Hayfork Ranch
A piece of land outside Santa Rosa, California. The goal is to bring it back to health, grow things on it, and run it as a working place rather than a view.
Projects
Land recovery
Clearing brush and poison oak, protecting the oaks, and working with the Sonoma Resource Conservation District on assessments and grants.
Black locust
Fast-growing, nitrogen-fixing hardwood on field margins. Bee forage in spring, rot-proof fence posts and firewood later.
Mushroom logs
Oak logs inoculated with shiitake, oyster and lion’s mane. Six to eighteen months to colonise, then three to seven years of harvests.
Horses
Not yet. Names are being argued over already.
Land recovery
The first job is getting the brush under control. Hand tools for the edges (shovel, pick mattock, loppers), a rented masticator or dozer for the big sections, and contractors like Brush Pros, Sonoma Ecology Center and West Coast Wild Ecological Restoration for the parts that need a crew.
Permit Sonoma handles the Oak Use Permit and vegetation management grants. The Sonoma Resource Conservation District does assessments and has grant money for exactly this kind of work.
Black locust
Robinia pseudoacacia. It grows two to three feet a year when young, fixes nitrogen into the soil around it, flowers from six years on, and makes some of the most rot-resistant timber in North America. It also spreads by root suckers, so it goes on the margins with a containment plan, not in the middle of a field.
- Pollinator forage from late April to mid June. Black locust honey is the premium stuff.
- Fence posts that need no treatment, and firewood with very high heat output.
- Seeds and pods are toxic to livestock, so it stays away from where cattle graze.
Mushroom logs
| Species | Wood | Colonisation | Producing years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shiitake | Oak | 6 to 12 months | 3 to 7 |
| Oyster | Oak, poplar, maple | 3 to 6 months | 2 to 5 |
| Lion’s mane | Beech, oak | About 13 months | 3 to 5 |
Cut logs in winter, rest them six to eight weeks, drill a spiral of holes, pack with plug spawn, seal with cheese wax, stack in the shade off the ground. Soak to trigger a flush in a dry spell.