Turnip selections

Hakurei Turnips

Every year we grow a number of varieties from selected crops. We do this to match our site and climate with the varieties that perform best there. This year we are evaluating turnips. Two in particular are standing out so far -- Tokyo Cross and Hakurei. These two turnips are quick to mature, and they seem to do so without any cracking or splitting. But most impressive is their clean crisp flavor. We have been eating both the greens and the roots raw, as we thin them.

We have additional varieties we still need to test. Many are exotic varieties given to us by Guillaume Bienaime (Executive Chef, Marche). We may find other new favorites from among them, but it is hard to imagine them being much better thano Tokyo Cross and Hakurei.

Baia Nicchia Dinner at Sea Salt

Sea Salt Restaurant, Berkeley CA

Anthony Paone, executive chef at Sea Salt, will be preparing a special dinner featuring our produce Monday December 7th. The menu, and more information can be found here.

The Bug is Back

Lady Bug

Lady Bug has recovered from the injuries she sustained 6 weeks ago. She's back to eating dry food and running 45 mph at the farm. Thanks to Dr. Louie and Dr. Rohn who patched her up, and Jill who hand-fed her soft food balls for 5 weeks.

Baia Nicchia CSAs

Gourmet Lettuces -- A big part of our Winter CSA

We have started a new blog for our CSAs. It is located here. Please visit for information about our Summer and Winter CSAs.

Final Score: Poppy 1 -- Deer 1

Nicole's Eulogy

Our beloved Poppy died two weeks ago. She, and her siblings got loose at the beginning of a morning walk when she bolted to chase a deer. The deer scrambled over the train tracks behind the property, and she was killed by a blow from a passing commuter train.

Poppy and Lady Bug were the closest of friends and they were together when she died. It is likely that Poppy's body shielded Lady Bug from a direct train hit. Lady Bug is recovering from injuries sustained when she landed next to the tracks after Poppy was pushed into her.

Two years ago Poppy killed a deer at the farm. Now the score is even.

Jordy, the amazing whippet, is going to have to fill in for Poppy at the farm. He is already getting used to lounging on Poppy's cushion, chasing ground squirrels and keeping us company while we work. Lady Bug is annoyed that he gets to go to the farm every day, while she recuperates.

Goodbye Berkeley. Hello Berkeley.

Goodbye Berkeley: Last week we made the difficult decision to stop selling tomatoes and other produce at the Thursday farmers' market in Berkeley. It just doesn't make any sense to take a modest amount of good tomatoes to the market, and bring half of them home. We have been keeping tabs on our sales, and on the other vendors selling tomatoes, and it is clear that supply and demand at the market are not in harmony. Factors that may be contributing to the lack of demand for heirloom tomatoes at the market:
1. Farmers' market saturation. Lots of other markets have started up in the past few years. Why fight traffic in Berkeley, and risk parking tickets, when you can shop closer to home at the Kensington, Temescal, Walnut Creek, etc. etc. farmers' market?
2. The economy. We are all shopping more thriftily. Less people "need" 2 lb ($5) tomatoes when times are tough.
3. Better produce in grocery stores.

Whatever the reasons, we needed to make a change and we wish all of our friends at the market the best. Of course we will be back in the market with our vegetable and herb seedlings next Spring.

Hello Berkeley: We realize that we have developed a customer base in Berkeley that connects with our unique mix of tomatoes, peppers and squash. Anyone missing our veg is encouraged to check out our new CSAs -- both winter and summer. We will have CSA box pick-up on Thursdays in both Albany (Flowerland Nursery on Solano) and in Berkeley at San Pablo and Grayson (at our organic microgreen facility).

The people you meet at the market...

We are very fortunate to work with Guillaume Bienaime the executive chef at Marche in Menlo Park. We met Guillaume at our farmers' market in Menlo Park when he saw our herb starts one Sunday morning. Guillaume is very interactive, and he spends lots of time explaining to us how he uses our produce. He is also quite involved with our farm. He invites us to special dinners that highlight our produce, and this past spring he purchased a plethora of gourmet melon seeds for us to try. We have had great fun learning about melons with him this year. Now he is going to breed a tomato with us, and work on this project starts this week when he visits our farm to choose the two parent varieties he wants to genetically cross.

Recently a chef-author contacted us about our potential interest in being included in a book featuring the relationships between local farmers and chefs. Our collaborations with Guillaume will be a nice fit for his book.

Farmers' Markets and Farm Stands

Our tomatoes at the Menlo Park Farmers' Market

Berkeley Thursday Farmers' Market (3PM-7PM) March-May

We are strictly a nursery at the Berkeley Farmers' Market. We sell tomato, pepper, mustard and lettuce starts, as well as herb starts and other assorted plant starts. We are no longer selling produce at our Berkeley market.

Menlo Park Sunday Farmers' Market (9AM-1PM)

We are in this market all year. We sell plant starts as well as seasonal produce in Menlo Park. Our specialties are tomatoes, peppers, squash, microgreens and winter field greens.

Sunol Farm Stands

This past month we moved to Sunol. Now that we are settled, we are pleased to announce our re-vamped farm stands located on the front porch of the Jazz Cafe in Sunol.

Tuesdays (2-6PM) Visit us at our stand before the Tuesday night Buffet Dinner at the Jazz Cafe.

Friday (2-6PM) Stop by to pick up local veg for the weekend. 5% of Farm Stand proceeds on Fridays are donated directly to the Vegetable Garden Project at the Sunol Glen Elementary School. Support your local farm and your local school.

We also have produce available in the Jazz Cafe for purchase. Currently we are selling baskets of cherry tomatoes there.

Keeping up with technology

Poppy Jo

We don't have any time to twitter. But Poppy Jo has volunteered to tweet a bit, between naps.

Summer Farm Internships

If you want to learn more about organic farming, we offer a flexible internship which can start at any time. Summer is the best time to do an internship at our farm. The crops are coming in... Interns will now be taking home boxes of produce at the end of the day.

Today we harvested our first ripe non-cherry tomatoes -- Duro and Costoluto Genovese. Soon we will be awash in tomatoes, peppers, melons, beans, summer squash, basil, mints, kabocha and wild white strawberries.

We are almost ready to plant our last summer field, with assorted pumpkins from France, Italy, North America, South America and Australia. We are trellising tomatoes like crazy. We are also still transplanting into new herb beds. We are hoeing rows and picking Padron peppers and Cherry tomatoes.

The basics of our internship --

1. Duration of Internship = 120 hours
2. Flexible scheduling. Internship may run anywhere from 3 weeks to a year.
3. Work = approximately 4/5 of the internship
4. Approximately 1/5 of internship is spent discussing organic farming, plant breeding, direct marketing, nursery management, small business development, etc.
5. Intern Projects -- All interns select and grow diverse varieties of a single crop which they choose.
6. Free produce -- Interns may take a box of produce home each week, and may also plant crops at the farm.

7. Stipend -- $200 at end of internship


What is unique about our business, and our internship?

1. We specialize in using available crop genetic diversity to select the absolute best varieties to grow locally in our nursery and on our farm.
2. We breed tomatoes and squash. We breed organically, and the trait of primary interest is taste. We also breed for unique shapes, colors and for small plant size combined with good productivity.
3. We are a vertically integrated business. We breed. We run a small nursery. We run a small farm. We directly market our products, and we sell wholesale to high-end markets. This arrangement gives us flexibility and a good deal of control over what we do. It also allows us to fetch a sustainable price for our seedlings and our produce.
4. Interns are exposed to all sides of the business, and are expected to critique and evaluate as a part of their internship.

Current Activities -- Some of what we are doing in July/August

Transplanting seedlings into the field

Laying out drip irrigation systems

Planting Summer crops

Hoeing Summer crop rows

Planning for winter crops

Harvesting summer vegetables

Sorting, packing and delivering vegetables

Harvesting herbs and edible flowers

Trapping mice

Trellising tomatoes

Planting herb beds

Selling produce at the farmers' markets

Composting home and farm refuse

Deliveries to restaurants

Feeding the chickens and collecting eggs

Trapping gophers

Setting up a new farm stand

New this summer -- Green Day and Duro

Green Day

Duro

We have a few new tomato varieties to introduce this summer, including Green Day and Duro.

Green Day is a long cherry tomato with a bold tangy flavor. You'll want to be in the minority of tomato connisiours who get their hands on this tomato when it comes around.

Duro is a small tomato with a fresh sweet flavor. It is also a very long-keeping tomato (on the vine, or on the dining room table). We don't know of another long-keeper tomato with flavor this excellent.

Gopher Catcher

Great Blue Heron

Many mornings there are great blue herons in our fields. It finally dawned on us what they are are doing -- hunting gophers.

The gophers are relatively active early in the mornings, and the Herons wait above their holes and spear them with their beaks.

32 things that might be true about tomatoes and tomato growing

We are giving a workshop at Magic Gardens in Berkeley today. Here are the talking points:

1. Never, ever refrigerate tomatoes
2. Small-fruited tomatoes perform better in cool weather
3. Small-fruited tomatoes perform better in containers
4. Check the soil beneath tomatoes every morning
5. For container grown plants, water daily when soil is dry at surface in the morning.
6. Grow plants in the ground when possible
7. For plants in the ground, water consistently as plants get established, and then water deeply, only when the soil is dry 3 inches below the surface, or when the plants begin to wilt
8. Once fruits begin to ripen, water less, if you can do so without killing your plants
9. Overwatering at the soil surface promotes disease and algal growth (associated flies & pests)
10. Overwatering leads to mealy, watery tomatoes. It is impossible not to “overwater” tomato plants in containers
11. Pick large tomatoes before they are completely ripe, and let them ripen in a bowl with other tomatoes or fruits – they will ripen more evenly, and you can see when they get perfectly ripe
12. Never, ever refrigerate tomatoes
13. Tomatoes can ripened more slowly between 55 and 65 degrees (and spread out)
14. Tomatoes can be ripened rapidly between 75 and 85 degrees (with other tomatoes)
15. You can’t save money growing tomatoes in containers
16. You might be able to save money growing plants in the ground
17. Never, ever refrigerate tomatoes
18. Don’t wash tomatoes after you pick them. Wash them right before you use them
19. There are no “red” tomato pigments. Red tomatoes have pink, orange and other pigments
20. Throw out diseased plants immediately. UC Davis has a good website for recognizing tomato diseases
21. It is normal for older tomato plants to have drying, “burnt” leaves. The young shoots should look vigorous
22. You can de-capitate your tomato plants. It is often advised when growing in containers
23. Trimming the leaves near the soil surface can reduce disease risk
24. The most common tomato diseases are fungal, and prolonged damp/wet periods promote them
25. Lousy soil will give you lousy tomatoes
26. FoxFarm “Ocean and Forest” potting soil is the best we have found
27. Over-fertilizing with nitrogen reduces harvest
28. Never, ever refrigerate tomatoes
29. Local field-grown tomatoes are in the market mainly from August to October.
30. If you want to know when locally grown tomatoes with the best flavor are available, shop at the farmers’ market
31. Tomatoes are tropical plants
32. Good sources for seeds – Seed Saver’s Exchange, Seeds of Change, Tomato Grower’s Supply

A tomato worth stealing

Blush

Alex, our 10-year-old tomato breeder, devised the cross that produced Blush. He's also helped select a handful of potential new varieties from that one cross. Blush is perhaps the best of those new varieties. The empirical data that suggests such value is this -- When we sampled this variety for folks at the Carmel TomatoFest last year, a number of them came back to our booth later and nicked them. We had a small bowl of them out, for show, and when we stepped away for food or to look at other booths, we had the occasion to view people come up to our booth, look around, and then pop a few in their pockets or bags. Typically, the tomatoes were taken by folks who had sampled them earlier. Since their were no rotton tomato throwing contests associated with TomatoFest, the simplest conclusion is that they liked them enough to pilfer them.

Blush is an elongated cherry tomato, like Maglia Rosa. We will be selling Blush fruits this summer at our farmers' markets.

2009 Seedlings for Sale

Hillbilly Tomatoes

Not all varieties will be available at every market! Email us 2 days prior to any given market to order particular varieties. We will do our best to bring them to the market for you (depending on availability). See profile for email address.

2009 Standard Tomato Varieties -- Medium and Large Fruit
Cherokee Purple
Big Rainbow
Hillbilly
Pineapple
Pink Mortgage Lifter
Red Brandywine
Italian Pear
Neves Azorian Red
Costoluto Genovese
Speckled Roman
Amana Orange
Early Girl
San Marzano
Stupice
Silvery Fir Tree

Our Tomato Varieties -- Medium and Large Fruit
Lucinda
Spike

Standard Tomato Varieties -- Small Fruit
Principe Borghese
Black Cherry
Sun Gold
Super Sweet 100
Austin's Yellow Pear
Isis Candy
Green Grape
Reisentraube

Our Tomato Varieties -- Small Fruit
Maglia Rosa
Spain
One
Pink Spain

Tomato seedlings are available at our Farmers' Markets and our Farm Stand now. Assorted herb starts are also available now. Assorted pepper seedlings and basils will be available in May.

New Sign

Our New Sign -- At the farm today

Caitlyn, at New Bohemia Signs, painted our beautiful new sign. We love it.

Santa Clara Master Gardeners Spring Garden Market

Saturday April 4th is the annual Spring Garden Market, organized by the Santa Clara County Master Gardeners.

We will be attending for the 3rd straight year, selling tomato seedlings, pepper seedlings, mustards, lettuces and wild mountain strawberries.

Maglia Rosa released by Seeds of Change

Maglia Rosa seeds are now available at Seeds of Change. We will no longer be selling seeds directly, although our previously released varieties (Maglia Rosa, as well as One, Spike, Lucinda and Spain) will still be available as seedlings at our farmers' markets.

Eco-Farm 2009

The Ecological Farming Association holds it's annual conference January 21-24. The theme this year is United We Grow. Anyone with an interest in organic gardening or farming should consider attending this excellent annual conference. We will be giving a short presentation on small-scale organic plant breeding in a workshop entitled Adapting Seed Varieties and Seed Production to Your Farming System.

Farm Dogs

Lady Bug

Farms and dogs go together. We have greyhounds -- not typical farm dogs. But, they are perfect for our farm. They have the following chores: 1. Dig up gophers. 2. Chase wild turkeys. 3. Catch mice. 4. Play with children who visit. 5. Race around the farm roads. 6. Lay around. They are best at "6", but they do a pretty good job at their other chores too.

Poppy Jo

At this time, I think chasing wild turkeys is their most important job. Anyone who has seen what wild turkeys can do to a drip irrigation system will understand. A marauding band of wild turkeys can very quickly convert a drip system into a sprinkler system, after which we have to spend an hour or two using electrical tape to plug all the holes they have pecked.

Lady Bug and Poppy Jo are retired racing greyhounds. They weren't very accomplished racing at the track. Poppy in particular was a disaster. She ran 3 races and disrupted them all. This earned her an almost immediate retirement. Smart dog. These days, she and Lady Bug race each other whenever the mood strikes.