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
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.