Join us to celebrate Earth Day at the farm

by Lily Lucero, Volunteer Coordinator

January, February, and March torrential storms and cliffs falling into the ocean and flooding rivers and showers bring April flowers? We hope so! It has been a tough winter for the Central Coast and our communities have been hit particularly hard by the weather. Now more than ever, we are seeing the importance of our focus on sustainability and ecological stewardship. We thought, “How can we at Common Roots usher in the true Spring, celebrate Earth Day, and show Mother Earth our love?”

This year the farm will be hosting a special weekend work day for Earth Day on April 22nd from 10:00 a.m. to noon, and we hope you can join us.

The day will include lots of accessible, impactful, and fun activities working in our riparian zone and prepping our fields for planting. There will also be music, an arts and crafts activity, and beverages: strawberry shrub and homemade aguas frescas, here we come!

Our intention for this day is to work alongside one another, to show love to the land we are stewarding, and to encourage one another to do so every day even in small ways.

We affectionately refer to the farm and all living things here — the soil microbes, plants, animals, volunteers and visitors — as our ecosystem. This implies we all are working in conjunction to sustain one another and we hope you join us for this day of collaboration, friendship, and stewardship!

Sign up here to join us on Earth Day!

Introducing Common Roots Farm’s Egg Team

by Lily Lucero, Volunteer Coordinator

How do you know Spring has sprung? The chickens are laying like there’s no tomorrow! After winter’s dry spell, the gals are back and better than ever. There sure is no egg shortage at Common Roots Farm! We are excited to announce our new official farm cohort, the Egg Team.

Alan & Noah	Ezra

At 2:30 p.m. on the nose, Coastal Haven housemates Noah and Alan mosey on down to collect eggs, and they are doing fantastically. Noah holds the flat while Alan carefully places the eggs one by one, and together they keep count. When they are done collecting from all three coops, they announce the day's number. At the beginning of this week, Alan told me they collected 29 eggs in one day!

Ezra has also been helping collect on Mondays and most Fridays with his support person, Teresa. Ezra is so meticulous and gentle with the eggs and we are so thankful for his help. Great job, Ezra!

Board member, Lindsay, comes every week to clean and pack our eggs, making sure they are sparkling. If you’re lucky, on Fridays you can also spot Scottie, who delivers eggs to our Coastal Haven customers using his wagon on Main Street. Thanks, Scottie! Our amazing egg team saves our customers from those gnarly grocery store shortages (not to mention the very local sourcing of it all).

Thank you so much to our Egg Team. You are absolutely EGGcelent, and we appreciate you so much!

4th Graders on the farm

Last week, between rain storms and after visiting nearby Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, two fourth grade classes visited us from Cornerstone Academy in San Francisco.

Cornerstone Academy students toured the farm with Farm Manager Nina. They also worked hard for over an hour weeding our native plant hedgerow and learning how important native plants are to the farm's ecosystem. Lots of oxalis was carefully pulled out along 200 feet of our perimeter. The kids were enthusiastic and incredibly cooperative, working together to get the job done.

We really enjoyed these students and we hope they return again to visit us, learn more about farming, and enjoy our beautiful setting. Thank you, Cornerstone Academy students, teacher Aaron, and parents for contributing your time and efforts to Common Roots Farm!