Inside a cabinet in the barn on the farm there is a sheet of paper for every rain season where we write down the rainfall and date of it.
That allows us to compare the rain on the farm from year to year with typically wide variations in when the rain starts and stops along with how much rain.
With the first rain last Thursday that was about half an inch on the farm we had to get a new piece of paper to begin tracking the new rain totals for the 2026-2027 water year.
The California Water Year is based on different dates with it beginning on October 1 and ending on September 30 the following year. That is because rain is not occurring every month with the significant dry summer we have.
The last few years have been relatively average rainfall years but this winter is forecasted to be a larger than normal rainfall. It is predicted to be an El Niño winter here with heavy rainfall and potentially larger storms.
Talking to others farmers in the area everyone is approaching the forecasted weather differently depending on their situation. Some are reducing what they are planting for the winter and others are making no changes.
A strong series of winter storms could have a big impact on citrus harvest as January and February are the main months for harvest and for rain. When its raining you can’t harvest citrus so lots of early harvest might have to take place.
Every year we trial some different vegetables and varieties with this year Kabocha squash being one of the new crops. It is a Japanese winter squash that is orange flesh and very delicious.
We only have a small amount that we will bring to the market on Saturday and once that gone there is no more this season. Kabocha squash are great baked or roasted and just eaten or made into a pie.
Following the rain it has been mostly sunny but yesterday morning it was very foggy. That moisture in the air gives the plant leaves some added moisture so we don’t have to irrigate for a little bit longer as the soil is drying out much slower with the weather.
Crops are growing despite the cooling weather as last week the first of the green garlic was popping out of the soil and now all the rows have germinated.
Next we need to weed them with a flame weeder that goes over them to burn down the weeds but it does not hamper the garlic.
This weekend we picked up the garlic we will plant for heads of garlic and tomorrow we are planning to plan it.
Additionally we will be planting lots of the lettuce tomorrow. Almost everything left in the greenhouse is lettuce at different stages of growth so we will be planting it all over the coming weeks.
