Member News

We had several days of wild weather last week up here, with thunderstorms, heavy rain and even a tiny bit of hail totalling almost three inches.  In a drought year, it’s pretty hard to complain about.  Even if we don’t … Continue reading →

People have been asking me this week “is the rain right now good for the farm or bad?” Imagine that we have a meter that goes from “All good” to “all bad”.  Then insert the meter into each month of … Continue reading →

If you’ve flown over or into Sacramento in a normal winter, you’ve seen it — a veritable inland sea of water surrounding the city and its suburbs.  These are the rice fields of the Sacramento Valley, which sit in the … Continue reading →

How often do you stop and smell the flowers?  There is no better time than right now.  With the first day of official Spring just days away, the whole world is in bloom. Almost every plant that survives the winter … Continue reading →

Three months in, the theme to the 2014 growing season is clear:  All Spring, All the Time!While the season doesn’t officially get started until late next week, don’t tell the plants.Asparagus is the groundhog of the vegetable farm, and as … Continue reading →

It rained enough in February to get us close to normal for the month, but not enough to end the drought — even with more rain expected this week.  I’ve been writing a lot about water this winter, and so … Continue reading →

The spring weather we had for the last two weeks gave us an opportunity to get a lot done around the farm, especially knowing that storms were coming.  To be honest, farming in the winter during a drought is a … Continue reading →

In the world of food marketing, labels are all the rage.  The continued success of organic food appears to have taught the food industry that making claims via certain terms will help a product sell.  Whether the claims have any … Continue reading →

We got about 4 inches of rain last week over 5 days here at Terra Firma.  Places further north got more — as much as 12 inches in Sonoma County, for example.  Further south, the amounts were much less except … Continue reading →

We got almost half an inch of rain between the two small storms last week.  In laypersons’ terms, half an inch is enough to wet the soil completely.  It’s enough to make puddles but not run off.  Enough to irrigate … Continue reading →