About Flying Disc Ranch
Robert Lower founded Flying Disc Ranch in 1979. He started growing dates nearby (leasing palms) in 1974. Robert cleared, plumbed, and planted the ranch from scratch. The rows were desert before 1979. He feels like a pioneer.
Flying Disc Ranch has always been a direct market enterprise. From the beginning, we trucked our produce to food cooperatives in San Diego, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Portland. When many of the food cooperatives dissolved, we sold to health food stores and buying clubs. When they faded, we started farmers markets (our first was in Riverside, in 1972).
Our Farming Practices
Robert’s techniques spring from experience and observation. He like says to say he has a relationship with each palm. Throughout the year we interact with the palms several times, climbing up into them with ladders to prune, de-thorn, pollinate, bag and tie, and harvest. When we thin the medjhool date palms (if we did not thin medjhool clusters, the dates would be one-quarter of the size!), we spend up to six hours in just one tree. Robert has been working with date palms for the longest and he can point out the idiosyncracies of each palm.
The soil at Flying Disc Ranch never gets cultivated, therefore the garden floor always stays green. The ranch is covered with a living mulch which protects it from harsh sunlight and drying conditions and also provides habitat for all the beneficial insects. Robert mows the grass about once a month with a flail mower (a tractor with a mowing implement). The living mulch absorbs sunlight more slowly, causing the dates to take longer to ripen. This makes the fruit sweeter, softer, and more nutrient-dense.
The farm has a high insect count per cubic foot above and below the soil. The insect population includes black widow, vinegar rune, brown recluse, and wolf spiders and several types of ants and wasps. The first foot of soil is alive with micronutrients. Others that help out on the ranch are owls, bats, rattlesnakes and other snakes, scorpions, hawks and peregrine falcons.
What is Eco-Dynamic Farming?
The ranch is biodynamic in the sense that it is a free-flowing ecosystem. Robert calls it “eco-dynamic” to distinguish it, since we are not traditionally biodynamic but are inspired by the ideas. The ranch was certified organic by CCOF in the early days of organic certification, but Robert withdrew his certificate following CCOF’s backing of the use of growth regulators (gibberellic acid) on grapes and SO2 (sulfur dioxide) storage. We would like to get certified organic again with a different certifier. In the meantime, we have an open-door policy to visitors and our personal guarantee that we grow according to organic and permaculture principles.
We make approximately 200 cubic yards of compost a year. Compost consists of trimmings, branches, leaves, and sticks mixed with water and chicken manure. We are going to be using less chicken manure as we transition to using a chipper that will expedite the composting process. We use the compost to around the trunks of the palms and to fill in holes left by departing palm trees bought for landscaping.
Robert Lower
Robert Lower was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. He began his first garden when he was four years old. He grew radishes and carrots. The fourth of seven children, growing fruits and vegetables was must for the large family. His family had fruit and nut trees and gardens. Their Greek and German immigrant neighbors showed the way. They had goats and chickens and planted trees and gardens.
Robert loved being outdoors - hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, boating, surfing, bicycling, and spending time at the beach. Farming was a natural profession for him to follow. He knew everything he needed to succeed. Dates were a challenge. Robert loves challenges and needs to be the best at what he does.
Christina Kelso
Christina Kelso always wanted to be a farmer; slowly and surely she is learning from the best. Her influences include Nan Koehler of Rainbow’s End Farm in Sebastopol and Joseph Minocchi of White Crane Springs Ranch in Healdsburg. Christina just finished the Farm and Garden Apprenticeship at UC Santa Cruz and plans to return to Thermal and diversify the garden.
She wants to grow more vegetables, herbs, and flowers to sell locally. When not in the garden or at farmers markets, Christina practices Anusara yoga, reads, writes, cooks, and sews. She aspires to be a permaculture farmer/yogi/herbalist and live in Sonoma County where it rains and is foggy. She has been with Flying Disc Ranch since 2006.
Our Helping Hands
We couldn’t do our date work without the dedication and hard work of our “palmeros” and farm workers: Pedro and Carolina Medina (and their daughters Gabriella and Maria on occasion!); Ricardo Arcos and WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteers. We are blessed with great people. We can grow dates and citrus of this quality and abundance because we are all engaged and passionate about growing food in a permaculture way. We will be putting more information here shortly.