Farming early on the west coast.

[Kevin Cunningham]

I am trying some experiments this year with getting into some ground early. Since I am in California and a lot of the cool, sustainable, bio-extensive systems (the Nordels, etc) that I have read about are by farmers where there are real winters I am having to modify some. In the fall I set aside a field for early crops and planted it to buckwheat. This is the only cover crop that I have found to winter kill reliably in my area. It grew to about a 18 in and then did die back when we had our first frost about December. I wish that I had gotten it in a little bit earlier and that it had grown and flowered a bit more. I can even see a situation where it will winter kill and reseed. But it did winter kill, this left the area pretty bare and it should be easy to disc up when I get some dry weather. Today I went through the field and pulled the big mustard and radish plants, because these will be hard to incorporate with my little disc and the oxen. I used my new mini wagon and fed out the mustard to the sheep. So far the system seems to be working well and hopefully in a few days I will disc it and make beds for early peas, spinach, and beets.

[Kevin Cunningham]

let’s try that picture again

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