“Agh, get away, give that back!” I exclaim while shoving away a chicken who just pecked me as she tried to tuck an egg back under her fluffed up, broody-hen feathers. No matter how many times I harvest chicken eggs, I always get annoyed with these territorial little hens.

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California and all its special weather patterns are certainly throwing us a remarkable spring. Instead of rain and frost warnings, we feel as if it were late May out here in Northern California. With 80-90 degree temperatures and warm nights, spring is exploding all around us.

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As the mother of a one month old, most of my day is spent nursing my baby. The incredible gift and labor of nursing is nothing to take for granted. Twenty four hours a day, my main purpose is to provide nutrition to this growing human, and secondary to all that, is keeping myself fed so I can meet his needs. Every atom in this new human comes from the complex biological processes of creating breastmilk and the partnership I form with my son so he can eat and grow. In summary, all I think about right now is nutrition.

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It’s that time of year… after months of looking at 66 tons of black, ripe compost and 22 tons of powdery, white gypsum that was delivered to the farm in September, it’s time to spread it on the fields. If you can’t quite imagine what 88 tons of compost/gypsum looks like, imagine several swimming pools. Spreading this black and white gold on our fields is a crucial, annual milestone for our ~10 acre, organic farm.

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Uncertainty is always a part of being a small business owner, and even more so as a farmer. The livelihood of farmers depends not only on human decisions but the outcomes of weather, land, and climate. Since starting our farm ten years ago, Sun Tracker Farm has seen a pandemic, two wildfires, a drought, and many obstacles and changes within our own business and personal lives. Despite it all, it is today that I feel the most unpredictability about how our farm will weather the coming years.

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It is Sunday night and I am finally writing this article as I eat a bit of homemade peach pie. This last week, like any week in August, stretched me thin. Thin enough that I cannot think of anything witty or profound to write, so instead I will share a summary of what happened at Sun Tracker Farm the week of August 18th, 2025. It is my week’s post-mortem do-to list. And because I know any reader of this column is interested in farming, maybe this look back will give you a deeper understanding of a farmer’s life in August.

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Today, I struggle to write. I know what I want YOU to know, and that I could show you with words how it feels to live in the farming community today. But I do not know how.

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Summer solstice has passed and the plants, customers, and farmers know we are now in summer. This week, almost all our summer crops started fruiting, teasing us with their presence but still withholding their abundance. When I set up our stand for the Napa Farmers Market on Saturday, I had a long line of customers before the 8am opening time. Everyone was staring down the cherry tomato pints and eggplant they hoped to take home, and everyone asked about melons (they will be here next week folks).

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If you ever frequent our farm stand on a Saturday morning at the Napa Farmers Market, you may notice two signs proclaiming Sun Tracker Farm to be certified organic. The first sign is from CCOF, our organic certifier who conducts annual inspections on our farm and to whom we report production practices, production yields, and any implements we add to our soil or crops. In addition, we have a sign for our participation in the Real Organic program. What does it mean to be Real organic certified, and why are many small to mid-scale organic farms seeking an additional organic certification?

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Sometimes, it’s hard for me to connect with people who are not farmers. When even my dear friends and family do not know and understand the deep and daily connection I feel to the land, weather, and nature… well it makes me feel distant. I live in this whole other universe that revolves around today’s texture of the soil, the dryness of the wind, the weeds that are in season, and the insects that are eclosing.

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Last weekend was the Almond Festival in the Capay Valley. This 110 year old celebration of Spring brings folks from far and wide to view acres of delicately blossoming white petals against the backdrop of bright green hills dotted with oaks. Every town in the valley offers its own local food, farms, artisans, and activities.

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Last week I was fortunate to attend the EcoFarm Conference in Asilomar, CA. This four day conference brings together farmers, researchers, food advocates, and many more to discuss the importance of ecological farming on the environment and society. Every year three farmers are recognized as “Successful Farmers” and are invited to give a talk. “Success” looks different amongst all these farmers, be it the food they produce, the acres they steward, or the purpose that drives them each to pursue this crazy career.

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It finally happened last week, the first frost on our farm. Overnight the remnants of our summer crops turn from green to a crisp brown, leaving behind the cadavers of summer bounty. Earlier in the week we started cutting our tomato plants from their trellises, allowing the bushes to fall to the ground. Now that we had our first frost, they look like brown beasts sleeping on the ground, dotted with the orange, yellow, and red dots of old tomatoes we never harvested. It is a melancholic and beautiful sight to see.

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September can be a weird month for farmers. Sometimes September can see record heat, like the 120 degrees we saw in 2022, and sometimes it can be balmy and cool, like the 70-80s we saw this year. No matter the year, one thing all farmers can agree on is that September is “shoulder season”.

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Come February, I always long for summer produce and all the wonderfully complex dishes you can create with things like eggplant, tomatoes, hot peppers, stone fruit, etc. Yet in the winter I find myself surrounded by cruciferous crops… and after a while it’s hard to find new ways to cook broccoli. During the long winter evenings when the house is cold, I would give anything to spend hours chopping, dicing, and mincing summer veggies.

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One of my best friends is what I would call a “fruit slinger”. She and her partner started a mixed fruit box distribution business in the Bay Area, Fruitqueen, that does an incredible job of finding and sharing some of the most unique and delicious fruit in California. Even though they created a profitable business, I truly believe the only reason they started Fruitqueen is for their deep love of fruit, and the farmers that grow it. 

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“Should we give it a gap of 26 or 24 inches?”

“It extends by 6 inches so you should have an extra 4 inches if you cut to 26 inches.”

“To be safe let’s cut to 24 inches”

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Every five years the USDA conducts an Agricultural Census of farmers across the country. Even though this census is dependent on voluntary response, it is nevertheless a crucial metric to assess the state of our country’s agricultural landscape. Data can be daunting to read, and it never perfectly captures what we need to know, yet we cannot ignore data and make decisions for the future without grounding ourselves firmly in fact. With this, I wanted to share a few takeaways from the 2023 USDA Ag Census (summaries sourced from Modern Farmer), and more.

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At the close of this year, California is graced with its most auspicious gift. Rain, sweeping through our golden hills and setting the course for a new season and a new year. For farmers, it is a time of rest, reflection, and anticipation. In many ways, the rain over the next several months determines the battles for the rest of the year.

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Anyone living in California knows that access to affordable and secure land is hard to come by. Every year our ever growing cities extend their suburban arms out into rural land that was historically wild land or agricultural land. Seasonal grasslands, perennial forests, animal habitats, and fertile soils are forever destroyed by acres and acres of concrete and excavation, all for the sprawling mass of humans.

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