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Finally.. permitted and moving dirt!

11/16/2019

We turned a big page for our 'next chapter'- completing permitting, grading, and installation of 'bmps' (best management processes) to mitigate storm water runoff for our home. Although our dream home was a cedar cabin, regulations (too much to detail here) and cost drove us to modify our plans. Our cabin went to a 'Santa Fe' style home that has now been replaced by a 'Farmhouse' (I tell Tina that's great- we can do 'farm to table' and she just rolls her eyes).

Our proposed home's "rough grade" inspection (a huge milestone) was approved by the County last week. Lots of work to get to that point- I was the 'laborer' (water boy, root picker and rock thrower) as the professionals took a rough piece of our property and made it solid and level. The estimate was 3 days, however- those 3 turned into a total of 17.

Views include Combs peak (to the north east), Hot Springs Mountain (to the East- the highest mountain in San Diego County), Lake Henshaw (to the South) and the Palomar mountain range to the west. We feel as if we are on top of the world.

First picture reflects stakes for the home, second picture is Tina and Dusty resetting the stakes as the pad moves towards completion, third picture is "Dusty on the Hose" and fourth picture is of the pad ready for "rough grade" inspection. The first, second, and fourth pictures are oriented in a south-west direction.

Next steps include filing for the building permits (the granny flat will be down by the Ag building) and trench work for electrical, water, and the fire hydrants.

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Heading back to the Market for 2018....

6/17/2018

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We head back to the Murrieta Certified Market this morning. First day always seems like the first day back at school....great to see friends and not as prepared as you'd like to be! We always start slow (we had enough berries for Tina to make Loganberry Jam, the California Early Garlic has cured for two weeks) and this year is a little slower than others due to the late freezes we experienced this spring.

Lord willing...along with weather, bugs, gophers, rabbits etc- we have quite a bit at the ranch that will hopefully make it to market between now and late November:

*Berries- Logans next week with a few blackberries and possibly some boysenberries. Raspberries a flowering and are ripening as well.
*Garlic- California Early (Softneck) this week. Hardnecks Music and Romanian Red are curing. Hardnecks Duganski, Deerfield, Georgia Fire, Bogatyr along with Elephant Garlic will finish up in the next 30 days. French red and Dutch yellow shallots come out of the ground next week.
*Tomatoes- Heirlooms (Mortgage Lifter, Pineapple, Black Krim, Rutgers), Hybrids (Early Girl, Black Prince, Valencia), Paste (San Marzano, Margarita) and Cherries (Sungold, Supersweet 100) - green tomatoes on nearly every vine, a few weeks to patiently wait... We built a new garden this year to house roughly 100 tomato/pepper plants.
*Peppers- Hot (Big Jim, Joe Parker, Serrano, Jalapeno- Numex and Early) along with Sweet (Gold Marconi, Red Marconi, Bell, Pimento) Malawi peppers (for Liz Padgham) and Ancho (for my daughter Christina Young).
*Okra- hoping to get some of these to Carla Richter- Hill Country, Clemson Spineless, Jing, and Burgundy
*Cucumbers- alabi, wautoma, and national pickler
*Squash- growing now include winter squashes Tahitian and blue hubbard.  Zucchini and yellow crookneck moving along
*Beans- Purple pod, Yellow, Blue lake and even some 'black eyed peas' for a customer that requested them last year.

We will have Tina's jams and breads later this year along with our freeze dried fruit and produce. Our smoked and dried peppers will return this year as well.

Oh and peas, and three kinds of potatoes...but it's time to load the truck and we hope to see you over the next few months! I'm sure I missed a few....please take care and stay safe out there.

Dusty and Tina Sandoval

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The Garlic Harvest Begins....

6/7/2018

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Digging garlic and cutting garlic scapes are signs we will be returning to the Farmer's Markets in the next few weeks. We are tentatively planning on returning to the Sunday Murrieta Farmers Market on June 17 with garlic, berries, and jam. Berries aren't cooperating (will they be ripe?..) but the garlic has matured over the cold winter and is....

500 softneck "California Early" garlic (one wagonful in the first picture) are currently curing in our Ag building. We cure in cool conditions for a minimum of two weeks to ensure the oils, flavor, and storage capacity are maximized.

We cut scapes (the flowering end of hardneck garlic- softneck does not bloom) to divert the plants energy away from the flower and into the cloves. Scapes are great stir fried and are used in salad dressings, pesto, pizza toppings and even pickled. Personally- I can't help chewing one as I cut and rack scapes. We are going to freeze dry some this year and see how they reconstitute. There are roughly four pounds of scapes in the second picture. We will start digging and curing hardneck garlic in the next few weeks.

It has been a busy 'off season' and we are really looking forward to returning to the market!

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Preserving the harvest....while maintaining nutrition and flavor

9/16/2017

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Tina makes jam…a lot of jam…for the farmer’s market out of the fruit and berries we grow. We discussed buying a freeze dryer to ensure the nutrition and viability of our fruit and vegetables could be enjoyed during the winter when our gardens are dormant. With Tina’s full time job, our gardens producing at record levels, and our conventional freezers bursting at the seams- we revisited buying a unit.

The cost of a freeze dryer isn’t cheap. We bought ours from Harvest Right on a sale that included shipping, a filtration unit for the vacuum pump oil, mylar bags and a sealer.

The process is simple, our fresh untreated fruit and vegetables are cleaned and sliced into bite size pieces and put on stainless steel trays. The dryer freezes the food to -40 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly nine hours. Once the food is frozen, the freeze dryer creates at powerful vacuum around the food. Then as the food is slightly warmed, the ice transitions into vapor and is drawn out of the food and collects as clear ice on the cold chamber. The warm/freeze cycle is repeated several times until all of the water has been removed from the food.

Having folks sample freeze dried product at the market has been interesting. Most expect a conventional hot air dried product (somewhat leathery) and are surprised with the taste intensity and how the product is 'as light as a feather'. I’ve seen some pretty wide eyes when describing the thirty hour process and the fact that the water is crystal clear when the unit is defrosted.

We freeze dry what we grow (and what tastes good freeze dried as a snack or is more viable to be used in a reconstituted manner) for market. Strawberries, apricots, peaches, tomatoes, squash and alibi cucumbers have had great reviews. Our ripe apples will come to the market in a freeze dried fashion as well.

The picture is our first batch which took 30 hours and was complete around 3 in the morning. We were like kids on Christmas trying apricots, berries, plums and peaches!

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Introducing the Ranch's "Milepost"

3/26/2016

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Liz Padgham and her husband, James, visited the ranch this week. Liz and I used to work at the North Island Navy Rework Depot and she lives with her husband in Tallahassee Florida now. It was a great visit and to commemorate the occasion we posted a directional mileage marker. It is 2180 'due East' miles from the ranch to their house.

First picture is Liz and James at the milepost. Second picture is by the stop sign (we are looking forward to seeing a house off their left shoulder in the near future).

Come on up and get your milestone marker and picture- longest (and only) distance so far is 2180 miles…

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Grandkids at the Ranch....

6/10/2015

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Our oldest grandson, Daniel, graduated from Chaparral High School in Temecula CA last week. Daniel spent the last two years living with his Grandma and I while attending Chaparral and hadn't seen his mom, Jessica, or siblings (Sarah and Bobby) for an extended period of time.

This was the first time Sarah and Bobby had been to the ranch- Bobby (6) advised me that it wasn't really a ranch as there were no cows and I wasn't a cowboy. Sarah (8) countered that it was a ranch after seeing all of the fruit and produce we grow! Obviously- we're going to go with Sarah's opinion.

We had a great time- here is a picture of Sarah sampling the well water, Bobby modeling the latest in headware (a mustard green leaf...make sure you read his t shirt) and the entire family up at the stop sign.

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Today was moving day....(and Mother's Day!)

5/10/2015

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Bee "nuc" with 5 loaded frames (right hand side of the left hand picture) and new hive installed after today's big move.

Tina's car with 30 plants headed to the ranch- there are roughly 240 more to move this week.

We have been waiting for a sunny day to move the bees into their new home; it is best that a few thousand are out-and-about when you move them from a cramped five frame 'nuc' to a ten frame mansion. As luck would have it- Mother's day was our first sunny day this week and after two weeks in the 'nuc', we decided to make the big move today.

We also moved 30 of our largest tomatoes from the house out to the new Ag Building. Our rule of thumb has been to 'plant the day after Mother's day'...but in reviewing last year's log - we lost 9 tomatoes due to swirling cold winds. We are going to wait a week (or at least a few days) before planting tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and okra this year. We are still experiencing lows in the 40's which will slow down the plants growth.

There are 270 plants to move from our house's backyard to the ranch. Included are eighteen different types of tomatoes, fifteen types of peppers, three types of eggplant and two types of okra. Each of these plants started in our garage germinating on a heat mat and were re-potted as they grew. We kept an eye on the temperatures and worked hard to get them into the garage when the cold winds begin blowing.

After the 'big moves'- Tina and I went to Jeremy's on the Hill in Wynola (a farm-to-table restaurant just outside Julian CA) to celebrate. Exceptional meal and great wine with my beautiful wife for Mother's Day!

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Bees and the Building

4/25/2015

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I picked up our bee "nuc" (a four frame starter hive with roughly 10,000 bees) this morning from Wildflower Meadows in Vista. The bees are located near our upper berry patch and will be moved into their new home - a ten frame mansion - next Saturday. The week will give them time to acclimate to their new location. I was a little nervous this morning as it has been a little over forty years since I worked with bees.

The Ag building walls, roof, and insulation are installed and fire suppression system work began this week. My "off grid" solar design is being finalized and with building eave height (16 feet), roof peak (22 feet) and fear of heights (plenty)- I am looking for sturdy scaffolding. Max is enjoying his new dog house in the interim.

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Ag building is up!

4/9/2015

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The concrete pour started 'in the clouds' on a cool Monday as a low moved across the region. It took five cement trucks (43 yards of concrete) and a crew of six to complete the footings and slab.

The building erection crew put up the 'red iron' on Wednesday. The three man crew is expecting to complete the job in five days with additional structural details, sheeting, windows, doors, and vents.

After ten years of looking at this blank space....I am in awe of the building size and potential!

Our Ag building is 40 feet by 40 feet; eaves are 16 feet with a roof peak of 22 feet. Roof pitch is 4:12 and faces south to take advantage of a future 'off grid' solar installation.

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Just add concrete.....

4/5/2015

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Long days at the ranch as we have been busy planting, putting up fence, laying waterline, and getting ready for spring. Plantings over the last few months have included fruit trees, loganberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, shallots, garlic, onions, and cool weather vegetables.

One of our goals has been to erect a metal agricultural building with a cabin to follow. San Diego County signed off on permits last week and our Ag building foundation will be poured tomorrow (Monday, April 6).

The Ag build has been an incredible learning and humbling experience. Plenty more to learn as we progress I am sure. The building is 40 foot by 40 foot and will be “off grid”. The picture above is the Ag building foundation awaiting concrete.

Our plans are to have a ribbon cutting ceremony – complete with a flushing toilet! - in the near future.

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<<Previous

Finally.. permitted and moving dirt!

Heading back to the Market for 2018....

The Garlic Harvest Begins....

Preserving the harvest....while maintaining nutrition and flavor

Introducing the Ranch's "Milepost"

Grandkids at the Ranch....

Today was moving day....(and Mother's Day!)

Bees and the Building

Ag building is up!

Just add concrete.....

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