Product Updates: The foggy mornings and hot dry afternoons have created a perfect storm for an explosion of powdery. As a result we've had to pull baby kale (especially the dino kale), the spring mix, and baby arugula, from our availability list. Spinach luckily isn't susceptible to the same strains of mildew. Also good news, powdery mildew does not survive in the soil, but rather moves as spores through the air from crop to crop. One organic control method is to create a fallow of crops that harbor the disease. Once any crop residue that has it has rotted and broken down in the soil, it can no longer infect new plantings. So, we're going to stop sowing it for a few weeks and try to get everything tilled in that has it. Sorry to dissappoint, but luckily there's heaps of other season crops coming into season to hopefully distract you. Peppers, green beans, melons, apples, pears, tomatoes are all in season now.
Welcome TomKat goats!! :)
I have to say that it has added a whole other level of pleasure to our days to be able to pause and look up at the hill above our home ranch and see goats and their Livestock Guardian Dog, Reba, at work. It's taken a few months to work out all the potential issues of having goats on the other side of the fence from our veggies, but it was well worth all the prep. TomKat Ranch is only a few miles away and we are offering them the pasture, which will save us all the labor and fuel it would take to mow it. They are intensively grazing it which means the goats are in a very small fenced-in pasture that changes multiple times a day. It's so joyful to hear their pleasant bells and watch the very apparent pleasure with which they go after grasses and weeds alike- even tar weed! Go goats!
Parcel Line Remapping for the Preservation Of Farmland
Other exciting (though slow moving) news.. This week we met with representatives form Peninsula Open Space Trust and Midpen, from whom we lease 2 parcels, to discuss the parcel lot line adjustments which will eventually carve off the agricultural acreage so that the rest can be preserved as parks while protecting the farmland. It will be awhile (it's already been over 8 years), but hopefully this is one more step closer to Fifth Crow being able to purchase the land we farm and a move that will preserve the ability of farmers to farm it long into the future.
WE NEED THOSE MESH BAGS SO WE DON'T HAVE TO RESORT TO DISPOSABLE PACKAGING!
Thank you so much to member Terri Winnett who just donated another 900 mesh bags to our inventory! Amazing :) But... we still need you to keep the RE-CYCLE going. Please remember to bring back your bags when you come pick up your next box!
