Press Release, March 2018:

 

Ananda Valley Farm Awarded

CA Healthy Soils Demonstration Grant

 

Ananda Valley Farm has won a 3-year demonstration grant as part of the CA Healthy Soils Initiative.

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The State of California is using funds from the state greenhouse gas cap and trade program to fund the CA Healthy Soils Initiative. Demonstration projects are chosen that can show ways to increase farmland soil vitality and health while also sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gasses.

 

Ananda Valley Farm will investigate mixing wood chips into farm soil in order to increase organic matter, increase soil microbial life, and increase number of worms, all while keeping produce harvests high. Typically mixing in wood chips into soil can tie up nitrogen and lower yields initially. After the chips start to decompose they then help plant growth and yields.  Ananda Valley Farm will be trialing different applications rates of wood chips with different organic fertilizer application rates to keep yields high from the start.

 

As part of the programs outreach, regular updates to a video blog will be posted. See:   www.AnandaValleyFarm.blogspot.com. 

  

Farming Manager, Eric Munro, comments:
“We are happy to receive this grant and honored to be the only farm to directly receive a demonstration grant in 2017. It highlights our commitment to growing produce in the highest vitality soil practical. We feel this project will demonstrate practices other small farms can use to help increase the health of their soil.”

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Ananda Valley Farm is a small community supported agriculture (CSA) farm which delivers fresh weekly vegetable boxes to the local area. They specialize in growing better tasting vegetable varieties and delivering the produce the next day after harvest.

 

Related websites:
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/healthysoils/docs/2017-HSPDemonstrationProjectsGrantAwards-ProjectsSelected.pdf
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/healthysoils/DemonstrationProjects.html
www.AnandaValleyFarm.com
www.AnandaValleyFarm.blogspot.com

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From our latest newsletter  

April 3, 2017        

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Dear friends,

Our 2017 CSA season is just a few months away and that our Ananda Valley Farm website is ready to receive your orders. We had an incredible last year with enthusiastic subscribers and vibrant, nourishing produce. We invite you to join us again and share with your Farm another adventure in delightful eating.

 

Here are a few changes that will benefit all of you:

 

• We are offering an every other week Classic box for those who would like a steady flow of produce but a little less often.

• Our Farm received a tax-exempt donation for a new high tunnel (wind protected) hoop house to replace our smaller one that was blown down in the winds. This will provide our CSA with an abundant variety of heat-loving vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, peppers, and eggplant.

• We also received donations for a new tractor system that protects our soil. It is a low-till, soil friendly, walk-behind tractor. The preservation of our soil and its nutrients has a great deal to do with our delicious and healthy produce.

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With many blessings,

 

Trisha and Your Ananda Valley Farm Staff

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Hans enjoying her walk in the tender new grass (right top)

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New hoop house (middle)

We have been busy all winter, when the rains allow, building a new high tunnel hoop house. It will replace the one that blew down last spring. We will grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and basil in here - all the heat loving vegetables that people want. We specifically chose a high tunnel to withstand high winds. Volunteers will cover the frame with plastic on April 10.

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Soil Friendly Farming Methods

 

This year we are continuing to explore methods to farm that improve the soil viability while also producing abundant crops.

 

Spreading a tarp over the ground for a month to eliminate weeds without tilling is one method we are trying this year.

 

(Bottom) We also recently purchased some "low-till" soil-friendly, farm implements. This BCS "2-wheel, walk behind tractor" system is used by many small, organic farms. Before, we rototilled the beds in the spring to get rid of weeds. The BCS has a small "power harrow" which mixes only the top 2" of the beds to control weeds without pulverizing the soil, like a rototiller does.  We plan to never use the rototiller again on the growing beds.