By Carolyn Givens
Contributed
The growing cycle continues here at the farm with the most productive season of the year – summer. Though the hills are hot and dry, farmers must get the most use out of limited water and unlimited sunshine, because each plant needs some of both.
At this time of year you can almost see the plants growing. From one day to the next, they sprout flowers and vines. Bees crawl busily from one flower to the next, doing their vital job of pollination. Squashes and melons get plump on the vine, and tomatoes turn overnight from hard green balls to tender ripe fruit.
At Something Good Organics, our fields are thick with leaves and stalks and canes, and the hawks are circling overhead, looking for their next breakfast. Our open space and growing practices provide a safe space for birds, bees, deer and lots of other species.
Because of the quick growth and high production, our workers ramp up their efforts to seven days a week in the summer. Farm workers are the backbone of the farming industry. Without them, your produce would be much more expensive, or would simply sit in the field. Farm workers pick in every kind of weather, rain or shine, doing every kind of work from hand-seeding the vegetables to putting up fences and greenhouses, to picking and washing and boxing every vegetable. I have never encountered anyone who works as hard as they do.
All of our effort and care culminates in, of course, selling fruit and vegetables to the consumer. We want everyone to come to the farmers markets and farm stands and try to taste the difference between freshly picked organic produce and the produce at the grocery store.
If you can’t make it to the market, we deliver with our CSA (community-supported agriculture) program that brings a box of seasonal produce right to your door.
Right now, for example, we have sweet bell peppers, raspberries and blackberries, stone fruit, green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, and tomatoes. And very soon it will be one of the best times of the year – melon time.
Our farm stand in Buellton is right across the street from Mosby Winery at 9499 Santa Rosa Road. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, rain or shine.
