Blog

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…. Dear CSA Members, At first I thought it was a humming bird! A deep loud whirring noise, I heard, while driving through the pear orchard. A light swoosh of air went by my ear as I was looking at the blossoms, assessing their stage of development to decide when to blow on […]

Dear CSA Members, Last Friday here in Brentwood, Becky and I attended a conference called East Contra Costa Ag Summit. The “future of Ag” was the hot topic. It appears the community leaders of Brentwood are finally waking up to the fact that there is an amazing resource of economic, social and environmental opportunity right […]

“Everything is blooming most recklessly…” Dear CSA Members, Today was another gorgeous day on the farm. It started out foggy and cold but turned sunny and glorious by late morning. The trees are beginning to bloom, the apricots, a few early nectarines and now the dapple dandy plouts and we’re taking advantage of this great weather […]

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 […]

Dear CSA Members, The big story this week is rain. It comes at a good time…“just in time” in fact. As of noon on Sunday, my estimate is 2 inches for us here on the farm. It’s perfect for our barley crop, which was planted January 9 and moistened by December rains. The germination rate was really good […]

Dear CSA Members, This week, the first week of February, we will plant trees, just under 1600 of them. These are all replants; replacement trees needed for several reasons. 1. Old age. 760 peach trees are replacements for the 2 blocks of old trees, planted 30 years ago in 1985 that we removed last Fall. 2. Gopher […]

Dear CSA Members, Another beautiful, sunny January day here on the farm. NOT WHAT WE WANT! But, we might as well enjoy it. Our daughters, Maddie, 11, Millie 9, are now driving the golf cart (my handy-dandy-zip-around-the-orchard- vehicle of choice…I love it!). They went over to the newly constructed chicken house, the pride and joy of my packing shed […]

Dear CSA Members, Fog Fog has returned to the Central Valley! This is good because it keeps the day time highs (temperatures) low, helping to accumulate these precious winter chill hours we need, especially for cherries. We haven’t had a decent cherry crop in three years because of warm winters. So far this has been yet another warm one […]

Dear CSA Members: Today something different is happening here at Frog Hollow Farm. We’re planting BARLEY! There’s something special,wonderful actually, about planting seed in soil on a warm, sunny day in January, no less! In short sleeves to boot! Seven of us who make our living tending soil gather around this GINORMOUS tractor (New Holland, 130 horse power) with […]

Dear CSA Members, As always, weather is the big story here on the farm. It’s been good so far, with lots of rain in December, and now we’re getting the cold temperatures we need to achieve our chill hours. “Good”, but not “Great”. Not great because so far we’ve gotten only about 150 hours of below 45 degrees […]