What we need from you is the land! We did not inherit any, and at current property tax rates we are 100% land-limited. We need you to step forward and offer us long term leases on your land, so that we can improve the soil fertility there and beautify it while at the same time producing a wholesome, nourishing, local food resource and benefitting the economy by being a primary producer of an export item. We can be a truly sustainable farm only if we get several more large grants of land. You could make more money with Sonoma County's one great monocrop, but if you own 10+ acres in Sonoma County and can afford to, perhaps you'd like to wrap your legacy up with something else that is helpful to humanity. Don't get me wrong, I love a glass of wine and there is little doubt that wine is fabulous for our economy and beautiful for our countryside.  The majority of wine producers are thoughtful, excellent farmers who give 110% to strike a balance in their vineyards with minimal negative impacts. We'd love to find ways to stack functions in their lands, too. I just think that having a diversity of agricultural outputs is as important to a place as is having a diversity of species.

Our land management customers donate the use of their land in exchange for the sounds and sights of chickens, goats, and sheep; for the beauty of emerald green pastures and orchard grasses and clovers that we'll seed there.  They also feel good knowing that with their improved topsoil comes sweeter fruit with higher brix levels, the absorbtion of atmospheric carbon, and a healthier soil microbial ecosystem that benefits the entire food chain. On top of all that, the stacked functions on existing land means the community enjoys increased availability of wholesome, local food.  When people say that all the good agricultural land is used up and ask "how is organic possibly going to feed the world?" they forget the possibility of stacking more functions on existing land and the value of human ingenuity (100 years old, though electro-plastic fences and modern fence energizers ARE new) and the possibility of added labor as population increases.  We think that the following things are components of the solution: less consumption of more expensive meat products, more expensive vegetables and less budgetary expenditures on things like transportation and housing, permaculture techniques for all farms, and some innovations that haven't yet taken place that will make that profitable enough for farmers to make a reasonable living. Plenty of people yearn to farm, but they aren't getting out of college and starting it because the models aren't yet apparent of how they can be landless but intelligent and make a living farming.

Folks, institutions, or public agencies with several acres of open pasture and good access to water in West Sonoma County can enter into contract with us to enjoy the benefit of sheep and chicken fertilization, and those with forested lands and/or briar/bramble areas can enjoy the hard work ethic of goats and pigs.  A real winning combination is the addition of chickens to apple orchards.  Annual tillage with the disk/tiller has piled dirt over the crowns of the trees, not nice even for hardy apple trees. The laying chickens scratch that all away in their search for codling moth larvae and other bugs. First we stop the tillage an mow the orchard instead, then we move our layer coops every 8-14 days around your orchard so the chickens can do the finish mowing around the bases of the trees, directly fertilize with nitrogen and trace minerals, and pull the dirt away from the tree crowns.  For maximum nitrogen application, we can bring in meat bird tractors as long as your tree rows are at least 12 feet wide. These are bottomless pens containing 75-80 fast growing, plentifully pooping chickens, which we move every evening. This evenly applies the nitrogen and trace nutrients extracted from the source grains in the guts of the chickens.  The pasture weeds are initially burned and then bounce back quickly. 2 years of this and the grass will definitely be greener on your side of the fence.  We partner with apple farmers who use organic practices to take care of the trees which we do not have the time or the trained crews to do.

Contact us today for a consultation on whether your land could benefit from the attention of our work crews, the real food producers in our operation, the animals. Send an email with your phone number, the number of acres you are seeking to have improved by our management, and your general location (West Sebastopol, Forestville, etc) to land.management@feltonacres.com.