Just as a sunflower tracks the sun, a farmer tracks the sun to plant her crops. We are Carine and Robert, a young couple starting our small, sustainable farm in Capay Valley with 2016 as our first year in production. As farmers, our main goal is to preserve the ability of the land to sustain agriculture, wildlife, and other natural resources into the indefinite future. We firmly believe in the nee
d to look ahead 7 generations as a guiding principle to assess the sustainability of our farm. Farming needs to be a healing endeavor for the land and rural communities so that all members of our society can access healthy, affordable food. Carine is a third generation farmer, who grew up to the singing of plants on her family’s farm in Southwestern France and her father’s ornamental plant nursery in Central California. She is also a doctoral candidate in plant biology, following in the footsteps of her mother a plant breeder. So much of her passion for farming comes from the beautiful summer days she experienced in France, helping her uncles milk cows and care for their crops. Robert is a Bay Area native from Redwood City and grew up in the creek down his street and in the local California redwood forests. In college Robert discovered his passion for farming and sustainable food. This interest led him to many adventures working in farms everywhere from Oakland, CA to Oaxaca, Mexico…only to come full circle in the Capay Valley. Our main approach to soil heath lies in adding compost and growing cover crops. We till the soil only when appropriate to preserve structure and tilth and use drip irrigation to prevent erosion, rotating crops to balance nutrient availability. Our soil management promotes healthy, productive plants by encouraging soil health and biotic diversity. We encourage natural predators and parasitoids through diverse, year-round flowering plants as well as scheduling crops in the ground to minimize pest pressure. We hand hoe and utilize a rolling cultivator when crops are in the ground with cover crops over winter to minimize w**d seed. We believe the diversity in our crops and focusing on soil health enables us to limit inputs into our agricultural system, thereby promoting sustainability and resiliency.
