Last week we were preparing our fields for the winter. What we do for each field changes depending upon what crops are planed for that field next year.
The peach orchard has been disked and is waiting for a planting of cover crop. We use a mixture of beans (as cover crop,) which will be planted in the next couple of weeks. The rain will water them and by the spring we will have a healthy crop of beans that will be disked into the ground adding organic matter and nitrogen for the peach trees to use.
The field we are planning on putting next year’s early summer plantings of tomatoes and melons has been disked and ripped. Right now we are spreading 5 tons of compost per acre onto the ground. The compost is green waste from the Bay Area (very possibly from your yard clippings and kitchen scraps!) When this is done Ricardo will disk the land once more and then we will bed it up in preparation for an early planting. As soon as the weather permits next spring we will plant tomato and melon transplants onto this land.
There are still several fields of overgrown tomatoes, peppers and green beans that will not get disked until the spring. While I would have preferred to have them disked before winter, the local raptor population enjoys the hunting ground. There are three main types that inhabit the farm; the red tail hawk, the kestrel and the kite hawk. There seem to be significantly more this year that in the years past. This is one advantage of our style of organic farming – there is plenty of habitat to support a rodent population that attracts a healthy raptor population.
The other day I sat down with my binoculars to observe a kite hawk in action over the yellow bell peppers. They get their name because they hover in the air perfectly stationary while they observe the ground below - as they are hovering they look like a kite. As soon as a target is spotted they drop from the sky to the ground hoping to connect with the rodent that forgot to check the sky before leaving its home. The whole process is very entertaining to watch.
Enjoy your box this week.
Thaddeus
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