Deepening Our Roots

With our first year under our belts, our minds are ever-turning to our next phase of development and in deepening our roots: forming our non-profit, master planning, finding the right cadence between our personal lives and EVERYTHING ELSE, and - more importantly - actively creating the culture of community that we want to grow in. .

We are not the only ones experimenting in this medium. We wouldn't be as solid as we are without the guidance from the very knowledgeable folks over at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. And, excitedly, we are joined by other like-minded communities that are testing their hands and lands in finding unity in community - Oak Granary, the new land partners at New Family Farm, Live Oak Farm, and Morton's Warm Springs to name a few. We're inspired by their courageous lens of doing things outside the nuclear norm.

As summer wanes to fall, we hope to see you out here reconnecting with land soon. And, as always, there's an open invitation to become a farm member through our animal or veggie CSA programs. Just message us for more details.

In Community,

Green Valley Farm + Mill
- Temra and Jeremy, Aubrie and Scott, Jeff, and Josiah

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LATE SUMMER MUSINGS FROM THE LAND

BABES ARE HERE
Scott and Aubrie are the proud parents of three new baby calves, the eighth year that jerseys have been born on the land. The first two births went swimmingly, despite landing smack dab in the middle of a heatwave.  During the final birth of summer, Scott and Aubrie had to work feverishly to get the calf to take its first breath. Thankfully this calf is doing great despite his rough entry. These boys, yes, all boys!, are growing fast. They spend their days lounging in the shade of the oak trees, sleep through hot afternoons, chew their cud and excitedly look forward to each bottle of milk that comes their way.

You can email brambletailhomestead@gmail.com if you're interested in learning more about becoming a co-owner in this little herd and enjoying in its bounty.

SALMON PROJECT KICKS OFF
There is a hubbub of activity over at the South House driveway as a major creek restoration project gets underway in Green Valley Creek. As you may know, the upper Green Valley Creek runs along our property and is one of last few native salmon spawning habitats. We're proud to have partnered with neighbors and Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District to allow them to reconstruct the culvert on the southern side of our property so that it is fish friendly.

From Gold Ridge Conservation District's Newsletter: "Residents in the upper Green Valley Creek watershed may notice a major project underway this August and September on the Green Valley Farm + Mill property, namely, the fish-friendly reconstruction of an undersized and failing stream crossing. This stream crossing is currently a barrier to migrating coho salmon and steelhead trout. The corroded culvert (seen at top right), perched 11.5 ft above its downstream pool, is impassible to salmonids at many life stages, including adult and juvenile coho salmon, and juvenile steelhead trout. In addition to allowing salmonids access to nearly a half-mile of stream for spawning and rearing habitat, the project will protect the connectivity of Green Valley Creek to its flood plain upstream of the crossing, which is threatened should the current culvert fail. Downstream of the crossing, a narrow and deeply incised stream channel is the result of past flood control management along with regional downcutting. This condition causes water flows to speed up and flush out the woody debris that would provide refuge habitat to fish seeking protection during intense storm runoff events. Green Valley Creek’s hampered hydrology is a watershed-wide problem. If the current crossing was left in place, and failed during a large storm, channel incision could advance upstream, degrading stream habitat and water quality, exacerbating runoff and sedimentation, and lowering the water table.

This project will not only reconstruct the stream crossing, but will enhance grade control over a 600-ft stretch of the stream to improve channel grade and provide fish passage. This will be accomplished by constructing a series of boulder weirs in addition to a step-pool roughened channel and bottomless arch culvert at the stream crossing (as an example, at bottom right, see rock weirs leading up to a culvert in Camp Meeker from a 2009 project on Dutch Bill Creek). The constructed step-pool roughened channel and boulder weirs will enable salmonids to access spawning and rearing grounds upstream, stabilize the grade, and retain essential floodplain connectivity. While some existing riparian vegetation (primarily willows and nonnative blackberry) will have to be removed during construction, the riparian corridor will be replanted with over 650 native plants. Revegetation of the construction site will be conducted by the inspiring local students participating in Point Blue Conservation Science’s environmental education program, Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW)."

'RECONNECTING PEOPLE WITH LAND' / FOOD HUB / FARM STORE
True to our mission, our food and farming hub over in the East Mill is abuzz with activity. Parade the Land's organic chickens, our pastured raised Jersey milk and beef shares, a YOU-pick CSA straight from Green Valley Community Farm's fields, bread from the hyper local Hawk Hill Micro Bakery, eggs from Hands Full Farm and more coming, this zone of the farm has been getting spruced up. Want to get in and reconnect with land via your plate? Shoot us a line.

Summer's Greetings

Here's a guest post by one of our farmers, David Plescia, from over at Green Valley Community Farm. He and Kayta have done an incredible job getting the farm off the ground just this past winter and have already started pick-up days for their CSA members. Read below and delight in learning more about the wildness of this place through the lens of a farmer's eyes. 

FARMER'S LOG

One of the most special things about living and farming at Green Valley is that it still a very wild place. 

It's no wonder: If you zoom out on a satellite map of the address here (13024 Green Valley Rd.), you'll see that this little valley is nestled at the base of forest that extends Northward, essentially unbroken, up through Alaska.

We come in contact with this wildness everyday on the farm. And it is perhaps most noticeable in the bird and mammal kingdoms at this time of year, during the spring / early summer surge of activity, new growth, courtship, competition, homemaking and baby-raising that corresponds with the return of the sun and the surge of plant life. At this time of year especially, our furred and feathered neighbors weave themselves into our lives, greeting us in the morning, and keeping us company throughout the day and on our ways home at night as they go about building their lives next to ours. And it is striking how similar theirs are to ours...

The bird world is especially rich out right now. Kayta's parents, avid birders, spotted 34 species during their two week visit from Missouri at the beginning of June. (And that's just the tip of the iceberg.) All the feathered ones seem to be making a go of it while the gettin's good and doing all the things that go with that: Courting (those Turkey gobbles of April and May, echoing down the valley) and singing (wow, hear that Swainson's thrush), fighting (the "bird wars" begin in late May as the sky fills with inner/interspecies arial battles and battle cries as they all squat, steal and harass each others nests and territories), eating (where did all our lettuce seeds go?), building homes (the Violet-Green Swallow mud nest above our wash-station) and starting families...

Family of Barn Owls Move In

In the owl box perched along the 13024 driveway, a barn owl family has taken up residence. Who knows when mom and dad moved in but about a month and a half ago tiny little raspy screeches could be heard coming from the box. Now, our way home at twilight every evening, we watch four barn owl teenagers exercise their flying permits. Compared to their silent, sleek, be-masked parents they are awkward flying monkeys. At first they would just pop their fuzzy heads out of the house, then pop back in. Lately, they have been taking flight, with a tellingly rapid RPM crash landing into the nearest tree, screeching at each other for awhile, and then flying back to the safety of the house. They screech all night.

Also like clockwork, at twilight, comes a Dark Sentinel. Our main fields are on her route. She has three spots -- that we know of: On a fence post overlooking the center meadow, on a large tree overlooking the main fields, and on the tall power pole overlooking the entire vineyard and farm. A shadow. The Great Horned Owl. Like the Lady of the Forest, she gives us shivers, reminding us of our mortality. But she reminds gophers of their mortality too, which is very necessary around here.

Yes, twilight is a special time. Quivers of quail come out from their thicket homes, paranoid and domestic, to forage. Mama and baby skunk visit the compost pile to see what's been left, and a gophers flit through the grass. 

The gopher (at its population low near the end of winter, being food for so many predators during that time) explodes in population at this time of year. Their subterranean networks of paths seem to multiply underfoot, their little portal holes pock the ground, and their boldness grows. One crashed against my leg as I was harvesting mustard mix on Tuesday. They may not visit the barn, but you can be sure that the gophers have been picking up their shares.

And then there is Mama Deer. You may have noticed the fortress of junk in between our greenhouses and the hog panels around Aubrie and Scott's garden. These are protection from Mama Deer. Mama Deer took up residence in a thicket near the greenhouses about a month ago and, pregnant and now presumably nursing, uses a genius and boldness I have never seen in a deer to infiltrate our fortresses and feast on the fare. Who can blame her, she's making a go of it just like the rest of us.

This list could go on: The juvenile Salmonids and the baby turtle in the culvert, Aubrie and Scott's carefully timed new calves, the broccoli-obsessed ninja Hare or the demon Raccoon that visits our neighbors... no matter how much they demand from us or pillage our provisions, we can only but be grateful for their antics, their lessons, their company, and that they are here. This place is alive and wild. Let's make sure to keep it that way.

Farmer, David Plescia

Digging In

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Wine | Coho | CSA Sign Ups

Greetings,

As we are digging in here on the land, we are so grateful for the opportunity to share our experience with you. Below are a few updates about what's been happening since we've started to call this gorgeous place home. 

1. Meet our Vineyard Manager: We're excited to partner with Emilio Castelli of Castelli Vineyards as the manager of our small-scale, dry-farmed vineyard. The vineyard had not been pruned for two years so we've been spending time getting it back into shape (see Temra in fast mode pruning below). While there is a bit of Pinot, Nebbiolo makes up the majority of our vines. And while it's not common in these parts, this makes us love it even more. We've always been fans of the underdog.

Back to Castelli, he matches our love of terroir and desire to be a benevolent steward of this land. He and his wife, Laura Bastitch, also live on Green Valley Road where they live, built their straw bale winery and manage their own small vineyard of Nebbiolo grapes. You can read more about them on their website.

2. Bringing Salmon back to Upper Green Valley Creek: As one of the few remaining native spawning habitats for coho salmon in the Russian River Valley watershed, Green Valley Creek provides an important habitat for these critically endangered fish and other species. As stewards of this land, we couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with our neighbors and Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District on a major construction project that will ensure that coho can get back into the creek’s upper reaches.

Starting this fall, Gold Ridge will be doing a major overhaul of a culvert to the south of Green Valley Farm + Mill that borders two of our neighbors’ properties. They will also create a series of pools for spawning and refuge for the juveniles. This project represents one of Gold Ridge’s most significant fish passage projects to date. Stay tuned as we'll be hosting an informational meeting about this exciting work in July that will be open for the public to attend. 

3. Got milk? What about meat? Veggies? We’ve got you. 
Thinking you want to get more connected with where your food comes from? We invite you to eat real local by joining either, or both, of our food share programs. Email us at hello@gvfam.com to learn more about getting weekly access to all that our land offers including milk, meat, vegetables and seasonal fruits. While our fields are still wet, our fruit and veggie program will get going by late June. Our other foodshare program has ongoing sign up and pick up opportunities. 

HELLO, MY NAME IS GREEN VALLEY FARM + MILL

Want to learn more about what's happening? You've come to the right place. 

In July of 2016 a group of people came together to purchase 172 beautiful acres known as Green Valley Farm + Mill, or simply, Green Valley. Since moving here the onsite team has managed to crush our first vineyard crop, Jersey cows moved back onto the land with Bramble Tail Homestead, Green Valley Community Farm got going, and we gave our infrastructure some much needed TLC. 

We are the new wave of ruralists, people that want pastoral living but that also desire to live in close proximity to other people. For social and functional reasons, land in any sort of large dimension requires people for management and upkeep. From fire reduction strategies, to creek restoration and native plant growth, humans are a central part of the equation for a healthier landscape. You'll learn more about all this and more in the months and years to come! If you want info sent straight to your inbox, mosey on over to the homepage and subscribe at the bottom to get our Farm + Mill News.