a couple/few times a week the farm opens up the farmstand for people to come in and buy whatever is available.

In my last post, I mentioned Full Circle Farm. We visited the farm for the first time on Sunday, November 29 (2009). The farm has bees, chickens, lots of crops, a farmstand, and even a greenhouse.

I really loved the place, and feel very fortunate to have a farm, here in the Silicon Valley (South Bay) so close to home. Plus, I could stand to learn a thing or two from them.

We bought really great carrots, garlic and some herbs at the farmstand. Here are some pictures from our visit:

they are raising chickens at the farm. Currently I believe they only sell eggs (not meat).

nice rows of spinach, broccoli and other fall and winter crops.

it was really warm, as expected, in the greenhouse; helps extend the season when it’s too cold otherwise.

strawberries and artichokes nearby; some trees and not yet utilized land in the background.

I couldn’t resist putting up a picture of my eggplants from early October last year. I am using it to remember better gardening times, as our weather is absolutely terrible for growing anything right now.

2009 was a reasonably good year- producing lots of tomatoes, eggplants, beets and cucumbers. I also tried a new variety of heirloom peppers that never materialized. The various heirloom tomatoes and eggplants, in particular, were really good!

I was still battling the same battles of squirrels attacking my soil and digging up seeds. I finally got some common sense and built small cages around the boxes. These cages are built of a sturdy 2 foot tall thin-metal fence, which is 7 feet long by 5 feet wide, neatly surrounding the 6′ x 4′ boxes. As roofs to these cages I put chicken wire which I twist tied to the fence. I bought some greenhouse plastic cover as well, which I think I will use when we get into the high 30s and below in terms of temperature.

These cages have been in place for abut 3 weeks now, and despite the squirrels hovering around the back yard a lot, the boxes and seeds are unharmed. I am currently trying to grow celery, lettuce, beets, carrots and radishes. By far, the radishes are the most promising. I think the carrots will also make it, but I’m not sure about the others.

I’m expecting a better 2010 than 2009. I know more, am better equipped, have made many mistakes (and learned some lessons from them), and have a better plan with dates in place. I even have a new tumbler compost bin which is very easy to work with, and doesn’t allow ground rocks and unwanted thick twigs and branches to mix into my compost pile.

In the Spring, I plan to grow chameh (Korean Melon) from saved seeds, and watermelon; not in the boxes, but along the north side fence in the back yard. And this year I swear I’m gonna start the summer crops earlier than I always do (typically closer to July).

We also planted a few new trees and other existing ones yielded some fruit. The new ones: avocado (nothing yet), clementines (about 20 yielded this year), and apple (nothing yet). The existing one: the pomegranate tree yielded about 2 dozen fruit, some were perfect, others a bit sour, and our lemon tree is still currently yielding nice meyer lemons (about a handful of nice ones that I can see so far). The persimmon, mandarin and apricot trees (they’re really just overgrown twigs) are still bare.

I’m excited about this year’s gardening potential, hoping to produce great fruits and vegetables to augment what I get at local farmer’s markets, along with the recently discovered wonderful Full Circle Farm (in Sunnyvale, less than 4 miles from home).