The whole fam packed up and drove out to Callahan Saturday to visit ‘The Farm’. Our buddy Rob Kausch is the real deal ~ a full time organic farmer on a REAL farm (not one of those cheesy plastic farms). East Fork Growers is nestled in the alpine valleys outside of Callahan. Rob affectionately coins it ‘Little Siberia’. That certainly hasn’t deterred him. Rob’s passion for growing food is absolutely infectious. And it all starts with one of my favorite things - Compost!
Like any good farmer, Rob makes his own, which has its humble beginnings as farm critter poop and hay. It sits for a year and with a little help turns into a rich loose soil, full of nutrients and microbes. He doesn’t have to stop there. He has worm castings and chicken poop at his disposal to make and even richer mix. This stuff is the most nutritious growing mix you’ve ever laid your hands on!
Then on to mixing the potting soil blend (Rob’s special recipe), filling the flats and sowing the seeds. In the greenhouse this all starts pretty early in the season. These are Rob’s spring starts. The greenhouse is currently nurturing spinach, beets, Asian salad mix and lots of other ‘babies’ that will go outside when the weather warms up, such as onions, tomatoes, kale, chard, peppers, herbs and more.
The salad mix is one of East Fork Growers’ specialties. Highly prized at the Growers Market in Mt. Shasta on Mondays.
What we’ve learned visiting East Fork Growers’ farm is that farming takes ALOT of work! Sowing seeds is easy. Chasing stray baby goats, weeding row after row of crops, keeping soils and grounds moist in the summer, turning compost piles, sifting worm castings, harvesting, trimming, cleaning and preparing for market, milking the goats, feeding the chickens, harvesting the eggs, making the goat cheese, fixing the tractor, setting up irrigation lines, yada, yada, yada, …. This takes a lot of work. phew! Are you tired yet?
If all goes well this is how things will be looking around June. Hope springs eternal for a beautiful bounty. I gotta tell you, this is the BEST food!
Visit East Fork Growers Mondays in Mt. Shasta - downtown 3:30pm - 6:00pm. You may also be able to buy fresh eggs (these chickens eat really well fed and their eggs are great!), homemade goat cheese as well as super flavorful, healthy all organic veggies and salad greens.
Yea for real food! Yea for farmers!
