Jose and I are carefully watching and tasting the mandarins to make sure we can pick them quickly if it turns really cold like it did this time last year. This week the mandarins come from Bill Crepps in Winters. Ours need about another week to be perfect. The Lombardy Poplar windbreak that we cut down last winter has regrown with a multitude of new shoots. We are going to thin each stump so that only 3 to 5 shoot remain. These will be the right size to cut again in about five years to use for mushroom production.

Some of you may have seen the video on the website from a couple of weeks ago when Roberto and I sowed wheat one dark evening before a rain event. Well it is coming up nicely. We also sowed clover with the wheat which will germinate in the spring and provide pasture for the chickens once the crop is harvested in June. The variety of wheat is Sonora, and we have 2.5 acres planted here.