Last time i jotted a blog post about the farm was back in February. It is now the towards the end of April, and much has been conquered with more yet to come. We have been going full blast since back in February making sure the farm is at its highest standard while battling heavy input costs and large amounts of work. All in all, it has been a good last few months striving to do the best we know how.
February was filled with color this year. The month was spent enjoying abnormal warm delightful weather and foothills exploding full of poppies, mustard, fiddleneck, and lupines. A real treat to experience. The farm was a bit slow. Our work included irrigating and fertilizing. February is when we like to give our trees a nice shot of fertilizer to get them going and wake them up for their new growing season. With the lack of rain, we had to irrigate in order to keep the trees happy, and keep growing the fruit on our Late Lane navels and Valencia oranges. Usually we can cut back on irrigating this time of year, but the weather did not allow us to. Off the farm we enjoyed scenic mountain bike rides through flowing green hills, and even spent a day on the local river searching for trout.
March started off with a nice surprise, a solid inch of rain. Just what we had yearned for. The trees gladly soaked it in and you could see it right away as the leaves perked up, the fruit grew a bit larger, and new growth began protruding out. With the nice rain down here in the valley that also meant for a bonus surprise. Fresh powder in the mountains. After the work was finished we headed up into the backcountry of the sequoia national forrest delighted to find some of the nicest, lightest powder we could dream of. We had laughs, good conversation, and took deep tasty turns powered by the navel oranges we consumed at the top of the mountain. It was one of those skiing days you don't forget. Truly epic. Amongst other plant growth in the area, the California Redbuds were blooming like electric purple fireworks in the sky. Something i always look forward to in the month of March.
April is now here and what a beautiful time of the year it is. We finished picking the last of our navel oranges. The bees were moved in, and the bloom has begun. April fools day, is a special day for a California citrus grower. It marks the day that bloom has begun. White dots of citrus blossoms begin to fill the trees throughout the citrus growing region in California, and the smell is so intoxicating that it will knock your nose out. The smell is amazing and wonderful, something everyone should experience. On the farm, we accomplished something important. We planted a new grove of Star Ruby Grapefruit. All our hard prepwork, thought, and time is now finished and ready to grow. We are happy to have the new trees in the ground and will be excited when they produce their first crop 4 years from now. You have to be dreamer in order to grow citrus. It is long road of maintaining and nursing your new planting until it finally gives back to you. It is the chase and the dream that fuels us. Thank you for reading, until the next post!