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WHAT WE DO
Sweet Mountaintop is a small farm (currently less than 2 acres of growing space) that focuses on growing medicinal herbs and everlasting flowers. Our products include fresh herbs, dried herbs, herbal bouquets, herbal products, everlasting bouquets, and products made with everlasting flowers such as wreaths, jewelry, and flowers crowns. We also offer tours, classes, workshops, and we are available for private events. WHERE WE ARE Sweet Mountaintop Farm is nestled among avocado orchards on Rincon Mountain, just outside of the coastal town of Carpinteria, CA. From our farm, one can easily survey much of the surrounding geography - from ocean views that look out over the Channel Islands and the entire Santa Barbara Channel, to mountain views that span from Gaviota all the way to Pine Mountain and the Topatopa Mountains. WHO WE ARE Mary Gonzalez is a young farmer who is passionate about growing medicinal herbs for the community. Mary was born and raised in Carpinteria - just south of Santa Barbara, CA. Mary is co-author of the cookbook "The Tiny Mess", which features creative recipes from folks all over the West Coast who cook in their tiny kitchens. FARMERS MARKETS Besides our online store, we also sell at the following farmers markets: Santa Barbara - Saturdays 8:30am-1:00pm |
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OUR FARMING PRACTICES
We are not a certified Organic farm, but we do adhere to Organic practices - we even feel that we hold ourselves to higher standards than Organic. We strongly believe in being transparent and sharing as much detail as possible about how we grow our plants. We feel that it is important for consumers to know as much information as possible about what they are buying.
We do not spray or apply any kind of synthetic or chemical pesticides, fungicides, or nutrients/fertilizers. Our weed removal is all done mechanically or by hand, so we do not use any herbicides. We use a walk behind weed whacker to cut down weeds in between beds and around the perimeters of our fields.
When it comes to our medicinal herbs, we do not spray any kind of pesticide or fungicide on the plants – only an occasional bit of compost tea. This is because the products made from these plants are intended to be ingested or used on the skin and we want our herbal products to be as pure as possible.
When it comes to our flowers that will only be used for their beauty, we will occasionally use an Organic pesticide or fungicide.
As for pesticides, we usually only use neem oil (mixed with a small amount of Dr. Bronner’s soap), and if we have a large aphid problem, we have found that making a tea with tomato leaves (mixed with a small amount of Dr. Bronner’s soap) is highly effective at not only killing the aphids, but also at attracting ladybugs, which are a natural predator of aphids. Those are the only two pesticides we use. Using a pesticide is something we very rarely do, but it does happen if we deem it to be necessary. Since pesticides, even something Organic like neem oil or tea made from tomato leaves, can have an affect not only on insects we deem as pests, but also on insects we deem as beneficial, we try to refrain as much as possible from using anything at all. In 2019 we sprayed pesticide strength neem oil on two varieties of flowers, and only a total of 5 times. In 2020, we did not spray any pesticides on any plants. We did deploy Lacewings and Trichogramma wasps, both of which are helpful predators of the cabbage moth worm that likes to eat our Echinacea flowers and Zinnias. This year we also had a much larger presence of other predatory wasps and hover flies that helped control some of our pests.
As for fungicides, neem oil is still the go-to for us. When we use neem as a fungicide, we use it at half of the concentration of the neem we would use for pest control. In 2019 we had a very foggy and damp spring, and that caused a lot of flowers to sustain damage from mold or powdery mildew. So we sprayed fungicide strength neem oil on 2 varieties of flowers, and only a total of 10 times. In 2020 we did not spray any kind of fungicide on any of our plants.
We only spray neem oil after the sun has gone down to minimize its contact with bees that come around to collect pollen during the day.
For fertilizer we use composted horse or mule manure, as well as a mixture of bat guano, seabird guano, kelp, and fish hydrolysate. All of the raw fertilizers we buy are certified organic.
We try to make compost tea as often as possible, and we like to spray almost everything we grow with compost tea at least once during the growing season. We also like to do soil drenches with compost tea as often as possible.
Most of what we grow are perennials (>80%), so we only till a small percentage of the land that we use for the annual plants we grow. When we do till, we like to add plenty of organic material and biology back into the soil to keep the land alive.
All of our plants are watered with drip irrigation to maximize every drop of our most precious resource.
We do not spray or apply any kind of synthetic or chemical pesticides, fungicides, or nutrients/fertilizers. Our weed removal is all done mechanically or by hand, so we do not use any herbicides. We use a walk behind weed whacker to cut down weeds in between beds and around the perimeters of our fields.
When it comes to our medicinal herbs, we do not spray any kind of pesticide or fungicide on the plants – only an occasional bit of compost tea. This is because the products made from these plants are intended to be ingested or used on the skin and we want our herbal products to be as pure as possible.
When it comes to our flowers that will only be used for their beauty, we will occasionally use an Organic pesticide or fungicide.
As for pesticides, we usually only use neem oil (mixed with a small amount of Dr. Bronner’s soap), and if we have a large aphid problem, we have found that making a tea with tomato leaves (mixed with a small amount of Dr. Bronner’s soap) is highly effective at not only killing the aphids, but also at attracting ladybugs, which are a natural predator of aphids. Those are the only two pesticides we use. Using a pesticide is something we very rarely do, but it does happen if we deem it to be necessary. Since pesticides, even something Organic like neem oil or tea made from tomato leaves, can have an affect not only on insects we deem as pests, but also on insects we deem as beneficial, we try to refrain as much as possible from using anything at all. In 2019 we sprayed pesticide strength neem oil on two varieties of flowers, and only a total of 5 times. In 2020, we did not spray any pesticides on any plants. We did deploy Lacewings and Trichogramma wasps, both of which are helpful predators of the cabbage moth worm that likes to eat our Echinacea flowers and Zinnias. This year we also had a much larger presence of other predatory wasps and hover flies that helped control some of our pests.
As for fungicides, neem oil is still the go-to for us. When we use neem as a fungicide, we use it at half of the concentration of the neem we would use for pest control. In 2019 we had a very foggy and damp spring, and that caused a lot of flowers to sustain damage from mold or powdery mildew. So we sprayed fungicide strength neem oil on 2 varieties of flowers, and only a total of 10 times. In 2020 we did not spray any kind of fungicide on any of our plants.
We only spray neem oil after the sun has gone down to minimize its contact with bees that come around to collect pollen during the day.
For fertilizer we use composted horse or mule manure, as well as a mixture of bat guano, seabird guano, kelp, and fish hydrolysate. All of the raw fertilizers we buy are certified organic.
We try to make compost tea as often as possible, and we like to spray almost everything we grow with compost tea at least once during the growing season. We also like to do soil drenches with compost tea as often as possible.
Most of what we grow are perennials (>80%), so we only till a small percentage of the land that we use for the annual plants we grow. When we do till, we like to add plenty of organic material and biology back into the soil to keep the land alive.
All of our plants are watered with drip irrigation to maximize every drop of our most precious resource.