Fires & Fun (but not together...)

A few weeks have gone by. Where have I been? What have I been up to? Well- the title pretty much sums it up, but I'll fill you in on a few more details if you'd like some further reading.
Last week was a busy one. The farm got hit with it's first ever LBAM quarantine. What does that mean you might ask? Well the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) has caused quite a stir in CA-mostly amongst farmers, overhead sprayers, political figures and chemical companies out to get rich. In a nut shell- if a 'suspect larvae' is found on a farm- that crop is quarantined and can't leave the area (or be sold). Suspiciously enough those 'suspect larvae' were found in peak season on our most lucrative crops... raspberries & those lucious beautiful blueberries. How can they still be sold? If highly paid government officials hand inspect each and every berry that leaves the farm for CSA or Cart sales. If 'suspect larvae' are found- the whole batch is withheld. What does it mean for apprentice farmers? We get loads of berries for the kitchen and get to participate in the first ever CASFS blueberry U-pick!! Though us farmies benefited directly from the LBAM quarantine, it's a shady deal that naturally involves mostly money and politics and NOT the health and well being of farmers, land or food consuming citizens. If you want to know more about LBAM and the ins and outs of that little soap box contact me directly.

Last Tuesday I piggy backed nicely on the LBAM quarantine with my second day of cooking with my dear friend Suzie. We made fabulous eats for our fellow farmies starting with most amazing brown butter blueberry muffins and ending with quadruple berry crisp (strawberries, cherries, raspberries and blueberries). Though everyone was singing our praises- you really don't have to do much when your berries have less than 24 hrs off the tree/vine/bush and are naturally sweetened by the sun. Between the berry surprises we entertained with polenta, greens, curries, dal and naan. Fun times in the kitchen for sure!

And as far as those fires... yes, yes the west is burning and I see plumes of smoke & hazes of smoke. I also hear helicopters buzzing around over head carrying fire jumpers, buckets of water and aerial sprays. BUT- the excitement doesn't stop there. Last Friday we had reconvened at 2pm in the veggie shed for the start of our afternoon of work. As we sat chatting and copping with the inevitable post lunch sluggish start to the afternoon we heard... "There might be a fire at the Life Lab!" We all ran down the hill (200 ft away) toward Life Lab to see smoke pouring out of a bordering bush. I heard- "Call 911!!" "Grab hoses!" I saw farmies running, grabbing buckets, hooking up hoses. I looked down and saw a hose- I grabbed it and ran down the hill, trembling I hooked it up to a connection and threaded it through the fence to help douse the fire. Fifteen plus farmies act fast. By the time the fire department was there we were in the midst of water fights with hoses and buckets. Lucky for them because they were on their way to another, bigger fire that had just started about 20 minutes from us and closed down Hwy 1 for a few hours- which we could clearly see from our farm perch. Though it ended simply enough- it really gave some reality to the dry and heat of our daily lives. We were lucky.

The weekend was full of Full Moon, Solstice and Farm Tour fun. We had a lovely Solstice dinner under the Kiwi Arbor on Friday night and an optional day of farm tour in the Pescadero area all day on Saturday. We started the tour at Harley Farm; a goat cheese farmstead (sorry they only sell locally- yes!!- otherwise I'd tell you to be on the look out for the pretty edible flower packaging). There I saw many cute goats and wonderfully sustainable farming practices. Incidentally, a Farmstead is where the animals and milk come from the same place as the product produced (ie- cheese). Something to look for on packaging!
We then headed to my friend Paul's parent's place- Double Dog Farm. His parents are experimenting with growing grains. Wheat, millet, oats etc. Very beautiful! Have any of you ever been in the 2nd story of a barn with a full sized tepee set up on ONE SIDE of it??? There isn't even room here to go on about the food consumed at lunch. Simply amazing...
We then headed down the road to Blue House Farm and helped harvest garlic and participate in their solstice/CSA strawberry shortcake party. Nothing like sun kissed shoulders, kids, banjos and sweet strawberries mingling together on a summer afternoon.
Our final stop, Pie Ranch, was unfortunately cut a bit short. This farm produces products to make pies (eggs, wheat, fruit) in a practically perfect surrounding and hosts a free pot luck/barn dance every third Saturday. For solstice they had slaughtered a goat and made birria to add to the excitement of the season. I was most excited to finally get a chance to partake in these festivities. Unfortunately for many- there was a horrific 5 car/3 fatality accident directly in front of their entry on Hwy 1 right before we arrived. We were blessed to have missed most of the trauma, though there was plenty of commotion, tears and strife as we (and others) arrived for the party. We took a self guided walking tour of the place and made our way back to town. I hope to be back next month. Though- the 2 final farms on our tour were started by and are run by former apprentices so we will also visit again as part of our curriculum.

And then... Dirty and Fun... Jen turned 31!
I had the most monochromatically funly fantastic birthday. Thanks for your love and greetings from afar, I was blessed with a plethora close by as well. How fun are farmies? Thirty seven farmies didn't leak a word of their plan to all dress monochromatically for Jen's Birthday! My breakfast was hilarious as this theme was gradually presented to me. (stay tuned for pictures- they are on Adelaide's camera...) The day continued with Markos playing the accordion and all singing Happy Birthday during our DG walk, many hugs and well wishes, phone calls and chats, a massage from my friend Maggie and blueberry mint (coconut milk based) ice cream with ginger cake. HELLO SWEETNESS!!

Days and harvests continue (along with plenty of weeding...). This week we added fennel...
Just when you start to feel the rhythm, things change. Next week starts my 6 wk rotation in the field. Here come the long, long rows and the big tractor tires.
Stay tuned...

PS-Did you know that kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli raab & collards are all of the genus species Brassica oleracea? Which means they are the exact same plant- selected over time for various different features (ie- flowers, leaves, swollen stems etc) and you can eat all parts of all plants. Hilariously interesting, no?

Ericacea

The blueberries (and mullberries for that matter...) are bumpin'!

My fingers are stained, my belly is full, my heart is content.

The Farm at Low Tide...

Harvest time has come!! This week began our first days of harvest on the farm for the CSA boxes and cart sales. Though the pickings were slim- I have to remind myself most of my family and friends are still dealing with snowy days and freezing nights. On the harvest table we had: broccoli, cauliflower, brassica greens, kale, chard, turnips, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mixed herbs, lettuce, flower bouquets and edible flower baskets. Not too shabby really.

The days continue with many new and foreign words and names trying to be crammed into my brain. I'm struggling with the genius/species of many different and unfamiliar flower varieties. So it goes.

I finished my last week in propagation and have been a stranger to the farm and garden and much of what is being planted out these past three weeks. However, I was able to take part in a dry farmed heirloom tomato planting out experiment in the field. Dry farming (essentially planting out starts very deeply without watering them the entire season and hoping for deep tap-root formation...) is something that is peaking my interest as a potential, exciting venture in the land of WYO. We are also experimenting with different types of fertigation... fish emulsion, nettle/comfrey compost tea and worm casting compost tea.... Stay tuned for results... PS- word on the street is that our dry farmed tomatoes are off the hook in a couple months... literally rotting on the ground as we can't keep up with them all (regardless of CSA, cart, feeding us farmies and canning and dehydrating like mad...) Not on my watch! COME VISIT!!

So amidst all the propagation, fertigation and harvest excitement there were some emotions running high (and low) this week. Yet to be determined if it was the heat, the low-tides and/or the culmination of intense schedule changes and extreme farm bonding over the last month and half, but I'm hoping crawling from tent to tent Friday night-during the annual Tent Crawl down Tent Row (and having a rockin' party in the Farm Center after) has turned those moods and lightened hearts. I do know it has left a large bruise on my right knee. And what we ALL know is... Farm camp is FUN!

On that note- I'm attaching way more pictures that one should on a blog, but also a link at left if you just can't get enough (as is obviously the case with me).

We well young chickens... It's JUNE! :)

Bees, Blueberries & Blisters

Experiences beyond farming....

It has been another great week on the farm. The weeks are passing fast, yet so packed full it's weird when I bike out of the bubble and come into a world that sells blue organic corn chips, has curbside recycling and uses internet technology on a regular basis. Familiar things that seem odd and striking all of a sudden.

Though our days are full of farming (and specifically for me, propagation), soil lectures, farm chores and good food there are also other activities and workshops packed into an already overloaded day.

Thursday I joined a group of farmies as we got our hands sticky getting into some of our bee hives on the farm. It was exciting and amazing to pull out (surprisingly heavy) trays loaded with worker bees, brood, honey, worker and drone larva and wax. Actually quite cuddle looking creatures. More on that as the time goes on..

And the blueberries... they are in full harvest right now and let me tell you- there is NOTHING like a warm, plump blueberry right off the bush popped into a sweaty farm workers mouth. My past experience has taught me that organic blueberries are the size of frozen peas. Well it seems that done right they are easily the size of nickels and dimes!
I continue to find new gems amidst the obvious beauty on the farm. Tuesday I learned that a tree I've sat under a half dozen times is a Bing cherry tree. We climbed the branches to get at the ripe, juicy, red berries. Mulberry bushes are almost ready to drop. We have both purple and sweet white mulberries at our finger tips. I'm counting down the days until the bursting avocado trees are ripe and ready....

So the blisters... I actually don't have any, it just left a nice ring as I wrote the title. But what I DO have is some homemade salve we made Thursday night out of our own herbs and bees wax to prevent any blisters from forming and to help sooth my rough, dirty farm hands. Organic beeswax straight from our hives melted down with some homemade infused oils. It's amazingly simple really.

So- what else? I guess more on the food (because really- it's always about food, right?). The meals continue to be amazing. A couple nights ago the cooks splurged on outsourced goods. They bought some cheese, tomatoes and potatoes (common to some, but delicacies when you don't have them for a month or more...). Friday we were treated to an entire day of raw food. On the menu: raw granola, chia porridge, fresh berries and fruit, goji berry/walnut balls, persimmon smoothie & prickly pear juice for breakfast. Lunch: sushi with sunflower seed pate, sprouted lentils & mung beans, cabbage salad, flax seed crackers, locally harvested seaweed miso soup and dinner time gave us raw pizzas with salad and green goddess juice. The cooks really out did themselves for sure.

And as if I hadn't gardened in a while, I decided to join a group that volunteered this morning at the Homeless Garden Project in town. It's a project my friend Chrissi has been involved with in the past which helps support homeless/low income people with social justice issues while gardening and running a CSA. Fantastic program with beautiful gardens to boot. Not to mention I witnessed a guy catch a gopher with his bare hands to relocate him to the field across the street. Not the most common (dare I say effective) method of gopher management, but there you go for bleeding hearts Bill.
On that note- I think I'll call it a night and get some rest for another farm filled week.
Take good care- lots of love and many hugs.

Wind, Laughter & Peacocks

My days continue. Filled with wonder, awe, dirt and laughter. So long they feel- that as I recall what I did on any given morning during the afternoon- I feel as if it was a full 3 days earlier and not merely a few hrs ago. It's amazing so much can be crammed into one 24 hr period (and believe me, many of those hrs are spent crashed out head in pillow).

What do those days contain? Well- this week it's been mostly talk of irrigation and propagation- mostly followed by a plethora of good food and loads of laughter. That's just the way we roll here at the farm.

The three week rotation I'm currently in is in prop with three fellow farmies. We're in charge of making sure the potting mixes get made, the seeds get sown and the babies get watered (think greenhouse and nursery). It's been a different pace for sure, but lots to learn and plenty to juggle. We also alternate watering duties over the weekends since the plants don't know it's a holiday- so I was on watering duty this weekend. Which gave me plenty of time to re-adjust my tent. ...But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Did I mention that tent site #37 in tent row happens to lie in the windy wind corridor? Well- rest assured, it does. I showed up for breakfast Thursday morning to the sad faces and condolences of my comrades, many expressing concern for my well being.. and oh, had I seen my tent yet? Apparently the evening before it forgot it was a tent and instead thought it was a parachute trying it's damnedest to launch into a flight pattern over the Monterrey Bay. My dear friend Maggie halted that action by throwing a wooden pallet over it, but not before it went through a simulated washing machine. Even with all the forewarning and concerned looks I received at breakfast- I was mislead as I headed out to tent row with a half hour before class to take care of whatever had happened the night before to my dear camo-tent. As I approached, it looked as if someone had nicely laid out their tent on the ground- getting ready to set it up. As I got closer it appeared as if a giant had stepped on and squashed my tent, and as I got even closer still I could see that it indeed had been thrown through the ringer- with poles in every direction, the bottom on the top all the stuff inside a jumbled mess. I just sat there laughing hysterically, got out my camera snapped off a photo and walked back to the farm center. Nothing to be done. Though I did manage to right my tent before the day was done- I was basically laughing the rest of the day. The only unfunny part of the day was hearing about the destruction of much land and many houses in the Santa Cruz mtns from the fire that is currently blazing near here. That night we could see the fire from the Farm Center porch. Makes you think- you're really lucky to merely have your tent blown apart and not have your house burnt to the ground (as happened to one of our Farm Center directors).

The following day my fellow propies pulled off a Fun Fancy Pants day. On my inspiration from my new favorite peacock pants we decided to have a Fun Pants day and not tell the rest of our cronies. It was an amazing showing at breakfast when multiple times you could hear, "Wow, everyone is wearing fun pants today..." not realizing that is was only 4 people. It could easily have started something... Oh I hope so!!

The day ended with Dancing Pants- as one of our farm managers' bluegrass band (the Rolling Cultivators) played for us at the Farm Center. How hilarious is it to watch so many people be introduced to bluegrass and contra dancing in the same night? VERY!

And today FINALLY Chrissi and Stephen are home from the Emerald Isle so that is a welcome sight!!

Well, I'm back at it early in the morning. I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day where ever you are.

Loads of love and may you all find your personal quota for hugs each and every day!

oh and ps- If you're ever presented with the notion that you can open a bottle of wine with a shoe don't doubt it. It CAN be done. Please inquire for more details...

The Life of a Day -Tom Hennen

Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own personality quirks which can easily be seen if you look closely. But there are so few days as compared to people, not to mention dogs, that it would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times more interesting than most people. But usually they just pass, mostly unnoticed, unless they are wildly nice, like autumn ones full of red maple trees and hazy sunlight, or if they are grimly awful ones in a winter blizzard that kills the lost traveler and bunches of cattle. For some reason we like to see days pass, even though most of us claim we don't want to reach our last one for long time. We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, no, this isn't the one I've been looking for, and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when, we are convinced, our lives will start for real. Meanwhile, this day is going by perfectly well-adjusted, as some days are, with the right amounts of sunlight and shade, and a light breeze scented with a perfume made from the mixture of fallen apples, corn stubble, dry oak leaves, and the faint odor of last nights meandering skunk.

Where does the time go?

How have four weeks at the farm already slipped by?

Our first rotation called Basic Block has ended and Monday will start our Rotation I in which I'll switch locations from the Up Garden to the Down (... a bit of garden speak for you). The weeks have been full. So have the sinuses. At the farm we share most everything- including the hacking cough and sinus congestion that has been going around. I caught the fever the beginning of last week- and fought it off with vigor (and loads of ginger, lemon, garlic & some Chinese herbs). Meanwhile I continued with some work and many lectures- specifically learning of mechanical tillage, the ever loving cover crop and the trials and joys of fruit trees. We've thinned, thinned and thinned some more. The descriptions of the tastes, flavors and textures of over 150 apple varieties at the farm lend their ear to discriptives of a wine tasting. Who would think past the 5 or 6 familiar varieties on the super market shelf? I can't wait to delight my taste buds come September. Peaches, pears, apricots, plums... the lists continue. Stone fruits, poms, thinning, pruning, leaf curl, dwarf trees, aphids, codling moth, M111, rootstock, scion, fruit baring capacity and alternate baring... Ask me anything! I can't promise I can regurgitate an answer just yet, but chances are the answer has filtered through my ears at some point in the past few weeks.

Sunday night I ventured with some fellow farmies out and about to Monterey to catch some Po'Girls live music. I never imagined the clarinet could look so sexy and sound so soothing. Nothing like a good venue, some tasty beer and sweet music to soothe the soul.

At the farm we rotate chores and duties. We also take turns with cooking responsibilities. Monday was my first day to cook- tag teaming with my friend Corey. I'm not sure which is more tiring, double digging beds in the UP garden or cooking all day for 40+ people. A day of cooking involves waking up before 5am, heating up the water at the farm center and getting breakfast out by 6:30am. Who would have thought a simple breakfast of oatmeal and tea could have been so challenging? I not only managed to burn the oatmeal once.. but twice!! (where is Sonya when you need her?) Nothing a bit of rice milk, spices and honey couldn't (mostly) mask. On the menu: homemade chai, (slightly burnt) oatmeal, strawberries with fresh mint, kiwis, and matzah brei. Despite the power going out around 9:37am and our progressively complicated menu, the day only got better and the meals more successful despite the rough start. Lunch time: Lentil salad, brown rice with mint, green salad & very popular squash bread. Cookie Fairy treats entailed raw seed balls (nice energy boost!) and as I returned from delivering cookies to the various sites I found the power back on!! By 4:20pm or so I was so tired and my feet so sore I would have easily cashed it in there... but dinner still had to get done and out by 6:30pm. Dinner: caramelized onion & fennel flat bread, chard/kale soup, rosemary croutons & quinoa salad. Delicious! I REALLY appreciate the cooks each and every day- especially since the heat is settling in.

Wednesday was another outing- as far as Seabright beach in SC- to do some birthday celebrating complete with a bonfire. So all the exhaustion doesn't necessarily come from back breaking garden labor.... but a fair amount does come from the fact that it's warmed up 20-30 degrees in the last week. I'm not complaining as this won't be the norm all summer, but so much sun and sweat does make farm work a bit more challenging. Though nothing a break of cool kiwis can't cure.

Thursday I was lucky enough to go get a bee swarm that had landed in town. Truly amazing to watch those bees marching into the hive as we set the box on the ground.

I boogied down to San Fran this weekend to meet up with my friend Rob and experience Bay2Breakers. Nothing like a little San Francisco fun. I've now had my fill of crazy druckin' debauchery and am ready to settle back into farm life for another week. Back to hands in the soil.

Until next time- I hope your days are happy, healthy and piled with loads of good food.

love and hugs all around-

ps- I've attached more links to my pictures. My only regret is that I can't take a picture of the lovely smells the citrus trees are throwing around and the incredibly sweet, soft roses. Hope you can come visit soon!