A Sunny Busy First Week of 2025

The sun has been shining for the last week and the plants are loving the extra sunlight they are getting as the days get slightly longer.

This year we have gotten the most rain before the new year in 10 years so the soil has been a little muddy constantly with December being also filled with cloudy days.

Now that the clouds have parted and it is sunny weather the soil is drying out and we are able to do more work in the field.

The wind yesterday was not fun to work in but it helps the soil dry out so we can get the tractor in the field to do some mowing and in a little bit of time start preparing some areas for direct seeding at the end of the month.

Additionally the soil being a little drier makes it easier and more fun to do all the weeding we have to do. We haven’t been able to do much of any weeding since November before it started raining so the weeds have grown just as fast as the veggies.

This past week we’ve done a lot of weeding and it will continue as the weeds continue to grow with the sun we’ve been having.

For the next few months we are taking a break from the Wednesday Davis Farmers Market so the only place to find us is at the Saturday market.

Over the last week many of the brassicas have grown so much with all this weather. The cauliflower is looking really good and getting to a good size while still wrapped in its leaves so that it doesn’t get damaged.

We have a new planting of broccolini that we are just beginning to harvest in addition to the first planting that we will be continuing to harvest. The broccoli is growing well including a different color that should come soon while we have a good amount of both varieties of cabbage in the field.

As the citrus season continues and more varieties ripen we are now starting to harvest the navel oranges. They are so sweet and delicious, perfect to snack on slices of them and in a flash the entire orange will be eaten.

Despite the slow start to ripening the Melogold Grapefruit is coming on very well with only a few more weeks of the season and the Eureka Lemons are now hanging on the trees fully ripe.

Last Wednesday we seeded a lot of our spring veggies in the greenhouse along with some tomatoes and all but one variety has germinated. Parsley always takes much longer to germinate and grow so we start it this early knowing it will be much slower.

Some of the seeds like lettuce varieties germinated in just two days and growing really well. As they get bigger and more leaves they will grow even faster and in early February we should be able to transplant them in the field if the weather cooperates.