Cloverfield Organic Farms

subtitle: a quaint, neighborhood u-pick farm with beautiful methods of soil regeneration

Website

Location: El Sobrante

Talked to Michael, a wonderful farmer who joined Susan to aid her dream of having a farm. Much of this was paraphrasing his words, maintainting as much of his mellow temperament as possible.

General

A bit about the farm: Cloverfield Organic has been operating for a decade, as an all-organic, u-pick farm. They are located near a residential area and are simply fenced off with dear fencing. A tactic they use to ward wildlife is to plant flowers in front of the fencing so the deers eat the flowers, rather than the vegetables.

How does your U-Pick farm operate? They run friday - sunday, from 12-5pm. The rest of the time is needed for the farm to breathe, regenerate.

Their philosophy is for people to take 6 for the belly, one for the basket. People come there to relax - as they are in the middle of a quiet, neighborhood. Many are surprised that a farm even exists there! The produce is relatively cheap (he says) - a grocery bag full is 36$,and he himself is paid mainly through smiles.

Aside: This has me wondering a LOT about how this operational is profitable. My answer is that it really isn't, meaning that it also isn't scalable or juicy to the normal farmer who needs to make money.

What kind of crops do you grow? Herbs including strawberry mint, apple mint, and regular mint. Greens including rhubarb, tomatoes, arugula, and collard greens. In the spring, 4 types of mustards that range in spiciness. The owners also keep a small sunflower farm elsewhere.

Do you grow anything other than crops?

They have a private beekeeper who maintains 14 beehives on their land. He brings his bees there to make them super healthy, then makes deliciious both the beekeeper and the farm can sell.

Michael offers insight through an analogy to this: Oatmeal is okay, but if someone had it forever they'd be sick of it. In Sam Valley, nearby, there are a lot of almond orchards. Bees get sick of pollinating the same food every day, whereas they thrive in the diverse food forest that is Cloverfield Organics.

Note: Michael explains this as a mutualistic relationship between them and the beekeeper, and not much of an income stream.

Costs

What do your finances look like? They aren't pulling in thousands and thousands of dollars. Michael is often (literally) paid by the smiles of his customers, and neither him nor Susan have a strong will to turn this into a profit-machine.

Soil

What are some strategies/design choices you use to improve the quality of your soil?

  1. Michael's main philosophy is that if you sit back, with no intervention, and let the plant do it's thing, the soil will be healthiest. He has minimal day to day upkeep, apart from watering the plants. His exact words were to, "stick a seed in the ground and watch it get huge".
  2. They add woodchips to augment the soil, meaning, add carbon back to it. A huge pile of woodchips gets dropped (from where?) and they spread them around the farm grounds.
  3. Compost is constantly incorporated. Weeds are just future compost, and any plant material not sold is also turned into compost.
  4. In terms of soil composition, they started with clay soil, woodchips, and augmentated it with w fedather meal, alfalfa, oyster shells, and more. He speaks of these additions like they are obvious.
  5. They make the beds, at maximum, 5 feet wide so they can easily reach them. Michael says, "plants need water + air in the roots, so you can't stand on them." I wonder how the soil on conventional agriculture farms are impacted by the heavy machinery that is rolled over them every season.
  6. Crop Rotation!!
  7. Michael explains how fava beans add nitrogen to the soil, so they alternate it with plants that require more.
  8. They will plant specific families together (ex. corn, beans, squash) to balance out their nutrient necessities. He explains how when they plant corn, the beans grows up the corn stalks, and the squash nearby starts blooming like crazy, so it all works together in perfect harmony.
  9. They try to maximize their dirt surface (stagger seeds).
  10. Michael goes over the same spot with water multiple times, explaining that "if you throw water on one spot, the ground will seal up. But if you go over the same spot multiple times, it relaxes and soaks it all in". It almost sounds as if the first time water is added, the plant stressfully tries to grab as much as it can and hold it close to the surface. Whereas when he goes back and forth, the plants relax and let the water go deep into their roots.

Random Bits (that warmed my heart)

Takeaways

This farm is beautiful. A living, breathing manifestation of all that is beautiful in the world. Clear by the way they treat their customers, assign emotions and personify their plants + animals, and are so altruistic in their day to day activities.

Obviously, this isn't scalable. It doesn't make much profit. But, it's clearly an enjoyable, fulfilling way to live out your years and provides much happiness and sustenance to the familiies who are lucky enough to stop by.