Winter Squash = Goat Milk, Eggs, and Soil Building

Quail SpringsFarm and Garden 3 Comments

by Jan Smith, Quail Springs Farm Adviser Our 14 goats browse 450 acres in southern California @ Quail Springs Farm, clearing brush, foraging on a wide variety of high desert shrubs and trees for about 4-5 hours a day. In addition to that the dairy does in milk also eat a high quality organic feed on the stand. For the …

Garlic Planting Time with Permaculture Design Course Students

Quail SpringsFarm and Garden, Permaculture Leave a Comment

  It’s garlic planting time at Quail Springs! Forty students from our annual fall Hands-On Permaculture Design Course are making a big job into a fun afternoon’s work. There is a slight coolness in the air, a high-desert blue sky overhead, and dappled light filtering through the leaves of young trees. We’re preparing the seed garlic, sorting it for size, laying out the planting pattern, …

Growing Table Grapes in the High Desert

Quail SpringsFarm and Garden, Permaculture 1 Comment

This past April, Margaret Waterhouse, a former farm and garden apprentice, came down from Davis California to the high desert home of Quail Springs Permaculture Farm in southern California with about 120 grape cuttings carefully packed in moist wood shavings. A small group of friends, family, former apprentices, and students had gathered for the weekend to visit, walk the land, …