Just wanted to thank everyone who participated in the Slow Food Nation event up in San Fransisco last weekend. We were happy to be able to show case our dry farmed tomatoes at the outside market. It was an opportunity to meet lots of new people and reconnect with some of our foodie farmer friends. What a fantastic turn out of people for such a great movement. If you haven’t heard of Slow Food Nation check it out at www.slowfoodnation.org
Sorry, I haven’t had time to write anything new on our site. The farm is rocking along and everything is growing great. The dry farmed tomatoes are our pride and joy but the veggies are looking and tasting fabulous as well. We have had a very productive season so far and it does not look like its going to slow down anytime soon. I will be trying to keep the website updated but for now it’s business time.
Let me tell you. I consider my self to be a very compassionate person when it comes to other living things on this planet, but when it comes to gophers all that compassion seems to wash away and my killer instincts seem to take over. One of the hardest things about being a organic farmer is trying to figure out how to deal with your pest problems in a biological safe manner. By practicing organic pest management (no chemical pesticides) living things in the growing environment can keep itself in a relatively harmonious balance. For the most part the organic system works great, but every now and then one of these pests, and should a say one of these small, furry, and some what cute pests, will decide to take a little more than their share of the balance. So with that said, let me tell you a little about organic strawberry growing. Typically when you plant strawberries on a larger scale you use a plastic mulch over your raised beds. That is what we have done this year and it works great for keeping the weeds down, soil warm, and fruit from laying on the dirt. What it doesn’t work well for is letting you have easy access to your gopher population. They love to get in the middle of your raised beds and run a tunnel right down the middle. In doing so they destroy your strawberries root system and stress your plant to the point of not being able to produce fruit. So that is what is happening right now in our beautiful strawberry field as a type this post. I wish I had an answer for the best way to deal with this problem but I’m unable to come up with one. Traps don’t work well because you can,t see where the little furry monsters mounds have been created. Traps seem to be the only method in organic farming that is somewhat effective in controlling your gopher population. All I can say is in moments like this and being the compassionate person I am is, die gopher die!!!
The first planting of dry farmed tomatoes are in the ground and the weather is finally behaving. The fields look great and everything is growin! We will keep you posted. Also, check out Jane’s new yoga site for here class schedules on our blogroll. Namaste!
Wow - it still hasn’t let up on the cold nights – we’ve got too much frost! Baby tomatoes don’t like it. 
Well we were able to get all the tomatoes in the ground last week. The weather has been unusually cold for this time of the year and it has been frosting at night. It killed about 2000 of our tomatoe starts before we could get them in the ground. I expect we will be dealing with wierd weather patterns more and more. Thats all part of farming. Over all the fields look great and we expect a rockin season.
Check out our new labels - first strawberries picked this week.
