The Rusty Milk Maid & A Reluctant First Freshener
When we were first seriously looking into adding goats to the farm, we did a lot of homework, a lot reading, and we talked to various people more experienced than ourselves. Time and time again the same opinions kept cropping up. If looking for goats for milking some said...
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April Garden Update: A Sizzling Spring
The weather so far this year has been gorgeous. Although brisk in January and February, daytime temperatures have been quite warm for a number of weeks now, and we’ve had so little rain since January 1st (our driest start to the year on record), that winter is already a...
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New Additions: White Zedoary
This spring has definitely ‘gone to the goats’. I promise, we do still have gardens, chickens, turkeys, and bees, but as we start to build up our dairy herd, we’re occasionally finding ourselves with new goat additions this spring. On Sunday, our most recent...
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Livestock Predators: Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
For our regular readers it’s no shock that we have more than the average share of predators lurking near our poultry and livestock pens. In the six years we’ve been here though, we consider ourselves to have been relatively lucky, in that our losses have been kept...
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Lotus: Spring Has Sprung – With Triplets!
We’re happy to report that yesterday, March 22nd, around noon, Castle Rock Lotus gave birth to her first kids, sired by Camanna GD Music Man. Does usually kid somewhere between day 145-155, and Lotus was 147 days pregnant when she kidded. Lotus kept us up most of the night...
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Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)
Since we first moved to the farm, each year, around mid-late winter, I’d occasionally see a flash of copper and green whiz past me in the garden. Only catching a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, I assumed they were simply migrating Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus...
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New Additions: ‘Abraham Darby’
I honestly expected that the next goat-related post I would publish would be something to do with Lotus’ impending arrivals. However, it’s almost spring, and if your Facebook feed is anything like ours, baby animals are E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E! Especially baby goats. So...
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February Garden Update: An Erratic Winter
It would be fair to say that this winter our weather has been all over the place. We’ve gone from one deluge-of-a-rainstorm after another, in November and December, to an almost total lack of rain since the New Year. Cold overnight temperatures in the mid-20s persisted...
Read More"Welcome to Curbstone Valley Farm"
a small organic farm and native garden located on California's Central Coast
About The Farm
Curbstone Valley Farm is a small private family farm located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, along the coast of Central California. We’re located in USDA Zone 9b (Sunset Western Garden Zone 15). The Farm is situated on seven-and-a-half secluded woodland acres. We maintain an heirloom kitchen garden, orchard, and native plant gardens. The Farm is home to a variety of heritage breeds of chickens, heritage turkeys, and honey bees, along with ADGA and AGS registered Nigerian Dwarf goats.
About The Coop
The Curbstone Valley Coop consists of an assortment of heritage poultry breeds including, Buff Orpingtons, Delawares, Partridge Plymouth Rocks, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Black Australorps, and our fabulous Dark Brahma rooster, Frodo! We also maintain a small flock of heritage turkeys on the Farm, including Red Bronze, Standard Bronze, and Bourbon Red.
About The Gardens
The gardens at the farm consist of an heirloom kitchen garden, an herb garden, an orchard, and a California native plant garden. All the gardens are grown organically, without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers. The gardens are also planted with a variety of flowering herbs, and native plants, to encourage honey bees, and native pollinators, to frequent the garden areas for pollination.