Abounding Harvest Mountain Farm Weblog

Meyers for Marmalade

2012-02-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

This winter continues to bless us with fruit-ripening weather. Last week we picked and packed 600#'s of Meyer Lemons for Farmers Al & Becky at Frog Hollow Farm for their Meyer Lemon Marmalade. With a bit of hustle, we managed to get the last of them safely indoors--and backfill the aforementioned irrigation trench--before a nice spell of rain moved through. (Our rain gauge now stands at 12.96" for the season).

Our kiwis and table grapes had their winter haircut last week as well, while the pomegranates are practically all leafed out already and the roses have yet to slow down. We've finished re-mulching the citrus and pomegranates with fresh wood chips, and a ton of fruit tree fertilizer is due to arrive tomorrow from Cal Organics to be tucked neatly beneath them.

In other news, the log pile that was taking up two parking spots in our driveway is now bucked, split and stacked, and our new (used) walk-in cooler is all hooked up and blowing cold.

Next up: "Genoa" Italian Lemons; "Encore" & "Gold Nugget" Mandarins!

Thrive & Pray for Rain

2012-01-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

Greetings to 2012! First of all, a long overdue thank you to our 2011 CSA members. We had a blast growing for you and are already gearing up for this year. Our seeds and seed potatoes are all ordered for the 2012 CSA, and both the depth and breadth of our offerings are greatly expanded over last season.

We've had an amazingly productive (and dry) winter so far.

The concerning news is that with only 5.83 inches of rain to date, our cover crop is just over a foot tall, and we continue to need to irrigate our trees. In addition, Cal Fire suspended our burn season until wetter times.

The rosier side of that equation is that our roses and winter greens are still absolutely cranking, and we have a fantastic citrus crop. We sold our first 140 pounds of mandarins to Farmer Al at Frog Hollow Farm last week. We're selling them our Meyer Lemon crop for their Meyer Lemon Marmalade in a few weeks.

In other news, we've accomplished an incredible amount of tree work and brush removal, opening up new areas for cultivation later this year. We also picked up a walk-in cooler earlier this week to help keep our greens crispy in the summer heat.

An expansion of our irrigation system is on the agenda for next week. Mmmmmmm...ditch witch. Hopefully the open trench will prove too tempting to the heavens, and we'll finally receive some of the precipitation Alaska keeps hoarding!

It Rarely Rains in Dreams...

2011-10-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

We've had a bit of a wet fall so far this year with over 2.5 inches of rain falling to date. As such, our tomato harvest was truncated somewhat by cracking fruit. The plants hadn't been watered in over 2 months, so they started moving water a bit fast for their own good when the rains came. We canned the fruit that cracked and are going to do another big round of our paste tomatoes tomorrow. Our peppers on the other hand were watered periodically throughout the summer and are still going strong. The last of the onions went into this Tuesday's CSA Box. We're switching to leeks starting Friday. Also in that box were our Yellow Bartlet pears and Russian Banana potatoes. All of our greens (kale, collards, tatsoi, cauliflower) have thoroughly appreciated the rain so far and are going stronger than ever.

That said, we now plan to end our CSA three weeks early this year (11/01 instead of 11/22) in the interest of keeping both quality and quantity high. To our CSA members reading this, growing for you this year was our pleasure, and we hope you enjoyed receiving your boxes as much as we enjoyed preparing them for you.

In Praise of San Marzano...

2011-09-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today marked our first round of tomato canning for 2011. In a slight departure from our normal routine, we fire-roasted a few rounds of the San Marzano's in our pizza oven before adding them to the sauce. This process greatly speeds up the cooking time, while enhancing the taste of the final product. We also mixed in Plum Lemon tomatoes for additional sweetness and their psychedelic color!

Peppers Galore...

2011-09-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

We included a Chiles Relleños recipe along with the Poblanos today. Nancy had a tray of them waiting for me tonight when I returned home from dropping off the boxes. I am one lucky duck!!! (There are no leftovers). Also pictured above is our first round of pickled Italian White Wax Peppers. Our neighbor Maria was a huge help in preserving them yesterday. She is an incredible cook. Indeed, she makes a world class Chile Relleño!

Additional photos include tomatoes harvested today and the first "naked ladies," a sure sign that cooler temps are on their way. We've had daily highs in the mid-90's for the past week, and the heat is forecast to continue through Friday. Our olive grafts continue to thrive. My biggest concern, that they would get sunburned, never came to pass. Early next spring, we will remove the nurse limbs and graft additional Manzanillo scions in their place.

Heirlooms... Heroes of the Harvest!

2011-09-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

(Click on image to view full size).

I had tears in my eyes harvesting these beauties this morning. Just north of 85 lbs in all. The CSA got a very colorful box today between the tomatoes, Mercury red onions, French Fingerling potatoes, Tolli's Sweet Italian peppers, tomatillos with jalapeños, yellow squash, zucchini, Genovese basil, and mesclun mix.

Thanks to a Little High Pressure...

2011-09-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

Temps in the mid-90's this week ensured that some phatty tomatoes went in the boxes today. Yes... they taste as good as they look.

Tomatoes at last...

2011-09-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

We've had a wonderfully successful summer. We were Certified Organic by CCOF at the beginning of July. Our CSA met its target enrollment of 60 members soon thereafter and has not slowed a bit since. The climactic theme this summer is "cool nights," which was immensely helpful in slowing down the ripening of certain crops, allowing us to stagger our harvest while not compromising on freshness. It also allowed our fruit trees to put on an incredible amount of growth with minimal sun-scald to tender new leaves and stems. Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the CSA, and we hope you've enjoyed your boxes as much as we've enjoyed harvesting for you! To those still on the waiting list at this point, we definitely plan to go bigger next year, and look forward to including you.

Summer/Fall 2011 Crop List

2011-06-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

A huge "Thank You" to everyone already subscribed to Neighbor Farms CSA. We are very excited to be growing for you this season along with our partners at Old House Farm. Many of you have asked what we have in the ground, so here are a few recent photos along with a complete list of our vegetable crops (and varieties) for the summer/fall season, 2011:

Basil: Genovese
Beans: Butterbeans (soy), Scarlet Runner
Broccoli Raab: Brassica Rapa
Cauliflower: Incline
Asian Greens: Tatsoi
Collard Greens: Flash & Georgia Southern
Carrots: Hercules, Nelson
Herbs: Cilantro, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme
Kale: Ripbor & Toscano
Leeks: American Flag
Onions: Cabernet, Mercury, Mt. Whitney, Walla Walla
Peppers: Anaheim Chile - Numex Joe E Parker, Chile de Arbol, Corno di Toro, Early Jalapeno, Hot Ancho Chile - Tiburon, Sweet Pimento - Lipstick, Tolli's Sweet Italian
Potatoes: Banana Fingerling, French Fingerling, Purple Majesty, Red Pontiac, Rose Finn Apple, Yukon Gold
Squash: Golden Scallopini Bush
Tomatillos: Cisineros, Mexican strain
Tomatoes: Ananas Noir, Amish Paste, Black Cherry, Black Krim, Chadwick Cherry, Chocolate Stripes, Costoluto Genovese, Dagma's Perfection, Dr. Wyche Yellow, German Pink, Gold Medal, Italian Heirloom, Japanese Black Trifele, Paul Robeson, Persimmon, Pink Brandywine (Sudduth's), Plum Lemon, Polish Linguisa, Principe Borghese, Purple Calabash, Santa Clara Canner, San Marzano Redorta, Super San Marzano, Sweet Tangerine, Virginia Sweet

Introducing Neighbor Farms CSA!

2011-06-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

(Click Above Image to View Full Screen)

Abounding Harvest Mountain Farm is proud to announce our new partnership with Old House Farm. Together, we are offering Neighbor Farms CSA. Our 21-week Summer Session begins July 1st 2011. Weekly boxes will be bursting with summer's diverse and flavorful bounty! Please visit NeighborFarmsCSA.com for more information on how to subscribe.

Spring Planting Update

2011-05-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting out in the shop with the dog and a child monitor as I type this, while a mid-winter jicker squalls at the roof and windows. The odd part of this equation is that it's mid-May, and winter appeared to depart quite a few weeks of 85 degree days ago. Over two and a half inches of rain have fallen in the last two days, interrupting our third planting of onions and a near-perfect spring for roses, and bringing our yearly rain total to 53.15". That said, the day off is more than welcome. We've been on quite a tear since the last update to grace this page.

To recap, following January and February's auspicious weather, the entire west coast was blasted by an arctic belch of biblical proportions. Most fortunately, our avocados were still tight in bud and escaped unscathed. There was minor tip burn on the new flush of the citrus, grapes and kiwis, but the pomegranates truly took it in the teeth. Their three week old leaves were cooked to a crisp by the frost. Incredibly, they took it in stride, leafed out again and are back online and cranking. Needless to say, it was difficult to witness.

What followed was an inclement March, punctuated by a few weeks of deluge: the truly soggy, landslide-inducing type (no slides on our property, but Mountain Charlie Road was a mess where the County undercut its banks last summer in the name of clearing ditches). April brought enough dry weather for us to weed, fertilize, re-mulch and mow the kiwis, pomegranates, citrus, avocados, persimmons, and olives and to begin incorporating cover crop and planting. Somewhere in there quite a bit of forestry was accomplished, replete with massive amounts of invasive brush removal and more than a few ripping burn piles. We also had a wonderful, pizza-stuffed Easter egg dyeing/hunting party with Estelle's friends from Santa Cruz and her school in Los Gatos. All photos from that day featured above were taken by our friend Monique.

May has seen the rest of the cover crop incorporated, kale, basil, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tomatillos and countless onions planted. We have also sown carrots, scarlet runner beans, "edamame" soy beans and teddy bear sunflowers. When this rain lets up, the final beds of onions and potatoes will go in, as well as a plethora of winter squashes and pumpkins. We've had a strong flush from the citrus, avocados, kiwis, table grapes and roses. We also have some very exciting news in the pipeline as far as new outlets this season, but mum's the word until the details are hashed out and brochures assembled. P.S. Chloe just had 4 kittens!

Thanks for tuning in and happy planting!

Winter>Spring Update

2011-02-11T21:23:00.000-08:00

Thus far, 2011's weather is truly strange. In early January, La Nina shut down the tropical jet that brought us so much rain early on, and it's been nothing but high pressure and sunshine for weeks, punctuated by only a couple of rain events (currently 25.56" ytd). That said, we're looking at some confused plants over here. Our bell bean cover crop is quickly reaching maturity and in places is already in bloom and in need of a haircut. Our avocados are getting ready to flower already. The pile of fruit pictured above is from the 4th time I went through removing fruit this year (we are letting them size up another year before setting a crop). This final round coincided with their winter pruning--to get lower branches off the wet ground-- and training--to make sure they're following just one leader as it were. The citrus was likewise trimmed up, and while it was somewhat slow in coming on this year due to last year's June gloom, is now going gangbusters. The plums have decided it's spring already and are covered in blossoms. The pomegranates also leafed out in the 2 day span it took me to prune them. Even stranger, grapes are breaking buds next to kiwis that have yet to go to bed.

The warmth has helped our starts come up in the greenhouse. Onions and tomatoes are pictured above. All of the animals are appreciating this weather as well. Our ducks are laying like it's summer, and cats and dog alike are gravitating towards shade. The coast newt pictured above decided to lay her eggs up and down the leaf filter on our smaller pond system. I relocated her and them to the opposite side so that the babies aren't sucked into the filter when they hatch out. The final shots are of landscape plants, many of which are blooming long before is typical. Cold rain out of the Gulf of Alaska arrives this Monday (bye bye plum blossoms), and it looks like it plans to stick around...

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

The time between Thanksgiving and now has passed in a flash. 19.23" of rain have fallen to date with more expected for Christmas day (Update 12.26: Christmas day total=1.24"->20.47" ytd). We've been working hard on our woods, thinning ladder fuels and recovering firewood for next year. We're enjoying the bounty of onions, potatoes, carrots, plum jelly, frozen peaches and peppers, and canned tomato, tomatillo, and pear sauces that remain from the summer. Persimmons and pomegranates have for the most part come and gone, which brings us to olives.

We harvested our first crop of Manzanillo olives off our young trees this year. At this point, they are cured and stored in brine. The final result is 10 half gallons, not to mention the ones that were eaten or given to neighbors along the way. They are nutty, oily and delicious in ways only a fresh olive can be. We plan to propagate cuttings from the trees this winter to establish a proper grove.

Merry Christmas to all! ...P.S. Check out this image from Oct. 2009.

Seasons of Trades

2010-11-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

Our final harvests of row crops happened this week, namely the end of the peppers. We traded 10# of Apple sweet peppers with Marissa of Casalegno Family Farm for a 20# box of real apples of assorted varieties. Our Chile de Arbol (Mexico) and Sha Ema (Bhutan) hot peppers will go to Rolando and Jennifer of Uncle Ro's Take & Bake Pizzas as a trade for a 50# bag of Giusto's Organic "00" Unbleached Pizza Flour. 27# of Jalapenos (Mexico) went to Leon at Everett Family Farm for his CSA in a trade for a case of hachiya persimmons, as well as winter squash and sugar pumpkins. While we were at it, a dozen duck eggs went to Farmer Kiki for two 4oz heart-shaped pieces of her delicious farmyard goat cheese.

With our annuals out, the last of our bell bean and oat cover crop went in. It went in just in time too, because as I was out making swaps on Friday morning, the skies opened up. We've had 2.87" of rain since, bringing our yearly total to 6.93" according to the Vantage Pro2, and the rain continues to fall. The hardest rainfall on Saturday night (a rain rate of 6.62"/hr) was accompanied by thunder, lightning and small pockets of hail. Needless to say, our cover crop seeds should be well on their way to being imbibed by the time the sun comes out next. We are also very lucky to have a neighbor so dedicated to native plants that he had 10 extra gallons of hand-picked California Brome grass seed on hand to trade for bell beans and used T-tape for his planter boxes. We will sow the grass seed on our avocado slope in the areas in which the tar plants currently dominate.

In anticipation of Thanksgiving, we made our first pumpkin pie yesterday morning and have a pair of Tofurkys on hand for the big day. We give thanks for the many successes we had this season and for our wonderful community of friends.

A quick update...

2010-11-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

Daniel was elected President of the Friend's of the UCSC Farm and Garden Board of Directors this evening. He is very honored and excited by this opportunity and looks forward to working closely with CASFS staff to move the program forward. Thank you to everyone who attended the Annual Meeting, and for those who missed it, our monthly Board meeting falls on the first Monday of each month at the Gatehouse. Daniel continues to be grateful on a daily basis for the skills he learned going through the Apprenticeship, and continues to blog on a semi-weekly basis at casfs.blogspot.com. He is also grateful for his beautiful family, fresh peppers, sunsets, and the 3.91" of rain that have fallen so far this year.

Fall on the Farm

2010-11-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

The blur that was this summer is rapidly receding into life's rearview mirror. Last week, we pulled out the last of our tomatoes, using the final harvest to make a final round of pizza sauce for Estelle's third birthday party. The first shots above are of the fabled Morelle de Balbis (Litchi Tomato), which was still blooming and cranking out strawberry-sweet fruits as it met the steel cutworm of winter. Images that follow include this year's abundant olive crop, heirloom pink popcorn, Doyenné Du Comice pears, and a pomegranate still ripening in anticipation of the Thanksgiving feast. I also noticed today that the leaves on our fuyu persimmons just started their turn to orange.

Following the first two storms of the year (2.82" of rain collectively), our cover crop is germinating everywhere besides our upper garden, where we still need to rip out and process a couple hundred pounds of peppers. We slice, blanch and freeze them for use until summer returns. Last year's grape cuttings put on tremendous growth this year and have yet to show signs of slowing down. The Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence' cuttings that we planted are also filling out nicely and pushing blossoms.

On the animal front, our koi produced quite a few progeny this year. Estelle had us move them to a second pond system, dedicated solely to "baby fish." At night, it comes alive with the sounds of the tree frogs, and soon the adorable coast range newts will arrive to lay their eggs as well. The ducks, cats and dog all seem happy that the heat has transitioned into fresh shoots and wet smells.

Last but not least, we made the trek down to Natural Bridges last weekend to welcome the Monarch butterflies back to Santa Cruz. Their numbers typically peak in December, but there were already quite a few fluttering about. Hopefully their numbers will parallel this year's steelhead numbers in the San Lorenzo.

Family Photos

2010-10-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Our friend Pascale came by last weekend to photograph the family. She got some great shots. There's a sneak preview on her website. Enjoy!

Abundance

2010-09-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

It was an incredible summer on the farm. Our Tiburon poblano peppers are sized up and surprisingly spicy this year. We sold the first two batches last week and will have more in the weeks to come, along with our Gypsy Bells. The weather remains warm, but the Amaryllis bulbs are all in full bloom, a clear sign that Fall is on its way. Our Lavendula x intermedia "Provence" cuttings from last year are now cranking out flowers. They will go into production next year.

On the home-front, we're squirreling away potatoes, onions, sun dried tomatoes, and cases of plum jelly, pear slices and sauce, tomatillo salsa, and a boatload of tomato sauce. The kittens continue to grow both physically and mentally. They are much more comfortable exploring the property without their mother, and they all seem quite adept at hunting mice, rats and quail. Last week we turned on the timer for the duck's nightlight again to raise the number of hours of light they receive in a day back to 14. Their egg production definitely seems to be benefiting from this change. Our Crimson Sweet watermelons and Cranberry beans are cranking as well.

Most importantly however, Nancy and I are very pleased to announce the birth of our son, Sebastian Alexander. He entered this world at 19.5" & 6 pounds even on 09.18.2010 at 9:26 PM PST. For those of you following your calendars, yes, he was 3 1/2 weeks early, but both mom and baby are healthy and happy, and Estelle is a proud big sister.
Many blessings to All!

Heirlooms & Cats

2010-09-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

Our heirloom tomatoes are absolutely cranking this year! Nancy saved all of the seeds from last year and did a fantastic day of meticulously labeling and propagating them. These are some of the big hitters in order of appearance: Paul Robeson, Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain), Japanese Black Trifele, German Pink, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Gold Medal, and Chocolate Stripes. We split the Gold Medal pictured here for dinner tonight with salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was a meal unto itself. (Use the bottom right button to take the slideshow fullscreen).

The flashbulb on the camera fascinated the kittens, so I got some shots of them while I was documenting tomatoes. Again in order of appearance, Opal (our mommy cat), Casper, Chloe, Luna, and Luna with Bailey the Bunny. We've bunny-sat Bailey for the past month. I was a bit hesitant going into it, but Bailey is a joy to be around. He spends his days on our lawn, gratefully munching on our sunflower and rose clippings, and returns to his small hutch at night. Recently, we quadrupled the size of his daytime run, much to his delight. He does laps about once an hour, and then lies down winded for 15-20 minutes. The kittens are likewise enthralled with Bailey, and he with them.

Summer Continues

2010-08-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

We've had a beautiful summer so far. It's hard to believe how fast it has gone. We are sold out of potatoes at this point, except for what we will store for our personal use over the winter. We have sold our "Candy" onions to the HGP for the past two weeks. We grew Walla Walla and Red Torpedoes for our personal use from seeds we saved last year, from onions we grew the year before. Tomatoes and tomatillos are just starting to come on, as are our early jalapeños. We harvested our peaches a couple of weeks ago. Those that weren't eaten fresh, we halved, pitted and froze. I like to use them in my smoothies for breakfast. Our Santa Rosa plums will be ready this week. Estelle ate a few before bed tonight to try them out. Needless to say a pajama change was in order. She is also enjoying her Black Manuka table grapes for the second year in a row.

We already made and stored a couple of gallons of pear butter from the Yellow Bartlett at the top of our citrus slope. We also dehydrated two rounds of pear slices in our greenhouse. It maintains a perfect 140 degrees with the doors and windows closed. The kittens are now out, running free during the day, but we still bring them in at night. Yesterday, they came in absolutely covered in hedge parsley burrs, and each required quite a bit of lap time to clean.

We love our new pizza/bread oven. It is amazingly efficient. Nancy's Mommies' Group came over this week for a pizza party this Thursday, and today we had a wonderful collection of friends over for a cooking extravaganza... roasted garlic, flat bread, pizzas, potatoes with onions, and sourdough loaves all came out of the same firing. Ingredients included: two different batches of homemade cheese from Farmer Kiki's goats, caramelized onions, tomatoes, pears, roasted garlic, Jose's ridiculously hot manzano peppers and Jasmine's pear sorbet for dessert. We're really getting the hang of how to moderate the oven's temperature so that cheese melts before crust is blackened. And it still had enough heat tonight, hours after the flames died down, to cook Estelle a tiny pizza before bed.

Truly the best thing about this summer however is the steady stream of family and friends that have passed through and stayed with us. You know who you are, and it has made our summer special.

Abundance and gratitude...

Sartaj's Second Birthday

2010-07-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today was Sartaj's second birthday. He has switched from his large breed puppy food to adult food over the last couple of weeks. He continues to make amazing progress in his ability to intuit and anticipate what is expected of him in novel situations. He is also somewhat refining his target acquisition skills, much to the relief of the bikers and joggers that pass by the farm on a regular basis. We are grateful daily for his companionship.

Summer is flying by, and our plants are thriving. Estelle's sunflowers now tower over her. Over the last few weeks, we've sold potatoes to the Homeless Garden Project and also to Casalegno Family Farm for their CSA's. Red Pontiac and Purple Viking are pictured above. We harvest Austrian Crescent fingerlings tomorrow. Also pictured above, our Cranberry beans tower above their 7' tall cages...Lychee tomatoes, Cisneros tomatillos, Gypsy Bell peppers, Candy onions, Yellow Bartlet pears, and Wonderful pomegranates are all sizing up nicely.

And last, but far from least, our firewood is split and stacked not only for next winter but also for the brick pizza/bread oven we just built. The second coat of stucco just went on it tonight. (Yes, flashlights were involved). There's a bit more tile work and grouting to be completed behind it over the weekend, and then the color coat of stucco goes on Monday. A week from then, we can begin a series of escalating firings to cure its mortar, and then it's no-holds-barred until we all wind up on diets. Estelle is already anticipating holding a "dog party" for Sartaj with all of her friends. She says she will cook him "a vanilla cake with twenty eggs." We'll see...

Solar Farming

2010-07-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

We were just featured on Residential Solar 101. There are some nice shots of the farm towards the end.

Three Little Kittens...

2010-06-26T11:13:00.001-07:00

[Click Images To Enlarge]From L:R-> Casper (named in honor of his late Uncle Jasper), Chloe & Luna. Casper is male, the others are female. They are still nursing, although they're spending more time independent of Opal. We're trying to handle them on a regular basis to domesticate them. They're still unsure what to make of that...

Summer Approacheth...

2010-06-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Much has happened since our last update. The cover crop on the avocado slope finally got its summer haircut this week, and the entire citrus slope was remulched today as my birthday present to myself. We have completed our spring plantings of both annuals and perennials at this point. Estelle's flowers are enjoying their home in her new plot, and our peppers are taking nicely to our new beds as well. Onions, tomatoes and potatoes are all sizing up. (The prickly tomato pictured above is the fabled Litchi). All of the table grapes we propagated from cuttings this winter had great root balls on them by the time they went in the ground. Our landscape is fully in bloom right now before the the crush of the summer heat overwhelms its efforts.

Although Sartaj has shed his winter coat, he actively seeks the shade throughout the day and gophers by night. Our ducks turned 1 a few weeks ago. They laid 878 eggs in their first year of life, and we commend them for their efforts! Finally, in an extremely bizarre turn of life's wheel, our cat Jasper was taken out by a predator earlier this week. Then his sister Opal gave birth to three kittens three days later. She had a rough time of it, getting skunked in the process. We now have her and the wee ones safely indoors however and will post photos in our next update.
Happy harvesting!

Spring Planting Update

2010-05-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

We continue to have a wet spring over here, but it has been punctuated by nice long dry spells, allowing us to get a significant portion of our planting done. We only have a few beds of peppers left to transplant. We have already planted out 28 varieties of tomatoes, 4 varieties of potatoes, 2 varieties of tomatillos, 3 varieties of onions and 2 of 4 varieties of peppers. We've also put in 110 new trees so far this spring and have 5 more to go, along with our new grapevines. The updated version of our site plan now includes these new plantings. A great thanks to Aaron Dillon at Four Winds Growers and Larry and Shelly at Brokaw Nursery for working with us to make it all happen. One other great development this spring is that we have an apprentice, Katie, who is a neighbor's granddaughter and has lived overseas in agrarian communities most of her life due to her mother's ongoing Peace Corps deployments. In addition to learning about irrigation systems and gopher trapping, she has been weeding and mulching up a storm as I mow and weed-whack, and the place looks terrific because of it. In other news, I have a sculpture in the upcoming Sculpture Is 2010 show at Sierra Azul Nursery, which commences on May 31. And last, but far from least, our second child is due October 12!