Winter

Winter is a quiet time of rejuvenation on all fronts. It is quieter for the garden: cover crops grow all season rather than every six weeks, and crops grow, mostly, under the cover of soil. It is quieter for the chickens: they don't lay as much when the days are longer, darker. It is quieter for the trees, as they gather their strength for the next year of production. It is quieter for the farmers: finally, some time to sit and review the previous year, planning for the glory of the next!

Snow!

A stupendous winter snow in early December of 2013 buried our crops... but they bounced right back! And it was beautiful.

Melting snow

Cover crop covered in snow! Not a common occurrence, but a beautiful one!

Pullets in winter

Winter isn't the most natural time for young chickens, but the timing is right for getting eggs at the start of the CSA season.

Calendulas and snow?

Yup - a surprisingly heavy snow buried our garden in December of 2013. Crops survived well, but the flowers didn't.

If a tree falls...

Pedro certainly heard this one! After heaps and heaps of rain in the 2015-16 winter, he came home to this surprise... we didn't lose it, as the ground was wet enough to keep the roots healthy after he propped it back up! Time to trim the trees, though...

Picture a chicken on vacation

And you have this guy! Of course, the males are always on vacation, but the ladies behind him are laying less because of having less light during the winter. We could light their coop, but then they'd just lay less over their lifetime. Our goal is sustainable, which means that poultry get to follow their natural rhythms, too!

Thunderstorm to the east

Oliview Farm waiting for the rain...

Our First Cabbage!

For some reason, getting the timing right on planting cabbages is incredibly difficult... and as such, we haven't had any out of our garden for the past several years. This beauty went into soup in January, inspired by French onion flavors.

Storm Passing Over

A beautiful post-storm photo in January of 2016, looking west to the coastal range. We truly live in a beautiful place!