For me, one of the most gratifying parts of life on the farm is watching the land change over the years in positive ways. When we first arrived here at our home site along Harkins Slough sixteen years ago, the upper portion of the property was almost completely devoid of vegetation around the farm fields.

When I give farm tours people often seem surprised when I say that organic farmers are at more of a disadvantage, compared to their conventional counterparts, in the area of weed control versus pest and disease pressure.

There are many environmental and health advantages of farming organically the way we do – fewer toxic chemicals released into the environment or consumed, safer conditions for farm workers not exposed to pesticides, safer food sources for pollinators, more attention to maintaining the diversity of both food crops and native flora and fauna, and a long list of other benefits. One area that is sometimes overlooked is the connection between farming and climate change.

I can remember back to a time that I just didn’t get the appeal of fennel. This course, stringy, strongly scented vegetable didn’t seem worth the trouble to cook. But now I can honestly say that it is among my very favorite vegetables. I fully realize that there are many of our CSA members who still don’t “get” fennel, and if you are among these, you simply must try Jeanne’s recipe for roast fennel and onions.

At this busy time of year I really appreciate the members of our dedicated, hardworking, and seasoned crew. As the years go by I find my role on the farm changing as I pass along many of the responsibilities that used to be mine.

I was listening to the radio recently and heard a brief he-said-she-said “debate” between a supporter of conventional agriculture and a supporter of organic agriculture. The conventional agriculture supporter’s main argument was that organic growers use pesticides too, just organic ones.

It’s a busy time on the farm. Last week we finished planting out a round of tomatoes and basil in the high tunnels as well as new successions of lettuces, radishes, cilantro, beets, green onions and mustard greens outside.

I’ve always liked sweet alyssum flowers. We planted them back in our San Francisco community garden plot before we moved out of the city to start farming, and they made a lovely delicate ground cover that attracted the most beautiful little crab spiders. The spiders are experts at camouflage, and can turn different colors depending on the color of flower they are on.

As always at this time of year, rainfall brings with it the good and the bad. The good far outweighs the bad in many ways, the most obvious being that we are still in a time of drought and the less irrigating we have to do the better. It helps in other ways as well.

One of the perks of farming where we do is that we live in a birder’s paradise. Our home farm is on a hill perched above Harkins Slough, a freshwater wetland that is host to copious waterfowl. We regularly see great blue herons, egrets, terns, ducks, geese, coots, grebes, white pelicans, marsh wrens, kingfishers, and night herons.

My main task as president of the Central Coast Chapter of California Certified Organic Farmers (a position that sounds way more important than it actually is), is to help organize two meetings each year. Last night was our “Spring” meeting at the Grange hall in nearby Aromas, and it went really well. Part of the function of the local chapters is to connect with other growers and educate ourselves about problems and issues affecting us here in our region.

We recently received a question about what “organic pesticides” we apply to our crops. Certain microbial, botanical, or mineral substances are approved for pest control in organic agriculture and we occasionally use one to address a specific situation on the farm. However, we rarely use even these organic pest control products.

This week we make the final winter CSA deliveries on the biweekly schedule. The regular season will start again on March 16 and 17 with weekly deliveries through November 16 and 17. The weather forecasters tell us that El Nino still has some rain in store for us, so we’re using this dry window to get some more ground worked up for spring planting.

The storm that is expected to roll in tomorrow will bring to a close the short, dry “window” that has allowed us to get in with the tractors and ready some ground for planting into. At our Lewis Road site we have already transplanted lettuces, chards, kales, and collards. Today out there we are direct seeding cilantro, beets, mei quin choi, scallions, red pearl onions and mustard greens.

Last week, my son Lee and I attended the annual Ecofarm Conference in Pacific Grove for a day. As a presenter–I spoke at a session on CSAs in the morning—I was given free admittance for the day along with lunch and dinner. The session I spoke at went well. It was great to see a large, enthusiastic group of people committed to the CSA movement.

Shortly after 5 am this morning, as I sat down in front of the computer to check the weather forecast, the possum that lives under our tub in the adjoining hall bathroom got into a fight with a skunk that wandered into the crawl space looking for shelter from the rain. I heard the whole thing transpire and ran into the bathroom stomping on the floor in an effort to break it up, but it was too late.

Things have played out perfectly here this fall. We’ve had enough rainfall to bring up the cover crops and stabilize the hillsides with breaks in between that have allowed us to get the work done that we’ve needed to.

The winter session is upon us with nice cold weather to usher it in. Our winter plantings are coming along well, while on the rest of the farm the cover crops are greening up the landscape nicely.

This week we’ll deliver the final boxes of the regular season. Thanksgiving week will be off and then we’ll start the biweekly winter deliveries the following week (December 2 and 3). Sarah has information below about the winter session logistics.

Yesterday’s rainstorm was a very pleasant surprise. The National Weather service was only calling for a quarter inch or less in our area, and we ended up getting over 1.25 inches. It was mainly the steady, gentle early season type of rain that is perfect for getting cover crops established without doing any damage.

The first batch of reusable crates has arrived! We will try out our new crates this week for the Thursday route. Please bring reusable bags (like the High Ground Organics Bagito bag you got if you made a donation to the crate fund) to the pick-up site. Take your fruits and vegetables out of the crate and leave the open crates in a nested stack. Thanks to all of you who helped make this happen. We look forward to fewer trips to the landfill!

Work on our new well here at our home site has officially begun. Last Friday the drilling company moved all of their equipment over in a caravan. It looked like the fun-zone of a small town carnival had come to set itself up on our farm. After a day of site prep and set up, they will begin to drill in earnest today.

It was too good to be true. The Bagrada Bugs are here at last. The home farm is still free of them, but they moved into the Lewis Road ranch en masse last week. Fortunately some of our young tender greens are already covered with row cover, which works to some extent if you get it on before the bugs arrive.

Well, the wild turkeys seem to have established residency for the time being on our home farm, so I’ve been reading up on them to try to determine whether we should consider them friend or foe.