*** The purpose of the garden is to feed our family clean, nourishing foods and to sell what is left over to the public. We do not sell at any of the Farmer's Markets, but we do make free deliveries in Bakersfield for orders of $35 or more. To order veggies, please text your request to 661-321-6106. Thanks! ***
Update on Garden (1/24/2024)
It's been a while since we updated this page for our garden. Right now we have tomatoes growing in the hothouse - but they aren't quite ripe yet - along with kale and cabbage. Kale is available as an add-on to a monthly beef subscription or you can come up and get it yourself at $5/lb (large bag), and cabbage won't be ready till middle of spring. We are harvesting broccoli weekly and may have some available from time to time - if interested please ask. Lots of beautiful delicious carrots available right now. Onions and garlic growing well for a May harvest.
Update on Garden (5/1/2023)
We don't have anything right now to sell to the public, but we have the summer garden almost completely planted now. We do have a small surplus of tomatoes from our greenhouse that we will sell to our current list of monthly beef customers. We plan to harvest the onions and garlic in the next few days, then it will have to dry before it is ready to sell. We plan to have lots of melons and squash available later this summer.
Update on Garden (12/21/2022)
We still have a lot of pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash, butternut squash and bon bon squash available for purchase. Garlic and onions are all gone now. The winter garden and greenhouse are growing well but none of the crops are ready for harvest right now.
Update on Garden (9/22/2022)
We have a lot of pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash, bon bon squash, butternut squash, garlic, and onions available for purchase. If you'd like some, please contact us. The cover crop in the winter garden is mowed down and mulched in, and soon we will be planting carrots, beets, turnips, broccoli, garlic and onions. The greenhouse cover crop is also mowed down and in October we will be planting celery, bok choi, brussel sprouts, and tomatoes.
Update on Garden (4/26/2022)
Winter crops are almost done. We have harvested most of the onions, and they are now curing Garlic will be harvested in the next few weeks. Broccoli is done, and we are letting it grow out to seed for next year's crop. We are picking some cabbage, tomatoes and brussel sprouts each weekend but typically only enough for the family. The summer garden is all planted this month into potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, melons, and various winter squash. The blackberry crop looks amazing again this year. The fruit trees look good, especially the apricots, apples, and pears. The nectarines and pluots all dropped their bloom during the frost in early March. Oh, and we planted a large row of asparagus, and are excited for the first crop next year!
Update on Garden (1/23/2022)
We have lots of broccoli right now, if you'd like to purchase some let us know. We aren't delivering for free or small orders, but you can pick up at the farm or add it to your monthly beef order (if you are already a subscriber. In the near term we should have greenhouse tomatoes and cabbage available for sale, too.
Update on Garden (12/27/2021)
The winter garden is growing amazingly well. Right now, we have plentiful amounts of bok choi and arugula, and limited amounts of carrots, turnips, and beets. The broccoli is growing very well and harvest began a week ago. Shelling peas are just starting to be ready! Cabbage and Brussel Sprouts are slow growing and will be a few months before harvest begins. The onion and garlic plantings look amazing and are ahead of last year at this same time. Look for a mid- to late-May harvest for those. Tomatoes in the greenhouse are slow growing with the colder weather but have started setting fruit, so there should be some fruit to pick in about a month maybe.
Update on Garden (9/2/2021)
The summer garden is wrapping up and we are prepping the ground for the winter garden. We have lots of garlic, pie pumpkins and spaghetti squash available for purchase. If interested, please reach out to us through the contact page!
Update on Garden (6/18/2021)
We had an update in April but somehow it disappeared! The winter garden finished strong with the largest broccoli crop we have ever grown. Garlic and Onions were harvested in May and were the highest quality crop we have ever grown. We had an incredible berry season from mid-April to mid-June with the best strawberries and blackberries we have ever grown. We attribute all our successes this spring to improved soil health using high quality biological inputs and top-quality homemade compost. All the tomatoes and greens in the greenhouse are finished now due to the heat. In the main summer garden, we have an excellent crop of squash growing - Delicata, Bon Bon, Spaghetti, Butternut, and Pie Pumpkin. We have a small amount of green beans and purple potatoes growing but only enough for the family. We had to seed carrots three times, because we were using older seed that was no longer viable. By the time we figured it out we lost maybe 2 months time. But it looks great now. We had to plant 2 rounds of watermelons and cantaloupe, which again appeared to be due to old seed that lost viability. We used to have melons by July 1, but now it looks like mid-August. Next year we will be making adjustments to our melon seed program.
Update on Garden (2/8/2021)
Garlic and Onions are all gone now, but the upcoming crop is growing well and looking great. Bok choi, turnips and broccoli are all finished now too. Brussel Sprouts and Celery are yielding only enough weekly to feed our family. The carrot and peas seedings were too late with old seed and did not germinate well. We do have lots of beets, kale, collards and chard available for sale if interested, and a good supply of winter greenhouse tomatoes are coming on now too. We are making plans now for the spring garden.
Update on Garden (11/9/2020)
Garlic and Onions still available. No other produce currently available for sale. However we do have kale, collards, chard, brussel sprouts, bok choi, peas, carrots and broccoli all growing in the winter garden. Next year's crop of garlic is in the ground, and onion seedlings are sprouting in the greenhouse with an anticipated plant date in January.
Update on Garden (9/18/20)
We still have garlic and onions available for sale. Tomatoes are done as are melons, squash and beans. We are getting ready to plant the winter garden now through the end of October.
Update on Garden (7/26/2020)
Garlic and onions are now available, and you can order via the Square store link at the top of the Beef page or message us via the Contact page. Tomatoes have slowed down but we still have weekly offerings including a lot of cherry tomatoes. Kale and Chard are done with, it's too hot for them! Melons are still maturing, soon they will be ready! We are picking summer squash and green beans every day, but the family is eating as much as we pick, so sorry :(
Update on Garden (6/23/2020)
We have tomatoes, kale, and chard available right now. Onions and garlic are harvested and curing and will be available soon. Melons were very slow growing this spring and then were eaten by snails, so we had an early June replanting. Melons will be ready hopefully beginning in August. We also will have lots of winter squash available early fall.
Update on Garden (4/5/2020)
We have greenhouse tomatoes, kale, and carrots available for sale right now. Onions and garlic are growing well and will be ready hopefully in June. Soon we will be planting squash, pumpkins, green beans, watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and more carrots for our summer garden.
Update on Garden (3/3/2020)
We have greenhouse tomatoes, kale, collard greens, chard, carrots, parsley, arugula, salad mix and cilantro available for sale right now. Onions and garlic are growing well and will be ready hopefully in June. Soon we will be planting squash, pumpkins, green beans, watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and more carrots for our summer garden.
Update on Garden (11/2/2019)
We have tomatoes, garlic, carrots and arugula available for sale right now. Soon we will have turnips available. Later this winter the salad greens, kale, collards, and other veggies should be available.
Update on Garden (10/9/2019)
Onions in storage are almost gone, but we still have garlic left. The tomatoes are still producing, so we do have some available. No other produce is available right now, but we are planting the fall/winter garden now, which will include turnips, carrots, arugula, lettuce mixes, kale, collard greens, peas, broccoli, and cabbage. Carrots will be ready soon; we will update the website when the others are ready. Arugula and other greens likely ready in November, all others December or next year.
Update on Garden (8/16/2019)
Garlic and onions are available for sale! We also have heirloom, plum, and cherry tomatoes, and our Arava melons are available and so sweet this year! We have pie pumpkins ready for sale (these are not Jack-O-Lanterns but smaller pumpkins that have incredible flavor for cooking). There also are spaghetti squash now available. Green beans are all gone, and the cover crops have been mowed where they were ready for it, but we seeded new cover crop in the greenhouse and the summer squash areas just this week.
Update on Garden (6/26/2019)
Garlic and onions have been harvested and are now curing in the greenhouse. One more week and they should be available! We have the highest quality, best tasting organic garlic - Inchelium Red. And our onions are amazing too - 6 different varieties of yellow, white and red. The greenhouse is still cranking out tomatoes while our garden tomatoes are growing and hopefully soon will be producing. Once the garden tomatoes are ready, the greenhouse will be cleared out and planted in a summer cover crop before we start over again this fall. Peppers are lagging way behind due to a difficult spring. We had to reseed all our squash and melons due to poor germination in April/May, so these are all still a ways off. We will update once squash, melons and peppers become available. 40% of our garden is seeded to cover crop right now (half of that in green beans, the other half in just cover crop planted right after garlic and onion harvest). The green beans have only produced enough to feed our family so it is not available for sale right now.
Update on Garden (5/19/2019)
Sorry for the delay in updating our veggies! Spring has been interesting this year. Everything for summer crops is coming along very slow due to colder temperatures and delays in getting crops seeded. Right now, we have carrots and beets in storage available for purchase, along with the last of the greenhouse tomatoes and Swiss Chard. Once the weather gets hot, those will be removed. We will have garlic and onions available around the end of June, once harvested and allowed to cure. We have green beans getting ready soon for first harvest - maybe 2-3 more weeks. We have seeded pumpkins, summer squash (Delacata), winter squash (Butternut and Spaghetti), tomatoes, chili peppers, Arava melon (our favorite!), and watermelon. The melons are just now germinating so it will be end of July at earliest before they are ready. Same with the peppers and tomatoes. The summer squash should be sooner than that, and the winter squash will be this fall.
Update on Garden (2/25/2019)
We have kale, collard greens, greenhouse tomatoes, Swiss chard, beets, turnips, and carrots available right now. The broccoli is all finished.
Update on Garden (1/05/2019)
We have lots of produce available for sale right now! We have Kale, Collard Greens, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Beets, and Carrots available for sale. Very soon the greenhouse will be producing tomatoes! Later this winter we will have shelling peas and broccoli available. The garlic and onions are growing well and should be ready by early summer.
Update on Garden (10/23/2018)
The fall/winter garden is now completely seeded. We have beets, turnips, peas, carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic and some cover crop all in the ground, and tomatoes, kale, chard, and collard greens all growing in the greenhouse. We should have the greens, carrots and beets ready to sell in mid-November. The broccoli, turnips and tomatoes should be ready this December, and the peas by January. The onions and garlic will be ready in June next year.
Update on Garden (9/03/2018)
We still have lots of Arava melons available for sale! If you'd like some, send us a message from the contact page. The green beans really did poorly this year for some unknown reason (we think the heat and maybe some over-fertilization too), but they are starting to push a crop now so we are hoping for a fall green bean crop. The cover crops were mowed down around August 1, and have sat under black mulch for 30 days. We are now pre-irrigating the rows, and will begin seeding the beets, broccoli and carrots September 8 and 15. Tomatoes are almost done, and will be pulled out September 15 to make room for garlic planting October 15. We will also start seeding the greenhouse with greens in mid-October. We harvested all the butternut squash and spaghetti squash in late August, and have some available for sale now. The zucchini squash is all finished now.
Update on Garden (7/07/2018)
Lots of garlic available from the June harvest. Tomatoes are just starting to ripen. Our amazing Arava melons are almost ready to pick, and the green beans are growing like mad...soon we will have some for sale. We have summer squash producing now (yellow, green, and Mediterranean varieties), and winter squash (butternut and spaghetti) are growing well for a fall harvest. Our berries are all done except for some ever-bearing strawberries, but the kids eat them as fast as they are picked so nothing left to sell there. Everything else is in cover crops, except for a very small patch of onions and carrots for the family's use.
Update on Garden (5/28/2018)
Garlic will be harvested on June 2. The crop looks great! Carrots did not take in the last seeding due to some bad seed and had to be reseeded. The cold spring temperatures slowed things down. Green beans, melons and tomatoes are growing, but fruit is not expected till the end of June. Beets are all gone now, but we still have some kale and collard greens growing.
Update on Market Garden (4/11/2018)
The garlic is growing very well! Carrots have been seeded, and beds are prepped for tomato plants soon to be transplanted. First round of our amazing cantaloupe are seeded, and green beans have also been seeded. We currently have lots of beets and collard greens available for weekly purchase and delivery in Bakersfield, and we have limited amounts of winter greenhouse tomatoes, kale and collard greens available weekly also.
Update on Market Garden (2/12/2018)
The broccoli, mesclun mix and arugula is finished and the ground is under black mulching to prepare for planting for green beans, melons and carrots in March. The kale is gone now too but replanted in the hot house. We still have beets, collard greens, heirloom tomatoes, and shelling peas available. We also recently seeded the onions, and planted another three beds of garlic.
Update on Market Garden (1/21/2018)
We have lots of broccoli, beats, and shelling peas available right now. We also have a limited amount of heirloom greenhouse tomatoes, turnips, mesclun lettuce mix, kale, collard greens, and arugula. Soon we will be seeding the onion patch and a second area of garlic, and transplanting more kale and collard greens.
Update on Market Garden (12/08/2017)
We currently have lots of lettuce mix, arugula, and turnips for sale. Broccoli, beets, kale, collards and peas are growing well, and some might be ready in another month. The cabbage and carrots had terrible germination, and were reseeded in late October, but due to the colder and shorter days, are way behind. We also have a nice crop of greenhouse tomatoes growing, and might have fruit available after Christmas.
Update on Market Garden (9/22/2017)
We just finished planting about 75% of the fall/winter garden: cabbage, beets, peas, broccoli, carrots, turnips, kale and chard. In about 4 weeks we will plant mesclun mix lettuce, arugula, cilantro, collard greens, and garlic. We still have our amazing Avara melons cranking out super-sweet fruit. And the late-crop tomatoes and chili peppers are starting to come on now.
Update on Market Garden (6/8/2017)
The summer garden is coming on strong now. We are currently harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, and three different kinds of squash (Magda, Zucchini, and Yellow). In a few days we will harvest garlic, and once it dries it will be ready for sale. We also have melons planted that should be available sometime in July. There's also a small winter squash patch planted, and the pepper transplants will be planted in a few days. We are attempting to put together weekly veggie boxes; we will see how it goes!
Update on Market Garden (4/26/2017)
The winter garden is almost completely gone. The only thing we are harvesting regularly from the garden right now is carrots (which are delicious heirloom varieties!), and the greenhouse is cranking out cucumbers, kale, collards, and tomatoes right now. The garlic and onions we planted early winter are bulking up nicely, and will be available for sale after harvest and drying time, which will be early summer. The newly planted berries are growing, and we should have some blackberries available this summer, but the blueberries will take another year or two to get into production, and the raspberries should be producing next year, and the strawberries unfortunately are getting eaten up by the birds. Plans are underway to build a screen-house for the berries. We are currently planting our summer garden which will consist of: sugar peas, potatoes, green beans, melons, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, corn, summer and winter squash, and pumpkins. We also have some cilantro, sage, fennel, and mint available in limited quantities.
Update on Market Garden (3/26/2017)
The spring garden is doing fantastically! We are getting close to being done with the broccoli, romaine, peas, and beets, but still have plenty to sell. We have an abundance of kale and collard greens, as well as cilantro, fennel, sage, and borage (a tasty herb that makes for a beautiful salad garnish!). The greenhouse is cranking out cucumbers on a daily basis, and soon we will have greenhouse tomatoes too. The garlic, onions, and leeks are bulking up nicely now and should be ready before summer.
Update on Market Garden (1/13/2017)
The winter garden is doing very well! We have amazing tasting beets, broccoli, arugula, romaine, butterleaf lettuce, kale, collard greens, and mesclun salad mix. We sold out of red and Chinese cabbage, but we just transplanted some more, plus green cabbage too. Later this spring we will have garlic, onions, and leeks, as well as some cilantro and parsley. We just set out tomato and cucumber starts in the greenhouse, so those should be in production in early spring. The Japanese turnips sold out too - they were so amazing, they became a favorite substitute for mashed potatoes!
Update on Market Garden (9/19/2016)
The summer garden is almost done, except for some watermelons and winter squash. We have worked up most of the garden beds now, and planted about half the garden. Next month we will work up the remaining beds and plant the rest of the garden. So far we have planted beets, broccoli, carrots, Chinese cabbage, red and green cabbage, collards, kale, parsnips, and turnips. Next month we will plant several different lettuce greens, English peas, arugula, parsley, cilantro, leeks, red and white onions, and over 1000 cloves of garlic! And if we can make it happen, we hope to have our greenhouse construction finished so that we can grow some herbs and maybe even some cucumbers in the house this winter!
Update on Market Garden (6/12/2016)
We had several delays from the contractor who was ripping out all the sod and installing the underground drip irrigation system and also from the El Nino rains. Most of the spring planting was a month late. Then we had several flash floods which wiped out all of the herbs and wildflowers and about half of the vegetables. We finally were able to replant some of it in early May. Due to these issues, we are not able to start up the CSA program yet. Stay tuned...we plan to be up and running this fall or winter.
Market Garden Planned (1/21/2016)
We are currently removing a large front lawn area that was here when we bought the property in 2014, and turning into a small market garden for our customers who appreciate and desire food grown with holistic, biologically sound principles.
We anticipate spring 2016 planting with a summer crop of beets, carrots, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, green beans, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, watermelons and zucchini.
In the fall we will plant arugula, beets, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, collards, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce (mesclun mix), onions, parsnips, peas, spinach, and turnips, for winter harvest.
For herbs, this spring we will plant basil, borage, lavender, lemon balm, lovage, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme. Some of them you may not have heard before, but they bring in beneficial insects to the garden so that we don't have to use pesticides. We also use netting to keep insects off the plants. We will also sow flowers around the garden - Agastache, Asclepias, Echinacea, Eriophylum, Veronica, Yarrow, and wildflowers. Besides their beauty, the flowers function as part of the holistic garden system!
The berry patch will likely be planted fall 2016. We plan to have blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.
We are developing what this program would look like. Probably we will start a "CSA" program (Community Supported Agriculture), where you become partners with us for a 6 month growing season and are charged a monthly fee. You could pick up your garden box here at the farm or we can arrange deliveries in Bakersfield.
If you'd like to learn more about the biological principles of farming we employ, please check out this link: http://www.yladlivingsoils.com.au/ABoutUs/biologicalagriculture.html
Here's our son Luke holding a giant Touchstone Gold beet!
Update on Garden (1/24/2024)
It's been a while since we updated this page for our garden. Right now we have tomatoes growing in the hothouse - but they aren't quite ripe yet - along with kale and cabbage. Kale is available as an add-on to a monthly beef subscription or you can come up and get it yourself at $5/lb (large bag), and cabbage won't be ready till middle of spring. We are harvesting broccoli weekly and may have some available from time to time - if interested please ask. Lots of beautiful delicious carrots available right now. Onions and garlic growing well for a May harvest.
Update on Garden (5/1/2023)
We don't have anything right now to sell to the public, but we have the summer garden almost completely planted now. We do have a small surplus of tomatoes from our greenhouse that we will sell to our current list of monthly beef customers. We plan to harvest the onions and garlic in the next few days, then it will have to dry before it is ready to sell. We plan to have lots of melons and squash available later this summer.
Update on Garden (12/21/2022)
We still have a lot of pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash, butternut squash and bon bon squash available for purchase. Garlic and onions are all gone now. The winter garden and greenhouse are growing well but none of the crops are ready for harvest right now.
Update on Garden (9/22/2022)
We have a lot of pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash, bon bon squash, butternut squash, garlic, and onions available for purchase. If you'd like some, please contact us. The cover crop in the winter garden is mowed down and mulched in, and soon we will be planting carrots, beets, turnips, broccoli, garlic and onions. The greenhouse cover crop is also mowed down and in October we will be planting celery, bok choi, brussel sprouts, and tomatoes.
Update on Garden (4/26/2022)
Winter crops are almost done. We have harvested most of the onions, and they are now curing Garlic will be harvested in the next few weeks. Broccoli is done, and we are letting it grow out to seed for next year's crop. We are picking some cabbage, tomatoes and brussel sprouts each weekend but typically only enough for the family. The summer garden is all planted this month into potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, melons, and various winter squash. The blackberry crop looks amazing again this year. The fruit trees look good, especially the apricots, apples, and pears. The nectarines and pluots all dropped their bloom during the frost in early March. Oh, and we planted a large row of asparagus, and are excited for the first crop next year!
Update on Garden (1/23/2022)
We have lots of broccoli right now, if you'd like to purchase some let us know. We aren't delivering for free or small orders, but you can pick up at the farm or add it to your monthly beef order (if you are already a subscriber. In the near term we should have greenhouse tomatoes and cabbage available for sale, too.
Update on Garden (12/27/2021)
The winter garden is growing amazingly well. Right now, we have plentiful amounts of bok choi and arugula, and limited amounts of carrots, turnips, and beets. The broccoli is growing very well and harvest began a week ago. Shelling peas are just starting to be ready! Cabbage and Brussel Sprouts are slow growing and will be a few months before harvest begins. The onion and garlic plantings look amazing and are ahead of last year at this same time. Look for a mid- to late-May harvest for those. Tomatoes in the greenhouse are slow growing with the colder weather but have started setting fruit, so there should be some fruit to pick in about a month maybe.
Update on Garden (9/2/2021)
The summer garden is wrapping up and we are prepping the ground for the winter garden. We have lots of garlic, pie pumpkins and spaghetti squash available for purchase. If interested, please reach out to us through the contact page!
Update on Garden (6/18/2021)
We had an update in April but somehow it disappeared! The winter garden finished strong with the largest broccoli crop we have ever grown. Garlic and Onions were harvested in May and were the highest quality crop we have ever grown. We had an incredible berry season from mid-April to mid-June with the best strawberries and blackberries we have ever grown. We attribute all our successes this spring to improved soil health using high quality biological inputs and top-quality homemade compost. All the tomatoes and greens in the greenhouse are finished now due to the heat. In the main summer garden, we have an excellent crop of squash growing - Delicata, Bon Bon, Spaghetti, Butternut, and Pie Pumpkin. We have a small amount of green beans and purple potatoes growing but only enough for the family. We had to seed carrots three times, because we were using older seed that was no longer viable. By the time we figured it out we lost maybe 2 months time. But it looks great now. We had to plant 2 rounds of watermelons and cantaloupe, which again appeared to be due to old seed that lost viability. We used to have melons by July 1, but now it looks like mid-August. Next year we will be making adjustments to our melon seed program.
Update on Garden (2/8/2021)
Garlic and Onions are all gone now, but the upcoming crop is growing well and looking great. Bok choi, turnips and broccoli are all finished now too. Brussel Sprouts and Celery are yielding only enough weekly to feed our family. The carrot and peas seedings were too late with old seed and did not germinate well. We do have lots of beets, kale, collards and chard available for sale if interested, and a good supply of winter greenhouse tomatoes are coming on now too. We are making plans now for the spring garden.
Update on Garden (11/9/2020)
Garlic and Onions still available. No other produce currently available for sale. However we do have kale, collards, chard, brussel sprouts, bok choi, peas, carrots and broccoli all growing in the winter garden. Next year's crop of garlic is in the ground, and onion seedlings are sprouting in the greenhouse with an anticipated plant date in January.
Update on Garden (9/18/20)
We still have garlic and onions available for sale. Tomatoes are done as are melons, squash and beans. We are getting ready to plant the winter garden now through the end of October.
Update on Garden (7/26/2020)
Garlic and onions are now available, and you can order via the Square store link at the top of the Beef page or message us via the Contact page. Tomatoes have slowed down but we still have weekly offerings including a lot of cherry tomatoes. Kale and Chard are done with, it's too hot for them! Melons are still maturing, soon they will be ready! We are picking summer squash and green beans every day, but the family is eating as much as we pick, so sorry :(
Update on Garden (6/23/2020)
We have tomatoes, kale, and chard available right now. Onions and garlic are harvested and curing and will be available soon. Melons were very slow growing this spring and then were eaten by snails, so we had an early June replanting. Melons will be ready hopefully beginning in August. We also will have lots of winter squash available early fall.
Update on Garden (4/5/2020)
We have greenhouse tomatoes, kale, and carrots available for sale right now. Onions and garlic are growing well and will be ready hopefully in June. Soon we will be planting squash, pumpkins, green beans, watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and more carrots for our summer garden.
Update on Garden (3/3/2020)
We have greenhouse tomatoes, kale, collard greens, chard, carrots, parsley, arugula, salad mix and cilantro available for sale right now. Onions and garlic are growing well and will be ready hopefully in June. Soon we will be planting squash, pumpkins, green beans, watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and more carrots for our summer garden.
Update on Garden (11/2/2019)
We have tomatoes, garlic, carrots and arugula available for sale right now. Soon we will have turnips available. Later this winter the salad greens, kale, collards, and other veggies should be available.
Update on Garden (10/9/2019)
Onions in storage are almost gone, but we still have garlic left. The tomatoes are still producing, so we do have some available. No other produce is available right now, but we are planting the fall/winter garden now, which will include turnips, carrots, arugula, lettuce mixes, kale, collard greens, peas, broccoli, and cabbage. Carrots will be ready soon; we will update the website when the others are ready. Arugula and other greens likely ready in November, all others December or next year.
Update on Garden (8/16/2019)
Garlic and onions are available for sale! We also have heirloom, plum, and cherry tomatoes, and our Arava melons are available and so sweet this year! We have pie pumpkins ready for sale (these are not Jack-O-Lanterns but smaller pumpkins that have incredible flavor for cooking). There also are spaghetti squash now available. Green beans are all gone, and the cover crops have been mowed where they were ready for it, but we seeded new cover crop in the greenhouse and the summer squash areas just this week.
Update on Garden (6/26/2019)
Garlic and onions have been harvested and are now curing in the greenhouse. One more week and they should be available! We have the highest quality, best tasting organic garlic - Inchelium Red. And our onions are amazing too - 6 different varieties of yellow, white and red. The greenhouse is still cranking out tomatoes while our garden tomatoes are growing and hopefully soon will be producing. Once the garden tomatoes are ready, the greenhouse will be cleared out and planted in a summer cover crop before we start over again this fall. Peppers are lagging way behind due to a difficult spring. We had to reseed all our squash and melons due to poor germination in April/May, so these are all still a ways off. We will update once squash, melons and peppers become available. 40% of our garden is seeded to cover crop right now (half of that in green beans, the other half in just cover crop planted right after garlic and onion harvest). The green beans have only produced enough to feed our family so it is not available for sale right now.
Update on Garden (5/19/2019)
Sorry for the delay in updating our veggies! Spring has been interesting this year. Everything for summer crops is coming along very slow due to colder temperatures and delays in getting crops seeded. Right now, we have carrots and beets in storage available for purchase, along with the last of the greenhouse tomatoes and Swiss Chard. Once the weather gets hot, those will be removed. We will have garlic and onions available around the end of June, once harvested and allowed to cure. We have green beans getting ready soon for first harvest - maybe 2-3 more weeks. We have seeded pumpkins, summer squash (Delacata), winter squash (Butternut and Spaghetti), tomatoes, chili peppers, Arava melon (our favorite!), and watermelon. The melons are just now germinating so it will be end of July at earliest before they are ready. Same with the peppers and tomatoes. The summer squash should be sooner than that, and the winter squash will be this fall.
Update on Garden (2/25/2019)
We have kale, collard greens, greenhouse tomatoes, Swiss chard, beets, turnips, and carrots available right now. The broccoli is all finished.
Update on Garden (1/05/2019)
We have lots of produce available for sale right now! We have Kale, Collard Greens, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Beets, and Carrots available for sale. Very soon the greenhouse will be producing tomatoes! Later this winter we will have shelling peas and broccoli available. The garlic and onions are growing well and should be ready by early summer.
Update on Garden (10/23/2018)
The fall/winter garden is now completely seeded. We have beets, turnips, peas, carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic and some cover crop all in the ground, and tomatoes, kale, chard, and collard greens all growing in the greenhouse. We should have the greens, carrots and beets ready to sell in mid-November. The broccoli, turnips and tomatoes should be ready this December, and the peas by January. The onions and garlic will be ready in June next year.
Update on Garden (9/03/2018)
We still have lots of Arava melons available for sale! If you'd like some, send us a message from the contact page. The green beans really did poorly this year for some unknown reason (we think the heat and maybe some over-fertilization too), but they are starting to push a crop now so we are hoping for a fall green bean crop. The cover crops were mowed down around August 1, and have sat under black mulch for 30 days. We are now pre-irrigating the rows, and will begin seeding the beets, broccoli and carrots September 8 and 15. Tomatoes are almost done, and will be pulled out September 15 to make room for garlic planting October 15. We will also start seeding the greenhouse with greens in mid-October. We harvested all the butternut squash and spaghetti squash in late August, and have some available for sale now. The zucchini squash is all finished now.
Update on Garden (7/07/2018)
Lots of garlic available from the June harvest. Tomatoes are just starting to ripen. Our amazing Arava melons are almost ready to pick, and the green beans are growing like mad...soon we will have some for sale. We have summer squash producing now (yellow, green, and Mediterranean varieties), and winter squash (butternut and spaghetti) are growing well for a fall harvest. Our berries are all done except for some ever-bearing strawberries, but the kids eat them as fast as they are picked so nothing left to sell there. Everything else is in cover crops, except for a very small patch of onions and carrots for the family's use.
Update on Garden (5/28/2018)
Garlic will be harvested on June 2. The crop looks great! Carrots did not take in the last seeding due to some bad seed and had to be reseeded. The cold spring temperatures slowed things down. Green beans, melons and tomatoes are growing, but fruit is not expected till the end of June. Beets are all gone now, but we still have some kale and collard greens growing.
Update on Market Garden (4/11/2018)
The garlic is growing very well! Carrots have been seeded, and beds are prepped for tomato plants soon to be transplanted. First round of our amazing cantaloupe are seeded, and green beans have also been seeded. We currently have lots of beets and collard greens available for weekly purchase and delivery in Bakersfield, and we have limited amounts of winter greenhouse tomatoes, kale and collard greens available weekly also.
Update on Market Garden (2/12/2018)
The broccoli, mesclun mix and arugula is finished and the ground is under black mulching to prepare for planting for green beans, melons and carrots in March. The kale is gone now too but replanted in the hot house. We still have beets, collard greens, heirloom tomatoes, and shelling peas available. We also recently seeded the onions, and planted another three beds of garlic.
Update on Market Garden (1/21/2018)
We have lots of broccoli, beats, and shelling peas available right now. We also have a limited amount of heirloom greenhouse tomatoes, turnips, mesclun lettuce mix, kale, collard greens, and arugula. Soon we will be seeding the onion patch and a second area of garlic, and transplanting more kale and collard greens.
Update on Market Garden (12/08/2017)
We currently have lots of lettuce mix, arugula, and turnips for sale. Broccoli, beets, kale, collards and peas are growing well, and some might be ready in another month. The cabbage and carrots had terrible germination, and were reseeded in late October, but due to the colder and shorter days, are way behind. We also have a nice crop of greenhouse tomatoes growing, and might have fruit available after Christmas.
Update on Market Garden (9/22/2017)
We just finished planting about 75% of the fall/winter garden: cabbage, beets, peas, broccoli, carrots, turnips, kale and chard. In about 4 weeks we will plant mesclun mix lettuce, arugula, cilantro, collard greens, and garlic. We still have our amazing Avara melons cranking out super-sweet fruit. And the late-crop tomatoes and chili peppers are starting to come on now.
Update on Market Garden (6/8/2017)
The summer garden is coming on strong now. We are currently harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, and three different kinds of squash (Magda, Zucchini, and Yellow). In a few days we will harvest garlic, and once it dries it will be ready for sale. We also have melons planted that should be available sometime in July. There's also a small winter squash patch planted, and the pepper transplants will be planted in a few days. We are attempting to put together weekly veggie boxes; we will see how it goes!
Update on Market Garden (4/26/2017)
The winter garden is almost completely gone. The only thing we are harvesting regularly from the garden right now is carrots (which are delicious heirloom varieties!), and the greenhouse is cranking out cucumbers, kale, collards, and tomatoes right now. The garlic and onions we planted early winter are bulking up nicely, and will be available for sale after harvest and drying time, which will be early summer. The newly planted berries are growing, and we should have some blackberries available this summer, but the blueberries will take another year or two to get into production, and the raspberries should be producing next year, and the strawberries unfortunately are getting eaten up by the birds. Plans are underway to build a screen-house for the berries. We are currently planting our summer garden which will consist of: sugar peas, potatoes, green beans, melons, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, corn, summer and winter squash, and pumpkins. We also have some cilantro, sage, fennel, and mint available in limited quantities.
Update on Market Garden (3/26/2017)
The spring garden is doing fantastically! We are getting close to being done with the broccoli, romaine, peas, and beets, but still have plenty to sell. We have an abundance of kale and collard greens, as well as cilantro, fennel, sage, and borage (a tasty herb that makes for a beautiful salad garnish!). The greenhouse is cranking out cucumbers on a daily basis, and soon we will have greenhouse tomatoes too. The garlic, onions, and leeks are bulking up nicely now and should be ready before summer.
Update on Market Garden (1/13/2017)
The winter garden is doing very well! We have amazing tasting beets, broccoli, arugula, romaine, butterleaf lettuce, kale, collard greens, and mesclun salad mix. We sold out of red and Chinese cabbage, but we just transplanted some more, plus green cabbage too. Later this spring we will have garlic, onions, and leeks, as well as some cilantro and parsley. We just set out tomato and cucumber starts in the greenhouse, so those should be in production in early spring. The Japanese turnips sold out too - they were so amazing, they became a favorite substitute for mashed potatoes!
Update on Market Garden (9/19/2016)
The summer garden is almost done, except for some watermelons and winter squash. We have worked up most of the garden beds now, and planted about half the garden. Next month we will work up the remaining beds and plant the rest of the garden. So far we have planted beets, broccoli, carrots, Chinese cabbage, red and green cabbage, collards, kale, parsnips, and turnips. Next month we will plant several different lettuce greens, English peas, arugula, parsley, cilantro, leeks, red and white onions, and over 1000 cloves of garlic! And if we can make it happen, we hope to have our greenhouse construction finished so that we can grow some herbs and maybe even some cucumbers in the house this winter!
Update on Market Garden (6/12/2016)
We had several delays from the contractor who was ripping out all the sod and installing the underground drip irrigation system and also from the El Nino rains. Most of the spring planting was a month late. Then we had several flash floods which wiped out all of the herbs and wildflowers and about half of the vegetables. We finally were able to replant some of it in early May. Due to these issues, we are not able to start up the CSA program yet. Stay tuned...we plan to be up and running this fall or winter.
Market Garden Planned (1/21/2016)
We are currently removing a large front lawn area that was here when we bought the property in 2014, and turning into a small market garden for our customers who appreciate and desire food grown with holistic, biologically sound principles.
We anticipate spring 2016 planting with a summer crop of beets, carrots, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, green beans, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, watermelons and zucchini.
In the fall we will plant arugula, beets, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, collards, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce (mesclun mix), onions, parsnips, peas, spinach, and turnips, for winter harvest.
For herbs, this spring we will plant basil, borage, lavender, lemon balm, lovage, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme. Some of them you may not have heard before, but they bring in beneficial insects to the garden so that we don't have to use pesticides. We also use netting to keep insects off the plants. We will also sow flowers around the garden - Agastache, Asclepias, Echinacea, Eriophylum, Veronica, Yarrow, and wildflowers. Besides their beauty, the flowers function as part of the holistic garden system!
The berry patch will likely be planted fall 2016. We plan to have blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.
We are developing what this program would look like. Probably we will start a "CSA" program (Community Supported Agriculture), where you become partners with us for a 6 month growing season and are charged a monthly fee. You could pick up your garden box here at the farm or we can arrange deliveries in Bakersfield.
If you'd like to learn more about the biological principles of farming we employ, please check out this link: http://www.yladlivingsoils.com.au/ABoutUs/biologicalagriculture.html
Here's our son Luke holding a giant Touchstone Gold beet!
