Building Utopia
A feature article from Edible Monterey Bay magazine (Winter 2023) profiling Santa Cruz Permaculture (SCP) and its founder David Shaw. Describes SCP’s 26-acre organic farm leased between Davenport and Pescadero on the San Mateo/Santa Cruz coast — the former Swanton Berry Farm site — where Shaw and students grow food and medicinal crops for a […]
Ferrington Vineyard Field Trial – North Coast Soil Hub
A detailed field trial profile page from the North Coast Soil Hub documenting the multi-year replicated cover crop and tillage management trial at Ferrington Vineyard in Boonville, Anderson Valley. Covers the vineyard’s background (167 acres, ~76 acres in vines, 63 acres of sheep-grazed oak-grassland hillsides), the trial design comparing multiple plant cover systems and tillage […]
Training Future Farmers To Grow More Than Food
A KneeDeep Times feature article (published December 4, 2024) about Agroecology Commons Farm, a three-acre educational incubator farm in El Sobrante (Contra Costa County) run by co-founders Brooke Porter and Alexa Levy. Focuses on their Bay Area Farmer-to-Farmer Training Program (BAFFT), a nine-month program centering BIPOC, queer, and working-class beginning farmers in both technical agricultural […]
BIOS Field Day at Unruh Farms
A blog post recap from Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) documenting a June 16, 2022 Biologically Integrated Orchard Systems (BIOS) project field day held at Unruh Farms in Princeton, CA. Attended by approximately 30 participants, the event featured demonstrations of predatory mite releases using Daniel Unruh’s custom-built mite blower, predator attractant application (soy flour, […]
Regenerative Practices Have Yielded Unruh Walnut Farms Big Dividends in Chemical Savings
A grower profile article from National Nut Grower magazine (November/December 2024 issue) covering Daniel Unruh’s regenerative transition at his 193-acre walnut orchard in Colusa County. Focuses on how his mustard cover crop strategy resolved a severe nematode problem without chemicals, the evolution toward diverse 30-species cover crop mixes, no-till and crimping practices, biological pest management, […]
Unruh Walnut Farms – Colusa County, California: A Soil Health Academy Case Study
An in-depth producer case study profiling Daniel and Rachelle Unruh’s 193-acre Chandler walnut orchard near Princeton, CA. Covers their transition from conventional to regenerative production starting in 2013, driven by an intractable nematode problem, and details their practices: diverse cover crop mixes (including mustard for nematode suppression), no-till, reduced synthetic nitrogen, pheromone mating disruption for […]
Protection of Shasta County Ranch Provides Agricultural, Educational, Wildlife, and Climate Resiliency Benefits
A California Climate Investments project profile on Ross Ranch, detailing how a ~$5.6 million SALC grant awarded to Shasta Land Trust in 2018 permanently protected the 854-acre working ranch from urban development. Highlights the conservation easement’s multiple co-benefits: agricultural use by cattle ranchers and beekeepers, carbon sequestration demonstration work with Point Blue Conservation Science, prescribed […]
Rangeland Monitoring Network: A Decade of Shared Stewardship and Monitoring on California’s Rangelands
An interactive ArcGIS StoryMap documenting ten years of Point Blue Conservation Science’s Rangeland Monitoring Network (RMN), a collaborative program tracking birds, plants, and soils across 145 ranches in 28 California counties since 2014. Presents findings on how a warming, drying climate is affecting soil carbon in rangelands, and outlines next steps for understanding how management […]
Ross Ranch — Shasta Land Trust
An overview page from Shasta Land Trust describing the conservation of Ross Ranch, an 860-acre working ranch in Redding protected through a Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) Program easement. Covers the ranch’s mixed landscape of oak woodlands, wetlands, and riparian corridors; its use by Prather Ranch cattle and a local beekeeper; its Carbon Farm Plan […]
Interview with Molly Taylor on Cover Crops
A blog interview with PT Ranch manager Molly Taylor covering the ranch’s adoption of cover crops starting in 2020, including the specific species used (turnips, clovers, collard greens, oats, rye), their no-till approach, integration with cattle grazing, benefits to soil health and drought resilience, and how California’s Healthy Soils Incentive Program and carbon credit markets […]