The 384 bales of straw needed to cover the pathways between the beds of next years Strawberries were delivered last week. They did not come far, just from the field north of us. This machine is called a ’Squeeze’. It picks up 64 bales at a time and loads them onto the trucks full of hay and straw you see on the freeway. It picked up 6 ‘squeezes’ and delivered then to the other side of where you see our trees. The strawberry beds will be on land that grew the potato crop this spring and last year was alfalfa pasture for the chickens. It is very fertile, just what we want for those delicious berries.
On Monday the crew started to lay the plastic and straw on and between the beds respectively. Last Saturday Ricardo set up the drip lines which are laid down the middle of each bed.
The plants will be picked up from freezer storage in Turlock this week and planted sometime in the next couple of weeks. The planting crew of 25 people will arrive on our farm after planting the strawberries for Terra Firma Farm in Winters.