Common Farm Tasks by Month
January & February - work indoors repairing hunting nets, sharpening tools, making utensils - on mild days work outdoors gather firewood, prune vines and mend fences. Sewing, embrodiery, picking out paint colors for spring, sorting seeds, making any metal repairs in the shop (this could be forging, forming or welding at our house), and repairing ditches and the roof if needed. We also replaced trees at this time.
March - work in the fields, plowing and cultivating. Running through the mustard, picking flowers, weeding everything in sight, encouraging the ducks to go into the gardens to eat the snails, pruning in California is usually done in March. We also would work frost control. Fishing was a big deal in March as we would start thinking of crab and herring. My uncle did his herring fishing in the Bay this year, and we got to see him right at the end of pier 45. They pinned the herring up against the docks this year.
April - clean ditches, pruning trees, fixing sheds, hauling timber, and repairing roofs. Weeding! We spent almost all of April cleaning up after animals and sorting things out of the yard. The garden should be started in late April. This meant sowing seeds, picking out what would be planted and starting to can fish and any citrus stuff.
May - sheep cleaning and shearing, planting and field maintenance. We worked on cars, planted the garden, harvested the last of the winter garden and finger pruned young trees. The tractor would be taken out and the first serious breaking of the ground was around May 1. There is also a lot of problems with animals and skin diseases this time of year.
June - mowing hay crop and raking it into piles. Thank goodness we didn't do hay! This is when we would start working seriously with the animals and painting. Horses and cattle would finish being halter trained and hooves would be in perfect condition. The skin diseases would be treated and the pigs would be put in the pasture at my friend's house as the piglets were big enough. This is a time of really working on grape vines too. Weeding is never ending.
July - harvest grains, bundle sheaves, weeding gardens. Yes, more weeding! Also major inside projects like painting, and repairs. Anything you can do in the barn is good because of the heat. The first of the plums and peaches are coming in. We dried some peaches, sold some and canned as much as possible. Our bees had a thing about swarming in July too. We did one light disking with the tractor. This is also the time for blackberries and we had to get several jars of jam.
August - threshing and winnowing of grains, grinding of grains into flower. PRUNE SEASON!! Our reason for living. We did one deep disking, one light disking and then pulled a heavy roller over the orchard. The reason is that commercial harvest demands perfect fruit even if you plan on drying it. The prunes were harvested usually in the second week of August. Once the sugar was high, we would go out with long hook poles in the early morning and shake the trees. The ripe fruit would fall onto the soft, super flat and cushy dirt. The fruit fell about 8 to 15 feet and wasn't damaged. Then we would crawl on the ground and pick it up and put it in a wooden box. Each box was about 45lbs and you got paid from 45 cents to 70 cents per box if you were a picker. If we dried them at home, we dipped them in a sulfer solution and put them on racks at about 2pm. This stinks. I liked taking them to the processor and just getting a check.
September - fruits picked and dried or stored, grapes picked and pressed for juice and wine. Our grapes have never been harvested in September. We had five different wine grapes at one point. Our Chenin Blanc came in during August and everything else in October. In September, we did accounting. We did have muscat grapes around but gah! I don't like the grape so I don't eat them or drink muscato. We did get to play in September and the figs had to be processed. The last of the plums and peaches were done. We also put up pesto and vegetables.
October - gather nuts, roots, berries, and mushrooms, fields plowed and empty fields sown with winter wheat, repairing and cleaning equipment. This is the busy month. The chickens and ducks you don't keep get the axe. We sent our animals in then. Some go in August for the county fair but October was when things were often done. Grape harvest and cleaning up to head into winter starts now. The farm vehicles are all cleaned and put away for the year, just like in the middle ages. We would get the walnuts picked up and drying on racks. This is also a good time for special repair projects as it is cooler.
November - firewood gathered, split, and stacked for themselves and the lord, pigs and cows slaughtered and meat smoked, flax and hemp processed to make thread and rope. Oh we were so lazy by November. Persimmons were picked and if anyone could think of something to do with them, we did it. I still don't have enough things to do with them. We would clear several acres of brush for local wineries and farms and get the traps ready for trapping season. The grapes are all caned for the year. Also, make sure all the hooves are trimmed.
December - trim trees, grape vines pruned, and hunting. Yes, Grandma went hunting. We also ran the traplines every morning. Neighbors would call about problem animals which we would live trap. Skunks and fox were the biggest problem animals. We also stored things up and cleaned the garbage cans because from here until March, you can't go to the dumps because the road is too muddy. We also banked over the manure piles and some of the flowers.
(Great Children's book on middle ages.)
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