About the Farm
Nature's Tune Farm operates on two and a half acres of beautiful valley bottom land. The farm is cradled to the west and east by forested slopes and sits just above the Garcia River.
We are proud to serve the southern Mendocino coast. providing for our community seasonal abundance in the form of fresh vegetables, fruits and cut flowers. Our focus is on direct sales through our Honor system farm stand and Gualala farmers market, as well as supplying local restaurants and stores.
Seasonal Offerings
Our products reflect the seasons as well as availability and abundance. We typically begin our season in spring. First market displays reveal, bouquets of ranunculus, carrot bunches, beets, broccoli crowns, cabbages, salad greens, lettuces, green onions, and other leafy things. Mid-summer through early autumn (June-October) is our most abundant time. This is when the strawberries are sweet and juicy, and the tomatoes, sweet corn, basil, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans are at their best. Flowers of every color and shape abound. Our beds of dahlias rival that of the near by Botanical Gardens. After October, we start slowly winding down and returning to winter roots and greens, winter squash and pumpkins and heirloom chrysanthemums.
The Environment; Our Primary Commitment
We are never content to simply say, “good enough”, but instead, endeavor to research and implement better practices. Our goal always to practice farming techniques that sequester carbon as well as promote biodiversity. All while providing the healthiest, nutrient, and mineral dense produce we can.
Certified by Mendocino Renegade
We are happy to be certified by our local ‘Mendocino Renegade Program.’ Which ensures that our practices and inputs are both safe for people and the environment. Our Growing Practices are focused on sustainability, soil health and producing high quality produce. We utilize compost and winter cover crops to manage soil fertility. Flowers are planted at regular intervals to encourage beneficial insects and pollinators. When appropriate we use ‘dry farming’ techniques and drip irrigation to reduce water use. The dynamic nature of farming and challenging new climate requires us to be adaptable and our crops resilient.
Rio
Rio is the mastermind and visionary of Natures Tune. He started this farm in 2016 with a BS degree in Soil Science from Humboldt state and years of farming experience on three very differently run farms in Northern California all under his belt. Rio loves the outdoors, wild places and a challenge. Farming is self directed and is both very academic but also grounding. Rio farms to feel connected to the earth and the elements and to grow healthy food for our community
Emma
Emma became involved with the Farm in 2019 as funding for her previous work in watershed monitoring and restoration slowly declined. She comes to farming from a background of conservation biology and working as an environmental scientist. She loves the ecosystems she was born and raised in adjacent to the farm and all the wild creatures that use our field. When she was a little girl and was asked "what do you want to do as a grown up", Emma would imagine picking armloads of flowers and arranging them. Emma's love of flowers has meant a big expansion in floral offerings from Nature's Tune over the last few years. She plans, plants, picks and arranges the flowers we grow. Dahlias have become a bit of an obsession. She plants, cuts, dig and divies our dahlia patch all one her own
More on our farming practices
We practice no-till and low till at our farm
At the turn of each season, we steer the farm/ecosystem to the next stage while considering our soil health and overall impact. To do so, we utilize proper timing, cover crops, mulching, and compost application.
More gently than obliterating everything twice annually with the plow, we use flail mowing and silage tarps as a transition between growing stages: for terminating cover crops or flipping beds. We use organic straw or already in place plant matter to cover cover crop seed instead of disking it in.
We are aware of our water usage and use as little as possible to reap a harvest. Several crops are ’dry farmed’ entirely, which in tomatoes results in the sweetest fruit. Although we use a tractor at times, much of the work on the farm is done by hand. This approach is much gentler on
the land and uses very little fossil fuels.
Our work to improve the productivity of the land has been in the form of annual compost application, pH balancing using lime, irrigation, winter cover crops, and homemade soil microbial teas. Using these practices the land is now very productive and supports a variety of life other than our crops. Emma’s flowers attract an incredible diversity of bee, wasp, and butterfly. Dozens of species of songbird are attracted to the area because of the abundance of insects and let’s not forget the abnormally large gopher population we support!