A field of lupine with a wind scorched ridge in the background.

My sister graduated from Whitman College last weekend, so my family and I were in Walla Walla Washington. Elena took us to the top of a nearby ridge, where took a short hike.

Elena in her 1975 Wagoneer.

Tara just harvested these beets, which will be served at Zazu for the next couple of weeks. You can also see snow peas in the foreground and chard bolting in the background.

This spring has brought many blessings to Sonoma County gardeners. We’ve had well spaced rains with plenty of warm days in between. The cold winter contributed to a fantastic peony year, yet luckily we didn’t get any late frosts. While last spring’s blooms were plagued with curculios and cucumber beetles (nasty sucking insects), this year the predators seem to have the upper hand as is evident in the photo below.

A spider hunting on a peony blossom.

A client's rose near my house on Lonepine.

My dad, sister and mom heading up through moss covered oaks.

My family and I took a Mother’s Day hike at Olompali State Park with our friends the Curries. The weather drifted in between rain and sun, but the flowers and views were exquisite. He hiked to the top of Mt Burdell and back (about 8 miles).

Delphinium growing amongst various shade groundcovers and ferns.

Camilo Ynitas was a Miwok indian who was granted Rancho Olompali (8,877 acres)by the Mexican government in 1843. He was the only Native American to have a land grant ratified by the US. Camilo was friends with General Vallejo who encouraged him to apply for the land grant. Camilo ran over 600 head of cattle and also grew grain and grapes. The only skirmish in the battle of the Bear Flaggers took place on the property in 1846. The ranch went on to house Jerry Brown and the Grateful Dead.

Fava beans and dianthus growing at Zazu.

Fava beans are delicious, and they are abundant right now. At Zazu fava beans are used in a variety of dishes. Last week I had some grilled venison with fava beans and gigante beans, which was superb. They also used some fava leaves as garnish.

Many organic farms and vineyards grow favas as a nitrogen fixing cover crop, and then till them in at about 20-30% bloom. I usually let most of the favas I grow develop beans, as I’m not a huge fan of tilling. I see tilling as a sometimes necessary evil. While it negatively impacts soil structure and biology, it can incorporate organic matter into the soil efficiently and improve porosity.

A bed of lettuces at Zazu with raspberries on the left and chard and favas in the background.

With the hot weather approaching the lettuce crop is waning. It’s a good idea to get out and harvest as much as you can now before it bolts and gets bitter. You can plant more lettuce now if you make sure it is shaded from the afternoon sun. At Zazu you can pick the greens pictured above yourself if you like.

My family and I just took a tour of Silva Star Farms west of Sebastopol. Sarah Silva runs the place and is one of the most inspiring farmers I have ever met. Sarah left a career at NASA to start a two acre farm that is similar to Polyface Farms (see the link on the right). It incorporates an apple orchard into a polyculture of chickens, pigs, sheep and goats, and then she grows crops in between the trees. Sarah sells her eggs and meat at Bill’s Farm Basket and on the farm, and she is expanding to a larger farm behind Rose and Thorn on Bodega Highway.

Sarah Silva and Sarah Mitchel on our farm tour.

Sarah and her partner Mark of Felton Acres, another pastured poultry, lamb and pork farm, have built some really innovative chicken tractors. Sarah has recently been working on her “Eggstream”, which features hogwire bent around a wooden frame to create a hoophouse structure on top of an old flatbed trailer.

Sarah Silva's Eggstream chicken tractor

Sarah also has a herd of young goats that are managing a forested area of her new farm. They are very friendly, but a little mischievous.

Sarah's goats coming to greet us.

Sarah and I along with some friends attended an event for young farmers last Sunday at the Baker Creek Seed Bank in Petaluma. Put on by Greenhorns, the event featured a talk about the history of chicken farming in Petaluma, along with freshly shucked oysters! The Greenhorns are holding lot’s of events like this as part of an effort to facilitate more networking between young farmers, and to increase the political influence of the organic farming community.

I tried unsuccessfully to find the seeds of a variety of Russian kale that was grown by Sonoma County Chicken farmers in the first half of 20th the century. I’m told it was grown for fodder, and that it was huge, perrenial, and harvested year round.

Over the past month we have been very busy getting Zazu ready for the main growing season. We have weeded and laid fabric and wood chips on the paths and spread compost in the beds. We also installed an in-line drip irrigation system.

Mixed greens ready for harvest with Andrew spreading compost on the muscat grapes in the background.

We have been direct seeding radish, mini carrots, squash and sunflowers. We are also constructing trellises for the snow peas. I have been working on developing new menus with Sous Chef Tara Wachtel. It is tricky to predict how many pounds of food a certain crop will produce, and when.

Soon we will be building raised beds made out of cinder block to make room for 40 heirloom tomatoes along with peppers and beans that Maile Arnold is starting for us in her greenhouse.

Beds of greens, chard, rasberries, and favas with the restaurant in the background. We stapled thick landscape fabric to the base of the beds and spread freshly chipped Monterey Pine from Duskie and John's house.

Chicken tractors are mobile chicken coops that allow chicken to “graze” pasture. Chickens love to eat grass and bugs. My friend Andrew Scheidt told me about a chicken tractor he had built recently, and I proposed that we build a similar one at Rancho Pillow. Here are some pictures:

The tractor is now in the pasture and ready for the chickens that are now being raised in the barn. We decided to add hogwire to the bottom of the tractor to discourage critters from digging under the run.

The chicken tractor features an easy open egg door (the lower roof), and heavy duty lawn tractor tires.

The chicken tractor outside the barn at Rancho Pillow

The inside of the chicken tractor features an easy open egg door, and open flooring for easy cleaning.