Rich Fields Farm

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last update: 29 February 2008

Rich Fields Farm

Beyond my regular faculty duties, I own a small farm 4 miles from Davis. Farm operations are split between me and my wife. We have a registered organic operation. Our main crop is pistachios. We also grow many types of fruits from all regions of the globe, several types of vegetables, other nut crops, and flowers (both cutting and drying types). Below is a list of crops we are growing or trying to grow.
The farm seems to require constant repairs! This can sometimes be rewarding, sometimes frustrating, and always varying. I enjoy planting, growing, and (especially) harvesting. I don't enjoy the pests or weeds that try to be the world's toughest weeds. Total area is about 4 hectares.

We do have a stream along one end of the farm. Sometimes it is dry, sometimes it is half-full, and sometimes it flows with amazing power! The mature trees along that stream attract nesting hawks and owls. A drive along road 30 between our farm and road 98 is guaranteed to find hawks. So we have our scenery.

Unfortunately, one of those owls decided to land on the power lines feeding our well. The owl's last act was to create a brilliant flash and a "buzzzt" sound at 5:14 am 30 July 1998. The bird not only exploded, it cut power for several square miles.

Rich Fields Farm --- Greenhouse

Another stereo....

My greenhouse...a constant source of...(work? fun? ...?)

If you want to actually see this in stereo, I have a tutorial on my stereo photography tutorial home page.

Greenhouse notes

During the (record hot) summer of 1996, I raised the roof on my greenhouse by 3 feet and replaced yellowed fibreglass with a clear polycarbonate product from SPS inc. I highly recommend this product, even at this early writing (10/96). First, it is easier to install than LEXAN (no predrilling). It has a UV barrier coating on top (so it comes with a 25 year guarantee). It has a dimpled surface underneath (diffusing the sunlight and reducing leaf burning). It also has a coating in the inside that allows condensation to flow off, thus avoiding drips and reduced light from droplets. It is designed to let in much more of the PAR (photosynthetically active light) which has at least 3 consequences: some plants are blooming for the first time, the plants are not as "leggy", and the fruits are likely to be sweeter. Another benefit may be greater pest resistance,too, since plants might need more sunlight in order to be able to manufacture insect-active products.

Plants that responded dramatically to the increased light levels include: papaya, carambola, avocado, white sapote, and cherimoya.

I hope to include a few pictures in the next few weeks.

Update: a dozen years later, pictures are still has not loaded! Why? In a word: kids! The greenhouse doesn't look much like the photo: all the plants have filled the volume. As for the roof panels, 2 blew off in a storm on 4 January 2008; more than a decade shy of the 25 year guarantee.

Rich Fields Farm Crops

Planted, though not necessarily harvested!

Tree Fruits (outside)

• Apple (Black Arkansas, Gravenstein, Golden Delicious, Braeburn, Black Astrachan, Pink Lady)
• Apricot (Blenheim, Harcot, Moorpark)
• Carob -- ceratonia siliqua (killed by January 07 freeze)
• Che ("Chinese" mulberry)
• Cherry (Royal Ann, Black Tartarian, Van, Bing)
• Cherry, Capulin
• Cherry, Cornelian (3 varieties)
• Fig (Kadota)
• Jujube (Li, Lang)
• Loquat (Big Jim?)
• Mulberry (Pakistan)
• Nectarine (Arctic glo, Desert Dawn, Liz's Late, Heavenly White)
• Olive (birdsown, mission, manzanillo)
• Paw Paw -- Asimina Triloba (8 varieties)
• Peach (Nectar, O'Henry, Desert Gold, Earlitreat, Fortyniner, Elberta Q-1-8, Rio Oso Gem, Indian Free, Fairtime, White Heath, Carnival, El Dorado-mini)
• Pear (Bartlett, Comice)
• Pear, Asian (Hosui, 20th Century, Chojuro?, Shinko?)
• Persimmons (Izu, Fuyu)
• Plum (Mariposa, Bavay's Green Gage, Italian Prune)
• Pluot (Flavor King?)
• Pomegranate (6+ varieties)
• Quince (Smyrna?)

Citrus Family

• Blood Orange (Moro, Sanguinelli?)
• Navel (Robertson?)
• Valencia
• Kumquat
• Lemon (Eureka)
• Lime
• Grapefruit
• Mandarin (Owari Satsuma, Dancy)
• Tangelo
• White Sapote (SueBell)

Tropical Fruit

• Avocado ("Dwarf" (probably "little cado"), Mexicola, Bacon, Zutano, Gwen, Fuerte)
• Babaco (died :-( )
• Banana (Ice Cream, Mysore, Dwarf Blood)
• Carambola (Star fruit)
• Cherimoya (Pierce, White, RDG1)
• Dragon Fruit (Pitaya) -- Hylocereus and Selenicereus sp. (5 types)
• Guava (Red Indian)
• Litchi (Brewster -- struggling with our conditions)
• Longan -- Euphoria longana (Kohala, Diamond River)
• Mango (Mallika, Rosigold)
• Miracle Fruit -- Synsepalum dulcificum -- died! :-(
• Natal Plum (dwarf)
• Surinam Cherry (Victoria)
• **Ice Cream Bean (died, resprouted from seed, but has pest problems)
• Rose Apple -- died :-(

Nuts

• Almond (All-in-one, bird-sewn)
• Pecans (from seed)
• Pine (Digger)
• Pistachio (Kerman -- of course)
• Walnut (Chandler, Hartley, Black)

Palms

• Jelly Palm -- Butia edulis (edible)
• California Fan -- Washingonia Filifera (native, edible?)
• Guadeloupe Island Fan -- Brahea edulis (edible -- barely)
• Australian Fan (no fruit)
• Blue Guadeloupe Island Fan -- Brahea Armata
• Date (flowers, but no fruit)
• Chilean Wine Palm -- Jubea chilensis (struggling after wife ran mower over it, check back in 100 years)
• Queen (no fruit)

Miscellaneous Fruits & Roots

• Bababerries
• Blackberries (marion, thornless, ollalie)
• Cape Gooseberry
• Goji berry
• Grapes (red seedless, thompson seedless, concord, 10+ other wine types)
• Melons (yellow, ambrosia, Hale's, winter queen, sugar bowl, sugar baby, etc)
• Osage orange (for Che rootstock)

Cut Flowers

• Roses (4 dozen hybrid teas, floribundas, and others)
• Iris (Japanese, Bearded, Rebloomers)
• Drying Flowers (Statice, Yarrow, Golden Drumstick)

Vegetables

• Tomato (Cherokee Purple, Sweet Isis, German Striped, Amish Paste, etc)
• Tomatillo
• Artichoke
• Corn (Silver Bullet, Silver Queen, How Sweet It Is, etc)
• Peppers (Numex Big Jim, N.Mex #6, N.Mex Joe E Parker, Yellow banana)
• Radishes (Icicle, sparkler, etc)
• Carrots (Nantes)
• Garlic (Early White, Late Red, Elephant, Red Toch)
• Cucumber (lemon boy, etc.)
• Squash
• Potatoes (Yellow finn, red Norlands, Russian banana, Yukon Gold, Cal-White, etc)

Other

• 3 little lambs (3/96). A year later they weigh > 100 lbs!! In 1998 the largest weighs 200 lbs!

Crop News !

• 1995 Pistachio harvest: 17,800 lbs wet weight! The 1996 harvest was greatly reduced (about 1/7th the size of '95) At least 4 factors caused the big drop in our harvest: the warm winter (too little chill), the wet spring (during bloom), a very heavy scaffold-adjusting pruning last winter, and the effects of having a very heavy crop last year.

  Of course, after hulling, drying, grading, & roasting, we have a much smaller amount of No. 1 nuts. I now keep information about the pistachio production in a separate set of web pages that can be found HERE.

  Last year, the harvesting crew did not use the equipment properly resulting in 1 sprikler valve being run over and 3 trees being girdled. (Remarkably, those trees are still alive.)

• Of my tropicals: the "ice cream" banana had ripe fruit -- much sweeter, and flavorful (delightfully complex) than store-bought. I let the fruit bunch stay on the plant and only pick what turns yellow. I stretched the harvest out over 4 late winter months. Those I sold at a local farmers market went VERY fast!

  The babaco produced 6 ripe fruit. The white sapote finally fruited. What does a babaco taste like? It depends on the ripeness when picked. Ripened off the plant, it tastes like a lemon without the tartness. Fully ripened on the plant, the flavor is more complex, with other fruit fragrances developing.

  The Cherokee purple tomato did not set during temps > 95 F last year. So, there was no fruit this summer. We hope to have fruit this fall. Otherwise, I highly recommend this open-pollinated tomato.

  An italian squash from Shepherds Seeds was once again: highly productive, little bothered by heat or virus, and had excellent taste (a hint of artichoke flavor). If you try it, just make sure there are usable seeds in their packet!!

  The winter queen melons were the most productive last year. This year we have a good, but late, crop forming. They also lasted a long time (i.e. until Christmas). The sugar bowl melons were the prettiest: yellow dots on dark green -- looks like the night sky -- is it actually the heirloom "moon & stars"?

  The melons, corn, peppers and most other vegetables I planted did very well where I brought loamy soil up from the creek in order to amend our heavy clay. Soil management can have a big impact on productivity. Ditto for potatoes this year (as might be obvious for a root crop).

Rich Fields Farm Animals

Production

• Wool Sheep (3 black, 3 white, all females)
• Nigerian Dairy goats (2 females)

Pets

• 3-legged house cat (striped)
• Mixed breed dog (part Aus. Shepherd))

Boarded

• horses (varies, usually either 2 or 3)
• Nigerian Dairy goat (wethers)

Wild :-)

• various raptors: hawks & owls
• various pest birds (crows, jays, magpies, mainly)
• possums, racoons, and skunks -- ahhh life in the country
• lots and lots of ground squirrels

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