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Posts Tagged ‘squash’

Ellwood Update

March 25th, 2010
Ellwood Canyon Farms | Blog

Everything has been going good here at Ellwood Canyon. Yesterday was big day, after three months of paper work, phone calls, ag-inspector visits and meetings I finally got into my first farmers market. The one they are currently allowing me to attend is every Wednesday afternoon at Harding elementary school on the Westside of Santa Barbara. It is a new market so the crowd is very slow but I am hoping that in time it will gain in popularity. I am also hoping that I will soon be allowed to attend at least one if not two other weekly markets (there are 7 different markets every week in Santa Barbara County).

As far as farming goes spring has definitely hit hard and I have been making a big push to get my first round of warm weather crops planted. I’ve got tomatoes and beans already in the ground and will be planting my first peppers, eggplants and squash this weekend.

I have also been concentrating on marketing for my CSA which will begin in May. My goal is to have around 20 members for an initial 6 month season that will run through October. If your reading this, live in Goleta or Santa Barbara and are interested in the CSA please contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I can get you the details.

Well thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Jack Motter

Some Photos:

Tags: beans, CSA, farmer's market, peppers, squash, tomatoes, egglplants

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Still Catching Up

October 15th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

The rain is here…the fields are wet…20 weeks of CSA boxes filled…I still want to catch you up on early October.

The beginning of the month brought a vacation for Logan. That was much-needed for him.

We just continued the regular - harvesting, weeding, and also taking up irrigation in fields in preparation for disking and planting cover crop.

We knew the rains were coming sometime this week, so our efforts were spent preparing space for garlic (to be planted after these rains), and harvesting winter squash.

We planted around 1.5 acres of Winter Squash this year. Four varieties - kabocha (green and orange), waltham butternut, table queen Acorn, and Spaghetti Squash. We planted the most of butternut, 3/4 acre. The yield was very good - around 25,000 lbs. And we got it all out of the fields,into bins,and they are dry (mostly).

I really enjoy growing the winter squash. The crop takes little relative care, yields well, sells well, and stores well. It is the perfect crop for a farm like ours.

Tags: rain, winter squash

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a week and a week to go

August 3rd, 2009
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm | Blog

So I’ve been holding down the ‘fort’ this last week and for this next week as Jared is on a tour. Before he left we tried to get as much done as possible, since while Jared’s gone, it’s a lot harder to get forward progress accomplished when I’m all by myself. Last week the Puget Sound region had record breaking heat in the high 90s-low 100s, which, by comparison to other parts of the country will make me sound like kind of a wuss, but we hardly ever see that kind… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cucumbers, harvesting, summer squash, tomatoes, transplanting, weeds, duck eggs, Helpful CSA members, record breaking heat, tomatillos, hens, roosters

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After the Market

July 11th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

After the market on saturdays. It’s like after-hours for me, except it’s at the farm. We had three markets this morning and they were nice and busy - just as I like it. I had a board meeting for the market I sell at. then I went to the farm and got busy irrigating, sidedressing our (already dwindling) basil with blood meal, and harvesting squash. It was just me this afternoon and, with the overcast weather, I really got into being there. Even though I harvested from all… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: basil, corn, melons, squash, overcast, saturday

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A little cooler

July 8th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

This week has been cooler. I have been experiencing some writers block lately, but let me give a brief update. Our first tomatos have been eaten and they are good. We are heavy into bean, cucumber and squash picking. The chard is going through a strong dose of powdery mildew, but the kale keeps rocking it without any aphid activity. The squash bugs and beetles are gaining a foothold in some of the oldest squash. We’ve planted about 1.25 acres of winter squash and are starting our… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, potatos, squash bugs, squash beetles

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Early June Update

June 6th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Hello Everyone. June has arrived and our CSA has started. We just finished our first week. We have 60 members in our CSA right now and hope to elevate that number to 90 within the next couple of weeks. The first zucchini of the season is here as well - a herald of the summer upon us. We also are going to three farmers markets per week, soon to be six. All told, we are planted up around 6 acres, with about 3.5 left to plant. Those will be filled up with more peppers, winter squash,… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: CSA, farmer's markets, summer squash

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Soil and Rocks

May 13th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

We are back to our frantic tilling and rock pulling schedule now that the ground has dried out a bit. We are continuing to prepare ground and plant, and hopefully we’ll have all our ground ready in the next few weeks…. month more likely. We planted basil and green beans, more carrots and reseeded the arugula and cilantro that didn’t germinate well. We are going down to Berkeley tommorow to see my sister’s presentation of her master’s thesis, which is a really amazing… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: basil, green beans, planting, salad mix, tilling, squash and vine

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Last Market finito

October 29th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

I went to the last Tuesday market in Nevada City today. It was a busy market. So many people came out. We haven’t had such a busy market all year. It was nice to end it with plenty of shoppers. For my part, I brought lots of kale, chard, eggplant, peppers, lettuce mix, winter squash, cherry tomatos, peas, basil, celery and broccoli. It was a nice close to the season for me. Although, I have a solid week of work before the season is over for me. Honestly, these last two months have… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: basil, broccoli, celery, chard, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, farmer's market, kale, lettuce mix, peas, peppers, winter squash

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Sunday Morning On The Farm

September 2nd, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Sunday Morning at the farm. I’m sure it’s pretty glorious. I live a little bit away from the farm (20-25 minutes), so I am rarely there on Sunday morn. It’s my morning off. I am going there later to water the onion flats and switch some watering in the main field. Next year it looks like I’ll be farming on a 10 acre piece of land right down the road from where I live. I will continue to farm at Wildgrace (Glenn and Muffy’s) next year as well. I want to put… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: career, garlic, labor, leeks, onions, peach trees, peas, service, shallots, small farms, squash, tomatoes, weather, wildgrace

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New Market

July 16th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Today heralded the first Tuesday Farmers Market - this one in lovely Nevada City. Last week, with the blazing temperatures, we started a huge binge of produce. I realized that I could no longer give 4 pounds of squash to each CSA member, because nobody wants that much squash, and that there were so many tomatos and cucumbers, as well as other veggies, and they all needed a market, or they would find the compost market. So, we added in this market. The Wildgrace Schedule now looks like this:… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: farmer's market, people, schedule, squash, tomatoes

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Two 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:
	Laughing Duck Farm Newcastle, CA
	Starbright Acres 12575 Polaris Dr, Grass Valley, CA
Graduates:
	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
	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