In the dark year that was 2020, Thanksgiving might have been the most constrained of all holidays. With the Covid vaccine still months away, large indoor gatherings and sharing big meals with others were verboten. The holiday itself reminded us all of how long it had been since we had seen friends and loved ones, [MORE ...]

Winter is citrus season in Northern California. And when winter arrives early, as it did this year, so do the first citrus crops:  Mandarins and Meyer Lemons.  It's a bit of a paradox, but these subtropical fruits -- which cannot withstand freezing temperatures -- don't really ripen here until nighttime temperatures drop into the 40s. [MORE ...]

Terra Firma Farm Founder Paul Holmes had three simple words to describe farming here:  "Feast or Famine".  Those three words were the first to come to mind on Sunday as the rain fell ceaselessly for well over 24 hours over Northern California.  In the "warm-up" storm on Wednesday and Thursday, we got a nice little [MORE ...]

Oh, the changes we can see in a week -- not to mention in a year. Last week, you might remember, it was a dustbowl here. Today, it is lightly drizzling and the ground is damp enough to make the soil stick to your boots. Last year on this date, it was 95 degrees. We [MORE ...]