When the Almond Tree Blooms

Note—I have left the names of businesses and individuals out; privacy is the priority at the expense of making this less personal. So it's been a long time since I've written anything on this blog, nearly a year in fact.  Last fall, I wrote prolifically about all sorts of things related to farming, and even though I am no longer farming, I will stick with the theme.  I am still here in the Central Valley of California, but hydraulic hoses, rice irrigation boards and white Ford Ranger trucks with screwdrivers as radio antennae are no longer a part of my life.  I am not posting any photos of the current work I do as an accounting graduate student at UC Davis: images of Bond Premium Amortization Schedules, Audit flowcharts and Section 179 property deductions somehow don’t compare with giant rice combines, grain bins full of popcorn and views across endless fields towards the Sutter Buttes.  Sills Farms, December 2012 So what is the connection between the tw...

Towards the end of last week, strong gusts of wind began to pummel the Sacramento Valle, clearing out the dense fog and the most of the leaves clinging to the trees on the farm.  The mulberries, willows, black walnuts, figs and the majestic valley oaks that dot the landscape of rice country are transforming into their skeletal winter forms.  The wind blew the thin white chaff off the corn being moved around the mill and it drifted like snow throughout the farm.  Like flakes that never melt it even settled on the dusty break table inside the machine shop.  I spent most of the past few days in the unheated shop, where I counted weeds in the rice samples I took from each field before harvest.  The work revealed striking differences in the weed populations of the fields, but grew tedious and made me realize that I wouldn't want to do this all the time, say, as a PhD student in an agriculture-related discipline.  Luckily, as the light faded over the Great Valle...

Even though it comes a day late, I write this blog post in keeping with the theme of Thanksgiving, so I'll mention a few of the things that I am grateful for.  I am thankful to Katy and Evan Vigil-McClanahan for hosting such a wonderful Thanksgiving gathering at their farm in Esparto.  This was only the second Thanksgiving in my life I've spent away from my family in Washington State, and so I really appreciated the company, conversation and the delicious food.  The oven-baked turkey rivaled the bird my dad usually BBQs, and the grits and gravy were a new addition to the Thanksgiving spread (I was excited about grits and gravy because a character from Dave Chapelle's 'World Series of Dice' sketch draws his name from that delicious dish).  This morning however I awoke feeling none too ready to slap some leftovers in a tupperware and hit the road at 6:30 AM for the trip up to the farm.  My overindulgence in the Thanksgiving feast led to my contraction of a...