Rusty Acres Herb Farm, The Lavender Place, specializing in lavender, herbs and heirloom vegetables.

EVENTS & NEWS ITEMS

JANUARY 2008

NEWS FROM THE FARM

2007:  I guess you could say that 2007 was the year to end it all. We suffered a large loss of plants when Mother Nature decided to give us a taste of what really cold weather was all about. We had a week or more of below freezing temperatures. Then it quickly warmed up and we were able to restart a lot of the lost plants. The remaining of the year gave us very normal temperatures however with almost no rain we were in a drought condition. The best tomato season in many years gave us hundreds of pounds of tomatoes which was a pleasant surprise. We were notified towards the end of the year that we would have our water cut back by 30%.  We did not understand this situation until almost the end of the year.  After attending a water conservation meeting the Municipal Water District where our water company buys water decided to cut back all agriculture water users because they had saved so many dollars in the past with our agriculture discount. Yes we did save about $120.00 a year for the past 8 years. So we had to decide what plants would have to go and how we could water less.  We hade been overly conservative for the past 8 years because water was a large expense so to now cut back 30% was going to be a challenge.  One more time Mother Nature decided to come to our rescue.  On October 22 the Rice Canyon fire started in Rainbow and the rest is history.  We did not loose any structures and the fire actually never got to our property however we were evacuated for 6 days.  No matter how we pleaded we could not get in to water our plants and lost the entire nursery.  Some plants were three years old and others were our starts that we would sell in the Spring of 2008.  With the loss of the plants we could now accomplish our 30% water cut back.

With the recent rains this year our remaining plants in the ground will be able to survive a little longer. we are in the process of planting wine grapes in March and hopefully in a few years be in the wine business. 

We thank everyone you has supported our farm in the past and we hope to move forward with our new adventure with a little less problems. However when you are in the farming business nothing comes easy.

Rusty Acres Herb Farm 4233 Rosa Rancho Lane, Rainbow, CA 92028 (760) 731-7349