March Farmer's Perspective: Nick
This time last year, we were really in the thick of it: transitioning the old apricot orchard into row crops, dealing with wild hogs and squirrels, figuring out what parts of moving to the new property were actually feasible before summer. It was a lot, and this spring in comparison feels so much better. Not only have we gotten the fence up and kept out a good portion of wildlife surprises, but we’ve also been able to focus more time getting big summer plantings into the ground instead of getting big trees out of the ground.
That’s not to say that this March has been smooth sailing. Typically February and March on the ranch should bring a good bit of rain. This past month (apart from a day or two), we’ve hardly had any. No rain means that we need to spend more time irrigating, because the plants still need the same amount of water to grow. When the rain comes, it really helps us out with the amount of work we have to do. Ironically, though, a farmer is never happy with the amount of rain we get. It’s either not enough or it’s too much. When it’s too much, it's really tough to get the tractors into the beds without getting stuck in the mud. This means that we get behind on cultivating, planting, and have to harvest in much more physically difficult conditions. Rough stuff.
Soon to be your favorite new egg provider.
Much more exciting than the lack of rain this month has been the fun project of building a brooding cabin for all our new chicks! This is totally new territory for me so I’ve been grateful and eager to learn from Daniella, our chicken caretaker. With her input and knowledge, I was able to put together a really awesome home for the chicks in about 6 days. Assuming all goes well, they should be able to grow and thrive in there. It seems like they’re liking it so far! Of course, I’m biased.
Along with welcoming the new chicks into their home, I’ve spent a lot of time this month on summertime plantings (tomatoes & potatoes officially in the ground!), nailing down pick up sites for our new Monterey County locations, and making sure our new wholesale customers (like Good Eggs!) have what they need before the end of the day. We’re growing rapidly which is awesome but requires me to wear a lot of different hats. My early morning hat is supporting our CSA drivers which, thanks to our expanding route down south, has become a bigger and bigger project. I’ve spent a lot of time working with Jacques this month to nail down our best opportunities for home delivery locations and new pick up sites (Vertigo Coffee Roasters, Happy Girl Kitchen, Other Brother Brewery etc). My afternoon hat is to manage our harvest crew to make sure all the transplants get planted on time and that the crops are growing and being weeded/watered regularly. We just put in a huge tomato and flower planting and are planning to get all our summer peppers in the ground in just a few days. With our new wholesale customers lined up, we’ve been able to plant more this year than we ever have before! Thankfully, we’ve hired on a new full time tractor driver and that, along with our growing harvest team, has helped the process become much smoother. It’s also allowed me to help out at the Del Monte Farmers Market on Fridays in Monterey. Getting to meet regular customers and talk with them about our product is a nice change of pace in my week. I really value getting to see the whole process from seed to sale.
Beds are prepped with plastic mulch before the big tomato planting. This will help with weed control and soil temperature.
As we continue to nail down the processes at the ranch, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and planning about the future of the packing shed. This is our one final ‘item’ to have completely moved over to Gilroy from San Martin and it’s anything but simple. After a lot of conversations, it’s looking like the best option is to do one phase at a time, starting with moving the baby green production. This means that we’d need to get a wash line and cooler set up in the pole barn at the ranch so that as soon as all our baby greens (spinach, arugula, baby kale etc.) are harvested, they can be immediately processed instead of waiting to be brought back to the shed. It’s a little step, but I’m hopeful that it will make a huge difference. Once that’s done, we can look at what else to move over.
At the end of each day, with all that hat juggling, physical demands, and future thinking, it brings me a lot of joy to just sit out and look at the field. When everything is growing and everyone has gone home for the day, it's assuring to just look up from being in the weeds and see the whole thing coming together.