New winter veggies for the harvest!

This is our basket that we harvested yesterday.  It included butternut squash, leeks, dried spicy peppers, dried figs, fennel seeds, broccoli, arugula, lettuce, cilantro, turnip greens, kale mix, long scarlet radishes, garlic, oranges and tart mandarins.  The first couple of harvests that we did this year were good enough for us to be happy, but this week we are really feeling like the vegetables are starting to kick into gear with great force.  Hard to believe, but tomorrow we'll be harvesting asparagus for our baskets, its already that time of year again!  We also plan to have some other greens and maybe some more roots to harvest tomorrow and next week as well. 

We are very much in love!  This was a perfect Valentine's Day harvest.  These radishes are called scarlet long.  Its the first time we have grown them and we are very impressed.  They are not only gorgeous, yes I have to say it again, they are Gorgeous!  They also have a mild crisp flavor, very vigorous and took off really fast through these winter months.  These seeds were sown in late December directly out into the fields.  Right after a good frost hit for a few days than many more days of cool days and cold nights.  Though, then germinated and took off as soon as the cold let up a bit.                            Ahh, we are in love :)  We just can't help it, we love our veggies! 

These are some photos of our daughter just as we were getting in our car to leave the farm.  She grabbed a couple handfuls of broccoli florets and leaves, then proceeded to gobble them all up.  In her words "I eat them all!!!".  Yes, we are proud of this little rabbit.  Shortly before she was eating the broccoli greens she was munching on cabbage leaves and I do mean the leaves.  She was bending over the top of the cabbage plants and munching on the large leaves of the cabbage plant. 

That's our little rabbit!

First CSA Baskets of 2012!!!!!

Today was our first CSA harvest of 2012!  So great to be back to harvesting.  Lately we've been doing so much planting that we just couldn't wait to have the reward of harvesting again.  Much of what we harvested today came from our stored dried fruit from the summer, dried herbs and stored produce.  Our lemons were from storage, but soon we'll have some that are freshly harvested and the other citrus was from our garden in town.  This photo is of the basket in progress, it hasn't yet had any of the greens put in it, but you get a good look at the amazingly huge leek, squash, citrus and dried fruit.    By the time the baskets were finished today they included....sundried tomatoes, prunes, leeks, butternut squash, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, dried bay leaves, mustard greens mix, arugula, lettuce mix, and collard greens. 

Check out these amazing leeks.  We are so lucky to be harvesting from these, they are a hand me down from Pacific Star Gardens.  They planted much more than they could use and so these leeks have been in the ground just waiting to be harvested for months.  They still are just as great as ever and they are huge!

CSA harvests starting back up and we keep planting, keep planting

Our CSA harvests are starting back up this week.  Hard to believe our little winter break is already over and we are getting back into regular harvests....though we are ready, its always nice to be at the point of harvest with our crops after we have put so much effort into taking care of them and watching them grow.  Its amazing how fast some of these vegetables can go from being little seeds into a harvestable crop ready to be turned into dinner. 

Below are various photos from our recent work.  During our time off from harvesting we have been planting, planting and planting.  Good mantra for farmers to stick to...just keep planting, keep planting, keep planting. 

planting in the greenhouse!  Soon there will be little carrots growing here.  We planted these so that we'll have some to harvest a little earlier that those out in the field.  This photo was taken the day that they were planted and now they are just starting to germinate!

This is our beet experiment.  They were transplanted from seed flats.  We are hoping that since they started in the greenhouse before they went out into the field they will have a head start on the others that started in the field.  So far so good...we'll see how they compare in a few weeks.

Beets transplanted next to a bed of cabbages in the front garden.

  Here is the front garden next to the produce stand.  This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, now all those beds are full of little plants!

2012 CSA starts up in February!

Our 2012 CSA starts up in just few weeks.  Our first delivery will be on Thursday, February 2nd.  We are now delivering our CSA on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Therefore, we will be back to regular deliveries of twice a week by February 7th.  We are now taking new memberships for the winter/spring CSA. 
Our first baskets will start off with lettuce, greens, radishes, dried fruit, citrus and dried herbs.  Baskets will usually have about 12 different items, designed to serve 2-4 people for a week depending on their diet.  By mid-February we plan to have a greater variety of greens and root vegetables available, then before we know it we'll have fresh herbs and the asparagus should be ready to harvest. 
The baskets are $22/basket and we ask new members to sign up for at least 4 baskets so that they can get a feel for the ups and downs of the membership.  After a trial period members are asked to pay for at least 8 baskets and if they pay for 12 baskets the 13th is free!  Write to us for more information and to reserve a membership, fullcircledavis@gmail.com
 

some little farmers....

these are some great photos from last November....

our daughter does her best to be helpful or at least she does her best to get involved....sometimes it all works out just as good as we could hope for. Here are some photos of her and some of her friends enjoying their time around the farm.

New Beginnings in 2012 -a letter to our CSA members

This is an email we recently sent out to our CSA members explaining the transition our farm is going through right now. After the new year our entire production will be relocated and regular CSA deliveries will restart in February.

Dear CSA members,

As you know the end of our fall season is upon us which is bringing many new and exciting changes for our farm. After our last harvest of our holiday CSA baskets we will be packing up the farm and moving on to a new phase of our production. We will be relocating to Pacific Start Gardens which is exactly the same distance from Davis, but north towards Woodland on Road 99.

We will be starting a joint venture with the operations of Pacific Start Gardens, but will still be operating as Full Circle Farm. While everything will be grown on the land of Pacific Star Gardens, which is certified organic by Yolo County, our operations will be separate while still working collaboratively. This collaboration is for the benefit of both farms, which translates into benefits for our CSA members. Pacific Star Gardens has long been known for their U-pick fruits, melons and winter squash, their presence at the farmer's markets that has included early tomatoes and melons, and now that will all be incorporated into the Full Circle CSA.

While we have enjoyed the challenges of growing food in the class 3 soils we have here on Road 95 and cultivating with minimal use of tractors, we are excited to move on to much better soils that will produce much better vegetables and the use of equipment that will aid in our weed and pest control as well as give us a chance to salvage our aching backs.

We believe that Pacific Star Gardens, which is truly family operated and owned by Robert &Debbie Ramming, is an ideal match for Full Circle Farm. We share similar visions for the future of family farming and ideas for how we can best produce food for our CSA members.

Our passion and love for sustainably grown food will continue and grow with this new phase of our farm. We greatly enjoy the privilege of growing food for our loyal CSA members and we look forward to continuing this relationship with you as we transition into the new year. Over the next few weeks we welcome you to come visit us here on the land where your food is currently being grown. Then once we are settled in on road 99 we welcome you to come visit and see our new location of production. Our winter 2012 CSA will be starting in early February and we are now taking reservations for memberships. Current CSA members have priority until we open up registration which will begin in early January. CSA basket price will remain the same at $20 per basket, but we will be offering some new options of home or office deliveries for an additional fee and we will also now have multiple pick up sites that you can choose from. More information on all of these details will be coming soon.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments regarding the CSA membership or any aspects of our production.

Thank you so much for your support! Keep eating your veggies…

Catherine, Kobi & Uriya -- Full Circle Farm

We have moved!

Yes, we have moved over to road 99 just north of Davis. We are now growing our produce at Pacific Start Gardens. So far this has been an amazing experience for us to move and we hope the same will be for our produce. We have not yet had a first harvest at our new location, but we are so excited to see what the new soils and growing conditions are going to bring for our plants. 

This new production location is complete with new soils and equipment. We were previously very happy to prepare all our vegetable beds by hand, digging up each individual bed with a fork and then following through with a rototiller. Though, now that we have the aid of a tractor we feel that our time is being used much more efficiently and that is very rewarding.
We also have access to huge amounts of row cover that is doing a great job at keeping out little seedlings warm on these cold nights.  As you can see in these photos we are also now taking advantage of wind breaks that will hopefully slow down those chilling winds that can cause so much damage on the plants.  It will really be great to see the differences that all these changes are going to make in the quality of our vegetables!!!!  The first harvest should be in just a couple of weeks, can't wait to see what we get!