No Deliveries on Dec. 28th.

We're taking next week off from the CSA deliveries, but we'll be back again on January 4th.

We got a new camera, so we can start posting more pics again soon!

Extra Veggies for Your Locavore Feast

Thanksgiving is coming! It's a great time to be a farmer or a CSA member. We will have our regular delivery on November 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving. This year we are also offering you the opportunity to order extra items for your Thanksgiving feast. Please send us your order by email or phone no later than November 22nd. Current CSA members only.

Available for order:

• Squash and Pumpkins, $2 each: Butternut (avg. 3 lbs.), Acorn (two for $2, 1-2 lbs), Spaghetti (avg. 3 lbs.), Delicata (two for $2, avg. 1 lb.), Sugar Pie Pumpkin (avg. 4 lbs.)
• Roots, $1.50/lb: Carrots, Beets
• Greens, $1.50/bunch: Kale, Collards, Mizuna Mustard Greens, Swiss Chard, Cabbage, Salad Mix, Scallions
• Fresh Herbs, $1/bundle: Oregano, Thyme, Sage

Please visit the "What's in the Bag" page to see what we plan to have in the regular delivery on November 23rd.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Winter Squash and Pumpkin Harvest

Delicata, Acorn, Butternut, and Spaghetti Squash and Sugar Pumpkins

It's really starting to feel like fall around here, and fall means time to harvest winter squash. We have several kinds, and our CSA members will be seeing this lovely cornucopia in their weekly bags starting soon. First, though, we leave them to cure in the sun for about a week. Curing helps preserve them longer, and it makes for a nice fall decoration.

Winter squashes are so called because they keep for so well throughout the winter. They grow during the summer, but are allowed to mature until their skin gets hard, whereas a summer squash (e.g., zucchini) is harvested immature when its skin is still soft, and the seeds have not been fully formed.

The boy next door worked very hard around the farm to earn his pumpkin of choice. He happily harvested this beauty this week.

We Have Chickens!

Soon we'll be offering fresh pasture-raised eggs through our CSA. Please let us know if you're interested.

Turkins grazing in the sun. They are chickens that look like half-turkeys.

The rolling chicken coop made of scrap lumber and parts.

We have a new flock of chickens on One Acre Farm. They are 11 hens and a rooster, all about five months old. They haven't started laying yet, but we expect them to start very soon. These lucky chickens are truly pasture-raised and free-range, meaning they have a large area of space in which to roam outdoors. They are gladly helping us clear the weeds, old plants, and insects out of their area of the field. Once this area has been cleared, we will move them to a new section, along with their rolling coop.

Blue Andalusian hen in a forest of kale.

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Tomatoes are in their full, messy abundance at this time of year

Our climate; with its dry, late summers; is perfect for drying all sorts of vegetables and fruits, especially sun-dried tomatoes. Sun drying is definitely the most energy-efficient way to preserve foods. In the case of tomatoes, we simply wash them, slice them in quarters, and set them on a clean screen in the sun for 1-2 weeks. Our little greenhouse is an ideal place to do this, as it provides shelter from nighttime moisture, and it heats up like an oven during the day. We could eat the sun-dried tomatoes now, but they are going to be such a nice treat for our CSA members on a cold winter day, after the fresh tomato season is long past.

Farm volunteers, Krista and Laura, setting tomato slices out to dry.

Tomatoes on Day 1 drying in the greenhouse

Tomatoes on Day 10 ready for storage

Seed Saving Time

Broccoli plant with flowers (not yet gone to seed)

Fall is seed saving time. I love saving seeds because I'm fascinated by their variety of forms and strategies, and I love seeing the plants through the full cycle from planting a seed to collecting seeds for next year. Typically a single plant will produce hundreds (maybe thousands) of seeds. We can collect seeds from the most successful plants and use them to replant next season.

There are some drawbacks to seed saving. For one thing, it requires letting the plants get messy looking. Seeds are the last thing a plant makes before dying, so the plants are often tall, dry, and mangy looking by the time the seeds are ready. Also, we are not too vigilant on separating plants in the same botanical family, so we may end up with some interesting cross-breeds next year. We'll plant some of them as an experiment and also continue to use some store-bought seed.

So far this year we've saved seed from kale, lettuce, endive, radishes, coriander, chard, mustard greens, and broccoli. Soon we'll be saving our tomato seeds, okra, peppers, and more. Last week I collected broccoli seed:

Messy looking broccoli plants full of seed pods

Close-up of broccoli seed pods

Inside the dry seed pods are a row of brown broccoli seeds ready to be collected and saved for next year's planting

There's Pumpkins in the Air

Sugar pumpkins hanging on their trellis. Almost ready for harvest!

Did you know you can grow pumpkins on a trellis to save space? I probably wouldn't recommend this for the giant carving pumpkins (though it is possible), but for smaller sugar pumpkins it works just fine. Pumpkins are renowned for spreading quickly over large areas, so training them to grow up trellises is one way to grow pumpkins in a smaller space, or in our case, to keep them from covering up the adjacent rows.

This trellis was constructed by our WWOOF farm volunteers. It consists of scrap wood tied together into tripods, with a long pole/branch set on top as a crossbeam. If you trellis pumpkins, it's important to start hanging them on the trellis early, when the pumpkins are still tiny and green. That way the plant naturally grows a strong enough stem to hold up its fruit.

Fall Crops are Planted

Our fall field is almost completely planted now and ready to grow. Many of the plants are growing under shade cloth because it's still too hot during the day for them. However, they really benefit from being planted when the days are still long. Fall crops are similar to spring crops, and we are trying again with a couple things that didn't turn out so well in the spring, like brussels sprouts and cauliflower. We've also expanded our planting area (and hopefully our harvests) for peas, garlic, and kohlrabi.

Overview of the fall field

Plants growing in a shade cloth tunnel (the hose is drip irrigation tape)

Corn is coming!

Corn time is here.

 It looks like this week will be our first week of corn! The peppers, eggplant, and okra are starting to come in too.

Things are getting very busy on the farm as we are reaching the height of the summer harvest season and getting ready for fall at the same time. This week we finished tilling (turning) the soil in our fall field and started planting fall crops like spinach, peas, salad greens, etc. 

Tilling the fall field to prepare for planting.

The artichokes are finished with their season and are blooming. Does it look like a thistle to you? If so, it's with good reason. They are in the same family. The artichokes we eat are actually immature flower buds.

Back to my Farming Roots

We took a quick trip last weekend back to my (Michelle's) hometown in rural northeast Pennsylvania. One of the best parts was getting to visit a childhood friend and stay on her family's farm. I spent a tremendous amount of time on this rural homestead as a kid riding horses, swimming in the creek, picking strawberries, and camping in the woods. This farm was undoubtedly a major influence in my life, and planted the seeds for the eventual One Acre Farm.

(Not our farm). This is the farm in PA where Michelle spent much of her childhood.

Taking a walk around the farm during a break in summer rainstorms.

We were glad to find after our long weekend away that everything was still doing okay back on our lovely little farm. Here's what it's looking like these days:

Back on One Acre Farm

New Subscription Options + Fall Planting

It feels like summer is just getting started, but we're thinking ahead to fall. We've started seeding trays full of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, leeks, and more. We're also going to try for a fall harvest of potatoes, too. This weekend we replanted our potato mounds, with the help of our friend Krista.

Krista planting the fall potatoes

In other news, we are excited to announce that we are now offering a variety of CSA subscription options. This is in direct response to the feedback of our members, some of whom wanted more veggies, some less, and some said it's just right as-is. Whether you are subscribing for the first time or renewing, you are welcome to choose from one of these options:

• Standard, same as it is now: $25/week, weekly delivery, 8-10 items, minimum 4-week ($100) subscription.
• Option #1, the healthy way to “supersize it”: For an extra $12 per month, we will give you a larger portion of any produce we have in abundance. $28/week, weekly delivery, 8-10 items + extras as available, minimum 4-week ($112) subscription.
• Option #2, every-other week: $25/week, bi-weekly delivery, 8-10 items, minimum 8-week ($100) subscription.
• Option #3, small: $20/week, weekly delivery, 5-6 items, minimum 4-week ($80) subscription.

Farm Party Pics and Many Thanks to Miki and Lulu

We had an awesome "open farm day" on Sunday, and we want to thank all of you who came out to visit. It's so exciting to share the farm with you, and we are really starting to feel like part of a community here. There were plenty of good eats at the party, all featuring fresh produce from the garden, but the biggest hit was definitely the homemade ice cream with fresh blackberries and strawberries. We even did a little folk dance together at the end (thank you, Juliet!).

Folk dancing on the farm

Everyone getting serious about ice cream making

Skylar wanted to eat the ice cream and the bowl!

Miki and Lulu

Miki and Lulu are off to their next farm stay. We are so grateful to them for all their help over the past couple weeks. The farm is looking great thanks to all their hard work! We wish them all the best in their journeys and hope to see them again soon.

Farm Volunteers and Farm Party!

Lulu, age 7, picking blackberries

We have been blessed with our first-ever WWOOFers! WWOOFers are farm volunteers who are members of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Our volunteers are a mother-daughter team from Japan, and they have been here on our farm for about a week now. Miki and Lulu have been a huge help around here with all kinds of farming projects like weeding, trellising tomatoes, harvesting and cleaning produce, saving seeds, and so much more! Until recently they had their own organic farm in Japan, growing vegetables and making a few specialized products, including pesto made with ashtaba leaves, a plant commonly used for medicinal purposes in Japan. They left their farm because it was too close to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and now they are traveling in California and searching for their next steps in life, which hopefully will involve finding or starting a new farm. If you're interested in learning more about our visitors, check out this article about them that ran in the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/03/3744366/japanese-organic-farmer-picks.html

Better yet, come meet them (and visit us) at our Summer Barbecue Party and Open Farm Day this Sunday, July 24th starting at noon.

Odd Things on the Farm

Amongst all the many things growing at this time of year are a few strange looking plants. I photographed a few of the more interesting ones this morning to share with you. The picture above is a tomatillo plant (the ones you make green salsa out of). They grow papery "lanterns," and the actual fruit slowly forms inside. Right now the lanterns are huge, but the fruits inside have just started to develop. When the fruits start to burst forth from their lantern, we'll know it's time for harvest.

This is a Swiss chard plant going to seed. Vegetable plants often look quite different when they start to bolt and make seed. These chards are about 6 ft. tall now. We're saving as much seed as possible this year from all kinds of plants to help reduce our farm expenses. It's fascinating to see the plants through their entire life cycle and back again.

One more...I thought these were lima beans when they were smaller. But, when they started shooting up stalks of little white flowers, I reconsidered. I remembered having planted a small patch of buckwheat from seeds my friend Jen shared with me.

A Growing Bonanza!

Tomato Acre Farm?

Beans Reaching for the Sky

The farm is booming right now with plenty of spring vegetables still being harvested and summer veggies starting too. It's so satisfying to see it all coming together. This is perhaps the most exciting time of year on the farm. There's still plenty of work, but we are bringing in the fruits of our labor.

Gal attaching one of our new windows

Anyway, besides the farm work, we are taking care of the farmers. At long last we are installing new bedroom windows, ones that open and close whenever we want. Amazing!

And...What's up with brussels sprouts? They have been growing since January, and they are huge and healthy looking, yet no sprouts to be found. I guess we'll try a fall planting and see if they like the weather better.

Brussels, huge with no interest in sprouting

Sunflower Sprouts

 We grew lots of giant sunflowers last year and saved the heads thinking we would roast the seeds. Well, we didn't get too motivated on that front, but I have recently started growing sunflower sprouts, which has been quite satisfying and delicious.

Giant sunflower last summer. They were about 10 ft. tall.

Dried sunflower heads hanging in the shed

We cut off the sunflower heads last fall and dried them in our shed.
I recently collected the seeds from one head, soaked them and rinsed them periodically for 2 days, and then grew them on top of soil. In about a week's time, we had plenty of sprouts for our CSA members (and some for us too).

Sprouts on about day 4. They grow fast!

Garlic Capital of the World!

Well, almost. Gilroy, the town just south of us, is the official garlic capital. Fortunately, the garlic doesn't seem to care for city boundaries. This year was our first try at growing garlic, and it did very well. I harvested our small patch this morning.

On trays and ready to be cured in the shed for the next couple weeks.

Garlic takes a very long time to grow, about nine months, but overall, it's very easy to grow and pests avoid it. After harvest, the garlic has to be "cured" (dried) for at least a couple weeks so it can be stored. Garlic is great to eat at any stage of the process, and we've been enjoying testing a few of the heads over the past month. Next year we're definitely going to grow a lot more garlic!

Garlic in the field. It's ready to harvest when about 40% of the leaves are yellow.

Gently harvesting the garlic with a digging fork.

An Artichoke on a Typical Spring Day

This artichoke plant hosts an entire micro-ecosystem.  Ants have been bringing aphids to feed on its leaves and stem. The ants are like aphid ranchers, bringing the aphids to juicy plants and then feeding on the "honeydew" that the aphids produce. The ladybugs come to eat the aphids. Since there are so many ladybugs there and such good food, the artichoke has also become a popular spot to meet other ladybugs, have a few drinks, and see what happens...

Interestingly, the other artichoke plants in the row have very few aphids or ladybugs on them. I don't know why. I do know that we harvested our first artichokes yesterday, and they were delicious!

We started another round of greenhouse plantings. These are pumpkins (almost ready to transplant) and a variety of herbs.

Stormy Weather

Peas love cool, wet weather. These guys should be ready soon.

Just a couple weeks ago we had temperatures as hot as 90 degrees. The past couple days it has been drizzling and cold, with highs around 60 degrees. For most folks, the crazy weather is a curiosity, something to talk about at the grocery store. For farmers, the weather takes on a much higher level of importance. We watch the weather constantly and try to determine what we can do to help our plants make it through the given conditions. A couple weeks ago we decided to invest in shade cloth to protect our spring veggies from the suddenly hot weather. Spring plants exposed to too much heat can bolt before harvest time, meaning that they flower and try to go to seed early, which results in bitter, unsellable crops. So, now that we have put up shade cloth over all the tender spring plants, the weather has turned gloomy and wet. Hopefully, it's not too cool and wet for our summer plants, which love heat and lots of sun. The good news is that we are a highly-diversified farm, and so some of our plants are bound to like the weather, whatever it may be.

Shade cloth in the rain

 On Saturday I taught a class at the Morgan Hill Community Garden about transplanting and trellising. Below are some examples of tomato trellises that we talked about.

Florida Weave: The tomatoes are sandwiched between the twine

Suspended Trellis: The twine will be spiraled around the tomato as it grows.