Farm News
The hustle and bustle of the farm is intense this time of year. All of my beautiful cover crops that were grown over the winter need to be incorporated into the top soil before we can plant the next crops. I was proud to see that my kids were not as tall as the cover crops this year – had I turned them loose in the middle, they likely would have never found their way out of the maze of grasses and legumes! With the tall, green tops come thick, deep roots. With all of that come more organic matter for the soil, more carbon sequestered from the atmosphere – more good stuff. Also with that comes a need for it to break down and be fully incorporated into the soil so that we can inject our drip tape and run our transplants, seeders and cultivators.
Walking by our next watermelon field, I am comfortable with the progress. The thick roots are breaking down. My shovel easily enters the soil, and it is feeling like the watermelon transplants in the greenhouse will be able to free their roots from the confines of their little cells to expand deep into the goodness of this farm’s ground. As I walk past the field, I think about what we could have done different this season to prevent us from having to cut things so close. Next winter, during one of the little dry spells in February, we will mow the cover crops if we can. This will give all that green matter more time to decompose and beneath the ground, the huge root system will correct itself to the size required for only the new growth that follows after the mowing. Next year, we will NAIL IT!
Beyond the field, my favorite part of the farm has again attracted me like a magnet attracts a rusty old nail hidden in a gravel road. My restoration project is proceeding nicely. The wild area, reclaimed several years ago from an invasive species, is on its way to thriving. Creeping wild rye sways in the breeze.
The native bees are making a buzz of the flowering yarrow and mule fat. Red bud, elderberry, oak trees, cottonwoods, deer grass, gum plants and wild grapes are all making progress toward reclaiming this piece of our farm to balance of flora and fauna that long ago covered all of California.
On the ground (in the middle of my walking path) is a large egg sitting on the ground. It’s a new sight to me. The egg, larger than a chicken egg, has a teardrop shape to it, and the matte white shell is covered with a speckling of brown dots. I speculate, given the time of the year and the size of the egg, that it belongs to a wild turkey. The internet confirms my suspicion, but leaves me to wonder how this one egg got to be sitting in the middle of the path. Surely it started as part of a nest of a dozen or so, but now it sits here, alone to bake in the sun and nurture the next critter that is sure to come along the same path.
Make sure to find us on Instagram @farmfreshtoyou and @farmerthaddeus.
