May Spikes

Ah, May brings new lavender spikes. Up until just a couple of weeks ago, the lavender looked like tight green pillows, dotting the fields. Then suddenly, on orchestrated cue, they all started throwing spikes. Here in the picture to the right, you can see the spikes on my Angustifolia. The leaves themselves have taken a softer vibrant green. Much different than the darker winter colors. And the spikes wear closed buds on their tips. You can visualize the purple beauty that is imminent. If you gently touch the leaves, the wonderful scent will rub off on your hands. I think this year will bring a good harvest.

It has been a while since my last post. I must apologize for that. The days are longer now, so I can work until almost 8pm. Sleep comes early after supper. But I think the real reason for the silence has been more trying to find something significant to talk about. While the days are filled with activity, it is usually a lot of smaller, seemingly insignificant tasks. None seem earth shattering. So I have struggled with what to write.

Some days I work on fencing. Yes, I am still working on fencing. It is a lot to do. But reporting on each first down as I finish the next 10 yards hardly seemed worthy of reporting.

Then there are the grasses and vetch. They exploded in April, then dried out in May. Beautiful in a meadow; a lot of work in the lavender field. Day after day moving along the rows with the hoe, pulling vetch from between the lavender spikes one by one. Very tedious but I actually find the work enjoyable. Lots of "alone time" to think about life, the world, the warm wind, or just enjoy the sun on your shoulders. Very relaxing actually. Except for the occasional thought of everything else that needed doing while I tended to my plants. Of course, that is my purpose. The whole family has pitched in, and this has made the work go faster. I am, however ready to move on now.

May is also the month to get a jump on fire abatement. So triming grasses in the meadows, removing the ladder branches from trees, and disposing of the brush piles. Not terribly glamourous.

I take a day and do a nice distillation of mint hydrosol from fresh garden mint. The distilled mint water is very fragrant. My neighbor will be making soap from that.

Twice a week, I must make the rounds to the hives and check on the bees. The established colonies are not fed. They are successfully finding the food they need from the wild flowers of Spring. I was lucky to make one honey harvest in May. Here is Neighbor Steve. He and I are one-third partners in a honey extractor. We are extracting and straining the honey from the wax. The flavour was absolutely divine. Very different than my August harvests which definitely tasted of lavender. The spring harvests had a wonderful wildflower floral aroma. Very distinctive, and very different from the lavender. I actually liked the variety. Local honey is very popular, and I was all sold out in about two weeks. That's okay more hives are ready for harvest. I'll probably get to the next in a week.

Shortly after capturing the wild swarm in April, I traveled up north of Sacramento to pick up some new colonies to restart the hives I lost last year during the summer fires. Here you can see the bee cages in the back of the car. I always like picking up bees. It's a long drive. Coming home, I am occasionally visited by a wandering bee who happened to be clinging to the outside of the cage and decided to take a little survey flight around the car. Hi there!

On the long drive through central valley, I got a reminder about the realities of agriculture in California. Unfortunately there is still widespread pesticide use. The first observation was at 7am, passing through Salinas, the spray helicopters were in the fields spining up. As I drove through Gilroy there were men in white suits walking through fields with hand sprayers. And as I made my way through central valley, the spray planes were a common sight. I caught this picture through the front windshield as I returned from picking up my new 6 legged friends. I couldn't help but speculate how this widespread use of chemicals is affecting the environment. And especially the plight of those little bees I was carrying home. It was quite sobering actually. As I drove, I hoped to myself that I would be able to protect these new colonies from harm and provide them with a safe, chemical free home in which to flourish.

Two of these new colonies were for neighbors. So when I arrived home, I delivered them to their new families who had been busy preparing their new homes. At Neighbor Cathy's, her horses had just had two babies. One philly that was a few days old, and a new colt that was born just that day. Even one of her hens had raised a little brood of chicks that were following her around the yard. True Spring.

Then I introduced my new colonies to their new homes too. Here in the picture, you can see a new queen in her cage. I have placed it on a new frame and plugged the opening at the bottom with some honey and a marshmellow. She and her attendants will have eaten her free within a day or two.

The new hives require feeding. A LOT of feeding actually. Each hive goes through about a gallon of syrup every two to three days. They've consumed about 150lbs of sugar in the last month.

Today, I attended a community meeting working on a fire safe community plan, and came home to fix some irrigation leaks and give one of the fields a nice long drink. It was about 85 today. Tomorrow I will do some more field work in the morning, then make deliveries in the afternoon to our CSA subscribers. Each task may be small, but they are all part of a dream.

Catching a Wild Swarm of Bees

Our needs are provided, if only we can see the gifts that are right there before us.

This morning began like any other day. I woke, I had a cup of tea, then I went outside to continue Spring's work. My first morning encounter was with our friend the Bobcat. This time, however, it was up close, and personal. I walked along the fence line, taking note of what needed to be done. On my side, I have turned the grass under, but across the wire, is still quite high, maybe three feet at least. Apparently my friend was hiding there in the grass hunting squirrels undetected. I got about 20 feet from her when she sprung from her spot. Fortunately in the opposite direction. Fortune would be kind to me today.

After my fence inspection, I started working in the far lavender field. We have had warm weather this week, and the wild grasses are growing very quickly. They will suffocate the lavender plants if I don't remove them. Morning is the best time, as it is still cool. I went to work.

Suddenly, it was deja vu all over again. I heard a loud rumble in the trees. I dropped the hoe and went to investigate. There was the swarm I saw the other day. The sky was full of bees. I crept down into the trees and sat down in the grass directly beneath the swarm and watched them. It was quite amazing actually. I tried hard to see the individual bees through the mass. But they appeared as little black streaks. I practiced following one with my eyes for a while. Eventually she would take a turn and lose my train of sight, and there would only be the mass once again. A sky of little black ribbons moving in every direction like so much Brownian motion.

But as I watched, the mass started doing something. The streaks seemed to be going in a direction. Towards a particular tree. I looked closer there, and I saw it. Hanging about 16 feet high, the swarm had started to ball up. Wow! this was really cool. I went back to get my camera.

When I returned, there was silence. I missed them I thought. But searching the trees, there they were. Completely quiet. I sat and watched. Every now and then a clump of bees would break free and drop to the ground. There they would disperse, take flight, and return to the ball up in the tree. Perhaps I could give this wayward colony a home in one of my hives?

This was my first swarm as a beekeeper. So I didn't really know what I was doing. But watching the clumps fall to the ground, I came up with a simple plan. I would put a hive under the swarm, then give the limb on which that lit a little tugsy. They would drop into the hive, and we would all live happily every after, right?!

Fortunately, just yesterday I had cleaned out some hives for new bees that are arriving on Thursday. So I had an empty hive just waiting for new tenants. I happened to be on a very steep slope, I dug a flat spot under the swarm and set up the empty hive. I removed a few frames like when shaking package bees and I prepared to tug.

But could I get the swarm to drop in to the box? They were so high. The photo on the right gives you some idea of the logistical challenge. That black conical thing at the top of the photo is the swarm ball. Way down below, is the have box. Some how I had to get that giant ball to fall directly into the box. Oh, this is going to be a trick!

Okay, how bout a little test tug. With a long pole with a hook on it, I grabbed the branch and gently tugged. Nothing happened. I tugged harder, and a small clump fell just missing the box. Ah. I moved the box and tried again. Ah. This time they fell to the other side of the box. I repositioned it yet again.

Okay now I was ready to give it a try. I gave a harder tug. About one half of the swarm fell down and hit the box. Yes! But there were still more up there. I started tugging. Clumps would break off, but the smaller clump would disintegrate about halfway down, take flight, and reassemble back on the branch. This wasn't working. Bees were literally flying everywhere. I stopped and watched in amazement as the swarm ball reassembled right before my eyes, in less than five minutes. It was truly wondrous.

Okay, I sat and watched them settle down and rethought the situation. The initial clumps would fall to the ground, but the subsequent smaller clumps would break up and reassemble before every touching the ground. What I needed was a big giant clump to fall in one sweep. This was going to take a much harder tug. I hooked the pole on the branch and pulled with all my force. As I thought, a very large clump fell from the tree and broke over the top of the hive, which was now swarming with bees! I grabbed the lid, and closed her up.

I left for a while and returned about an hour later. I was elated to see the new colony was getting comfortable in their new abode. The branch was completely empty of bees, and the front of the hive was full of bees coming and going.

I always love watching a newly hived colony. It is quite wondrous. Look closely at the picture on the right. Do you see the bees on the side of the hive with their tails pointed to 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock? They are fanning. These bees are not crawling about, but rather stationary in this position. They are releasing a scent that calls all the other bees home, and they are fanning their wings to spread the scent far and wide. What a miraculous way to communicate through scent! And how appropriate on a lavender farm :)

I returned after dark and moved the hive to it's final location over in the lavender field. I thought how marvellous this was. I needed bees for my lavender and for delicious honey. And bees just showed up and moved in. How many of our needs will be met such as this without toil. All we need is faith to see these gifts for what they are.

Magic Kingdom

We can live in the midst of miracles, and not even notice. These last few weeks, that was probably me. In the last article, Spring brought with her much work. And I have been focused doing what needs to be done. For instance, take this fence. An ordinary rundown country fence that wouldn't stop a dog, much less any livestock. Not amazing, not wondrous, is it? Well, what about the work itself? Not especially marvellous either. Much of my time has been getting the grass down to expose the fence which was overgrown, trimming the tree branches to get the tractor through, staking out where the fence posts will go. So on and so on. I was certainly happy to be outside in the Sun enjoying the warmth of the outdoors. But I can't say I considered the job extraordinary. Some advice, whenever you think things are not extraordinary, look closer!

Okay, so yesterday I was out clearing a big pile of oak branches thinking how I wish I were done so I can get to the next chore on the list. I'm in the middle of the tall grass. There are dozens of different kinds of insects buzzing past my head. Butterflies, bumbles. wild honey bees, my domestic bees, occasionally those annoying face flies, a horsefly or two. Birds, there are these brown ones that hide in the brush piles that come out in a flurry when you pick them up. Lots of lizards scampering around the downed wood. I have to say, there was so much air and ground activity, I did pause for a moment to think how completely cool it was to exist right smack in the middle of such teaming life. Literally everywhere. And then I heard it.

My subconscious heard it actually and alerted my conscious. What I was dismissing as background buzzing was not the insects in my direct proximity. There was an enormous rumbling coming from an adjacent field. So loud it was drowning out the bumbles right next to me. A swarm!

I started over towards the sound. I had a few hives over there. And I noticed a huge swarm directly above. It was quite large. I ran to get my camera. When I returned the swarm was in full force. I shot this photo of the hive. If you notice on the left hive, right at the entrance a large clump of bees.

Oh no! My bees are swarming! I thought. I had just checked them about a week and a half ago and put a super on. They didn't look like they were going to swarm then! One of these days, I thought, I was going to figure out how to really keep bees.

I said to myself, I'm going to try to capture them in a new hive. I dropped the camera and ran back to the shed to get a new hive ready. I had on my list to clean out some of the frames from hives that didn't make it last year. The wax had been eaten by wax moths. It was too badly damaged to save. So I replaced the comb on ten frames. I wanted to sterilize the wooden ware just to be sure no new disease is passed to the new hive occupants. I had done some research on non-chemical ways to sterilize and learned that the wooden ware can be scorched with a torch to kill disease. So all the frames, the bottom boards, the covers, everything I scorched with the torch. Then I assembled a hive, and donned my gear and ran back over with the new home.

Ahh. The swarm was gone! There was a small clump of bees at the entrance. The mass of the swarm body overhead was gone though. Was I too late?

With abated breath, I cracked the cover open on the hive. I was fully expecting my heart to sink as I opened an empty hive. I have to tell you from experience, that emptiness where there should be bustling fullness of life is quite emotional.

But cracking the hive open, it was indeed still bustling with life! The honeys were home. You can see here the frames covered with the little ladies.

I pulled out some of the frames just to see how they were doing. You can see here lots of healthy bees working on this year's crop of golden honey. Mmmmm. I was tempted to harvest a frame right then and there. Every now and then a forager would walk by, legs completely laden with bright orange pollen. I guess all was well. Maybe they were just riled. Or maybe that swarm was from somewhere else. I hiked around the immediate vicinity. I figured if I could find it, I would give it a new home. But no sign of them. I was fortunate to be there at the right time to experience them.

Well, today I went back to working on the fence. And once again, back to normal. Taking some of the concrete posts out of their forms. Nothing special, right? What did I tell you about thinking that?

Look there through the fence and what do you see? Apparently this wild cat finds entertainment in my toils. A bobcat had parked herself just on the other side, a quiet observer.

No animatronics, just real life. What a truly magic kingdom in which we live.

Spring Break with a Vengence

Wow. When Spring comes, she comes. Suddenly, there is entirely too much to do around Lavender Hill. I find it difficult to even to decide what to do next. So I've enlisted the aide of the entire family.

Field Extension

One project is the lavender field extension. We are extending Campo de Fiori to include some wonderful space that had not yet been planted. Here you can see my daughter moving through the freshly staked extension. Heaven on Earth!

Weeding the Lavender

Spring warmth and showers bring weeds! And it's best to get them early, before they completely consume the lavender. Then they are really tough to get out! Here my daugher is working to remove some vetch from around the Grosso. It's manual, and tedious. But the plants do love you for your care. The pulled weeds are placed in the center of the rows, then the tiller turns them under between the rows.

The Tarantula in Our Midst

Sometimes it is the tiny surprises that make the biggest impression for the day. This day we were surprised by a little furry friend hiding between the plants. Look who we found, this tarantula! He crawled out while pulling weeds from under a plant. We have seen them from time to time. But this is the first time during the spring weeding. No bother. He seemed mostly interested in getting away from us, crawling underneath one of the irrigation lines where he thought he was hidden. Sorry Mr. T, we see you there! Anyhow, we let him be. He's most likely still there, hiding amongst the bushes. And I thought only banana pickers needed to lookout for spiders!

Wood Stacking Paradise

Lavender isn't the only thing keeping us busy on Lavender Hill! There are plenty of spring chores to go around. Here my son is stacking wood. He stops only to make repairs to the wheel barrow. I see him throwing the heavy wood into the barrow with a bang! And then he wonders why it always needs fixing? He he.

Building the Ark

And this year, the farm plan calls for adding hens to our happy farm family. Eggs have been a hot commodity with our CSA, and my neighbors have had a tough time keeping up with demand. So I have agreed to bring some chickens aboard and help them meet the demand. Here you see my son standing over the beginnings of what we call "the Ark". A mobile chicken coop. The coop will be moved from location to location where the hens can forage on fresh local faire while leaving what chickens leave behind, enriching the soil for the next planting. The Ark will have a wire bottom so that all the guano goodness will fall right to the earth. Appropriately, today it rained (which is why my son doesn't look so happy!). There was something symbolic in that :)

Stay tuned to Lavender Hill for our progress building "the Ark". Also this month, the new hive colonies arrive. And we will be planting out the new field extensions I spoke of earlier. Lot's to do. Wish us luck!

April is here, the farm is in high gear

Well, the last thing to do on the last day of March is to hang the martenitza from the branches of the tree that was the first to welcome Spring. Here on Lavender Hill, that was an Almond tree. The Almond was the first to break out in full bloom. So to show my appreciation, I hung the martenitza that I have worn since March 1st from it's branches. Thank you Marta for not being to cruel to us this year. Here you can see it hanging from the tree, with new blossoms and brand new leaves. Spring is here. How truly wonderful it is.


In fact, Spring is here with an interminable force. It's impossible right now to KEEP things from growing. The vetch is still growing like a son of a gun in the lavender fields. This is a full time job in and of itself. And the seeds I planted just a few weeks ago are already sprouting. I took these two beauties a zucchini and a tomato out of the coldframe for a moment to take a nice picture for you. Ahh, grow my pretties.



And with the warmer weather, the bees are more active two. This week I added a honey super to the hives so they would have space to store their delicious nectar. Maybe I get a nice crop this year. Maybe? Please? Oh how I do wish!


But more than that I pray that the new hives I establish this month stay healthy this year. I do not want to see a repeat of the troubles of last year. 2009 will be fine. And on honey we shall all dine.

Spring Planting is Here

Caio Baba Marta! March is coming to an end. In a few days, April will be here. But in the mean time, Marta is up to her old tricks. I've spent more time winterizing irrigation, only to have to reactivate it because temperatures went back up into the 70's and 80's. This year, she really couldn't make up her mind. But no matter. I still wear my martenitza, but tomorrow, I will hang it from the almond tree. That was the first tree to bloom this year.

Tonight it is getting cold again. It is 42 outside and dropping. But for the last couple of weeks, we really have had some nice weather. And I took advantage of this to do some planting. Over the last few years, I have experienced some attrition in my lavender field. Primarily with the "grosso" variety. Overall, I have lost about 10% of the plants established two years ago. So this year, I'm replacing them with plugs from last year's planting. That's me to the right with a tray of healthy lavender just ready for the planting.

My soil is very heavy. So when I replaced the plants, I tried to lighten it up a bit. I have a place on the farm that has ample supply of sand. I use this to lighten up the spots where the heavy soil seemed to make a rough time for my sweet lavender. I brought sand up by the tractor load full. For each plant that didn't make it, I dug a hole about two feet deep and 1 1/2 to 2 feed wide. To the removed dirt, I added 2 to 5 gallons of fresh sand, and a shovel or two of compost. I mixed these all together, and refilled the hole. It is in this "lighter" soil that I then planted the new replacement plant from the plug tray you saw above. Here to the right, you see the new baby plant in the freshly made soil. The buckets contained the sand and compost. The weather was beautiful those days. And I must say I got some good sun. For me. We humans need sun too you know!

This was heavy work. But my hope is that the new plants will thrive much better in the developed soil than the old plants did in the heavy clay. I guess only time will tell.

We had a bout of hot weather (there goes Marta again!) so I used this opportunity to clean out all the sand filters, check the irrigation lines for leaks, and give the field a good drink of water.

I also started the seedlings for my summer garden this month as well. It is still much too cold and unpredictable to start the plants outdoors. I use my cold frame. But the first thing that needs to be done, is to prepare the starter soil. For this, I get two 5 gallon buckets. Fill one with sand, and one with compost. Then pour them both into a mixing tray and mix together with a hoe. This makes a nice light but rich soil for the seeds to germinate. Then I fill a bunch of 2" trays I have saved over the years with the soil.


Once I have all the trays filled with my starter soil, I plant the seeds. I planted zucchini, pumpkin, tomato, pepper, basil, and tarragon and a few others. I am happy to say that the zucchini, pumpkin, pepper were all 2nd generation. The pumpkin is actually 4th generation. This is my first year with tarragon, so I couldn't save seeds for those.

To me, seed saving is nothing short of a miracle. When I think of seeds, I think of a promise. When you eat a zucchini or a pumpkin or a tomato, slice it open. Inside are dozens of seeds. Each seed is a promise. A promise that there will be many more meals where that one came from. This is a miracle gift from nature. It's way of telling you that nature will take care of you, if only you take care of her. It is quite beautiful actually.

When I finished planting, I marked each tray with color toothpicks. This is the way I track what each tray contains until it sprouts. Then I place the trays in the cold frame, and wait for the baby plants to emerge. Here you can see the newly planted trays with my other babies: lavender, rosemary, and some artichokes. Ahh, I cannot wait until the summer!

It isn't too late for you to plant your veggies now! Zucchini and pumpkins will germinate quickly. Basil can be started quickly, and nothing is yummier than fresh pesto! Even tomatoes and peppers. There is still time to plant your garden. If you aren't ready for a large garden, just plant a few plants in large pots. Get started. It's fun! And it really is the only way to experience the promise nature has made to you first hand. Free food. All you have to do is plant it.

Spring, Vetch, and the Continuing Art of Tiller Maintenance

The Vernal Equinox is in one week, on Friday, March 20th. This is when the Earth is inclined neither towards nor away from the Sun. In other words, Spring is coming. It's still cold here on Tassajara. It got down to freezing again last night. The Sun just set, and the temperature is dropping fast. But today, it was sunny and warm. And the grasses and vetch are growing rapidly.

It is time to turn under the cover vetch in the Lavender fields before it grows too high. Actually, in the last week, it already grew too high. Shall I say, before it grows much too high. We already started working around the plants, clearing it out. But I need to cultivate between the rows now.

Remember this? If not, you can revisit my January article on Bees and the Art of Tiller Maintenance. This is the hole in my tiller engine. You may recall that in the fall, it threw a rod right through the side of the crank case. Not good if you need it to turn under the vetch. I started the repairs two months ago, but as is common with me, I decided to completely disassemble and restore her. But grass is growing, and the time has come to finish the job.

I got the machine a few years ago on craigslist. I only paid a couple hundred bucks. It served me well until about a year ago, when I smoked the engine getting the new field ready. In January, I got a new engine and was putting on the last coats of paint (I like to paint my equipment purple and yellow to match the fields). With the cold weather, it was taking a long time to dry. So I put it aside for awhile.

Now look at her! What a difference a coat of paint and a new engine make, no? If I get around to making a bracket to hold a battery, I can rig it up for push button start. Now THAT is fancy :) Anyhow, I fired her up and tilled up some test strips. This engine is a bit more powerful, and runs much smoother.

All ready. And just in time for Spring. Tomorrow I till vetch!