Posts Tagged ‘bee hives’

First Farmers Market

May 15th, 2010
Driftwood Farm | Blog

On Wednesday we made it to our first Farmers Market (we only missed the first week).  We didn’t have a whole lot to sell, but we figured if we started going while it is still slow, we could ease into it.  The kale, lettuce and eggs we brought sold quickly, and we were able to sell more starts than we’d expected.  It was great to finally meet the market manager we’ve been corresponding with via e-mail for over a year!   She, and the vendors we met, were so friendly and welcoming.  Matt was right at home, socializing and making friends right off the bat.  It took me a bit to feel comfortable - not being one of the great social butterflies of the world - but it was easy to relax with all the positive feedback (... as many other freshman farmers have attested!)  Before next week, we hope to have finished our ‘farm name’ banner for the booth.

This week, we also did our first check-up on the bee hives, planted some heirloom “San Francisco Fog” tomatoes that are supposed to do well in our cool coastal summers, and continued with the routine seeding, weeding and chores.



To Bee

April 27th, 2010
Driftwood Farm | Blog
We are really excited to have picked up and installed into our hives two packages of bees from a semi-local (two hours away) supplier. Since we haven’t raised bees before, we decided to try two breeds: one hive are Italians (noted for fast production), the others are Carniolans (known for their winter hardiness). We put them in the hives on Saturday, and we’ve seen lots of activity from them - during the good weather spells - since then.  (Now every time we see a bee around the yard, we wonder if it’s one of ours!)

The earwig situation has been slowly subsiding due in part to our night “hunting” forays into the garden, liberal application of diatomaceous earth in and around the greenhouse, home-made traps, and cleaning up of weedy areas.

One note for anyone completing your Producer’s Certificate online: make absolutely sure you verify that your county accepts the application via the CDFA website.  I try to contain my impatience with application processes, and this time I allowed way too much time to pass before I started sending emails to find out what was up.  We do have our CPC now.

Other than that, we’ve been seeding flats, watching everything grow in the spring sunshine, and getting plants hardened off to plant out after this random storm is done refreshing everything.

 



Pollinators

March 5th, 2010
Driftwood Farm | Blog
When I first started to write this post, my intention was to segue into photos of our top bar hives - the first of which Matt completed today! - with information on the importance of honeybees to agriculture (and the economics of agriculture). Most gardeners and farmers are accustomed to embracing the important role that bees play.  While doing some research for those impressive numbers - the billions of dollars and percentages of crops to be credited to honeybees - I learned that other pollinators,… Read the rest of this article »

Three farms are starting from scratch.

They are turning the dirt and hoping to be successful enough to turn a profit, and to become a valuable part of their communities as suppliers of organically grown food.

Peaceful Valley is giving them a head start by offering them special pricing as part of this Freshman Farmer program.

The Farm Blogs

Freshman:
New Farms Coming Soon!
Sophomores:
Daily Grace Farms
Crescent City, CA
Freestone Family Farm
Vernal, UT
Wise Moon Farm
Redding, CA
Graduates:
Coyote House Farm
Palermo, CA
DeepSeeded Community Farm
Arcata, CA
Driftwood Farm
Fort Bragg, CA
EarthDance Farm
St. Louis, MO
Ellwood Canyon Farms
Goleta, CA
Four Frog Farm
Penn Valley, CA
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm
Poulsbo, WA
Home Plate Organic Farm
Orleans, CA
Honey in the Heart Farm
Nevada City, CA
Willow Springs Farm
Penn Valley, CA

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About the Farms

Coyote House Farm
Palermo, CA
Daily Grace Farms
Crescent City, CA
DeepSeeded Community Farm
Arcata, CA
Driftwood Farm
Fort Bragg, CA
EarthDance Farm
St. Louis, MO
Ellwood Canyon Farms
Goleta, CA
Four Frog Farm
Penn Valley, CA
Freestone Family Farm
Vernal, UT
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm
Poulsbo, WA
Home Plate Organic Farm
Orleans, CA
Honey in the Heart Farm
Nevada City, CA
Willow Springs Farm
Penn Valley, CA
Wise Moon Farm
Redding, CA

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