Fall is an interesting time of year on the farm, days are getting shorter, weather is getting colder and much of the summer life and bounty is slowly coming to an end.  I have been balancing my time between cleaning up the summer production area, planting, caring for, and harvesting off a new area where I have winter crops, selling these crops at markets, and getting cover crops in the ground in areas that I will be planting this spring.  After a big push this last week I feel I am finally catching up and ready for winter.

Currently in the field I have one section (about 1/5 acre) planted with a diversity cool weather vegetables including lettuces, swiss chards, kales, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, radishes, turnips, green onions, and fennel.  This is what I will be taking to market the next couple months.

I added to my perennial herb and flower section, a small area bordering my field, with more sage, thyme, rosemary, sweet alyssum and some lavenders.  My goal is to slowly add plants to this section over time and have it be a “pick your own” herb and flower garden for CSA members.  I choose plants that are good for cut flowers, fresh and dry herbs as well as beneficial insect attractors and just plain old beauty.[nggallery id=242]

I have also been planting some bigger sections of stuff that I will harvest starting this spring and throughout next summer,  including a block of strawberries (2500 plants), a block of garlic (5 150’ beds), a block of artichoke (about 1/5 of an acre), a block of onions (about 6,000 plants), and a block of peas and fava beans (about a 1/5 of an acre).[nggallery id=243]

Everything mentioned above takes up about half of my two acre field.  The other half I have seeded with a cover crop mix that I will let grow through late February then till under and plant my first spring vegetables….the cycle continues…..enjoy…[nggallery id=244]

Hello all, Everything is going good here at Ellwood Canyon.  With a break in the rainy weather I am making a big push to prepare my next section for planting.  Here is a step by step of the process: 1)Planted peaceful valley’s soil builder cover crop mix in December. 2)Mowed and turned under the cover crop just as it began to flower the 3rd week in February (the flowering stage is when legumes are at their highest nitrogen fixation point). 3)Let the ground sit for a couple weeks to… Read the rest of this article »

Late on Saturday afternoon, Logan and I found ourselves walking through the rows of august-planted swiss chard.  Row upon row yielded heavy damage to the chard plants due to leafminers. What to do? The scenario made us think about our motives and how we were to have a sustainable farm.  This year, we have way too many weeds and too many herbivorous insects (squash bugs and beetles, aphids, leafminers, cabbage whites, tomato/corn ear worm, - to name a few).   We decided to focus on the health and… Read the rest of this article »

Sara here, so sunday my youngest sister, brianna came over to help me with the CSA, and it was an adventure! our first rainy day CSA hand out, what a doozie! a 5 gallon bucket was half filled with rain water by the time we had finished, 3 hours later. It wasn’t cold, so I really didn’t mind having to harvest in the monsoon, but I did have to change my clothes a few times. Monday morning when I went to let the chickens out of their housing and into their free range area, I noticed that… Read the rest of this article »

OK ...I’m not feeling so talkative, so I’ve uploaded photos of some of the more mature crops on the farm right now.  Since they are the focus of nearly every waking minute right now, I’ll let them speak for me. Read the rest of this article »

We’re planting turnips this year, not because they are companion crops or because we love them, but because I read that turnip and radish seed, planted with clover, will boost nitrogen content. We’re already planting some radish as companions to other plants for pest control which will go to seed, so I decided to plant some turnips as well, and let some of them go to seed. We can practice collecting seeds using turnips and radishes as the test subjects, and then follow up that seed-collecting… Read the rest of this article »

Everybody is glad for the rain.  Let’s get that out there and said.  Yay, rain!  Great for the soil, great for the water supply in our beloved California costal desert, great for me not having to wash my truck! Anybody else?  Okay, good. We’ve been dying to get our planting started and now that the rain and attendant wind has died down for now we can start.  We had some tomato and pepper starts in a portable greenhouse, but the winds blew it to Mars, so no early… Read the rest of this article »

Our marathon PVC gluing session is almost over.  Too bad because smelling that PVC glue sure is a lot of fun.  I think it’s bad for your brain, but I’m not sure.  I think it’s bad for your brain, but I’m not sure. I think PVC glue might be bad for your brain, but, I’m not sure. We were drilling in a cover crop of Vetch and Rye today.  We used about 1000 lbs for the 10 acres. The fertility that winter cover crops create more than pays for itself.  A winter without… Read the rest of this article »

Friday the 3rd of October…rain commences at noon, continues through the night. I worked quickly to lay down a half acre of cover crop seed in the morning, anticipating the rain.  I felt like I was cheating, since I knew I wouldn’t have to irrigate the field to germinate the cover crop.  It’s not cheating.  It only feels that way because, in California, we don’t grow stuff without irrigation.  That’s another issue I don’t want to broach right now. Then the rain… Read the rest of this article »