Happy Interdependence Day!

The sky has been a uniform textureless gray. Every day, throughout the day, high, dense relentless fog caps over the Farm. We awake to a dimly lit 55 Fahrenheit, 85 percent humidity and the day peaks in the mid 60s – no blue sky, little breeze…a still, sullen, quiet day that only turns a bit brighter midway through, slowly trailing into darkness in the evening as fog grows even thicker.  Nighttime, no stars, but the huge moon brightly illuminates a big patch of sky a little more than the rest. 

The odd cold cricket tentatively chirps. A single owl hoots in the distance. Sneaky coyote and sly fox silently roam, leaving tracks and little other sign to know that they were there.

Dawn comes with a middling bird chorus – too cold to be motivated, but still doing their duty. 

Turkey Fight!

Recently, Sylvie chronicled a turkey brawl, awakening to ‘very distressed’ turkey noises. They were in a ‘serious fight,’ ‘using their mouths to grab each other’s mouths or necks and careening around.’ Her photo taking frightened them and they broke it off with one chasing the other up the hill. Check it out- there are numerous web movies of this kind of thing. One more type of turkey noise explained, but they have a huge vocabulary. The 3 hens and 2 chick group is still hanging out together, and I noticed that one of the adults is a particularly dark morph. Not sure why, but a turkey clan left a pile of feathers next to the orchard gate- wondering if it got away from coyote or what happened? Did you know that there are albino turkeys (not here!)? Woah. Every day, new turkey drama.

Speaking of birds, the quail babies are all flying now. Tiny, but flying!

Solar Power

The bigger array, the more power. That’s the lesson of these foggy days. Increasingly, we rely on solar power to pump our irrigation water. Our crops need water even when the sun doesn’t shine, but the solar power for the well pumps tapers off. This makes us even gladder for the larger solar array that the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County hooked us up with this past year: it pumps even when there’s the weakest sun hiding behind the thickest of fog! So, we keep up with filling our water tanks, just barely.

Jillions of Apples

The notion of apples bearing fruit in alternate years seems a bit abstract until one sees a Big Year (and last year was puny). This year is really, really big. The birds know it- count the 15 jays and 10 acorn woodpeckers hacking away at the apples every minute of every day. And still there will be many, many fruit. Every branch of every tree is weighted with silver dollar sized fruit that is quickly growing. This is part of the watering issue- fruit-filled trees are very thirsty, making it difficult to keep up. Apple roots are soaking up the water and sending it to fruit production just about as fast as we can irrigate them. Water all day and still the soil doesn’t get very wet. SLURP! I had estimated 11,000 pounds of apples to harvest and I’m starting to think that’s low. It is propping time- branches will break soon!

Early Mowing

We started mowing when we should have, 2 months ago and those early-mowed areas are filled with colorful poppies and bright green grass. Mowing early conserves soil moisture, especially in a late rainfall year like this one. The method of slowing plant transpiration of soil moisture is a central factor in successful dry farming (tomatoes, squash) and is evident even in the fallow or hay fields. Those early-mowed fields are lush and the early mowed material is breaking down leaving bunchgrasses and poppy plants brightly burgeoning.

The Last Mow

Except for those early mowed areas, we are in a marathon to complete the Last Mow of the season. The head-high grasses of the unmowed fields and margins are turning tawny, throwing oodles of seed, hiding legions of snakes and mice. We edge into the dry grasses a little at a time to give the critters fleeing space. The cut grass mulch is a dense six inches thick with little chance of decomposing now that the dry summer is upon us. It will be et by grasshoppers, mice, and such. And, it will provide the best seed germination medium and erosion control mat for the next rainy season. The mower growls and dust flies as the farm prepares for fire season.

Meanwhile, Vegetables

The mild spring makes for giant cropping systems. The carpet of Two Dog Farm dry farmed winter squash is extravagant. The rows of peppers, luxuriant. Row upon row of dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes is awesome. The unfurling of 2 Dog chardonnay grape vines is magnificent. Everywhere we look, lush, healthy crops. Astounding start to the summer. What’s next?