Got Hass?

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We picked and packed 600 Lamb Hass Avocados for Frog Hollow Farm's Happy Child CSA today, and we plan to do the same each week for the next two months. 

Sign up now to reserve your share!

Black Manuka Champagne Grapes

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It's hard not to respect vines capable of producing hundreds of pounds of fruit with zero inputs. These grapes were never irrigated, never fertilized, and never sprayed with stylet oil. In short, they grew themselves (with a little help from our friends)...

Another thank you is owed to Art from the California Rare Fruit Growers Monterey Bay Chapter, who assisted me this year with winter pruning. To quote him quoting a grapevine, "Prune me poor, I'll make you rich!"

To get a taste locally, friend the Penny Ice Creamery on facebook. They post their flavors daily.

Working Women

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A few highlights from the past week:
First, our ducks were featured on NPR, many thanks to Liza. Then, Deb from GirlzWurk Honey read the aforementioned article and came over with two swarms of bees that she recently rescued. We are grateful in advance for the pollination services the little ladies will provide and look forward to sharing their honey. ~We also traded a dozen duck eggs with Deb for a quart of her GirlzWurk Raw & Wild Honey Mustard, which is ridiculously tasty!~ Finally, our roses came through with a stupendous bouquet for Mother's Day. Much love and gratitude to all of AHMF's working women!

Spring Update

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As of this posting, we're up to 17.56" on the rain gauge, approximately one third of our usual rainfall. Last week's high pressure pushed temps into the high 80's for four days straight. We spent the weekend processing fruit. Our mulberries became ice cream and sherbet, the last of the kiwis were blended into sorbet, and two flats of strawberries turned into 16 pints of jam. Today, Meyer lemons and Xinjiang oranges went down to Assembly. Nancy and I went to one of their opening nights, and the food and ambiance are excellent!

This spring was busy and productive. Our cover crop is incorporated--though we are not planting any annuals this year on account of the drought. Winter grafts and cuttings are leafed out and taking off. All of the orchards are mowed, and our trees are fertilized. I skirted up the pomegranates a couple of weeks ago and am in the process of re-mulching them. The citrus is in full bloom and full of big smells and buzzing bees.

I put together another high definition panorama of our citrus slope a couple of weeks ago for the Citrus Care Workshop I co-taught at the UCSC Farm with living legend Orin Martin. It was a fun going back through old photos documenting our tree's growth and some of the fruit they've produced over the last five years.

The full slideshow is posted here. Enjoy!

Tango in the Rain

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We've had a bit more wet weather since our last post. Our rain gauge now reads 6.99" since July 1st, and our cover crop is finally taking off. Unfortunately, we've gone high and dry again for at least the next week. The rain we did have motivated me to dust off the camera however. All of our landscaping and the critters who share our land greatly appreciated the drink. After what was the longest summer, it is nice to see banana slugs out and about each morning! The European Honeybees and Anna's Hummingbirds are enjoying spring's nectar-filled blossoms. Our ponds are alive again with the chorus of tree frogs, and the California Coast Range Newts have joined them in the water.

We also recently captured some spectacular footage of the furry four-legged friends that share our woods. After finding multiple deer carcases this winter, I finally invested in an entry level game cam. Our video gallery to date can be accessed from the right-hand sidebar of this blog, or by clicking here. All videos are in HD, so be sure to right click on them and crank up your Flash Player buffer to "unlimited." Enjoy, and keep dancing for rain!