In Your Box
Salad Mix (Hurley Farm)
Chard or Collards
Beets
Green Garlic
Kale
Mustard Greens
Radishes (Hurley Farm)
Rutabaga
Grapefruit
Cabbage

Featured Herbs:  Oregano and Sage
Oregano is frequently used with roasted, fried or grilled vegetables, meat and fish.  Oregano, either in its fresh or dried form, should be added toward the end of the cooking process since heat can easily cause a loss of its delicate flavor. Fresh oregano should be stored in the refrigerator wrapped in a slightly damp paper towel. It may also be frozen, either whole or chopped, in airtight containers.
Sage can be used as a seasoning for tomato sauce or try adding it to your favorite soups, stews and casserole recipes .  Try mixing cooked navy beans with olive oil, sage and garlic and serve on bruschetta.  Add fresh sage to omelets and frittatas.  When baking chicken or fish in parchment paper, place some fresh sage leaves inside so that the food will absorb the flavors of this wonderful herb.   Add toward the end of the cooking process and store the same way as oregano.

Farm News
By Simon Farmer

“It is going to be an interesting year.”

- John Steinbeck
                    
Every year is interesting. The single piece of consistency I have found within my lifetime of experiencing California’s weather patterns is that every year, and every season, is drastically different than the one that came before.  That said, this apparent trend of late and heavy Spring rain is one that I am  beginning to accept as a part of the current climatological identity of California. There is no doubt that if I take even the smallest of steps away from my current perspective as a farmer in a rainy Spring, this rain is an absolute blessing.  Within the context of my current perspective, however, I have my moments when I wish for a respite.

Helping to manage a diverse vegetable operation serving direct markets in a wet planting season is not unlike fencing with a skilled opponent (I imagine).  We find ourselves husbanding our strength as the weather circles us, feinting and probing our defenses.  We have but the smallest windows of opportunity when our partners’ defenses have momentarily dropped (a windy morning in between storms, a three hour window dry enough to cultivate) to strike before we are forced into ‘back stepping’ and parrying frantically as the rain drives itself back into the landscape, infiltrating the soil and making more field work impossible.

To speak more tangibly… I went to sleep last night expecting, based on my perpetual internet weather stalking, to awake to a deluge.  When I woke, before the dawn, I was jolted into alertness by the silence that surrounded me, the rain has not come yet, how heavy was the dew?  In the fields with the light, looking at the sky I realized that there was a window, albeit a short one, to uncover our new plantings of Spring crops and weed until the rain returned (soil moisture dictates all).  And so we ran while we worked, cut our morning meeting out and hula hoed, racing, until the rain came.  This was a three hour (or less) window and before ten a.m. the rains returned in earnest, soaking us before we could finish recovering our crops.

All of this is good fun, dynamic farming/fencing that keeps us engaged and focused on the work that we are doing.  The beauty of it all is that within a world where too many choices abound, we need not think what we will do each day.  The decisions are made for  us. All we need to do is listen within.  As farmers, we are not only managing the land, we are managing the weather.  As Jared mentioned last week, we are elated that long awaited rains have finally arrived.  
   
With rain coming again for most of this week, we had to be proactive and weigh the pros and cons of planting tomatoes into slightly less than ideal beds.   This coming storm is supposed to be a warm storm, only bringing night temperatures down into the 40’s (tomatoes cannot handle frost).  We planted the first succession of tomatoes yesterday; including, seven beds of cherries, red slicers, and heirlooms. 

Our New Orchard...
Trees usually grow in forests in which there are a wide variety of species at different places within their respective life cycles.  A large orchard of young trees is not a ‘natural’ phenomenon and so farmers generally spray a variety of substances on their orchards to improve the likelihood they will thrive. These sprays tend to either invigorate the tree or kill organisms which prey on weak organisms.  We have chosen to follow the former, biologically based path..  By spraying Kelp, Fish and Compost Tea we make the micro and macro-nutrients available to our trees at specific times throughout the growing season.

Compost tea is a great foliar orchard spray because it is packed full of microbial life (assuming that it is derived from a good, diverse compost pile and is aerated correctly). The advantages to applying a diversity of microbes are many: they augment the existing soil food web, aid in incorporation of organic matter into a form soluble for plants, and (we think)  help to manage detrimental fungal and bacterial pathogens which can be destructive to our orchard ecosystem.  
    

To many people this idea sounds counter-intuitive:  if fungus is the issue, why add more of it? The reply is that there are a vast array of beneficial fungi and bacteria existing in the soil all of the time.  By allowing the pathogens to be outcompeted. preyed upon by components of our innoculant we are helping to create a diverse eco-system.