Holiday Production

Creekside Farms is busy manufacturing thousands of wreaths destined to travel throughout the U.S. Our focus for the month of December is producing high quality wreaths, and fulfilling orders for our catalog companies, corporate, retail and wholesale customers. Most of our energy goes into creating and shipping our wreaths. We were also able to harvest the last of the late blooms, because we did not get a hard frost at the end of November nor beginning of December. Our fields require little maintenance during the winter months, although we continue to hand weed to keep the weeds in check. Our facility is filled with Christmas greenery aroma and the buzzing of a Santa's Workshop. We enjoy our "Santa's Wreath Workshop" and welcome visitors.

November Harvest

November is upon us and we are getting our last harvest of the few herbs that flower late into fall. The crop that blooms the latest is our Salvia Leucantha (Mexican Sage). The deep purple velvety flower spikes dry well and add great color to many of our wreaths. It will continue to flower until about mid November, when we will go through and do our final cutting. Marjoram is another herb that flowers into late fall. We will get our last cutting of marjoram before the weather turns too cold. Our warm weather in late October allowed us to get these late harvests. Our herbs will be mixed with different greenery to create some of our holiday wreaths, while the majority are stored for spring and summer use.

Drying Our Herbs

Have you ever wondered what is involved in drying our herbs? When a crop is ready it is hand harvested by our crew who tie the herbs into small bunches. The bunches are then gathered and brought into the warehouse where they are hung on wire racks to air dry. When the days are shorter and the temperatures start to dip, we may also use a drying chamber to completely dry the herbs. Typically, depending on the herb, it takes about two weeks before the bunches are fully dried. After drying, the herbs are carefully packed into large boxes for storage until they are needed for our next wreath creation.

Support Our Troops Wreath

We have designed a new wreath to help support our troops. The wreath will be available on our website starting July 5th. This beautiful wreath has a wonderful blend of natural herbs and is decorated with lavender, feverfew, straw flowers and fresh bay. We have added a yellow ribbon to show support for our troops. For every wreath purchased Creekside Farms will make a $10 donation to benefit wounded service men and women. If you or someone you know has a family member serving in the military, this will not only make a lovely gift, but will also make a difference.

We had a nice visit today from some local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Pictured here with their bouquets are George, Lili Beth, Wendy, and Summer. In the back row we have Bernadette, Kristian, and Arlen. Thank you for visiting, we had a great time!

Antique Car Club Visits Creekside Farms

Creekside Farms had a visit from the Western Gaslight 1&2 Cylinder Registry, a division of the Horseless Carriage Club of America. This club is mainly compiled of vehicles dating back to the early 1900's. In essence, all automobiles are Horseless Carriages, but HCCA has defined the Horseless Carriage as any pioneer gas, steam and electric motor vehicle built or manufactured prior to January 1, 1916.

HCCA members got to see firsthand the rows and rows of herbs and lavender growing in our fields. Each guest received a bouquet of mixed herbs and flowers made by our skilled craftsman as they watched.  Creekside Farms welcomes the community and interested parties to tour our farm and facility.  If you would like to schedule a tour just give us a call 831-674-1234 or go to our website at www.creeksidefarms.com

Farm Day 2012

We had a great time participating in the South Monterey County Farm Day 2012. All 3rd grade students from the surrounding schools attend this annual event at the Salinas Valley Fair grounds. The Farm Day event provides information and hands on demonstrations about the agricultural industry of Monterey County. It allows the kids an opportunity to become familiar with how crops are grown, harvested and packaged for the consumer market. The kids seemed to really love all the fragrance provided by our display, especially the bowl of lavender buds. We look forward to participating in the next farm day event in our area.

Spring Has Sprung Early

Spring has certainly come early this year to our part of the world. Our almond trees are always the first to bloom each year and this year they blossomed out in full glory a little earlier than usual. I love driving in our driveway surrounded by such beauty. As the blossoms start to fade, they fall like snow with even the slightest breeze.

Our daffodils have been in bloom for over a week and they definitely brighten the garden when most of the landscape is still quite dull. As much as I am looking forward to Spring, I am certainly hoping we receive more rain. Our rainfall total for this season is approx. 5 inches. I know we live in a dry area, but this is just not enough rain. Seeing our hills still brown in places at the end of February is alarming. We need to learn a new “rain dance”!!

Spring Bees in January

Yesterday, I caught these bees enjoying a sun filled day on some of our blooming rosemary.

The Beautiful Salinas Valley

It was so foggy this morning when I was driving up the Salinas Valley. When I arrived at the farm, the sun was shining bright, it was a beautiful winter morning. I love days like today, Happy Friday!

Rain, Rain...Wonderful Rain

We have received over 1 1/2 inches of rain this weekend and our plants are all really happy right now. Living in California, we know that any year can be a low rain year, but when we realized that we have only received 2 1/2 inches of rain so far for our entire season, we were getting a little worried. The majority of our plants are drought resistant and we are capable of irrigating everything, but adequate rainfall makes a huge difference.

Valentine's Day 2012

February 14th will be here before we know it. Every year at this time our staff is always looking for more creative ways to say Happy Valentine's Day. We design herb hearts, pepperberry hearts and floral hearts in many colors and sizes. We lay them out and then everyone comments on their favorites. We are always amazed how each of us have such a different opinion of what is beautiful. As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This Valentine's day remember to appreciate the beautiful things in life, whatever that may be for you and share something beautiful with your sweetheart!

Farming In The Winter

After the holiday rush (our peak season) our operation has changed from one of intense wreath production to a time of reflection and planning. We continue to ship winter wreaths and are designing for not only spring, but for fall and holiday 2012.

Our production is gearing up for Valentine’s Day, yet our fields require little attention. All of the herbs are dormant and waiting for spring to begin blooming. Our newest lavender plants, planted in the fall of 2011, appear to be doing well. Our lavender field planted last spring (shown below) is thriving. We actually harvested a few hundred bunches of lavender from it during the late summer and early fall. It is mainly planted with lavandula angustifolia "Purple Bouquet". We love the deep, rich color it adds to our wreaths.

We have been weeding our fields when necessary but with the lack of rain, this task has been minimal in comparison to years past. While the dry winter has helped keep the weeds away, we had to water in early January for the first time in many years. We are looking forward to some rain and a nice spring.