This summer we have been involved on two levels with the Monterey Bay Aquarium programs in science and conservation. Our youngest daughter went to their Young Women in Science camp, and had a blast kayaking, boogie boarding, and scuba diving, as well as meeting women scientists, monitoring sand crabs, and making toys for the aquarium’s otters.

After a brief hot spell several weeks back, the weather here has settled into the fairly predictable routine of morning fog, afternoon sunshine and fog again in the evening.  For the crops that we grow, it has been just about perfect. Lettuces, bunched greens, broccoli and its relatives, and strawberries all find the moderate temperatures here along the coast to their liking—and I have to say that I do too. I always find it a big relief to come back home after doing a hot weekend market over the hill

It was nice to meet a number of you at our blueberry u-picks this year. We thought you might be interested in some history of this part of our farm. This is mostly a reprint of an article we wrote last year, but with some updated text and pictures.

Steve and I took a couple days off this weekend to go up to San Francisco. We rented bikes and toured around some of our old haunts. One of the places we wanted to go was to the Argonne Community Garden. This is the sweet little garden plot in the Richmond district where Steve and I had our first garden together. We didn’t know what to expect, since it’s been 20 years since we were there, but we found that very little had changed in the community garden.

The City of Watsonville is voting (already by mail-in ballot, June 4 actual election day) on Measure T, which would expand the city’s urban limit line. The proposal would pave the way (pun intended) for the development of 95 acres of farmland, with the stated goal of attracting big box stores like Costco. Included in these 95 acres of prime farmland is the ground we currently lease at the Redman House.

We really enjoyed meeting those of you who came out for our farm tour on Saturday—it was a great group of folks with interesting questions (and engaged clever children)! In spite of the uninspiring weather, we enjoyed giving you a taste of how and where we grow your vegetables. It’s good for us to step out of our routines to reflect on what we do here and meet the people who keep us going. So thanks for coming out! Stay tuned for strawberry u-picks during the summer.

The strawberries are playing tricks on us this year. A few weeks ago it looked like they were coming on strong, but after that first burst of fruit we’ve got a bit of a lull before the main crop really comes in. The plants are loaded with flowers, so this is just the calm before the storm and we should have the expected bounty of strawberries before too long. For now, we’ll keep it a mystery. You may instead get some of the first blueberries coming in, the very first summer squash of the season, or those wonderful Shiitake mushrooms from our friends at Far West Fungi.

We’re in the last stages of our spring field work. May 1^st is the deadline I usually give myself for getting hard squash and pumpkins planted. Because powdery mildew almost always becomes a problem with these crops late in the season, we’ve found that the earlier we can get them planted the better. As with most large seeded crops, we can’t plant them too early, however, because the seeds will rot in cold soils—it’s all about timing. In addition to planting hard squashes we will be planting another block of potatoes from the seed that we saved over from last year.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring, and we’re celebrating by starting up CSA deliveries for the 2013 season. We’re looking forward to a good year of farming on our beautiful central coast farmland. We’ve had a busy few years, getting to know our “new” Lewis Road property and completing the big projects so we can be more productive with what we’ve got.

This week we are delivering our final winter CSA boxes. Thanks to those of you who joined us for winter! We’re busy with planting and tending the spring crops for the first weeks of the regular season starting March 20/21. (Check your account and make your payments now if you haven’t yet so that you take advantage of the lower price—see subscription info below.)

It’s been a busy couple weeks on the farm. About 80 CSA farmers and other people involved with CSAs from around the country in town for the EcoFarm conference came by last week for a tour of our farm. It was great to meet all these folks who are doing some version of what we’re doing and to swap stories about pests, weather, packing boxes, and all things CSA-related. Steve also attended some meetings about organic strawberry growing.

Even though we are harvesting through the winter, the farm still has something of the sleepy winter feel to it. We have cover crops growing in 80% of the fields. Those fields that we are harvesting from now will go into cover crops as these crops finish and we’ll bring them into summer production later.

The fields are still pretty soggy from the recent rains, and it looks like there is more to come at the end of this week. The rain makes harvest days a challenge, the heavy clay and silt soils at our home site and the Redman field get incredibly sticky when wet, so it can be a real slog to get through the fields. And because we can’t drive trucks out on the dirt farm roads, the crew has to walk the harvested crops out of the field instead.

We’ve had a busy couple weeks off, catching up on paperwork, preparing the farm before the rains, chasing escaped goats, and fixing fences. (I have a new respect for the occupation of cowboys riding the fence line. It seems that there’s always some place the animals can manage to get out if they want to.) The drainage system on the hoop houses at our Lewis Rd. ranch is working well, and the three parcels we farm all came through the last deluge just fine.

Thanksgiving comes early this year, and with it the end our regular season CSA deliveries. That helps us to end on a strong note with lots of nice vegetables (though it made it harder back in spring to start so early!) Timing the end of our season to the week before Thanksgiving gives this holiday a special meaning to us as the dividing point of our year, …

We have been named one of three finalists this year for the Leopold Conservation Award. The Leopold Award recognizes “extraordinary achievement in voluntary conservation on the land of exemplary private landowners.” It is given by the Sand County Foundation, in conjunction with the California Farm Bureau Federation and Sustainable Conservation.

Yesterday’s rainstorm failed to live up to its’ billing down here in our area—at most we got a tenth of an inch or two. In some ways I should be happy it didn’t rain more—we can continue to pick the strawberries as long as they stay more or less dry, and the beans don’t like the wet, cool weather either—but it’s always sort of a let-down when something you have worked so hard to prepare for doesn’t materialize.