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.