Winter 2002 News From the Farm

Global warming really seems to be playing games with the weather this year! We had 80 degree F days in January and February followed immediately by hard freezes down to 20 degrees F. We lost tomato and pepper starts in the greenhouse on several occasions. 20 degree weather is not that unusual here in January and February, but the drastic temperature swings this year were unprecedented--very hard on the plants! To make matters worse the rains stopped in February. Usually we can count on some rain through the end of April, but this winter the rainy season was condensed into the months of December and January. Not very promising for the pastures, gardens, and orchards.

In February we welcomed Jenny Pasewalk to the farm. Jenny will be helping manage the market gardens this year. Like Wendy,  Jenny is a graduate of the UC Santa Cruz Agroecology Apprenticeship program so she is already familiar with our French Intensive gardening methods. With Jenny's capable help in the gardens, Wendy hopes to have more time to get the ponies out in public. Many people in the U.S. have never seen or heard of Highland ponies!

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Spring 2002 News From the Farm

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Summer 2002 News From the Farm

If our summer weather this year was any indication, global warming is continuing to do its thing.
Without our new solar water pumping system for the well, the garden never would have made it 
through the summer. The heat took its toll on the spring flow and the water from that source 
dwindled to less than half the normal flow by the end of July. The well pump was not a care-free
solution; it did quit on several occaisions. Luck was with us though, as we had about a week's 
worth of water stored in the tanks each time it failed. We were able to get it repaired in the nick 
of time before running out of water.
We had a long and busy Farmers Market season. Thanks to Jenny and Briana, who handled all 
the marketing this year, we sold almost twice as much produce as last year. Heirloom pepper and 
tomato starts, and the bunched French baby carrots were some of the best sellers. The handmade
soaps and herbal salve continue to be popular at the markets. We used up the entire 2001 walnut
crop in the walnut tarts. We sold walnut tarts at the market every week from May through mid-
September, and boy are we sick of cracking walnuts! I also made some new types of fruit 
preserves this year. Customers love the "Mystery Marmalade" (made with Gold Dust 
tomatoes--sounds weird but it is delicious)!

Skye produced an adorable colt in early November. He is named Harris, after the Hebridean island.
Like all Quartz's foals he is true dun and looks very Highland. Harris is very outgoing and curious 
about everything--keeping his poor mom very busy. Skye will be back to work under saddle soon to continue her training.

I've had time to work with Raasay more since Farmers Market ended and he is making excellent 
progress. He's quite comfortable longeing in saddle and bridle or harness, is ground driving nicely, and has started dragging some lightweight poles in harness. He takes all these new things in stride and is a pleasure to work with. He'll be ready to start pulling a cart soon, and I'm really looking forward to that!
The walnut crop was fairly good this fall, in spite of a very dry year. The unusually warm fall weather kept the tomatoes ripening in the garden through mid-December. We have finally had a killing frost at this point, but are still enjoying the last of the tomatoes which are ripening in the kitchen. Some of  the fall planted winter vegetables are already sizing up--we've been eating lots of carrots, kale, and cauliflower. We're saving the last of the apples and pumpkins for pies at Christmas.

This year has certainly sped by, an even busier one than ever. 
We did not to take on any Farmers Market apprentices this year, and cut back from 3 to 2 markets. I also decided not to continue with the commercial kitchen products (jams and baked goods) in order to have more time for other aspects of the farm. Nursery plants have been our main feature at the Markets this season rather than produce.

Quartz attended 2 dressage clinics this summer and attracted plenty of attention. "Wow, what kind of horse is that?!" is the question we get wherever he goes.

Skye and Raasay both went to wonderful new homes. Skye was sold in foal to Quartz for 2004 and we have retained ownership of the foal.

We did not have any foals in 2003 as we instead added 2 purebred Highland mares to our herd. In June we made the 2300 mile round trip to bring home Circle H Shuna and Circle H Highland Mist from B.C. Canada. By far our longest horse hauling trip yet, and with the high price of gas, going to get the mares ourselves was almost as expensive as having them transported by a commercial hauler!