Blog

A NOTE FROM FARMER AL  Summer? Is summer finally here? Reports are that tomorrow it will be hot! Meanwhile, we’ve been enjoying the coolest month of May that I can ever remember. Working conditions have been cool, chilly even, when we start the day at 6:00am. It’s had a chilling effect on the fruit as […]

A NOTE FROM MARLENE Hello CSA Members, When I am visiting the San Francisco Ferry Building farmers market on Saturdays, I’ve been needing to bundle up. The fog, wind, and clouds are in stark contrast to the weather on the farm. Out in Brentwood, summer is here. We nearly reached 90 last week! The nights still get […]

A NOTE FROM FARMER AL  Dear CSA Members, Happy Memorial Day Today we honor all those men and women who’ve given their lives so that we might have ours. We are grateful for the liberty, bounty and opportunity we enjoy. We are grateful for our freedoms……. freedom from fear, freedom of expression, freedom of worship, […]

A NOTE FROM FARMER AL Dear CSA Members, We got more rain…..and very thankful for it, even though it was only about 1⁄4”. That’s just enough to wash all the dust off of the leaves and settle the dust on the roads. But that’s not a small thing. Dust is one of our worst enemies, […]

Dear CSA Members, Last Saturday at the Farmers’ Market at the Ferry Building people were lining up for these delicious “cots”, our first fruit of the season. And no wonder; these Apaches are truly deli- cious, with that perfect balance of sweet and tart, and brimming with juice. We have to pick them a bit less ripe […]

A NOTE FROM FARMER AL Dear CSA Members, Sometimes things actually do work out just the way we hoped for! Last week was like that. First, the tomato planting: we prepared the ground by applying a thin band of compost right down each row where tomatoes are to be planted. This compost band, 18” wide and 1⁄2” thick, […]

Dear CSA Members, This is the time of year when we begin to feel the pressure of the oncoming season. Every winter I say to myself, “This year I’m going to have everything ready by the time fruit comes…!” but alas, it is never so. In winter, summer seems so far off and I concern […]

A NOTE FROM CHEF BECKY Dear CSA Members, There is a compost controversy raging among old guard organic farmers and consumer advocates represented by OCA (Organic Consumer Association) regard- ing the use of manure from factory farms in “organic compost”. One reccent article on the subject was titled: “Waste not, want not; organic agriculture has a […]

Dear CSA Members, Governor Brown’s executive order to reduce water consumption by 25% statewide comes on the heels of a growing body of evidence that the drought in California is exceptional. It could, in fact, be a harbinger of a mega-drought. Megadroughts are long periods, around 30 years, of reduced precipitation and loss of soil moisture. The last megadroughts in […]

The Thinning has Begun!  Dear CSA Members, Thinning fruit…definitely our most labor-intensive thing we do here at the farm. Every single piece of fruit on every tree must be looked at by a crew member and either removed or left on the branch. There are a whole lot of judgment calls, in the quest to […]