Jason Bradford and I traveled down to Ukiah today to attend
a workshop related to Fish Friendly Farming (http://www.fishfriendlyfarming.org/).
Although the workshop and related certification is geared toward private
property owners of vineyards we thought that it would be useful to attend some
of the workshops since the Brookside Energy Farm is in close proximity to a salmon
spawning stream. The biggest concern that the workshop addresses seems to be
related to erosion. As sediment enters the stream via sheet-erosion or from overused
private roads the water shed and salmon habitat is severely disrupted. This
should not be a problem for us because we practice over winter soil management
techniques including compost tea and cover cropping to directly prevent erosion,
and we have no frequently traveled roads or vehicle traffic on site.

On the way down to the workshop we stopped at Ridgewood
Ranch, home of the famous racehorse
Sea Biscuit. The
Ridgewood Ranch property spans 5000 acres and contains an active intentional community.
We visited community member Ellen Bartholomew to pick up some seed, investigate
the garden, and drop off a "corn sheller" for her interns to use as
they separate the corn seed from the cob. Ellen manages the Golden Rule
Garden at Ridgewood
Ranch. This garden is a partnership with John Jeavons' group Ecology Action and
is both a demonstration and research site. At this time of the year there are asparagus
planted out and the majority of the beds are covered in fava (broad) beans and
a diversity of winter cereal crops. Some of these crops will be used for
biomass and others will be used to collect and test seeds. Ellen mentioned that
during the dry-spell in January she actually had to water her grain crops because
they were looking a bit stressed. She said that she had never had to water in
January and that this was an abnormally dry month.

In order to collect some seeds from Ellen and Bountiful Gardens we are responsible for
collecting our own seed from some of what we grow. A portion of the seed will
be given back to Bountiful
Gardens (Ecology Action’s
seed saving and distribution arm) so that they may uses it in other tests. This
is an exciting opportunity to collaborate and we look forward to sharing the
results. Visit the Ecology Action Homepage at http://www.growbiointensive.org/,
and you can also check out Bountiful
Gardens at http://www.bountifulgardens.org/.

The varieties of seed we received and will be responsible
for include:

• Golden Giant Amaranth
• Bean Mix (Jacob’s Cattle, Pinto, and Black Turtle Beans)
• Dale Sorghum
• AC Baton Oats
• Hard Red Spring Wheat
• Lavarus Spring Wheat
• Jet Barley
• Faust Barley
• Multi-Hued Quinoa