It’s new potato time! We’ve just started harvesting our spring 2023 potato crop, and if you aren’t excited yet, hopefully you will be by the time your finish this week’s News from the Farm.
Potatoes often don’t get the love and attention they deserve. This is unfortunate given their long history, impressive diversity (there are over 4,000 k [...]
News from the Farm | May 22, 2023
It’s new potato time! We’ve just started harvesting our spring 2023 potato crop, and if you aren’t excited yet, hopefully you will be by the time your finish this week’s News from the Farm.
Potatoes often don’t get the love and attention they deserve. This is unfortunate given their long history, impressive diversity (there are over 4,000 k [...]
News from the Farm | May 15, 2023
What a week! We started off with a grey, drizzly, somewhat cold Monday and on Saturday, our last workday of the week, it was in the mid-90s at the hottest point of the day. And we had some beautiful, temperate spring days in between.
When it gets hot, that means it’s time to shear the sheep! This year, our sheep-shearer-in-chief, Rye, set up [...]
Build A Better Salad
Legend has it that in 1939, a restaurant in Chicago opened the first salad bar, and for the past 30 years May has been celebrated as National Salad Month. Every spring, we delight in sharing recipes for the nearly endless combinations of bright colorful foods that can fill a salad bowl!
Lettuce Harvest
For many salads, we start with a ba [...]
News from the Farm | May 8, 2023
For this week’s News from the Farm, a few notes about the greenhouses that didn’t make it into last week’s dive into the greenhouse. If you missed, or skipped, last week’s News from the Farm, you can read it here.
First: seeding. Each planting flat holds a lot of seeds. Most of our trays have 200 cells and each cell needs to be filled, and w [...]
News from the Farm | May 8, 2023
For this week’s News from the Farm, a few notes about the greenhouses that didn’t make it into last week’s dive into the greenhouse. If you missed, or skipped, last week’s News from the Farm, you can read it here.
First: seeding. Each planting flat holds a lot of seeds. Most of our trays have 200 cells and each cell needs to be filled, and w [...]
News from the Farm | May 1, 2023
As mentioned last week, the major activity recently has been transplanting. We’re still behind schedule, but we’ve gotten a LOT of plants in the ground, including thousands of melons, squash, and cucumbers on Friday. None of that is possible without a lot of behind the scenes work in the greenhouse where we grow those transplants.
Many crops [...]
Celebrating Mom Entrepreneurs
With Mother’s Day right around the corner, we want to celebrate and honor the moms who have started and run their own family businesses! The time, determination and perseverance to start a small business, not to mention a food company where creating and perfecting recipes and packaging are months to years-long steps in the process, are monum [...]
News from the Farm | April 24, 2023
It’s supposed to get pretty toasty later this week! Forecasts change, and can be wrong, but as of Monday morning, the prediction is that it will be above 90 degrees later this week. Good thing we planted more heat-loving summer crops last week (onions, basil, summer squash, and a whole field of heirloom tomatoes) that can take advantage of t [...]
Earth Day: Investing in our Planet
Earth Day is the perfect time to reflect on the impact we have on our precious earth, and to commit to investing in our planet and communities.
Farming for the Future
Since day one, our second-generation family farm has been investing in a healthier planet and food system. In the 1970s our parents were part of the early organic movement [...]
Earth Day: Investing in our Planet
Earth Day is the perfect time to reflect on the impact we have on our precious earth, and to commit to investing in our planet and communities.
Farming for the Future
Since day one, our second-generation family farm has been investing in a healthier planet and food system. In the 1970s our parents were part of the early movement of peop [...]
News from the Farm | April 17, 2023
This past week, felt more like a normal spring week. After so many non-normal weeks, it took a little adjusting to – the sun and warmth, the faster pace, and even the sounds.
The most noticeable noise was the constant hum of tractors. All functioning machines were in use, preparing beds for planting, spraying compost tea in the orchard, [...]
News from the Farm | April 17, 2023
This past week, felt more like a normal spring week. After so many non-normal weeks, it took a little adjusting to – the sun and warmth, the faster pace, and even the sounds.
The most noticeable noise was the constant hum of tractors. All functioning machines were in use, preparing beds for planting, spraying compost tea in the orchard, [...]
News from the Farm | April 10, 2023
Hi everyone!
My name is Marie and I’ve been an intern at Full Belly for the past 11 months. As my year of internship and my time in the magical Capay Valley is coming to a close, I thought it was high time to say hello to you all and share a bit about my experiences here at the farm.
My entry into the world of sustainable agriculture began a [...]
Life Elements Nature-Based Body &...
We are excited to carry Life Elements skincare products and wanted to tell you more about this inspiring company. Established in 2006 by Martha and Curt Van Inwegen, Life Elements has a distinguished reputation for delivering clean and efficacious nature-based ingredients, sourced ethically and sustainably, to promote overall health and w [...]
Life Elements Nature-Based Body &...
We are excited to carry Life Elements skincare products and wanted to tell you more about this inspiring company. Established in 2006 by Martha and Curt Van Inwegen, Life Elements has a distinguished reputation for delivering clean and efficacious nature-based ingredients, sourced ethically and sustainably, to promote overall health and w [...]
News from the Farm | April 3, 2023
I don’t want to jinx anything, but it seems like it might finally be spring. The calendar said spring started on March 20, but it sure hasn’t felt like it. Last Monday was freezing cold and we had more rain during the week. The forecast is showing warmer days ahead, and no rain, so we’ll finally be able to make some progress on our backlog [...]
News from the Farm | April 3, 2023
I don’t want to jinx anything, but it seems like it might finally be spring. The calendar said spring started on March 20, but it sure hasn’t felt like it. Last Monday was freezing cold and we had more rain during the week. The forecast is showing warmer days ahead, and no rain, so we’ll finally be able to make some progress on our backlog [...]
News from the Farm | March 27, 2023
March is Women’s History Month, in addition to being the month when National Ag Week (March 21-27), National Ag Day (March 23), and International Women’s Day (March 8) are observed. Every day is an excellent opportunity to recognize and celebrate the countless women working on farms and ranches to provide food (plus flowers, fuel, fiber, and [...]
News from the Farm | March 20, 2023
Today (Monday) is the first day of Spring. As Carly wrote last week, so far, 2023 has been a year of more cold days, grey skies, freezing nights, wind, hail, snow, and, of course, lots of rain. Just in the last two weeks we’ve had at least seven inches of rain, and we got 1.5 inches between late Monday night and early afternoon Tuesday. Wate [...]
News from the Farm | March 13, 2023
Hi everyone, this week’s news is coming from Carly, a new Full Belly Intern!
I’ve spent the last two years living in Whitefish, Montana; a town famous for skiing and spectacular mountain views. While there, I worked on two organic veggie farms through cold mornings and hot smoky afternoons. And, although I loved Montana, my partner and I deci [...]
News from the Farm | March 6, 2023
One of the rooms in my small farmhouse has been hijacked over the past 10 years by the “Flower Team” for storing flower seeds, notebooks, lists, and planning charts – much to the dismay of other members of the household! What used to be the family ping-pong table for rainy day fun is now covered with mountains of seed packets for o [...]
News from the Farm | February 27, 202...
We’re very used to seeing fluffy white almond blossoms at the end of February, but fluffy white snow is an anomaly. Snow in the Capay Valley is rare, but does happen on occasion, and it’s not uncommon to see snow high in the hills to the west. We can’t remember all the dates, and our Beet archives don’t provide a complete record but we defin [...]
News from the Farm | February 20, 202...
While it’s tempting to have an update solely comprised of adorable lamb photos, we’ve recently gotten questions about a few things that I wanted to address first!
Carrots
We’re world-famous for our sweet, crunchy Nantes carrots. We generally have our first carrots in early/mid-November, this year not until the end of January – a result [...]
Savory Mizuna Tofu TLS
I love to make a “tasty little salad” (TLS) — and often pull from what’s on hand. I don’t use recipes for these, but do follow a loose formula. Start with greens, add something rich (nuts, seeds, fish, cheese, tofu, etc) toss on flavorful additions (fruit, chopped veggies, herbs) and dress the whole thing. I…
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News from the Farm | February 13, 202...
On Thursday, I went for a bike ride with the Full Belly bike gang to see what was happening around the farm. What did we see? A lot of pruning happening.
First, there is the traditional pruning – the fruit team has been working their way through the many blocks of fruit trees, removing a significant number of branches. See the before [...]
