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January 16, 2008

Winter Pruning

The soil on the farm is completely saturated with water from the rain – the entire week was overcast with showers off and on. This past weekend we had our first day of real sunshine since the storms had passed. It was the morning and I was driving to Winters on the back-roads and I noticed field after field had steam rising from them; for the first time I understood why. The soils in the fields were completely saturated with water from the storms and the new sunshine was making quick work of evaporating all of the free moisture in or on the soil. It looked really cool - the water vapors simmering from the earth, back into the atmosphere; the clear blue sky the backdrop of the performance.

I guess this was the first day of spring that we have seen in 2008. As a farmer I define spring as weather that is warm enough to evaporate free water and to provide heat-growing units to plants, two things that have not happened for the past several weeks. These glimpses of spring days come and go from January thru February. The next significant weather change is when we can make the assumption that the temperature will never drop below freezing. This date is important because it triggers the planting of all our tomatoes, green beans, melons, basil and any other crop that would be killed when the temperature drops to freezing. Our experience has showed this date to be sometime in the second half of March – but it is always a nervous decision to make.

With spring just around the corner I am getting everything lined up for warm weather plantings. We already have planted the tomato seeds under the protection of the greenhouse. I am ordering seeds for the onions, potatoes, shallots, cabbages, lettuces, garlic, cilantro, green beans and the handful of other random items that will be sown when spring settles in.

The main project on the farm right now, besides harvesting, is the pruning of the fruit trees and vines. This is an area that I know very little about. I have seen it done since I was a kid but never have I been put into the situation where I find myself now – with a farm full of trees and vines that I know need to be pruned and me being the only person who will get the job done. I spent a day with our old farm manager going over what he knows about the grapes and I am feeling pretty confident in my ability to prune, but more importantly, teach someone else to prune our grapes. I have two other guys who are taking care of the fruit trees. Everything will turn out fine but I have been spending a pretty significant amount of time reading about pruning and going out to the orchard with my pruning shears to see if I could make any sense of what I had researched.

Enjoy your boxes this week. It will be the last week of the Satsuma mandarins, so please forgive any ugliness they may contain – they still taste great. Thaddeus

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