Life on the Farm

Cisterns 

One of our longest beds at forty five feet.

A planting of mustards with calendula at the ends for pest control

A decent harvest of yellow and red potatoes 

We planted mizuna and bunching onions in the bed where the potatoes were. 

Small 425 gallon water tank with our A-frame greenhouse under shade cloth. 

Solar Panel used to charge a battery to power the farms irrigation pump. 

Popcorn with grapes and marigolds.

Arm yourself for the revolution!

Making hot sauce with some freshly harvested red cayenne peppers.

Plant, Harvest, Rain, Repeat

We have been busy planting everything from Red Russian Kale to carrots and beets, Broccoli, Lettuces, collards and all sorts of fall crops the last four days. Every day we plant a bunch of seeds it rains in the afternoon. Most everything is under shade cloth now (as far as the tender greens) with micro sprinkler irrigation with drip also set up. Infrastructure makes the farm what it is. Water cisterns are filling up and we are soon completing the irrigation system with 100% Off the Grid technology; solar panel, small pump, water from the sky and an old battery. Just waiting on some cables to connect everything and a transformer for backup.

Harvesting the first cutting of this Valentine Lettuce this morning for the Farmers Market this afternoon. That's fresh! 

Four days ago we planted all these seeds then got rain everyday since. 

Farmers Market Today!

RAdish 

Healthy soil in the herb garden with mushrooms growing up in the mint.

Newer lettuce planting doing very well. Just need to be thinned this weekend.

New pasture for the hens. We are getting a hundred or so day old chicks next month.  

Everything's Coming In Now..

We are getting ready to head up to Colorado for a week. Lots of projects have been getting done around the farm in preparation. We have built new pastures for the chickens, planted brussels sprouts, lettuce, chard and carrots in a newly built low tunnel, and made many small adjustments to the irrigation system. With a couple of good storms we got some cooler weather which made all of our work easier. 

The purple pole beans are covered in flowers

Tiny pole bean

Cucumbers growing up the opposite side of the pole bean trellis

Tiny pickling cucumber.

Cucumber flower

Lettuce just after harvesting for market. This salad greens mix is growing under
the pole bean/cucumber trellis.  The tunnel that the vines from the bean and cucumber
plants form make it easy to create a microclimate suitable for the lettuce this time of year.

Yellow Taxi tomatoes

A Quick Update and a Week Off

New portal is great! 

Hens

Beets, broccoli and lettuce, collards and more beets recently planted.

Potatoes

Beds with shade cloth; L to R: wild arugula, mustards and kyoto carrots, then sunflowers, tomatillos, marigolds, calendula and hot peppers, then radishes, spinach, chard, beets, broccoli, and more!

Volunteer tomato in with chard.

Cover crop of rye and buckwheat

Planting of Amaranth

Planting of Red Scallions, Carrots and lettuce

Second planting of the Blue Corn

Tomatillos to the left and under shade with micro sprinklers is carrots, lettuce and radicchio.

In the next few weeks we are preperaing this area for a fall planting of more greens, carrots, herbs, beets and hopefully some sun chokes, strawberries and asparagus. We have big plans but can really only move one day at a time..,.. coming soon is a high tunnel greenhouse or two as well as more solar off the grid technology and pasture for more layers. Exciting time to be a farmer.

Calendula in a hollowed pine log and popcorn is tall!

View to the East

Tomatillos and a propped up sunflower

Beans with lettuce mix growing underneath and pickling cucumbers growing up the other side.

These were volunteers!

Carrots, tomatoes and basil

zucchini is lowing this location/ micro-climate, calendula in between plants and radishes all over too. 

New planting of pak-choi, chard, radish and lettuce.

Chicken pasture is growing

herb garden

new roof on the new portal

Birds eye view west of the house

arroyo