The Farm on 7th

03/12/2025

The 2025 online catalog is now ready to review! We’ll do some highlights in future posts but for now we invite you to review what we’ve been up to since December! We’ve added several new varieties of the “Everleaf” basil series (Genovese, Lemon and Thai Towers), Roselle Hibiscus and some new peppers along with a few other new items. We look forward to seeing everyone in April!
https://www.farmon7th.com/plant-catalog

02/22/2025

Time to mark those calendars!

Opening weekend for our *Sixth* Annual Home Food Production Spring Plant Sale is April 3rd through the 5th. We will be open from 9 AM - 6PM every Thursday, Friday and Saturday through June 7th.

We'll post once the online reference catalog is ready. Meanwhile, for those of you new to the sale, you may want to check out the 2024 catalog. https://www.farmon7th.com/plant-catalog

02/22/2025

FEBRUARY 23 TO 28: CALIFORNIA SMALL FARM CONFERENCE "ROOTED IN PLACE"
Starting this Sunday, the 37th annual California Small Farm Conference is kicking off a whole week of online workshops, in-person gatherings, and opportunities to connect with your local farming community.

This year’s conference features over 60 events, from virtual panels and webinars, to on-farm field days and social mixers across the state. Topics will include regenerative agriculture, immigrant rights, small business management, funding opportunities for small-scale farmers, farmland equity, and many more!

More than just an event, this is an opportunity for cross-pollination among those dedicated to cultivating a more resilient and equitable food system. So, whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, whether you run your own farm or just advocate for local food, this event has something for everyone.

SLIDING SCALE ADMISSION STARTING AT $20 FOR FULL ACCESS

Welcome to the 37th annual California Small Farm Conference, a week-long event featuring over 40 online workshops as well as a dozen in-person gatheri

12/13/2024

UPDATE: Onion starts/seed Elephant garlic orders should be available for pick-up starting Saturday. We still have bundles available of everything at this point - Texas Early White, 1015 Super Sweet, Texas Legend, Red Candy Apple, Red Creole and mixed packs as well as a few more pounds of Elephant Garlic seed.

Online order form: https://form.jotform.com/203466202164144 (We will contact you once your order is available for pickup.)

11/30/2024

Although we are not doing Fall plants due to our construction, we are going to have onion plant starts available.

We also have a limited amount of Elephant Garlic seed at $16/pound. Elephant garlic is one of the easiest garlics that we're aware of to grow in Zone 9.

If you are interested in purchasing any, please place your order by Sunday, December 8th.

Online order form: https://form.jotform.com/203466202164144

09/16/2024

AND MORE NEWS…
In order for us to continue to keep costs low, it has become very apparent we need to work on ways to increase our efficiency, so along with a variety of changes we are already making, we are also in the process of adding 2 new large greenhouses. (The photos show all the pieces we received and what they're supposed to look like when we're done. 🙂)

As part of that process, we had to come to the difficult decision that it was necessary to remove the pluot and peach orchards in order to make room for the greenhouses and allow for further efficiencies and expansion of the home food production plant sale.

Additionally, it will be necessary for us to skip doing any 2024 Fall plant sales in order to fully focus on getting the greenhouses completed.

On the bright side… our ultimate goal with doing this is to offer the right plants at the right time throughout all the seasons of the year.

We thank you for your understanding and support!

09/14/2024

ANOTHER YEAR WITHOUT STRAWBERRY PLANTS :-(
We were excited to have found a new source for strawberry plants for this year but received bad news a few weeks ago.

For the past several years, strawberry growers have been experiencing a major issue with a disease affecting the fruit and leaves of the plants and, unfortunately, two of the nurseries our new supplier uses recently reported having this disease in their nursery.

We don’t want to bring infected plants here (especially to then share with others) so sadly we are having to skip this year again. We will have to wait and see what the future brings on this new disease.

For those of you interested in learning more, below is a blog post with more information.

Pestalotia fruit rot and leaf spot, caused by Neopestalotiopsis sp. and more commonly referred to as “Neo-P or Neopestalotiopsis”, is an emerging disease that impacts strawberry production (Picture 1). This disease made headlines in 2019 and 2020 when it was first reported to severely impact str...

09/13/2024

With the Baker Creek National Heirloom Expo now at the Ventura County Fairgrounds (right next to the beach!) we made a quick trip this week to check it out. They have seeds and plants for purchase, lots of speakers talking on a wide variety of topics, the largest heirloom seed swap, a poultry show and more. If you haven't had a chance to attend, we would recommend checking out next year's expo!
https://www.rareseeds.com/national-heirloom-expo

07/21/2024

Yes! It is possible to have a complete garden in containers.

The tables from our 2024 Home Food Production Spring Plant Sale became the platform for our container garden - and the results are impressive!
[UPDATE TO POST: 7/21/24 at 3:18 PM: We realize we caused some confusion since there are some 10-gallon plastic pots showing in the video. The flowers that are seen in the video are planted in plastic pots while most everything else - aside from one tomato, most of the tomatillo plants and a few other random plants - are in fabric pots.]

Yes! It is possible to have a complete garden in containers.The tables from our 2024 Home Food Production Spring Plant Sale became the platform for our conta...

06/07/2024

FINAL DAYS | JUNE 7 & 8 | 9 AM TO 6 PM
The last two days of the 2024 Spring Plant Sale are Friday, June 7th and Saturday, June 8th! We still have tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, herbs and squash. All varieties of sweet potatoes (except white) are available and one of the new varieties of basil we tried this year - Everleaf Emerald Towers - looks awesome!

PRICES: 4" pots - $3 | 6-pack container - $6 | 1 gallon - $6

We also have a few plants available in 5-gallon size. Availability should be up to date in the online catalog if you're wondering if we still have something specific: https://www.farmon7th.com/plant-catalog

05/29/2024

PEST MANAGEMENT
We've received some comments/concerns about the post we made about earwigs and realized we neglected to preface it with a discussion on pest management. We should have made it clear it is ALWAYS preferable to have a good pest management program in place in an effort to manage things naturally.

At the Farm on 7th, ducks have always been our primary pest control (chickens can work as well), along with w**d management, removing crops as soon as we've done our final harvest, and growing plants that attract beneficial insects. We have possums and skunks here as well that presumably also play a part in helping keep things in check.

Some feedback from people on what’s been working/what they’re trying/have tried:
• Several people reached out stating that diatomaceous earth seems to help, one stating they buy specifically food grade.

• There are different types of traps being employed. As you can see from the photo of the rectangular plastic container, this size container (roughly 5x9) is doing a fairly good job of catching them and the bugs should be cleaned/strained out regularly. The magic combination seems to be soy sauce to attract the earwigs with oil to trap them. (We can't use these since our ducks would make a mess.)

• Here is another type of trap one of our customers is trying out (using lawn staples instead of tape): https://youtu.be/9d80yKle7eU

• "I found soapy water and vinegar to be very effective in killing them on contact but should not be sprayed in areas where growing is taking place. All other areas I am spraying and have killed thousands."

• "I have tried Cinnamon oil and garlic oil which have not worked as a repellant. The next one I will try is Rosemary oil that I have read works."

As a matter of course, we choose not to "go to war" with the various insects and instead will pull whatever crop is having the issue and try again the next year. However, we are not talking earwig numbers where they can actually serve as a beneficial insect killing aphids. We're talking an infestation of tens of thousands (at least) in some areas of town with earwigs at the property we're currently growing on ravaging the plants and fruit. Fortunately we’re not dependent on income from these crops, but this level of infestation would be a significant issue to someone trying to make a living selling their produce.

The first photo shows a previous year's healthy onion patch versus the onion plants this year. We had planned to have a class to teach people to make onion braids this year, but that is no longer possible. The annihilation of the green tops by the earwigs has also led the normally softball sized onions to be more the size of a tennis ball and some people have told us they got nothing at all.

Aside from destroying onions, the earwigs are destroying strawberries, eating and crawling into the nectarines, and making skeletons out of the broccoli; they destroyed our beet greens and sage, ate through the leaves of our kale and sunflowers, and the list goes on. When a neighbor notes the "whole back of the house wall was crawling black with them"; someone tells us they bit into one of their own homegrown strawberries to find an earwig inside; and a new beekeeper tells us that earwigs are in his beehives wrestling with his bees, things are out of balance.

We have a few other things that have been recommended to us that we're trying out and we will report on them if they turn out to be helpful. Good luck out there!

05/24/2024

2024 SPRING PLANT SALE EXTENDED THROUGH JUNE 8TH | THURSDAYS, FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS 9 AM TO 6 PM
For those of you who still have space in your garden – or haven’t yet had a chance to start 🙂 - we are extending the sale through June 8th.

PRICES: 4" pots - $3 | 6-pack container - $6 | 1 gallon - $6

We still have stock of most plants and also have a few plants available in 5-gallon size. We're working to keep availability up to date in the online catalog if you're wondering if we still have something specific: https://www.farmon7th.com/plant-catalog

05/22/2024

EARWIGS/PINCHER BUGS
Earwigs are at severe infestation levels this year, causing issues for us and a LOT of our customers. If your plants are getting eaten up, but you're not sure by what, go out at night and check with a flashlight as that's when the earwigs come out and do the damage. This photo was taken tonight showing them on the sunflowers.

Although oil traps can generally work with some efficacy, they are nowhere near the level necessary in many gardens this year given the level of infestation. Someone recommended Sluggo Plus to us which is approved for organic food production. The earwigs are definitely attracted to it and it has been helpful. This product also notes it works for cutworms, sowbugs/pill bugs, slugs and snails. (Be sure you get Sluggo "Plus" as the other Sluggo products don't work for earwigs.)

If anyone has had success with anything else, please let us know so we can share and help others. Thank you!

05/21/2024

NURSERY CONTAINERS & FLATS RECYCLING
One of the ways we keep our costs down is by recycling the plastic containers and flats the plants come in (we go through A LOT). So if you've been accumulating plastic containers, flats, etc from your gardening purchases and are wondering what to do with it all, we will happily take all types of containers and trays!

There is a table and a plastic trash can where items can be dropped at 587 7th Street. Or you can leave things right outside the gate as well.

Thank you for helping us keep prices down for everyone and keeping reusable plastic out of the landfill!

05/17/2024

WEEK 7 OF 8 | MAY 16-18 | 9 AM TO 6 PM
Yes! We still have plants - and they're much bigger now. :-)

We tried to make sure we would have a good selection all the way to the end of the sale and right now we have peanut plants back in stock, there are tomatoes on some of the tomato plants, the tomatillos are doing their thing and there are still plenty of other plants to choose from!

PRICES: 4" pots - $3 | 6-pack container - $6 | 1 gallon - $6

Online catalog (for reference only: https://www.farmon7th.com/plant-catalog