The farm is bustling with the beginning of another season. The hills around Capay are still green. The warm week coupled with the wind has left parts of the hills, mainly the ridges, a bit brown. It will not be long until the inverse is true and there are only a few patches of green grass holding on, which will be in the bottoms of gullies and on the shady side of knolls and trees.
In our fields, asparagus is popping out of the ground as fast as we can cut it, but there still isn’t enough of it. Summer vegetable fields are getting planted as fast as we can. There are already three tomato fields, the earliest of which has stakes installed and will be ready for its first string. It will not be long until those tomatoes have climbed up the stakes and are six feet tall. On the other end of the farm, peppers, eggplant, squash and melons have been transplanted into the ground. Their little roots have settled in, and soon we will see the first new green leaves from them.
The wildlife on the farm seems happy with spring. The resident flock of wild turkeys can be seen in small groups here and there. In general, there are a couple of male turkeys, puffed up with their beautifully colored feathers shimmering in the sun as they strut to and fro trying to get the attention of the females who appear to not care one bit about their presence! The resident coyote has been out and photogenic. He is doing his best to keep the rodent population in check. There are photos of him on my Instagram (@farmerthaddeus) and more photos of the farm on the Farm Fresh To You (@farmfreshtoyou).
The citrus trees have finished their blossoming. Between the faded white flowers that are browning and falling to the ground are little oranges about the size of a BB. They will quickly double and triple their size to end up as big as marbles by the end of May. The June Drop will happen and for some reason that I don’t understand, the entire orchard will make the same decision regarding how many of those little green marbles it will be willing to keep latched onto the tree and turn into mature oranges over the course of the summer.
