Preserving the Fun

It's count down time until we break out and see what's happening in the rest of the world. There has been a buzz on the farm, as we prepare for our break week. I do wonder what will happen to us as we emerge from our bubble and check out friends and ongoings away from CASFS. Though as I write this, I'm giddy with excitement to see friends, mountains and music back in Wyoming.

The last few weeks have been fun and busy. Our part of the youth RIC conference was pulled off without a hitch and quite successfully thanks to hard work and inevitable good vibes that emanate from the farm.

I've been keeping busy in my 'free time' (what?!) jamming and fermenting the bounty that lies in the fields- think 4 berry jam (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) and raw kraut with hits of apple/fennel & ginger/jalapeno... oh! and I've had my first taste of farm tomatoes and sweet corn... a sweet, sweet summer it is...

My friends Rob and Chloe from San Francisco drove down for a weekend visit and some friends from Jackson are hopefully showing up on Tuesday for a quick stay. It's nice to see familiar faces and show off the place I'm calling home for the time being.

The field farmies have been busy harvesting and cranking out CSA boxes. I was asked to write a piece for our CSA newsletter last week- so I'm going attach that to give you a sense of my current feelings on life, love and food. And on that note.. Happy Birthday Er!



--As I spend my days working in the field amidst rows and rows of brilliantly colored and shaped fruits and vegetables I see nature at work- providing exactly what we need at this moment in time to meet our nutritional needs. ‘Nutrition’ and ‘Health’ have become tantalizing words these days- thrown about carelessly by the media, relying on the hope of consumers that there is something magic out there that can be tagged and bottled to cure our ailing minds and bodies. Nutritional trends come and go- just about as rapidly as blue jean styles, but the tried and true methods of Mother Earth have been humming along far more reliably that the laboratories can crank out vitamin supplementations.

As a Dietitian, I’m often approached with nutrition questions.. the underlying hope being that I will have something magical and different to say.. advice that will finally work this time! Eating a balance of whole foods in tune with the rhythms of the seasons has been my standard reply for a while now- and as I plant, weed, harvest and eat the bounty of the food grown here I’m reminded and humbled by how important this is. We could never contrive to formulate in a vitamin supplement what nature has taken and molded so beautifully over many years. In the few short months I’ve been living on this California farm (loaded with abundance), I’ve been excited to roll with the days and the seasons; just when you’re getting a bit overloaded with one crop, on comes another to add more zeal and excitement to the dinner preparations. (Speaking of.. be on the lookout for some amazing sweet corn coming next week…) Eating in this way leads us to live in this way; respecting and loving what our world has to offer, and that is the magic answer that I think most people are truly looking for.

-Jen Jacobsen, Lander, WY 1st year apprentice