Spring plant sale is today!

Join us at the farm from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or visit our mobile farm stand at the Tannery Arts Center's Spring Art Market from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. today for a chance to buy plants for your home garden. Free gift for moms and a chance to buy strawberry, raspberry, veggie, and flower plants for your spring garden.

From chicks to pullets: Raul’s report

Our article about Raul raising chicks for our farm was such a hit we thought we should offer an update.

With his excellent care and attention, and a little help from nature, Raul’s chicks have transformed into pullets. For those not familiar, pullets are the adolescent stage when, though fuzzy chicks no longer, the chickens are not yet laying eggs. Most chickens will begin laying at around six months of age.

Raul’s girls have graduated to a coop in our orchard, though they are still too small to safely free range (thanks to an abundance of hawks!).

His chickens are growing nicely into their adult feathers, and look quite beautiful. Raul continues to feed and water them daily, while generously showing them off to our visitors and farmers. He adds, “The young hens love their new, outdoor home on the orchard. They get lots of sunshine.”

Raul and his chickens are a fabulous and welcome addition to Common Roots Farm and we are lucky to have them all as part of our farm family.

Caring for our creek

Thanks to both the Catholic Community at Stanford and the Coastal Haven neighborhood, our unique riparian corridor, created by Pogonip Creek, is getting some help from generous volunteers. Our task? To support this habitat by removing invasive plants and trees and replacing them with native plants specially adapted to a riparian environment.

Throughout the late winter and early spring, our volunteers have been pulling and removing ivy, acacia, eucalyptus, vinca, and other invasive plants along the banks and up to 60 feet from the creek. Volunteers have planted native blackberry and dogwood plus willow stakes to expand the existing shady habitat provided by the willow trees.

This work is ongoing and must be repeated several times throughout the year so that native plants have the chance to dominate the landscape, replacing the invasive ones. April rains helped make the ground softer and easier to work, so our volunteers made lots of progress.

Common Roots Farm wants to thank all our volunteers who are helping enhance the health and biodiversity of this important waterway and riparian corridor along our farm. If you would like to join us, please complete a volunteer application here and come farm with us!

Farm participates in Climate and Assistive Technology Conference

by Heidi Cartan, Executive Director

On April 22, Earth Day, Common Roots Farm was invited to present a session entitled “Accessible Farming and Gardening” during The California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC) second annual virtual Assistive Technology Conference. This event focused on how assistive technology can assist people with disabilities and chronic health conditions in adapting to climate change, but also create sustainable and healthy environments.

I enjoyed the opportunity to share with our community the story of our progress. Over the past five years, we’ve turned a fallow field into a working farm that produces weekly CSA shares for over 50 customers, a line of a dozen value-added products, over 20+ varieties of food crops, and 25+ varieties of flowers.

We have proudly become a destination for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities to learn and directly contribute to local food production and ecological stewardship, as well as a place where individuals, parents with their children, and volunteers from companies and organizations can join us in our endeavors to grow healthy food and beautiful flowers while building relationships that sustain us all. As the importance of food security and climate change affects all of us more and more, Common Roots Farm is grateful to all those who believe in and support our mission.

Through this conference I also learned about CFILC’s Ability Tools project and received specific information about assistive technology resources available for farming. This is an emerging arena that recognizes the importance of adaptations and technology to assist farmers with disabilities in the field, greenhouse, and markets. Click to learn more about CFLIC or Ability Tools.

We are truly part of the solution to these critical challenges, and we are glad to provide a chance for people of all abilities to step up and make an impact. Thank you to CFILC for hosting this conference and recognizing our farm’s work in our community.