Fall is here...

It's Fall now. This past Summer we had to deal with drought conditions. Crop failures, from lack of irrigation water. Low fruit yields. Not much fun. We had only a few WWOOFers, since there wasn't much to process. Even so we had a good crop of calves and dairy production was smooth. This Fall and Winter though, California is expecting a very wet season, which we hope will fill all the aquifers, ponds, lakes and irrigation water reservoirs. We are planning a Fall/Winter garden now, and on planting more fruit trees during the dormant period of Winter. We get ready for a booming Spring now. There will be a lot to work on this Season.

The farm stand was a success, in spite of the drought, we were able to supply locally produced fruits and veggies all Summer, even, if not in the copious quantities usually available, we had heirloom tomatoes, squashes, grapes, Asian and regular pears, apples, nuts, salads, greens, local breads, eggs, the locally produced Apollo Olive Oil, all kinds of local cheeses (goat, cow, and even water buffalo) pies, cobblers, home made hummus, home cured olives, dried fruit and mushrooms, our own honey, canned jams, and preserves and all kinds of misc. goodies. This year we got a grain grinder and now can offer fresh ground organic grains, non GMO corn meal, organic wheat, and spelt. We are wanting to add sprouts and fresh mushrooms from our own mushroom grow house to the mix.

Around mid October, we are starting the next phase of the indoor private membership market, which is exciting. Having a separate area for all the packaging and processing of products will be great. It has been tough to do packaging and processing in our home kitchen, working around ordinary domestic meal chores. We look forward to the new developments which will appear once the area is finished. Later~Rebecca