. They help each other out, work for little money, and make this World a better place. Four Frogs ( Andrew/ Logan ) learned alot this year, they had some success, some failure, some in between. What's most important is they are doing what they Love and learning how to make a living doing it and hopefully consumers one day soon, will compensate Farmers and Farmworkers with a Equitable wage. In the meantime Farmers will have to do what they Love, and Love what they do.

Mmmm

Mmmmm. I smell tomato sauce cookin. Actually tomato soup. I'm cookin down a bunch of Tomatoes and they will be canned as soup. Then if we need, we can make sauce out of it. I'm way behind in canning this year, I'll make the excuse that I've been canning my own produce for at least 12 years. Some things longer. I have a bottle of homemade blackberry wine that's almost 20 years old now. So I'm a bit burnned out on canning.
Canning runs in my blood. My parents were DYI'ers way back before it was hip ( Which has only been very recently). My mother used to grow a huge veggie garden and can/freeze everything she could. ( She probably did this whilst I was in her tummy) (( can anybody say imprinting?)) Then when we moved to California what my parents should have done is dig up our lawn to get a big garden space, but our small one was supplemented with produce bought from farm stands or pick your owns then we would spend the rest of the weekend putting it all up. Not so much fun for an 8 year old, but valuable in it's own right.
So here I am being true to my roots, putting up yummy tomato soup. If I was being trueer to my roots I would be surfin the net on a computer that I soldered toghether from a kit, or my clothes would be homemade. My parents probably didn't know how they were shaping me for my future life as a Farmer but they did a pretty good job of it.

So what's goin on on out in the field you ask? Well the Tomatoes have recovered from our cold spell and rain and are producing nicely. My local wholesale tomato volume has recovered from the competition from heirlooms. I don't grow heirlooms cept for the Farm and even though my produce buyers are nagging me to do it I just won't. I'd rather see someone else work way to much for way to little money. Heirlooms are very challenging to grow profitably, and it's one challenge I just don't feel like taking on. If your growing Heirlooms for wholesale you either have to pick them way to green, and have a low quality heirloom, or just right and go broke tryin. Come on Farmers you do the math. $3/lb and select varieties ok maybee you can make some dough. But $1.50/lb, come on, your subsidizing the food system with your slavery.
We've also started to pick some extremly ugly brocolli for market which of course is selling well, but I still cringe when I pick it. The Carrots are looking really well with just a bit left to go being weeded for the first time.
Garlic you ask? I've been working up the beds which are looking really good. Superb tilth, and the smell of fertile Earth wafts wonderfully when I'm done with the tiller. The smell is incredible, very sweet, a bit of acid, and tiny bits of what must be micro-flora and fauna pee. The beds will get fertilized soon, and be ready for planting in October. I'm really pleased with the tilth. When operating the tractor on this Farm I used to worry so much eyeing freshly tilled soil. This heavy clay with high magnesium dosn't lend itself to being worked wet or dry. It likes just right. Kind of the goldilocks of soil. Unlock it's potential and youv'e got GOLD. So over the years all my work has slowly paid off. My crop rotations, my fertility program, my loving care and labor has netted a soil that I'm proud of. My calsium percentage is way up and almost perfect and most all my other nutrient levels are where they should be. Then of course there is the Organic matter. On my last soil test I forgot to have it measured but I'm sure it's improved even more. When I gaze upon a handfull of the soil here I see so much raw organic matter ready for decomp into humus that I smile. Strip tilling works here so wonderfully, I'm so glad I stumbled upon it when I first started.
I had never even heard of conservation tilling way back 20 years ago, but I started strip tilling then and have done it ever since. It saves time, saves fuel, and is a Organic Matter goldmine. Not to mention the added benefits of Carbon sequestration and and CO2 conversion to O2. it has it's drawbacks and dosn't work for every climate but here it works well.
Speaking of well. Well, I'm ready for a nap.

Labor Day

Yes it is Labor Day and what did I do? I Labored. You see, Labor Day probably originates from the beginning of the industrial revolution when they had to shut the factory's down so people could bring in their harvests. It was probably labor week. Now it's another reason for Americans to eat hot dogs, hamburgers, and chips and sodas, (Sales of all these items go thru the roof for the holiday) and go to the lake or river, or local park and celebrate the fact that they no longer have to labor. Either in a factory or in a field. They have others to do that for them. Either illegal immigrants in the fields in their own country or some destitute worker in some factory in China or another country working for a couple bucks a day. And everyone wonders how we got where we are now. I just read a study that puts the real number of people jobless in California at 40%, which dosn't really suprise me.
On the bright side. There was somthing cool going on in places all over the counrty, EAT-In's, people raising awareness to bring better food to our schools. What a revolution that would be. Maybee we could have a proliferation of small to midsize farms employing people at a living wage, maybee some of those jobless 40%. I know, nobody wants to work in a field all day, that's for suckers. But what it might bring is real weatlth to our country and state. Of course the farm system would have to be way different, with worker's actually living on the Farms, and we would need some good health care system,( single payer maybee?) and of course people would actually have to pay more for their food. Not much for some items, could be as little as .50#. Wow what a vision, it's not new, just challenging.
Well here's to all those Farmworkers who didn't get to relax today. Cheerup, a change is comin.

Restless

I'm restless. I awoke this morning at pre 5:00am and haven't slept. First thing I did was go out and look in the freezer for some bacon. Well, we're out here, I have to restock from the freezer at moms. Then of course over to the computer to goof off. Checked my regular sites, cruised my favorite blogs and here I am.
This September is much different than last years, much cooler weather has slowed tomato ripening which has put a damper on Tomato sales. I can't sell what I don't have. Then there is much more increased competition at the Farmer's Markets along with many more people growing their own gardens. Much to say this last weeks numbers were way off last years. Way off. The good news? Broccoli is right around the corner, I'm not putting in 11hour days,and the carrots are looking really good.
Carrots are a pretty big deal 'round here. They fly out of the stand at Farmers Market. They keep us busy in the winter, which usually means profitable, and they help grow our customer base. So with so much riding on them right now you would think I would be pretty stressed waiting to see how they turn out. Ha!! The rows have had excellent germination, and have been pretty clean, with light weed pressure. Weed pressure is a big deal cause if I grow a lot of them (weeds) they cost a pretty penny to deal with. But what remains to be seen is our yields, last year they were off a bit from our averages, I do think this was from the rows in the beds being a bit close, so this year I spread the rows out a bit further so well see. But no reason to get stressed cause I'm not a big fan of worry. At least not now that I have quite a few years of farm experience under my belt.
Well the suns coming up and I'm going to go watch and take some photos.

Visitation

We had a wonderful visitation yesterday. Eric one of last years apprentices was in the state and made the journey to Chico and of course the Farm. Eric is a bicycle fanatic. He hitched from San Diego to Santa Cruz then rode his bike to Chico. Crazy kid. But we love him. When past apprentices come for a visit we are always so happy. It's like a long lost friend coming home.
So to celebrate the homecoming we had a fantastic dinner of BBQ'd chicken, roasted potatoes, grilled eggplant, and roasted peppers, not to mention all the pickles and snacks ahead of time. The party started in the afternoon, (when Eric arrived I jumped off the tractor shut it down and called it a day). It ended at about 8:00 when I came down with heat stroke for the second time in a week. Not pretty. This time I passed out so 911 was called but luckily by the time they got here, my body temp was down, I was clear headed, but had high blood pressure and heart rate. Luckily they don't make you go to the hosptal if you don't want to. ( Yeah like I can really afford a hospital visit) So after checking me out they let me sign a peice of paper saying I won't sue them if I die, and they departed. The first responders all were really nice, and everyone around here chipped in getting my body temp down. Problem was I ruined the party. Other problem is now I'm sopossed to be more prone to get heat sickness, which really sucks, but now I'll have to be more carefull, and act my age. So today I was carefull didn't rush things and have been staying cool and well hydrated.