Working with Massa Organics

written by John

For the past month or so, I've been spending my working hours with Massa Organics in Hamilton City, CA. They are growers of organic brown rice, organic wheat and organic almonds, and make the best almond butter you have ever had. The farm is a stone's throw from Chico and is on the Sierra Oro Farm Trail Map. You can find their products on their web site, in retail locations or at farmers markets and CSA’s around California.

Most of my time is spent with Greg, the farmer. However, it is a pretty big family affair over there (there's seven, to be exact, in the Massa household) and I never know what the day holds.The experience has been amazing. I get to learn something new every day. That is a pretty incredible thing, if one starts to think about it. As a newbie to this farming life, I consider myself lucky to have such a resource as Greg. I'm learning everything--from chopping down trees and touring the Colusa Farm Show, to learning about soil content and what it means to be a truly organic farm...even towing gigantic trailers and digging huge holes with a backhoe. Yeah, a BACKHOE! Woo!

I’ve been trying to soak up all of this like a sponge. At the last place I worked, I was just the “Cheese Guy” behind the farmer’s market table or making deliveries. Now there is real life-farmer dirt under my fingernails and we are always finding orange foam earplugs in the dryer. As each day is something new and rice season is coming up fast, I'm sure there will be plenty more to share.This is the front of a house that we built for the family's ducks. They were disappearing each night, one at a time. Greg thought it would be a good idea to give them a little peace of mind. So we made them a chic straw bale house made from recycled material and locally sourced straw. The door, which is closed in the picture, slides open for easier corralling of the ducks.

(Duck house back)

Here's a bird's nest I found in the first tree I chopped down. Yeah, I yelled "TIMBER!!"

Greg has sort of a beaver problem. :) They tend to cause some problems to the rice checks; because of that, we had to reset a couple of the water control boxes. We dug some big holes, installed a few new pipes and did a lot of shoveling. I think we are ready for rice season.