Papaw’s Organic Farm

02/23/2024

02/06/2024

Avocado tree status update…

12/24/2022

Meyer Lemon are in season…

10/30/2022

Views from this week

07/20/2021

Every failure is an opportunity to learn.
We noticed that one of our rows of newly planted avocado looked to be drying out. I checked the water lines and they didn’t seem to be getting water. Not a drop came from the pipe despite plenty of water when they were installed.
I called farmer friends for advice and prepared to fix what I thought was a dead animal clogging the pipe.
We dug, the hole, cut the pipe, prepared for a nasty surprise and….. nothing. Clean as a whistle.
I then turned on the coffee line and the pipe worked fine! We planted the trees in a coffee row. Funnest day at the farm so far!

07/15/2021

Country Music?
Not our thing. We are much more likely to listen to or even as we work on the farm.
I have to admit, I’m starting to understand why a guy would sing about his truck and his sweetheart.

07/13/2021

ORO VERDE! Green Gold.
Today with the help of a tractor, we were able to connect a road that was only accessible by hiking.
We can now drive our truck to a relatively flat 8-10 acres in the valley of our property.
We haven’t been down there in months and upon arrival, discovered that the avocado trees at the end of our property are drinking from our neighbors grapefruit trees and producing spectacular avocados.
Unfortunately, he isn’t picking grapefruit and they are falling off the trees and going to waste. Farming is so bitter-sweet.

07/11/2021

Restoring an old grove. The hunt for grove roads.
Grove roads are meant to provide access to the entire farm to nurture and harvest trees.
Our farm was abandoned for at least 6 years before we purchased it as native plants, stinging nettle and waist high w**ds covered the twisted miles of roads.
We use Google Earth to identify where roads were then hike to find and w**d wack them. In some cases, we hire a local tractor operator to smooth and compact the roads for easy access with our truck. This helps with hauling avos and soon chopped trees.
We are probably only 20% done and there are areas of the farm and live fruit bearing trees that we’ve only seen online.
**dwacker

07/10/2021

Have you ever seen a coffee tree?
We originally planned to plant coffee in May but the transplants weren’t ready. Now it’s probably too hot in Valley Center to plant them so we will wait until September.
Holes are dug, irrigation is ready, crew is standing by, farmers are excited but we will listen to the experts who suggest a fall planting.
As we wait, we will study coffee growing and buy a new chainsaw to keep ourselves busy.

07/09/2021

There are levels to this.
Now that planting is done for the summer, we continue restoration of our property and preparation for fall and spring planting.
Only the top level of this 15 acre picture is above street level and is what Kim calls Mango Mountain 🥭⛰
It is the highest and most western portion of our property.
Currently, there are approximately 200 dead avocado trees planted 20 ft apart on Mango Mountain. We plan to remove them to plant 1000 mango trees