Elephant Seals and Alpacas

So what does a 1000 pound elephant seal have to do with organic farming? Nothing that i know of, but they are just awesomely huge animals. We visited Ana Nuevo along the CA coast to see the elephant seals that are currently pupping and just starting into the breeding season. It always amazes me how you can walk among the sand dunes and find these enormous creatures tucked in about every hollow and dune. Then when you crest the final dune at the shore line, hundreds of these lumbering giants pack the beach. I do have to admit one of my most favorite sites was not at the rookery, but back at the meeting station where there were a display of skulls. Below is a photo of the head of a full grown male elephant seal.






For most of you who read this blog, you know of my interest in skulls and skeletons. For you i have a mystery skull picture (below). I few clues: The skulls next to it are sea otter skulls. This animal use to live here in Ana Nuevo, CA but hasn't for a long time. It spends most of its time on land. Now, it is time for you to guess.

Going from the ocean, we headed up into the hills to Candi's vineyard and farm. There is a small herd of alpacas and a few lamas. They are very elegant animals with incredibly soft hair.

Candi was good enough to wrangle one of the younger alpacas so i could have the opportunity to hold one. I was trying to figure out how i could maybe fit this one in my truck and get it back to PA.

Farmer's Market Califorina Style and Tara Firma Farm

It is the off season for the Mt. View Farmer's Market, but it is still at least four times as large as the Head House Market at home in Philadelphia. The weather is warm and sunny so there are plenty of shoppers. There are a variety of vendors; mushroom, heirloom organic veggies, honey, seafood, oysters, artisan breads, dates, flowers, prepared food from several different countries, fruit of all types, dried kale and the list goes on. Each booth is beautifully presented and there is even one vendor that reminds me of Colton, a one of a kind farmer in PA.

Later in the day, we headed north to Petaluma, CA to visit Tara Firma Organic Farm

http://www.tarafirmafarms.com/. They are primarily a meat farm but also have a veggie CSA. Only two years old, without any farming background, they read Joel Salatin books and have been following his guidelines ever since. They even went as far as having Joel come out to visit for a 12 hour consultation, which they said was a big help. Below is a photo of one of the latest models of the chicken tractor. This model is designed to be able to sit on sloping hills (though in this picture it is on relatively flat ground).

Every farm i have visited so far have gone out of their way to talk with me and show me around. And most, as we are saying our fair wells, sends me off with some of their produce or meats. It has been a wonderful experience.

Fencing

Post pounding is nothing knew to me but today when installing a fence around an enclosure you have to be a bit more exact about your efforts. The fence is to contain the 23 California Red sheep and containing is the key word here. Though they are not as strong as cattle, they still have the ability to escape. Plus, you have to remember that there will be cute little lambs soon and things that might find lamb especially tasty. As we set the post, we have to make sure they are straight up and down and in a precise straight line. These are all critical when you begin to tension the fence. None of the rolls of wire are long enough to make the whole run, so there are wonderful tools for joining two sets of fence.

It takes two days to get the posts set and the fencing spliced and rolled out. Tomorrow will be welding the support posts and hopefully Sunday the fence can be stretched. Unfortunately, i leave tomorrow for San Jose, CA, and will miss getting to see the sheep in their new pasture.......... plus all the cute lambs that are soon to arrive.

Stopped at Silva's organic orchard and bought a basket of Myer Lemons. They come in all sizes and have a slightly different taste than the lemons often found in the grocery store. They are a little milder with a twist of zest to them. It was a warm day today, so i made a glass of lemonade with the lemons. Yum!

A Sunny Day Off

The sun has finally made its way through the clouds and it looks like i have the day off today. I take the opportunity to explore the farm. But first, breakfast out in the sun. During my basking in the sun, i get my first peak at a real live gopher. (I had found a dead one.) It is pushing soil up in a mound around its hole. It pops its head up and down out of the hole. I can't figure out what it is really doing, other than digging a hole.... but, why? A hawk flies over and the gopher does not reappear. Finishing my granola, i head to see what the sheep are up too. On the way i see my first blue bird in the vine yard, mustards and calendula blooming a long a wall, and last falls coyote mellons dotting an irrigation ditch. Spring is well under way here.

I am almost to the sheep pen, when the snake, i was about to step on, warns me off. It looks like a rattle snake but i am not so good at identifing snakes. I watch as it slides away under the rocks and see that it does not have a rattle attached to the "none business" end. Looking it up, when i get back to my computer, i find out that it is a gopher snake. Every thing around here seems to center around the gophers.

I watch the sheep for a few hours, they really are beautiful creatures. They do poop and pee a lot...... theirs is supposed to be one of the better manures for gardens and farms. The sheep were going to be pastured in the olive orchard but when they decided the olive trees were just as tasty as the grass, that was the end of that. Maybe, when the trees get a little older, they can try again.

WWOOFing in the News

You just never know what is going to happen. Today, we had ABC 30 come to the farm and interview and film us. The story is to be about WWOOFing. Matt is combining the perspective of the WWOOFer, the hosting farmers and the person who started the WWOOFing program. I get to be the WWOOFer in the piece. We were filmed trellising the olive trees and then we came back to the house to see where i was staying. The story is supposed to air in a week or two. I will add the link when .......... and if it shows. It was fun and Matt and his camera guy were very nice. It took up most of the day, so we really couldn't get started on any thing new.

Tonight is cooler and turkey soup and cornbread are being prepared as i write. Yummm!

California Reds

Besides olive trees, there is also a small herd of California Red sheep at Casa Rosa. They are a cross between a wool sheep and a meat sheep. They have a long Romanesque face bathed in a warm rusty red. The breeding of the ewes is mostly complete for the season and last years lambs are getting close to market size. Before the ewes lamb for this year, they will be shorn. Their fleece are a combination of wool and hair. To me, they all look like big puff balls of wool on little skinny legs. Currently they are mostly eating alfalfa cut from on the farm. The new pasture fence is almost complete where they will be moved to graze for the rest of the year.

Through my travels, every once and a while i pick up some new little item that i find very useful to me. Today, i learned about a new tool sharpener! It has been kind of one of my own personal quest to find the ulimate tool sharpener. This tool by Corona is fantastic! It is small and can put a very nice edge on your blades in a matter of seconds. I am just going to have to remember to keep count of my fingers after sharping my clippers .

Olive Trellising and Pruning - 102

The words "unskilled labor" has an interesting meaning. Today while trellising, i learned that there are some people who are much more "unskilled" than others ............... but, how is that possible if everyone is unskilled in that field of work. As i began the day, i figured i would be finally finishing the olive trellising, but it seems that who ever it was before me that trellised had a very different idea as to what trellising meant. So, it took me 4 times as long because i had to untie everything that was done. Then try and figure out how to correct the pruning. So, today i as night begin to descend, i was able to completed just one row. If i had had a skilled "unskilled" person doing the work before me, i am pretty sure i could have completed 5 or 6 rows. Luckily, I had another person working in the field with me today and we did complete the job........ until after the harvest and then the pruning and tying starts all again.

Raspberries, Apples and Black Mulch, Oh my!

Today is a day off, so i headed out towards Santa Cruz to see how they grow vegetables around here. The scale is just as grand as they do almonds, olives, pomegranate and apple trees here in Madera. Above is a picture of a raspberry field, what you don't is that is stretches forever and on the opposite side of the road, it does the same thing. Below, is a organic, high density dwarf apple tree orchard. The trees are only 4 feet high, planted in a double row and the next row is only about 6 feet away. There is no need for ladders for pruning or picking!

This was the most incredible thing i saw........... the amount of black plastic mulch laid out in these fields. I really don't know how to explain how gigantic the scale of their production is compared to what we do back in PA. It's just huge!!!!!

New Friend

It is cool, misty morning. It does not look like the clouds are going to burn off today. I think this is the olives favorite kind of weather..... though, i really don't know whether this is true or not. I am continuing to get faster at trellising and pruning, that is until i hit row 49. I don't know what happened on this row but by about a quarter of the way down it, I bailed. There are only 54 rows and number 49 is going to be the one i do last....it's a mess! While out in the field, i did stumble onto a new friend. He has actually been hanging out in the field for awhile before we formally met. It is Mr. Tumble Weed! Actually, Mr. Weed has a buddy over in row 51. That makes the field quite crowded with two tumblers, about a 1000 olive trees and myself. Tomorrow, I should be finishing up with trellising and we will see where i go from there.

Olive Trellising and Pruning

It is almost time for lunch and my eyes are getting to the point where they are so tired that it feels like they are going to cross at any moment. I have been looking at way too many olive trees. This may sound like bad news, but actually it is good. At this point, i have given up looking so hard and analysing every single tree. My eyes are tired enough that i have to look for the over all shape and rarely focus on the detail. By the time i leave for lunch, i have completed 1/2 a rows. After lunch, something has shifted in the way I "see" the trees. I complete 2 row in less time than it took me to do 1/2 a row this morning. Now, each tree that I step up to, i can almost instantly tell if some thing needs to be changed or to just let it be. The picture above is an example of instantly knowing something is amiss. The photo below is after a few minor adjustments. Tada! I am hoping this knowledge that i have gained in olive tree trimming can transfer to other tree....... olives tree don't like PA weather.

Olives

This morning the fog has lifted and the sun burned away the chill that had been in the air for the past few days. Tiny trees with tree trunks no thicker than a quarter, stand in geometrically straight rows. A row here, in this valley, can be acres long or up to what seems like a mile..........some, I just can't see where they end. Though the rows may seem at times to run to infinity, each tree must be careful trellised and trimmed several times before they are old enough to be harvested from. Then pruned once a year after that. To harvest these high density varieties, a large machine will be pretty much engulf each tree as it travels down the rows. Here long fingered tines will agitate the tree limbs up and down and back and forth causing most of the fruit to relinquish its hold on the tree. From there, the olives will be collected and sent to be pressed for olive oil. Today, while running into town for a couple of errands we stopped at the local olive oil shop. Here we tasted several varieties and blends. I never knew there could be so many variations in the flavor, texture and color. Sure wish i could grow olive trees in PA. For dinner, we tried out one of our several purchases and created a blend of our own. Mmmmmmmm!

Gophers

It is a cool and overcast Sunday. A lazy day off at the farm. Getting up late, I dive into the book, Garlic is Life. It is a wonderful story about a love affair with garlic and, leading also, to a love affair with life. In the earlier parts of the book gophers are not well received as they tend to savor garlic as much as the author. Having just left my sister in Tucson, AZ, she is currently also not finding the small rodents particularly endearing............. one in particular that seems to have had taken a fancy for her apparently sumptuous, bi-annual flowers for the past year. Here in the San Joaquin Valley gophers also, seem to be quite bountiful. This afternoon, I took a short break from reading and strolled around the yard to see what grows in this area. I noticed several unusual feathers on the ground but really didn't give them much thought. I found a gopher skull under a large, isolated palm tree, that looked like it had been delivered from an owl pellet; things begin to fall into place. All the white wash under the tree begin to pop out. The feathers didn't just happen to blow in, nor were they a by-product of molting. Many times, last night I heard an owl calling fairly close to my window. Ahhh, maybe there is some one that does truly have an affinity for gophers.

Family

For the past week, i have been visiting with members of my family. We have become scattered far and wide over time, but as we come together it seems as if time has really changed little. I am very lucky to have such wonderful people to travel through my life with.

Today, I go to Casa Rosa in Madera, CA to continue with WWOOFing.

Pesco, NM

Tucked in the mountains of the Santa Fe National Forest are the beginnings of a new farm and way of life. Currently, 3 or 4 miles off a maintained dirt road in a small meadow, a canvas tent sits under a velvety black blanket of sparkling stars. The voice of the wind, making its way through the miles of Pinion and Ponderosa pines, is the most prominent sound. There is no running water and heat comes from wood collected on the 40 acres. Here ones basic needs are met in very basic ways. You are tightly bound to all that surrounds you, for the consequences are direct and swift if you choose to be lax. To some this may seem harsh, but to me, it brings to life all that is has been put to sleep in the modern world. I feel we have given up so much more than we have gained in the striving for an "easier"or more "comfortable" life. Winter use to be a time of reflection and rest, but now we work year round with little rest. Contemplation is only something a monk does. But here in the mountains, as you set foot outside the tent, and are greeted with the hush of the snow and the grace of the expansive forest. One can not help but be humbled by the simple, yet profound beauty of nature. Contemplation, reverence and respect come effortlessly.