Staff, volunteers and the farm took a much deserved rest for a couple of weeks over the Holiday break. We’ve crossed into 2012, with seeds purchased and a plan to grow a lot of food and improve the farm over the next year. The upcoming work is exciting and endless, and we know that a lot of you are ready to join us out here this coming Saturday. In a week or so, we’ll begin propagating tomatoes and eggplants under lights, as well as other spring crops. The lack of rain is a bit alarming, even though some years the rain doesn’t really show up until February. We would welcome another wet spring, but at this point I’m anticipating that its gonna be a warm, dry year, which means we’ll have an early planting of summer vegetables in early March, and an early harvest.
Farmer’s in the old days would be really worried right about now. But the fact that we can continue farming as usual even in a drought year reminds me of how spoiled we are, since we don’t depend as much on the rains to make our crops grow. Instead, we have reservoirs and aqueducts, metals, plastics and electronics that help us irrigate our crops. When you’re striving to be as sustainable as possible, it’s important to reflect on these bigger picture issues. It reminds you that good soil conservation practices, mulch and growing appropriate crops in the right season is the responsibility of all good farmers and gardeners.
Mark Medeiros
Farm Manager
