M & V
Mission: To co-create a regenerative grow-to-donate farm and learning community connecting food, fun, farming, and livable wage jobs.
Vision: A participatory network of open-source local grow-to-donate food systems and learning and working communities that connect people with the joy of growing, preparing, and sharing good food.
2024 Season’s progress through Nov 30
Produce deliveries total 5,080 pounds to SLO Meals that Connect, SLO Foodbank, and Santa Maria Urban Ministry in San Jose.
Garden and Orchard
Perennials:
Artichokes are thriving, beyond what we expected with this hot climate. We hoped the pervasive star thistle tenacity would translate to artichokes. We planted artichokes in one open area and between fruit and olive trees where we added emitters onto existing drip line. We will expand artichokes in 2025 to between more fruit trees, as we begin permaculture forest garden practices. The existing trees serve as a canopy/tall tree layer and artichokes will serve as a shrub layer.
The asparagus continues to perform well; we tripled the number of bareroot starts and will add more in the 2025 season.
This year was the first harvest of loganberries and raspberries. The table grapes look healthy and will produce next year. Our experiment with 20 blueberries is struggling due to low acidic soil; we hope to liven them up and see progress next year. If not, we will replace them with grapes and berries.
Orchard:
The first round of 90 fruit trees planted in January 2023 are healthy. We pulled the blossoms in spring to support more tree growth. The second round of 18 fruit trees were planted in January 2024. We adjusted emitters to encourage root expansion and added or moved bark to support soil moisture and “manage” pests.
Row crops:
Two good years of rain have been great for us and very productive for our pest paradise with squirrels, rabbits, moles, earwigs, and beetles! We doubled+ the size of the garden and then planted many beds 2-4 times due to pests. And we experienced several wins. The tomatillos are stalwart with pests. The watermelon and cantaloupe recommended that don’t burn in the heat are growing well. Peppers and eggplant thrived. Challenges include a surprising late blight on the tomatoes, reducing deliveries by more than 500#. Bean plants thrived, no beans though.
We’re happy with progress on soil development; organic matter is high, and our clay/loam is breaking up nicely with the mushroom compost. We tilled the garden at the start of the 2024 season. We won’t need to till again. We didn’t till before 2024. I hand double dug two beds the year before and we tried to mimic that process with a tractor.
Workshop:
April 27, we hosted a Permaculture Workshop, organized and led by Elationscapes.