Germination By Matt Gal I’m having trouble deciding if magic is the right word to describe my time spent at the Grange Farm School. It’s the only word I know that can accurately sum up the overwhelmingly beautiful, educational, and improbable experiences that I had there. I’ll start by freely admitting that I had no notion of…
Back on the farm beat while spring brings us sunshine and the urge of labor days in the field. With my soil test in hand and a workshop with restoration agriculture monolith Mark Shepard in mind, I’ve followed some clues in the soil (low calcium, the need for better water penetration and tilth) along with…
Last week 48 chicks were born in our living room! Our hatch rate is improving as we learn the nuances of our incubator.. up to 70% from 60% last year. They are such cute fuzzy little dinosaurs. Currently they are living behind our workshop in Ohio Brooder boxes. The Ohio Brooder was originally designed during WWII as…
The dark’d come, and the gang was away, so Daniel was on duty to put the sheep in the hay. He filled up the tin bucket with alfalfa pellet and shooked and shaked it like a vigorous zealot. The sheep raised their brows with looks of keen satisfaction and Daniel thought, “this is it! the…
Tuesday March 8, 2016 My soil test is in the mail but I’ve already spent time with the clay loam, by hand and satellite imaging. There is a rocky swirl across the field in the likeness of a yang or a ying. I took two tests, one from the wide, circular part of the…
Last Thursday night, the over-wintering team at the Grange Farm School came together for a delicious family dinner. It sometimes can feel like a group therapy session when we are all finally able to sit around the table and talk and laugh after a long week. While it was not exactly a fancy candle lit dinner, we…
Tuesday March 1, 2016 I’ve always been fascinated by detectives, the fantasy ones; the sly and slippery desperadoes of black and white; the colorful truth seekers of noir stories and films. At heart, the lonely eye is in service, he will help you discover that which you most desperately want to know and he’ll do…
The Grange Farm School would like to extend a HUGE thank you to the Aromas Grange and the Sebastopol Grange who joined Little Lake and Anderson Valley Granges by donating funds to our scholarship program. These Granges are actively empowering the next generation of food producers! We owe so much to our surrounding community and Granges for being the support…
Tuesday February 23, 2016 This is the first installment of my farm journal here at the Grange Farm School. My name is Joshua Sternberg and I’ll be putting thoughts and observations to the page while farming approximately an acre of land in Willits California, a small town filled with aged homesteaders, more recent urban expatriates, political…
It may be wet outside but in California, fire safety is always a priority. At the Grange Farm School, student tents come with a wood stove. When it’s cold (not that often) we burn a lot of wood, resulting in a lot of potential disasters. Today we had Little Lake Grange officer Mike Burgess give a…
