Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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probably at six acres a year. One acre of early garlic and five or six acres of
late garlic. We are getting to where that six or seven acres will be entirely
local. Maybe 20 percent of it will go wholesale. And shallots, we are only
doing something less than an acre, and it is all for local. That is the right
amount of shallots to keep us in shallots through the winter.”
He pauses for a breath and continues. “Lettuces, we are probably, by the
time the year is over, between thirty-five and forty acres of lettuce. But we
are doing bigger wholesale type plantings. In the spring we have plantings
of five or six different varieties of leaf lettuces. We are doing three- to four-
acre plantings. Then once we get through the end of May, when a lot of the
other companies come out with lettuce, we drop out and only keep lettuce
plantings in that are half-acre plantings to meet our local needs for the rest
of the year, through the summer - up until Thanksgiving. Sometimes we
might have fennel or spinach that goes in,maybe a few rows of spinach. They
get moved around different acres of the ranch. If we do twenty to twenty-
four acres of lettuce wholesale in the springtime, they will be in different
areas of the ranch and the last planting will come over to this ranch. And
then we are doing all our summer plantings on this cooler ranch.
“Cabbage has been pretty important. It is nice to have brassicas in your
rotation. We are slowly transitioning into more broccoli. We probably do
between red and green cabbage, napa, and bok choy, probably fifteen to
twenty acres a year. And half is in the spring and the other half starts up
harvest around Thanksgiving or in November and goes through the winter.
That is one of the crops that we can be pretty successful with in winter
harvest. This winter was the best cabbage market I have seen ever. So you
just never know what is going to be good and what is going to be a dog.
We have had some pretty doggy cabbage markets, but we have gotten to
where we can maintain some pretty consistent yields. Between broccoli and
cauliflower we probably do ten acres a year, really more so on broccoli. And
broccoli has a really nice rotation. It is something that we try to do small
plantings throughout the year. It works well in our local route. It is just a
nice thing to offer. The problem is I don't know if we ever make money on
it. We make money at times. Since we are in it all the time there are some
windows where the prices go up. Do we really make money after the year is
over? I don't know. But it is one that is essential to have. It is a nice item to
have on your price list. People will usually buy broccoli.”
Phil pauses. “Now I have to stop and think. We do beets, probably a
couple of acres a year. I might be surprised. Maybe it is three or four acres.
We do red and gold beets all for bunching. Then again I am not sure how
well we are doing on those kinds of items. When the market is good, we can
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