The rain was wonderful – slow, gentle, and steady. With 2.5” inches of heavenly moisture sprinkling the farm over the last 4 days the soil surface feels saturated. Let’s hope we get some more since the deeper layers of the soil profile, where trees anchor their roots, are still dry. Our thirsty soils absorbed the [...]
We invite you to join the Live Earth Farm Community on another “food and farming journey” with our upcoming Main Season to experience the thrills, mystery, and pleasures inherently associated with growing your food. Nature’s bounty is abundant but fleeting which means that in farming, timing is everything. Like with any dance, in farming one [...]
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead More than 30 years ago a small "tribe" of visionary, hardworking, courageous, spiritual, fun, vibrant people gathered here on the West Coast to help kick-start the organic farming movement. Today’s annual Ecological [...]
After a rejuvenating winter break we are ready to reengage and start once again the harvest for the first CSA shares of the New Year. Normally we should be struggling with cold, wet and muddy conditions, instead this worrisome drought has forced us to keep irrigating, just as we would during the main season. We [...]
"This food comes from the Earth and the Sky, it's the gift of the entire universe and the fruit of much hard work; I vow to live a life which is worthy to receive it." ~ Grace of the Bodhisattva Buddists The first frost of the season is descending upon us and I hope with [...]
When I drive Elisa, our daughter, to school in the morning I get a glimpse of the kind of things she pays attention to as we make the 20 minute drive through the back-roads of Watsonville, Corralitos, and Aptos to avoid the stop and go traffic on HWY 1. Her curiosity often surprises me as [...]
There are few places in the world where in the middle of October one can harvest tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, apples, strawberries, and winter squash, in addition to the large variety of greens and root crops available almost year-round. The one crop that stands out however is the mighty Brassica or Mustard family. When I [...]
The pumpkins are harvested, and few crops when piled together make a better seasonal statement than a pumpkin patch. It always amazes me when I carve a pumpkin how many seeds are stored inside the thick, fleshy walls of this colorful “fruit”. We often dismiss the seeds we find inside our vegetables, and most of [...]
The moment the hand harvests a crop destined to become food the act of farming, the growing of food, shifts to nourishment, the act of consuming food. I love to cook dinner with what is freshly harvested and packed into the CSA shares. By cooking, I link the natural world of the farm with the [...]
Double rainbow over the farm. The rain showers last Saturday were Mother Nature’s way to mark the seasonal transition. It washed the dust off the plants and when I woke to a clear blue sky on Sunday morning, the day of the Fall Equinox, the landscape felt refreshed, the colors brilliant, not the [...]
