Farming is a collaborative endeavor. Many people come together at Frog Hollow Farm, bringing their unique background, passion, and talent.
Helping to manage our soil fertility program is Gregg Young, an agronomist, and of course, Christophe, our compost manager and worm wrangler. Gregg and Farmer Al have been working together for a long time to make sure that we are keeping our soil well furnished with abundant nutrients like calcium (for strength) and potassium (for sweetness). As an agronomist, Gregg advises multiple farms and helps start and manage projects on those farms. He has been keeping an eye on our new garden project and is very excited about initial success. Christophe, as a biologist, is making sure that the inhabitants of our soil are numerous and active. All of the nutrients we add to the soil wouldn’t be much use without bacteria, fungi, nematodes, worms, and much more to help mediate between the soil and our trees and vegetables.
Farmer Al is the director of all activities, using his personal experience to direct activities, but also always searching for new innovative practices. He doesn’t have much time to get out to prune anymore (it was his favorite activity), but I still spot him stopping randomly as he drives through the farm to pay special attention to a specific tree. Along with learning from Farmer Al, Kristin and I have been learning about pruning from Janet Caprile, our advisor from the University of California Extension system. Her specialty is apples, though she has plenty of experience with other crops, and Kristin and I are working with her to revitalize the apple orchards.
In the garden, Kristin and I draw from our different farming experiences. We’ve found that we’ve had the best success with plants that we start ourselves from seed, rather than buying transplants. This could definitely come from the fact that we make our own seed starting mixture that is based on Christophe’s amazing compost. Many commercial mixtures, while having the necessary nutrients in them, are devoid of any biology to help the plants uptake the nutrients. We keep an eye on the garden every day so that we notice any changes. Just this week the dreaded bagrada bug showed up again. This invasive stink bug loves to decimate brassicas, and there are no good solutions for it as it spreads through California. Luckily it stayed away through the cold weather of winter for all our cauliflower, broccoli, and kale to produce.
Those delicious veggies go to Chef Becky and Anna in the kitchen. Anna works tirelessly to devise ways to use whatever we throw at her. She cooked up the delicious vegetable barley soup we sell at the cafe in the Ferry Building, as well as experimenting with a cauliflower soup, beet salad, and pickles.
Interestingly, many of us didn’t know we would end up working on a farm like Frog Hollow. Farmer Al didn’t become a farmer until he was in his 30s, and Chef Becky never went to culinary school. I didn’t study agriculture in school, and Anna studied photography. But we all found our passions and just jumped in and gained experience. Now we’ve all come together to produce more than we ever could alone.