Our last farmstand was a success! Thank you to everyone who made it out to our last farmstand last Monday! It was such a hit, and so special to see all of our regulars rally for one last stand. We’ll be back in the spring with more organic goodies :)
GARLIC IS A PROMISE
It sure feels like fall when garlic its time to plant garlic. We planted mostly our own saved varieties, which is really exciting because they’ll be better adapted to our growing environment over time.
We planted two softneck varieties that did well for us last year, along with a full bed of hardneck Aglio Rosso, which was the standout in our trials last season. We’re also trialing one new variety called Asian Tempest. It's a hardneck, but we're hopeful it'll still do well in our milder winter climate!
We were reminiscing about the garlic planting party we had last year and how nervous we were to do something for the first time. It was so special to be surrounded by people as we put our very first crop in the ground. One year later, we banged it out in two hours on a Tuesday afternoon. Not quite as exciting, but still meaningful.
Garlic is a promise. After a long and hard growing season, it's a commitment to do it all again next year!
5 BEDS DOWN, 16 TO GO!
I did a quick count of our beds yesterday. Out of our 40 total beds, 4 are in perennial native plantings, 15 will be growing crops over the winter (a strawberry trial, broccoli, garlic, cauliflower, lettuce, beets, radicchio), and the remaining 21 are ready for a recovery with cover crops.
This week, we started the process of adding amendments based on our soil tests and got the first five beds sown with cover crop! You don't know how exciting that is!
We have 18 different varieties in our cover crop blend, and each mix is hand-formulated based on what crop will follow in the spring (direct seeded versus transplanted) and how long the cover crop will grow (anywhere from 2 to 5 months).
Some of the plants in the mix include Diana fava beans (saved seed from this year!), oats, winter peas, hairy vetch (saved seed), daikon radish, crimson clover, dill, cilantro (saved seed), cosmos (saved seed), nigella (saved seed), honeywort (saved seed), parsley (saved seed), and more!
We're aiming for as much diversity and biomass as possible, while still incorporating plenty of nitrogen-fixing legumes to help build fertility for next year's crops.
THIS WEEK’S BOUNTY
With 60% of the farm in over-winter cover crop, and plant growth slowing down with cooler temps and shorter days, our offerings will be more limited. We'll still make it to market when we have enough to bring, and I'll always give you a heads-up in the newsletter about where to expect us that week.
Things will start to slowly pick back up in March and April, with our full offering of summer crops pumping in July! So much to look forward to!
We will be at the farmers market the next two Thursdays. The farmers market will be closed on Thanksgiving day.
Summer Crops
Heirloom Tomatoes
Paste Tomatoes
Miniature Slicer Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Gypsy Peppers
Sweet Carmen Roasting Peppers
Eggplant
Only two more weeks left of our summer crops! Get them while you can!
Roots and Bulbs
Carrots
Garlic
Greens
Mellow Mix is back!
Other
Sprouting Cauliflower
Strawflower Bouquets
Fresh Herbs
Tarragon
Sage
Dill
Thyme
Also available at the Co-Op in SLO!
Thanks for being the best community!
Your farmers,
Jake & Jesse :)