Green Gulch Farm, July

Well. Its been a whirlwind of a month! There were lots and lots of Things happening - roughly ten thousand. So here's the recap:

1 - my dear friend Kate visited, and helped on the farm for a few days.



2 - Then there was the 4th of July, we went to the Marin County Fair.


3 - The next day, on the 5th of July, Green Gulch had their annual Interdependence Day celebration, with kooky costumes. Myself and my compadre Sam co-emcee'd the event. It was tons of fun.



4 - Then, i went to Colorado for a week! It was a fantastic, spectacular trip, full to the brim with visiting family, seeing friends, and participating in my dear friends', Ariella and Erik's wedding. I was honored to perform their commitment ceremony, in the mountains under the crisp blue Colorado sky, evergreens swaying in the grass filled meadows of the Rocky Mountain foothills.


5 - Then back in Green Gulch, i went to work at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market for the first time (we rotate who works there between apprentices).

6 - Friends that i met from the wedding, came to end their across-the-US trip in San Francisco.

This has all been lovely, and full, and rewarding. Other things have been happening too, not quite as lovely, but just as important in the dance of life. Its been cold, and socked in with fog here (actually, its more like cloudy, and sometimes misty), for virtually the entire month. We'll get bouts of sun, sometimes in an afternoon, but the routine has changed on the farm so we all bundle up good before heading out to work now. Also, the raven/crows have been wreaking havoc in the fields. They pulled up ALL of our lettuce from our most recent planting. Its quite disturbing; i have it from an expert that they are probably eating seeds. However, in order to do that, they tear out our newly planted starts (they don't bother much with the direct-seeded crops) and toss the starts a-skelter. So we found rows of crops torn out the ground, and we feverishly replanted. After doing this several times, with considerable effort, and we covered the brassicas with floating crop cover cloth, we put up a scarecrow (well, my hero Marshall put up the scarecrow) and we waited. The ravens pulled out all of the lettuce, despite all of these noble efforts on our part to thwart their mayhem. So, there has been a hold put on the new planting: until we can re-stock with enough floating crop cover to cover the entire planting, its not worth it to spend the time putting starts in the ground. Its depressing, because we all know there will be a few weeks (more?) without much lettuce. And, lettuce is our major crop - its the thing we sell the most of. So i'm feeling a little wary of when that day comes, that we can't bring (much) lettuce to the markets. We'll see - maybe it won't be so dire.

All for now - i'll be posting again more frequently now, just a hiatus with all the chaos of July. Go forth. Try hard. Enjoy yourself. Watch your step. Take care of your practice.