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...

Any reader who lives in Northern California is well aware that we've had hardly a trace of rainfall in these parts since Thanksgiving.  In all the time I've lived here in the Golden State, it's the longest 'rainy season' dry streak I can remember.  Although I appreciate more sun during what is usually a gray time of year, this 'Wintertime Summer' is impacting the agricultural landscape in some not so positive ways.  No green in the fields, no clouds in the sky I work on an organic farm.  One of the cornerstones of organic farming is that we do not use synthetic fertilizers to grow our crops.  Instead, we apply poop from a chicken factory farm (mostly to the popcorn fields) and rely on green manures to provide fertility to the soil.  A green manure--also known as a cover crop--is planted to fix nitrogen or add biomass and organic matter to the soil.  In the fields at Pleasant Grove Farms, except where the wheat is growing, we sew a legume called ve...

On the last day of 2011, three brave souls--Katy, Evan and Rawley--came with me for a farm tour at Pleasant Grove Farm.  Here's a little of what we saw: Grain Bins, Christmas Tree, Fuel Tanks Katy, Evan and Rawley do their thing on the catwalk Seed Cleaner Inside the seed cleaning mill Rawley on an old land grader Old electric well motors--may be where R2D2 is from Parts from cultivating implements The old parts (not junk!) yard John Deere CTS Rice Combine Tractors enjoying their 2 week farm vacation Rawley getting ready to harvest some rice...it's gonna be a long wait Corn Harvester This machine spends 3 months harvesting and 9 months as a very expensive cat perch Tractors and combines The Pleasant Grove Farm Machine Shop The Sutter Buttes to the north Harvesting the last bits of rice ' 'Winter' Wheat We celebrated the New Year together at Katy and Evan's farm in Esparto, eating tamales, black eyed...

On Monday of last week I finally got around to harvesting the quince tree growing along a country road in South Sutter County.  I passed along this stretch of road many times on my way from one rice field to another and always found it pleasing because it is lined with walnut groves and homesteads whose yards abound with fruit trees.  I noticed the quince tree but never stopped to collect the fruit until that chilly December afternoon.  Quince Tree, Striplin Road Sutter County, CA For those of you unfamiliar with quince, it is a lumpy yellow-green fruit whose size ranges between apple and football.  Unlike most contemporary fruit, whose growers and buyers prize uniformity and perfection in appearance, every quince has a unique shape and is covered with a thin fuzz.  When eaten raw, quince has an astringent, mouth puckering taste, but when cooked it becomes very delicious.  Quince's popularity throughout the world in countries like Turkey, England, Spain...

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...