Hi ,
There are exciting updates this month. In this newsletter you will see that farm tours are open and we are coming back to the farmers' market this
month. We also share about cover crops, Benny, and the most delicate cake you will ever make.
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It's Happening!
Two exciting things are happening on May 14th (this Saturday):
1) We will finally be back at the Hayward Farmer's market and
2) A farm tour will be offered in the morning on Saturday as well
Right now Zutano and Fuerte avocados are back in season and we will have them at our booth on Saturday. We picked those avocados last weekend to give them time to start their ripening process.
The farm tour consists of a 3-hour guided farm experience. Explore the avocado grove, fruit orchards, and gardens. Plus get a chance to meet and feed our small herd. Afterwards will be time to eat lunch by the chicken coop.
Don't want to miss out? We don't want you to either! Check out the links below for more info.
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Remember Benny? This little guy joined our family at the end of last year and has been such a great addition. Before we got him, he was believed to be a pitbull and lab mix. However, after giving him a DNA test ourselves, it turned out that he is actually a combo of pitbull, miniature schnauzer, and American Staffordshire terrier. This means he is going to
stay a smaller size and also grow some nice whiskers.
Frequent trips to the grove have revealed him to be a great gopher hunter. He will slowly walk up to a gopher hole and wait for a long time to see if there is movement. If there is he jumps and lands on the spot and starts to furiously dig. He has yet to actually catch a gopher, but we are all happy with his enthusiasm and perseverance.
If you come to one of our farm tours, you will get a chance to meet Benny. He loves to meet new people and will tag along with the group.
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Our Cover Crop: Vetch
An important step to keep soil healthy? Cover crops. This doesn't necessarily mean crops to be harvested; the soil does much better if it has roots in it of any kind.
Beneficial insects and pollinators also love the lushness cover crops provide. I have counted at least 10 different kinds of bees out there of all different sizes and love to just watch them buzz around while I working in the
grove. Weeds naturally function as a cover crop, and we are trying an approach of managing ground covers of our own.
In the grove, we use a plant called hairy vetch as a cover crop. It reigns from the legume family and makes lovely purple flowers with pea-like pods. Like other legumes, the vetch also is a nitrogen fixing plant, which means is takes nitrogen from the air and puts it into the soil. However, in order to get the nitrogen-fixing benefits, we
have to knock the plant down before it produces its pods. In addition to this, the vetch will happily grow to cover an avocado tree if it's left alone. Weed whipping is our strategy to keep the vetch in check. Since it has to be done in a timely manner, it is a challenge, but Dave has been working hard to finish managing the vetch in the grove now and is more than halfway
done.
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Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Ever heard of this before? It may sound like an unusual cake but it actually is one of the most tender and delicate treats you will ever taste. It has a delicate sponge with just the right amount of crumble, and the lemon juice adds a wonderful
freshness.
Since we are still picking lemons off the trees, we wanted to incorporate our own produce into this recipe.
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