Nothing between
the plant and
the sun.
Under the open sky. Full term. Full spectrum.
Wild weed
Wild ideas.
In the Wild West.
ANDERSON VALLEY — MENDOCINO COUNTY — california.
ONE
SUN.
Full sun. Full term. Full spectrum.
ONE
SEASON.
Grown the way it wants to grow. Small batch, hands-on, no industrial shortcuts.
ONE
HARVEST.
October. No restock. Each year produces special flower.
Nothing between
02 / FULL TERMGrown the way
it wants to grow.
Small batch, hands-on, no industrial shortcuts.
Cultivation can
change chemistry.
Genetically identical plants, grown indoors and out, produced measurably different cannabinoid and terpene profiles.
04 / LEFT ALONEWe do not deleaf.
We do not spray.
Each harvest produces one of a kind herb.
01 / EARTH
We buried
a forest.
Yes. Whole trees.
There’s
more below.
Oak, madrone and fir from this land. Trenches cut below grade, packed with wood, covered in soil.
01
Cover crop, the outer crust.
02
Smaller rounds, branches, compost and leaves throughout.
03
Grade: the ground line. Half the bed is below it, half above.
04
Big rounds, tossed into the trench, some split.
Below grade, whole trees.
Above grade, the crop.
The sunken half holds winter moisture. The raised half grows the crop. Nothing is tilled; the microbial life below does the maintaining.
3YEARS. JUST SOIL.
Three full seasons of cover crop went through those beds before a single plant was grown for market.
01 / THE WOODBuilding soil
from rotting trees.
The soil is the main ingredient, not only a substrate.
Cut below
grade.
So they catch and hold the winter’s water.
03 / THE BEDSRaised.
Never tilled.
Layered over with leaf, chip and compost until it rises above grade. This hillside is not tilled.
04 / THREE SEASONSThree harvests
nobody took.
Three full seasons of cover crop before a single plant was grown for market.
02 / WATER
Our pond is
a giant olla.
Summer water. Courtesy of winter.
Our ollas are
hundreds of
little ponds.
Unglazed clay, buried to the neck. The plant pulls only what it wants.
01
The half-inch line on the surface.
02
The quarter-inch spaghetti, under the lid and into the neck.
03
Unglazed clay. Water seeps through the wall.
04
A sponge of roots around the clay.
05
Water. Nothing else.
Unglazed clay,
buried to the neck.
Roots dry the soil around the vessel, dryness becomes tension, and tension draws water through the wall, only as fast as the plant is asking. Wet soil, and nothing happens at all.
350VESSELS
945GALLONS HELD IN CLAY
4%OF THE POND
01
Rain lands on the switchback road.
02
Even the road harvests: the inboard ditch carries the runoff downhill.
03
Our pond is a giant olla.
04
A solar pump lifts the stored water up the hill.
05
Storage, high above the beds.
06
Gravity feeds the beds.
07
Each mound holds a buried olla.
08
Hundreds of little ponds at the roots of every plant.
01 / THE RESERVOIRKeep a little
winter.
The pond holds the rain. The growing season draws on it.
02 / THE OLLAA clay pot.
That’s it.
Buried beside a plant. Water seeps through the porous clay as the surrounding soil dries.
03 / THE FLEETHundreds of
little ponds.
Winter fills the pond. The season asks about four percent of it back.
03 / ALL IN.
ALL
IN.
Our care, energy and attention are the real inputs.
Small scale.
On purpose.
Small scale keeps the work meaningful and personal.
02 / THE PLANTLeft alone.
On purpose.
We leave the plant alone the best we can. We do not deleaf or spray.
03 / ONE SUNFull sun.
Full term.
Full spectrum. For people who know and can feel the difference.
04 / ONE HILLSIDEOne hillside.
One sun.
Mostly left alone.
AFTER THE LETTER / AVOCA FARMS
Avoca Farms
A route forward for small farms.
The letter above asks what happens to Mendocino’s independent growers after legalization. Avoca Farms is one answer: a women-led Anderson Valley craft brand that carries Foley Family Farms flower into the market without erasing the farmer behind it.
Through the Avoca Club and its Legacy Flight, Northern California legacy farms share a platform while each farm remains named. The emphasis stays where it began — living soil, careful harvests, hand-finished flower and a community strong enough to resist becoming anonymous biomass.
Women-ledAnderson ValleySmall-batchFarmer-forward
ANDERSON VALLEY / OUR PLACE
20 MILES
from the sea.
1,000 feet above it.
Hot days. Cold nights. 35° apart, daily.
01 / AFTER THE RAINAfter
the rain.
Anderson Valley runs east–west and invites the Pacific in.
02 / THE FOG LINEThe fog
comes in.
Twenty miles from where that air comes in, at the warm end, on this hillside.
03 / WINTERWinter does
the work.
Winter fills the pond. The season asks about four percent of it back.
One hillside.
Open to the sky.
Even the road harvests: ditch, pipe, pond.
05 / THE CORRIDORThe valley that
opens to the sea.
Ocean air and fog move inland through that corridor, producing bright days and cool nights.
04 / DIG IT.
FOR THE CURIOUS. AND THE VERY CURIOUS.DIG
IT.
The dirt & The details.
6 FIELD NOTES / TAKE YOUR TIME.
