We are your neighborhood farmer

We are your neighborhood farmers -- Get in touch at 707 347-9465 or wmorgenthaler@gmail.com

Friday, July 25, 2014

Complete Crop Inventory

Note that not all crops are grown at the same time.  From time to time failed or undesirable varieties are removed from inventory.
(last update June 2014)
BasilItalian Large Leaf
BasilGenovese
beanProvider
BeetCylindra
Beetred ace
Beettouchstone golden
BeetLutz Winter Keeper
BeetMangle
BroccoliDi Cicco
BroccoliMarathon
Broccoli  Amedeus
Brussels SproutsCatskill
Brussels SproutsChurchill
CabbageFarao
CabbageDeadon Red
CabbageRuby Perfection
CabbageEarly Jersey Wakefield
CabbageHenderson Charleston Wakefield
Carrotlittle finger
CarrotJaune Obtuse du Doubs
Carrotpurple
Carrotatomic red
Carrotrainbow
CauliflowerGiant of Naples
CauliflowerAmazing
CeleryTendercrisp
Cilantrosantos
CollardChampion
corndouble standard
Cucumberhomemade pickles
Cucumberstraight eight
EggplantDiamond
EggplantNadia f1
fava bean
FennelZefa Fino
garlic
KaleBlue Curled Scotch
Kalestabor
Kalewinterbor
KohlrabiKossak
KohlrabiSuperschmelz
KohlrabiAzur star
Leekking richard
leeklancelot
LettuceRidgeline Romaine
Lettuceallstar mix
Lettucehelvius romaine
marigold
marjoram
Melonminnesota midget
MelonEarly Silver Line
MelonTigger
mintNative
Mustardred giant
MustardMizuna
OnionAilsa Craig Exhibition Plants
OnionRed Zeppelin Plants
OnionWhite Spear
Parsnipjavelin
Peasugar snap
peaoregon giant snow pea
PepperNumex joe e parker
Pepperearly jalapeno
Pepperlipstick
PepperAnaheim
Potatopurple majesty
Potatocarola
Potatowarba
Pumpkinnew england pie
Salad Greenovation
Salad GreenArugula
SquashJet F1 acorn
SquashWalthams Butternut
Squashearly prolific straightneck
SquashBlack beauty zucchini
Swiss Chardfordhook
TomatilloDe Milpa
tomatothessaloniki
tomatoamish paste
tomatomatt's wild cherry
TomatoBlack Cherry
TomatoBeef Steak
ChamomileRoman
Lemon BalmCommon
Rutabagaamerican purple top

Friday, July 18, 2014

Look to each other for ideas

Especially when talking with others about political realism we all agree to buck up and write our congress people and try to influence the political process.  Truthfully, whether talking about liberalization of law water rights or organic standards, there is a dark side to politics we should recognize reflected in the comment below. "The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves." - Bill Mollison. This is certainly not to suggest hiding from the political process, however given the gravity of our situation we should be realistic about actively finding solutions -- Sent from Fast notepad

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Too much of a good thing

This kale has got to go -- Sent from Fast notepad

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Early fruit

Wow I was gone for a week and look what happened these apricots. They are not quite ready but they're huge and wonderful looking we have started eating the wind falls YUM these are the sweetest ripest fruit on the tree or off

My apologies on the slow fitful start of our CSA I had to go to LA to repair my moms house because the tenants moved out. She's 89 and can't climb ladders anymore. We have tons of broccoli and lettuce we also have lots of big fat sweet spring onions that you've got to get before the Gophers do they just love them 

And did I mention new potatoes we've got these great purple ones you've got to taste them...hum maybe with those spring onions -- Sent from Fast notepad

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Farm stay documents

Here are some links to farm doc...but the instructions go here:

Garden Plot Map

Greenhouse Plant Log

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Come and get your fresh fava beans

$1/pound for u-pick Fresh

Fava bean humus
A lot of humus recipes start with canned garbanzos. This one made from scratch has a fresh bright green color and flavor. Start with 3 to 4 pounds of beans in the pod. Shell them, boil in salted water for 20 minutes, drain and mash them. (This recipes eliminates the skin slipping portion of gourmet fava bean preparation by running them through a strainer after boiling.) 
  • 1 cup bean puree 
  • 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice 
  • 4 tbsp olive oil 
  • 3 tbsp tahini 
  • 1 1/2 tbsp crushed garlic 
Combine all ingredients. Salt to taste and blend if you like. Garnish with finely chopped garlic chives

Sauted fresh fava with garlic
This is a super simple side dish featuring the fresh flavor of straight from the farm favas and although it takes some time to slip the skins it is worth the trouble.  Start with 1 pound of beans in the pod. 
  • Shell the beans
  • Par-boil in rolling salted water for 1 minute
  • Drain and run cold water over them to make them easy to handle
  • Slip the skins (pop the inner bean out by pressing between two fingers sometimes it may be necessary to slit one end of the skin with a fingernail or a knife.)
  • One or two cloves of minced garlic

Heat  garlic in olive oil. Add the beans and saute for several minutes until tender

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Fig garden

Oasis is located on the the North west side of Petaluma where the soil is sandy and thick. Well into July most years sub surface water funnels into a basin in the center of the property on its way down hill to Petaluma River. We catch 2 or 3 gallons a minute and divert it through our terraced Fig garden. Several of the lawn like terraces have been planted to yarrow which produce lush, feathery foliage, protect soil, preserve moisture, and produce clippings for compost tea -- Sent from Fast notepad

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Harvest has started

Big deal yesterday!  We got the stainless steel two-compartment commercial sink hooked to the back of the house that makes doing buckets a breeze and it's great for cleaning all manner of things. This is where we are going to clean and prep vegetables for the CSA. None too soon for we officially soft launch in 2 weeks. Today's offering is small but sweet -- Sent from Fast notepad

Friday, May 9, 2014

Wanna Kick Start a Farm?

Help us start a CSA at Oasis Community Farm

  • Join now and save 15% -- $856/year (42 large 9-item boxes), $575/year (42 small 6-item boxes), $144- $216 seasonal deal (10 boxes) or as you go for $16-$25/box
  • Boxes will include a mixture of baby greens and lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, head cabbage, broccoli, bunching onions, carrot, beet or other root vegetable.  An up-to-date list of crops can be seen on our blog.  Squash, tomato, peppers and melon will be included in season and fruit and berries are available for u-pick.
  • Picnic and family u-pick visits to the farm are welcome. Call us.  In addition, u-build'em pizza parties, campfire sing-a-longs under the stars and in the future workshops such as canning and freezing, sauerkraut, kombucha tea and cob construction  are planned -- Stay tuned
  • We begin very soon with a soft rollout  on Saturday May 31st.  The farm will produce over 12 tons of vegetable in our first year, not large but no small undertaking for our small farm. Our farm stand is being built now -- Patience please.


Bring your own bag pick up point is on the farm every Saturday between 8-11am and 4-6pm

282 Skillman Ln  Petaluma  707 789-9294  wmorgenthaler@gmail.com   Get Map

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Sunday, May 4, 2014

Yum ripe strawberries

Strawberries are planted in the yarrow which is doing a good job of suppressing weeds and they are ripening fast.  They are available for u-pick next weekend -- Sent from Fast notepad

Direct seed carrots

Planted 33 feet of carrots with inter-planted cilantro. this should come up real thick and be harvested out by the time the carrots need more room. I used 2 1/2 inch plastic strips staked down on top of carrots instead of boards, the old modified yard stick tricks which should suppress weeds and keep the carrots warm and moist for their 14-day germination  -- Sent from Fast notepad

Saturday, May 3, 2014

20 rows

I prepared 3 more permanent beds today and then planted more kale with inter-planted lettuce, carrot, cilantro, swiss chard & golden beets. This brings us to 20 vegetable beds in production in anticipation of launching the CSA in a couple weeks.  The list currently is broccoli leaks cilantro onion red onion garlic Swiss chard beets spicy salad greens lettuce mix cabbage fennel fava romaine lettuce and green onion.   Summer crops such as tomato pepper squash pumpkin melon cucumber and so forth will be the focus of the upper rows that haven't been built yet but will be completed in the next two weeks -- Sent from Fast notepad

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

All in a days work

Strawberries in the foreground and beyond about 8,000 square feet for new raised beds. The work done with a Kubota tractor with a rototiller this time but we don't expect to use rototillers in the future as these beds will be permanent.  The space between the rows of trees in the orchard was also tilled and will next be planted in a permanent pasture rich in clover. We will harvest the clover 3 times a year for compost and feed and then irrigated so that it renews and grows again with the expectation that it should last about 3 years before needing to be reseeded.

Monday, April 14, 2014

This will be a fight with the weeds

This will be a fight with the weeds until we get the deep mulch cover established. Any row such as this built on soil that was growing grass will probably have to be weeded 5 or 6 times this season before the mulch can hold the weeds back. Cabbage and kale and this crop broccoli have to be protected from Birds when they're young as they can eat half a row in a single afternoon -- Sent from Fast notepad

An idea taken from singing frog farm

Will have to take another look at this in 20 days as it is our intent for the vegetation to cover the soil 100 percent keeping the dirt and the mulch in shade -- Sent from Fast notepad
Before
After 20 days

Another milestone

The arrival of 40 yards of sonoma compost marks the last step in the transformation of Oasis into a production farm. All told we maintain 1/3 acre of permanent pasture supporting 60 chickens 1/4 acre of row crops for CSA boxes and 1/2 acre of fruit orchard with 1/4 acre in the rows for production of high nitrogen high protein green manure biomass. Completion of our little piece of paradise this year will include constructed cattails wetlands for processing wastewater and underground water catchment for 38,000 gallons which is estimated to be our agricultural water use annually. The crown jewel will be construction of a 2500 square foot food processing barn or as Connie and I like to call it .. the dancehall.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Hot s***, I mean compost

The two compost piles I made four days ago have reached the 140 degrees

Friday, April 11, 2014

The jury is in on compost

Hot compost as it turns out is labor intensive to make.  It may cost nearly $50 a yard when all of the labor, seed and water inputs are made The slower type that need not be turned but takes a year to make is perhaps more suited to a sustainable farm...ahh but we are in a big hurry to get production up so I ordered 40 yards of sonoma compost today costing $1000 Plus $200 of tractor time to distribute and till in

Yarrow tea

Treated the broccoli to liquid fertilizer made from yarrrow soaked for about 5 days and then diluted about five or ten times with water, this is not compost tea but rather a leachate used as a root drench. The 50 gallon pickle barrel can make 30 gallons of fertilizer which can be easily applied by watering can to treat 360 ft of row crops. This is not a procedure that needs to be done often as healthy soil is the goal, but it does stimulate growth and get them going

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Bright green biomass for compost

Today I am harvesting about ten or fifteen thousand square feet of green manure that I planted in January.  I'm hoping that it makes 10 to 15 yards a finished compost.  The trick is how much work it takes to make 15 yards a compost because I can always buy  compost for 20 dollars per yard

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Battle with the birds

While planting 160 broccoli seedlings, behind me come the mockingbirds voraciously eating the small plants behind my back and just when I had left them a blackberry  bramble to live in , well no good deed goes unpunished.  Within an hour I had row covers installed so no harm was done

Monday, March 24, 2014

February and March are classically the season for Gophers

The hunt is on,  and the only way for a farm with our sandy soil type to prevent lots of damage it is to hunt and kill them.  Paul Kaiser of singing frog farm says he does all of his hunting in February and March and largely ignores them rest of the Year.  Cinch trap is the tool of choice as I have never pulled a live gopher  out of a hole with one

Bad bugs and cabbage

My first attempt at the three quarter inch plugs planting cabbage was a complete failure as it turns out small cabbage family plants are very delicious to most bugs that are very prevalent in the springtime especially slugs and ear wigs the solution to this problem is to grow cabbage family plants in the greenhouse until they are much larger  4 to 6 inches with lots of mature leaves and then protect them in some way,  copper bands, beer traps or whatever you have to do especially if we're planting through deep compost that harbors bugs. I also have a lot of pill bugs that don't typically eat plants because they eat rotten material but do because they're so young.  Interplanting among up pretty sick cover of herbs will also discourage bugs

Friday, March 21, 2014

Potato emergence

Purple potatoes emerged for the first time today 14 days after planting which is right on target considering the soil temperature is exactly 60 degrees.  It's still only March so frost protection may well be needed when plants are young before they produce June and July

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

We have fruit

Once again the Tomcat apricots have set fruit but all of the other apricot trees including pixie cot and Mormons are without fruit and should be replaced by more tom cats
After walking the whole orchard it's clear that this year we are pretty much bugs free although I found aphids on sick apple trees and fortunately only a couple leaves of curls on the peaches

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Crop List 2014

Genovese Basil
Cylindra beet
Red ace beet
Touchstone golden beet
Lutz Winter Keeper beet
Red Mangle beet
Amedeus broccoli
Di Cicco broccoli
Marathon broccoli
Farao cabbage
Red cabbage
Brussels sprout
Kohlrabi
White Cauliflower
Bok choy
Little finger carrot
Purple carrot
Atomic red carrot
Rainbow carrot
Fordhook Swiss Chard
Santos cilantro
Homemade pickles cucumber
Eight cucumber
Zefa Fino fennel
Green afro kale
Dino Kale
Vates Kale
Blue curled scotch kale
Winterbor kale
Kking richard leek
Ridgeline Romaine Lettuce
Allstar mix Lettuce
Helvius romaine Lettuce
Minnesota midget melon
Red giant onion
Ailsa Craig Exhibition onion
Red Zeppelin Plants onion
White spear bunching onion
Guardsman bunching onion
Oregon giant snow pea
Javelin parsnip
Pea sugar snap pea
Numex joe e parker Pepper
Early jalapeno Pepper
Lipstick Pepper
New england pie Pumpkin
Waltham butternut squash
Black beauty zuccini squash
Accorn squash
Straigh neck yellow squash
Ovation asian baby Salad Green
Arugula
Red giant mustard
Purple majesty Potato
Carola Potato
Warba Potato
Celery
Marjoram
Oregano
Garlic
Diamond Eggplant
Purple top turnip
Tomatillo
Matt's Cherry tomato
Amish paste tomato
Thessaloniki tomato