Eatwell Farm News

Cooler Weather... Only Mid 90's

It has cooled down to the mid nineties since the high of 108 on Sunday afternoon. The work keep on going. We expect hot weather and hopefully were are prepared for it. Last week we irrigated heavily over the whole farm in preparation for the weekend highs. This week we start work at 5.30am and finish by 3.30 pm.
Jose keeps the crew on track and makes repairs to the irrigation lines from the back of his pick up truck.
Keep all of us well watered and cool is our number one priority. We have shade tents and water set up in the middle of the farm plus each group has water with them at all times. Many of the guys have their own large water container also. Our wind break trees provide and nice amount of shade whenever anyone needs it.

Barley and Oats Harvesting... Dusty and Hard Work.

Fernando and Roberto were back out harvesting grains again today. Our Barley crop was the first to be bagged into 1 ton bags. We used 18 for the barley crop and 30 for the oats. They do not weigh one ton as the grain is surrounded by very light hull which we will have to remove. We hope to do this is a friends rice huller on his farm near Arbuckle. This is where all the bagged grains are headed for storage in a certified organic warehouse.

Real Farmer Toys

This afternoon our good neighbors Mark and Matt Cooley brought their combine harvester to harvest our grain crops for us. We filled a 20 ton grain bin with Wheat and then bagged up Triticale (wheat/Rye cross). Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will work on the Barley and the Oats.
Filling the one ton bags with Triticale worked fine with the smaller bank out trailer with it's spout that fitted directly into the bag.
We think of community in terms of the customers we have but just as important are the farmers in our local community who help each other. It would be much harder and not so much fun without farmers like Mark and Matt who come to the rescue.

Cherry Tomatoes... The First Taste

I tasted my first cherry tomato of the year about a weeks ago. It was surprisingly good. I believe the tomatoes taste better after we have been picking them for a couple of weeks. The first fruits are not the best. the crops looks heavy and we hope to start putting them in our eatwell Boxes in a week or so.

Several Hundred Thousand Bees Making Lavender Honey

There is no doubt that bees love lavender. The flowers buzz with their nectar gathering activity. Our neighbor, Gary Erwin, has these hives set right next to our lavender. The supers from the hives will be removed after the lavender has flowered. The resulting honey is delicious. You can order this directly from us here at the farm. We sell the honey every week at our stand at the Ferry Plaza Farmers m,arket in San Francisco.

Pumpkin Catapult

All our winter squash are germinating nicely. The seeds are sown and then drip tape laid over them. This means that we use much less water for germination. The drip lines will be picked up in a weeks or so at which time we will hoe and thin the crop to the required space between them.
One of the events planned for late September does need some preparation. We will be having a Fall Pumpkin day at which we will have various activities. If you have an inclination to build something then we will have pumpkins.
Members will receive more details about this event with their newsletter in August.

Summer Solstice Sleepover

A big thank you to all the the members who came to the farm last Saturday. Our event garden lawn was filled with tents for our first party in the new space.
We harvested garlic into the trailer of the golf cart then took it back to the party area to make braids. The deal was you could take home what you braided. There were some big braids!
For supper our 11, almost 12, year old sons Eric and Andrew cooked up some fine Prather Ranch organic burgers on the grill (www.pratherranch.com). On Sunday morning we enjoyed our own scrambled eggs and locally made Micaela's flour tortillas. The great coffee came from Pachamamas (www.pachamama.coop).
We are planning four more events on the farm so if you have never been please do take the opportunity to find out where you food is grown. At each of the last two events there have been members that it was their first time on the farm and both have been getting Eatwell Boxes for more than ten years!
Don’t just believe what I write in the newsletter or on the blog!
Unfortunately due to demand events on the farm are only open to those who currently receive an Eatwell Farm Box. To sign up please go to www.eatwell.com.

Ancient Grains Lying Down

The Farro or Emmer heads are forming. There are two rows of grain on the heads. It looks like we will harvest at the end of July. The harvest could be difficult as the crop has 'laid down'. I believe this is a result of the soil being too fertile for the crop. We had chickens here almost two years ago and have grown some very nice vegetables on these beds. We chose to plant the Farro here as it was the area that had the least weed pressure. Hopefully, the small old combine that we will use for harvest will be able to pick up the mature crop.

A Hard Days Night For Daisy

Daisy, our chicken Guard Dog, was caught taking a well earned nap. She guards the chickens by night and day. This is her favorite spot under one of our five 'Chicken Palaces' on wheels. She is going for her yearly check up with the vet this week. Luckily she is going to a farm vet so she will not mind is she is a little dirty.
Daisy likes to put her feet on Lorraine shoulders and look her in the eye. At about 120 lbs she is a formidable dog. She loves a belly rub and some love just like the rest of us, but just don't mess with her chickens.

Please Don't Call these Chickens Rosie

These chicks that Eric and Andrew are giving their first drink to are male, Naked Neck, Turken's. They are our first commercial batch of meat birds which will spend their lives on the pasture here at Eatwell Farm. Rosie the 'Free Range' Organic Chicken from Petaluma Poultry has nothing on these guys. Each day they will move in their chicken tractor onto fresh pasture. They will be fed certified organic feed as a supplement to the pasture. A regular broiler in a confinement chicken house is ready at 39 to 45 days. These guys will take almost double that time, you cannot rush a good thing. We choose the Turkens because they are good foragers and will get a larger proportion of their diet from the pasture. They have a delicious flavor and thin crispy skin when roasted.  In July we will have a batch or Cornish Cross chicks arriving. These will be raised in the same way as the Turkens and be available at the same time. In this way we hope you can help us decide which variety to put into production next year.
Their droppings will fertilize the pasture for future crops. They will all be available in September firstly to members of the farm and then at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market if there are any left.