heat wave

The idyllic weather, where we gazed at the bluest of sky in our short sleeves with a slightly cooling breeze, transitioned to the roasty-toasty wilting, apple roasting, bird panting, killingly-hot heat wave that has been repeating ‘round this time since 2019.

Hot Heat. Painful Heat all the way down to the Coast. Satellite images illustrated a blog of hot air advected northward from one of the many tropical storms spinning northward into the tragically warmed Californian seas. Lightning scourge lit up the Channel Islands, a few strikes onshore north of LA and into the Transverse Range and then, luckily, the ‘instability’ dissipated and the thunder subsided. One more such storm is lined up. Before that, the Central Coast will cool.

The last heat wave was ‘only’ 94F and set the sunward apples to scalding. This heat wave will undoubtedly cause one of our Great Drops with sunscalded apples; hopefully, with the farm reaching 100F we won’t see the 30% loss we did when it was 105F 3 years ago. Farming was hard enough before the Oiligarchy set us up for this climate crisis.

Yes…Panting Birds

The rubbing of antlers makes for oak bark scar. Luckily, we left 2 other post 2020 fire sprouts…

Deer Rubber

The bucks are scoring. They are scoring trees with their antlers. Deer particularly like the young oaks, which probably bend right…trunk diameters flossing into their itchy-est nooks. Smoothly silvery bark scars green and brown, bug-eyed ecstatic deer head tossing forces shred through bark down into wood, guaranteeing a scar that will last years as the tree works to heal.

2026 is (another!) mast year for coast live oaks

Acorns, Anyway

It is a Mast Year among the coast live oaks. That is, acorns abound on the oaks as thickly as the apple trees are festooned with apples. Jays and acorn woodpeckers squawk and cackle with glee, instincts driving their fanatical carbohydrate-gathering forays. Back-and-forth from tree to storage spots they bolt and flap. Into granaries go the woodpecker nuts. Into secret ground holes, carefully memorized, go the jay nuts. We await the giant flock of band tailed pigeons’ attention turning from cover crop grain to the oak harvest. The acorns are about to drop to turkey and quail level: they will focus on the roadways where vehicles grind the nuts into more easily gathered portions. With the right conditions, this will be a third year since the 2020 fire where a mast of acorns creates a carpet of woodland oak seedlings – trees for future generations.

It is a particularly celebratory acorn year as the first coast live oak saplings that we’ve stewarded since 2008 have created acorns. As 300-year-old Molino Oaks fall apart, a new generation is taking their place and the acorn harvest continues as it has for hundreds of human generations. We learn how to cherish oak trees, care for them, and help them proliferate across our beautiful farm. We look forward to nut-creation from the Oregon oaks and Valley oaks we planted years ago in the hedgerow…when? Will some of those be ‘sweet?’

Sunset on the shortening days of late summer 2026

The Work

How do we keep up the intensifying work through the heat waves? Luckily, they don’t last long. The harvest is upon us and the work to keep up with it is unending. 11,000 pounds of apples will need to go into picking bags and buckets in the next 8 weeks. 10,000 pounds of winter squash will need to go into boxes in a short while. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds of tomatoes go into buckets to be sorted and boxed. Peppers, galore, as well! And, Two Dog Farm is looking to harvest Chardonnay very soon! The shortening days make for the appreciation of every hour of sun for the work that needs done.

Apple Bounty

Did I say 11,000 pounds of apples? What does this look like? I will put more photos on our website post (go ahead- follow us!) where we also print this news (and more!). It is dizzying what that many apples looks like on that many trees.

The Fuji apples, which did so well last year are at it again. The Gala apples, which skipped last year are bending under apple weight. Many other varieties are weeping downward from the prolific fruit. Perhaps not as many as last year…the Wickson Crabs…but still…many!

According to The Prophecy, we will create 350 gallons of juice: 300 to sluice into fermentation bottles (so that it lasts). Will we have enough fermentation communitarians for this grand experiment, which is only beginning…many trees just getting big enough to contribute!

Shortening Days, Abbreviated Working Hours.

Apple Love

We were so proud to last weekend to pick up a whole season’s fallen and thinned apple fruit, ~700 pounds. But the heat wave triggered mass fruit shedding. Big fruit now litter the orchard floor. So, we must go again – only ~300 pounds this time. Perhaps we will save these windfalls for pressing. And, perhaps we will add Molino’s first hops to the juice.

The cool nights should help the Gala apples get sweet and floral, so that we can send the harvest to markets next week. Two Dog Farm will be carrying boxes to their markets for the first time in a long while…we have a big crop.

Each apple type is coloring up with varietal distinction. Braeburns are deeper red, mutsu medium apple green, fuji – grayish green-red, cheery red and yellow striped gala, maroon esopus spitzenberg, cheery red and green wickson crabs, and so on, and on….we have so many varieties. The colors of help gage (subtly) ripeness…in the right light. Apple growers benefit from expert color memory. There are plenty to taste test.

On Cherry Hill, Around the Avocado Bowl

A similar heat wave ushered in the CZU Fire in 2020, destroying our cherry orchard and one big block of older, bigger avocado trees. In 2021, the California Certified Organic Farmers organization sponsored their employee Drake Bialecki to take a sabbatical to work at Molino Creek Farm helping us with fire recovery. Drake’s steady hand, nurtured by years of fine pottery, graft-healed the cherries and avocados, patching buds onto cherry stems, matching new shoots to avocado root sprouts. A year later, we have 6’ tall, big bushes of avocados and 4’ tall vibrant starts of recovering cherries. Phoenix orchard blocks. We envision dense cherry tree shade sheltering families with giggling children raking in UPick sweet fruits in just a few more years.

A big bush from a 2021 graft: phoenix revival of burnt up avocado trees

Return of the Cool

Cool nights in the upper 50s, contrasted with heat wave nights in the upper 70s to mid-80s. Waves of low clouds, like a wall over the near ocean, send occasional arms inland and wisps of fog lick treetops.

The nocturnal cricket chorus is much muffled and seems more distant. Owl hoots less frequently. Everything needs rest after a week of extreme heat stress and all the work that entailed.

Wildlife

Some critters appear, others disappear. Each week there is change. I frequently encounter a huge antlered buck sometimes near the female and her young, sometimes alone. He holds his head high, three points on each side of a big set of antlers. Some bucks with these many points are barrel chested and bulky; this one is more graceful but still strong. He bravely moves only a little bit away from people. Deer always seem to be browsing.

For a long while, I could spot fresh snake trails every day. Seeing gopher snakes was normal. Now, no snakes and few snake tracks. Where did they go?

Sky the kestrel is back to being always around the farm, as is the red-tailed hawk. There were for a moment two Coopers hawks: we hope both stay – one is normal. The kestrel fusses at the others, screeching and dive bombing them.

Blue bellies and alligator lizards are easy to find. Baby blue bellies- 2” long- are commonplace, nervously scurrying to the lips of gopher holes as we walk by.

-originally published in my blog for Molino Creek Farm

Grey Hayes

Reindigenation through restoration and conservation

The Work! The Heat!!