Ahavah Farm - Local. Sustainable. Pure

In a new report, Nasa's top water scientist warns that California has only one year of reserve water left.  That is scary news.  In another article by Michael Snyder, he reports that if California dries up, then America will lose one third of all it's fresh produce.  Well that's saying something.  Not only does this imply that one third of all fresh produce in the United States isn't really fresh - considering the packaging and shipping and stocking etc that occurs between California and wherever that fresh produce is going - but why is this happening?  It's happening simply because we are taking resources from our earth at a faster rate then the earth is able to replenish itself.  Sustainable farming is a must if we want to survive.  This is why farms like Ahavah Farm and others need your support!  Not only will you get the freshest possible produce, but you can be assured that we are practicing farming techniques that allow for less water and less natural resource

Today we transferred the ducks to their new permanent home.  

Well, we had a 50 year sustainable farming veteran come to our farm today.  If anyone knows what they are talking about, he does. He gave us some really great tips and pointers and some really great encouragement too!  He dug into our garden and told us how impressed he was with our soil!  Now, granted, I am from New Hampshire, and New Hampshire soil?  Phhh...it would put this stuff to shame!  In New Hampshire the soil was made ready to plant and it's black, black, black!  Therefore, I honestly didn't know what to think about our soil until today.  In comparison to New Hampshire, it's nothing.  But for our area, for the "high desert" of Colorado?  He said our soil was some of the best there was!  Of course, he believes that our mulching technique that we left on the soil all winter helped a little too :) - kuddos to us. So we are so excited!  Our biggest obstacle this year?  The wind.  The wind is insane and we are spending a fortune on wind blockers and fenci

Sign Up Forms are now available.  Click HERE to download. Please also click HERE to view our new CSA flyer and print it out and share with everyone you know!

See our new listing on Localharvest.org!  

Black Gold that is!  And we didn't strike it, I suppose, but we did have it delivered.  15 yards of some of the finest organic compost available in Colorado got delivered today, and of course the kids played all over it!  We also started building our beds.  All 6 of us got involved.  We will have 13, 30 inch beds of 120 ft and 5, 30 inch beds of 50 feet long in addition to the greenhouse which will extend our growing season by two months including 4, 30 inch beds of 35 feet long!  So how big are these rows, really?  Well, to put it into perspective using a tomato plant, each row in the greenhouse can hold up to 54 tomato plants and each 125 foot outdoor row can hold almost 193 tomato plants each!  Now THAT'S a lot of produce!!! Our black gold delivery...believe me, it almost cost as much as real gold! But living in the high desert out here, it's an absolute must if you want to be successful at growing.   Asher, he worked his butt off all day making those rows!   Isr

It is true that to many experienced farmers this chart is nothing.  But to us?  Geesh, it makes our head spin!!! Organizing plants via their watering schedule, their sun/shade needs, their nutrient/fertilization schedule can be tough enough.  Then, scheduling multiple succession plantings, seedlings to be started indoors, direct sown etc. and things really start to get confusing.  Finally, there are the plants in the greenhouse that need to be accounted for, so the schedule gets doubled and even more confusing!  Yikes!

Now, the picture doesn't look like much, but if you look closely you will notice a bunch of small wires cross-crossing.  Well those little wires are actually fishing line and they are crossing over our chicken yard.  Here in Peyton we have HUGE hawks flying all over our property and they are a very big threat to our chickens.  Therefore, by criss-crossing the inexpensive fishing line over the yard, the hawks and owls are deterred from the chickens.  S imple and cheap two dollar protection from predators!

We are starting out with two bee hives this year and are going to add two or more per year.   We also decided to go with the Top Bar style hives as they are more natural.  One down side to these kinds of hives is that the yield of honey is less.  However, the bees tend to be a lot happier and they have a greater chance of survival from disease, weather and more. Most important is that they pollinate our crops! Learn all about top bar hives here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/keeping-bees-top-bar-beekeeping-zmaz09onzraw.aspx

We never get sick of sunsets like these.  Living on a farm is a dream come true!