Yellow Mellow

It’s mustard season in Napa and Sonoma, California, and everywhere you look, visitors are photographing the neon yellow carpet of mustard growing up around the dark dormant trunks of vines.  Mustard has grown wild here for centuries (possibly brought by Franciscan missionaries). While it isn’t used to make anything you could slather on a hot dog, wild vineyard mustard acts as a good cover crop, adding nutrients and biomatter to the soil. It also helps protect vines from damaging nematodes (microscopic worms) who don’t care for mustard’s biofumigant properties.