What started out as simple postings for my grand kids....... to follow the progress of a new project....building a farm from scratch.....and then having the postings ended up being a popular blog within the Sacramento Bee online newspaper....is quite amazing. Time has come to stop writing the stories.......the farm is basically finished now. Instead of blogging.....I will be fishing.
This coming year 2017 ....all the hard work of eight years will finally pay off. The orchards have grown from 3 foot tall "whips".......to trees that are now 10 to 14 feet in height. Fruit is borne in vast amounts. All the mistakes of caring for orchards has passed....and boy was there ever a lot of mistakes! We did however make the right decisions of what type of fruit to produce. Plant produce that one normally never finds at the local Farmers Markets.....the supermarkets......nor at the local fruit stands.....thus we have zero competition. Blood oranges are sold out within a few weeks. Pluots....the demand just keeps getting humongous. The figs attract buyers from the Bay area...and then our peaches are grabbed up nearly within an hour of setting up on the sell tables! Boysenberries of all berries....proved to be the best seller of the farm. We have 25 solid crops that yields a high demand.
Our ground crops over the years were plagued with the learning curve of irrigation systems to those damn jack rabbits....all which were resolved with higher learning education :-) and rabbit proof fencing......and having three Aussie Shepherds that enjoyed catching a meal once in a while. Time taught us that growing "salad" vegetables and most squash.....was time consuming and hard to compete with local store prices....which much is imported from cheaper countries such as Mexico. Most squash we grew required too much time educating clients on what it was and how to prepare.
Now we specialize in melons. Black Mountain and Orange Glo watermelons. Hayle's Best cantaloupes that has old time flavor.....huge in size. Our specially selected tomatoes varieties ....have become a big demand since we harvest only when absolutely ripe......and that is our secret to why our produce has so much flavor...we harvest ripe. Everything on this farm...we harvest ripe. Oh....the lessons we have learned over time.
Social networking .....use of the internet such as Craigslist....blogging....getting involved with the local events is a must for the promotion of a business. I was lucky to have a background in business and with working within the web. Much of this is time consuming...usually at night after a full day in the field. A great web page had to created and maintained ......to great advertisement ....all took takes time....time...and still some more time.
Much of the infrastructure projects are completed.......the farm house is now finished with the upgrades. Fruit stand and the chicken coops are up. Just a few items to do such as finishing the upstairs of our barn...putting up a very large greenhouse. The started installation of a white fence around our barn... pastures and grow fields....to make this joint look more "farm"......will be done at a slow pace.
So...was it worth the hardships....stupid mistakes ....chasing 3 horses down the street whenever they broke a fence....covering citrus trees at two o'clock in the mornings from frost .....?
Hell yes.