9/22/17 - Week 15 - Fall Changes

Happy Equinox everyone and Hello, Fall!  

At 1:05 PM PST today the Earth wobbled it's middle straight in line with the sun... and at that moment a loud collective "WOOHOO!" could be heard emanating from the Northern Hemisphere. That would be the farmers. 

The coming of Fall is a special time on a farm for so many reasons. For a farmer in a place as hot as California, the coming of Fall could be likened to the breaking of winter and the coming of spring in a place like Maine. The soft Fall light feels like balm on sun-scorched skin. The Fall also brings with it the big field harvests -- the joy and satisfaction of reaping a season's worth of work in the form of food (onions, potatoes, corn, winter squash) that will sustain and nourish friends and loved ones throughout the winter. (We hope you can make it to one of the most celebratory of these harvests, the potato, on the 30th!) Fall also signifies rest! While there are big pushes to be made bringing in these harvests and putting the fields to bed, some much needed farmer R&R is on the horizon.

A monarch u-picking some zinnia nectar

Change is afoot in the plant and animal worlds as well. This past week, a mysterious internal switch seems to have been flipped in our summer crops; Eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer and winter squash all have slowed their growth markedly. So it begins; one by one the sweet, tangy, cacophonic flavors and colors of the summer share will be replaced by the rich earthy tones of Fall. In the animal kingdom, the baby Turkeys we first glimpsed as tiny fluff balls in the grass in June have matured into birds nearly indistinguishable from their parents -- with a corresponding appetite for our lettuce. Indeed, Turkey, Deer, and Hare all seemed to have developed a voracious appetite for farm fare lately as they forage for sustenance in this, the driest, hungriest season in the wild between late summer and the first rains. If these signs of Fall weren't enough... we've been spotting many a Monarch butterfly in the u-pick garden; that Autumnal traveler who, fleeing Winter, migrates South to warmer abodes in Mexico and Southern California. Keep your eyes open next time you're up there. They love zinnias.

We're so glad we'll get to share this Fall, and the special magic it will bring, with each of you this year.

See you in the fields, D&K

THIS WEEKS HARVEST: 

Yukon Gold Potatoes, Cured Cabernet Onions, Heirloom and New Girl Tomatoes, Krimzon Lee Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Summer Squash, Easter Egg Radishes, Striped Armenian Cucumbers, Italian Eggplant (still going!), Broccoli and Broccolini, Murdoch Cabbage, Mixed Beets, Celery, Rainbow Carrots, Red Russian Kale, Dino Kale,"Space" Baby Spinach, Fall Braising Mix with Baby Kale and Ethiopian Mustard Greens, Tatsoi and Baby Chard, Red Butter / Trout Back / and Rouxai Head Lettuce

U-PICK in the GARDEN: Pesto Basil, Dragon Tongue Romano Beans (still a good amount near the middle and back of the row), Frying Peppers, Padrones, Jalapeños, Husk Cherries, all herbs and flowers. No limit on Dahlias.

PRESERVING OPPORTUNITIES:

Pesto: We have a ton of Genovese Italian Basil in the garden. The second succession (in the Eastern half of the garden by the new flower beds) is flowering and needs to be turned into pesto. If you haven't made pesto this summer yet, or if you'd like to make a second batch, you are welcome to harvest entire plants into a large bag. We'll mark the location of this flowering bed with a colored flag and note in on the chalkboard so you can find it.

Cabbages: Cabbages will be no-limit and they do not have to fit in your bag... you may take as many as you'll use to make a preserve! Check out Week 10's newsletter for our favorite simple kraut recipe.

GOODIES FOR SALE:

In our barn: 

-Hawk Hill Homemade Sourdough Bread: Fresh Country loaves will be available this Saturday. Frozen loaves are available the white freezer in our barn on Tuesdays. $8/loaf, self-serve cash box.

In the creamery:

• Eggs: The hens at Hands Full Farm have resumed laying and you can find eggs for sale again in the creamery (silver) fridge on your right as you enter.
• Dairy: to pick-up milk and cheese raised and crafted right here on the land, join the Bramble Tail Herdshare program. For details, email Aubrie at brambletailhomestead@gmail.com
• Beef: The creamery freezer is now stocked with ground and stew beef from steers raised on the pastures surrounding the farm.
• Whole Chickens: Raised by Parade the Land just down the road in Graton, also in the creamery freezer.
• Firefly Chocolates
• Herbal Remedies by Aubrie

POTATO HARVEST 2017! We'd like to invite you to a treasure hunt wherein you'll dig, sort, and bag up the best buried treasure there is -- potatoes!

• When: Next Saturday, September 30th at 10:30 am (we'll run harvest pick-up simultaneously)
• Where: On the farm just next to the cherry tomatoes
• What now? A potato harvest! We'll bust the potatoes up out of the ground with a tractor implement and then need all the hands we can get to help us bag them up, sort them, dig for any still buried, and bring 'em on home (into the cooler). If there is time, will harvest the Painted Mountain Corn as well.
• What-to-bring: Clothes you don't mind getting dirty. Water, sunhat, snacks, and a brunchy-lunhcy treat to share if it's easy (not required).

9/15/17 - Week 14 - Green Valley History

What is the deal with this crazy compound I visit every week to pick up my veggies? If these old corrugated steel walls could talk, what would they say? This week, I wanted to share a rough outline of the recent history of this beautiful quirky place this farm calls home to give you a little context for what you're looking at next time you're here.

(The following is a personal rendition, which I've gathered as snippets from friends and neighbors, with a big assist from the Green Valley Farm + Mill website. Any inaccuracies are my own.)

Before Europeans arrived in Sonoma County, this land was Southern Pomo territory, and before that, Miwok. While there is no evidence of a large permanent village here (as in the Russian River Valley) this land was visited. There are a good amount of obsidian shards and arrowheads to be found after rains, suggesting the site was used as a hunting spot and/or for trading and/or ceremony. One can imagine the meadows rich in bird and animal life -- they still are -- with Tan and Black Oaks (favorite acorns of Native Californians) dotting hillside and wood.

In the 1890's, the land was settled by Caroline and Lewis Giovannini. The Giovannini family lived on and worked the land for 100 years; homesteading, ranching, logging, and operating a large saw mill that, at it's peak, employed 100 people.

The hardpack gravel yard and all of the buildings around and including our barn were part of the Mill operation. There was the Office (where the bathroom is), the Shop (West of our barn) and the actual saw mill building across Green Valley Rd. Our barn housed the planers, so we are told, which you can see evidenced by the 3 phase power drop, the sawdust extraction holes in the siding, and the crazy concrete work bench foundations which, presumably, were the foundations of the planers themselves. A neighbor down Green Valley Road, Bob Maddocks, who worked for the Mill in his youth, describes the whole yard stacked with lumber and tells of his adventures working in the Mill; dodging flying saw teeth and skidding logs up and down the hills surrounding. In the 1960's the 2 acre irrigation pond was developed and, at some point, most of the meadows were planted into grapes. Many members of the Giovannini family still live in Sonoma County today.

In1996, the property was sold to the Windhams, and in 2006 the 172 acre parcel we are on now was sold to Michael Paine. Under Mr. Paine's ownership the site became home to Green Valley Village, an intentional community of land tenders, builders and crafters. Bramble Tail Homestead got their start during this era, fruit trees were planted around the Mill site, the garden was terraced and planted, there was a Free Store, the parties were legendary, and, for 8 years, the land was home to Green Valley CSA, a CSA fruit and veggie farm similar to ours.

Kayta and I first knew of this place as the home of our friends Aubrie and Scott (Bramble Tail Homestead) and the source of our amazing weekly milk. In July of 2016, Aubrie and Scott, along with Jeff Mendelsohn, Josiah Raison Cain, Jeremy Fisher and Temra Costa banded together to purchase the property with the shared vision of reconnecting people to land through agroecological land stewardship and innovation (holistic grazing, sustainable farming and sustainable forestry) and educational programs and events. Enter Green Valley Farm + Mill.

The amount this group has accomplished towards this mission in this first year is remarkable; Renovating the Victorian Farmhouse and numerous other buildings, hosting events, and shepherding values aligned tenants (like us!) and our neighbors Weaving Earth into operation here.

And so a new era begins: The meadows and forests look on as we write another chapter in the Green Valley storybook. 

Thank you for being a part of it.

THIS WEEKS HARVEST: Bodega Red Potatoes, Cured Cipollini and Yellow Onions, Heirloom and New Girl Tomatoes, Krimzon Lee Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Summer Squash, Easter Egg Radishes, Lemon Cucumbers, Italian Eggplant (last week!), Bishop White and Vita Verde (Green) Cauliflower, Murdoch Cabbage, Red Ace Beets, Rainbow Carrots, Red Russian Kale, Dino Kale, Arugula, Speckled Summercrisp Head Lettuce, Rouxai Head Lettuce, Fall Braising Mix with Baby Kale and Ethiopian Mustard Greens, and Chicories

U-PICK in the GARDEN: Pesto Basil, Dragon Tongue Romano Beans, Frying Peppers, Padrones, Jalapeños, Husk Cherries, Strawberry snacks, all herbs and flowers. No limit on Dahlias. 

U-PICK on the FARM: 

• Cherry tomatoes: Sungolds, Black Cherry, and Super Sweet 100's in three Rows marked with the blue flags in the main fields.
• Canning Tomato Gleaning: If you're interested gleaning some canning tomatoes straight from the vines to make sauce, please talk to Kayta or I and we'll show you the spot

PRESERVING OPPORTUNITIES:

• Pesto: We have a ton of Genovese Italian Basil in the garden. The second succession (in the Eastern half of the garden by the new flower beds) is flowering and needs to be turned into pesto. If you haven't made pesto this summer yet, or if you'd like to make a second batch, you are welcome to harvest entire plants into a large bag. We'll mark the location of this flowering bed with a colored flag and note in on the chalkboard so you can find it.
• Cabbages: Cabbages will be no-limit and they do not have to fit in your bag... you may take as many as you'll use to make a preserve! Check out Week 10's newsletter for our favorite simple kraut recipe.

GOODIES FOR SALE:

In our barn: 

-Hawk Hill Homemade Sourdough Bread: Gaby is off this week. Frozen loaves are available the white freezer in our barn. $8/loaf, self-serve cash box.

In the creamery:

• Eggs: The hens at Hands Full Farm have resumed laying and you can find eggs for sale again in the creamery (silver) fridge on your right as you enter.
• Dairy: to pick-up milk and cheese raised and crafted right here on the land, join the Bramble Tail Herdshare program. For details, email Aubrie at brambletailhomestead@gmail.com
• Beef: The creamery freezer is now stocked with ground and stew beef from steers raised on the pastures surrounding the farm.
• Whole Chickens: Raised by Parade the Land just down the road in Graton, also in the creamery freezer.
• Firefly Chocolates
• Herbal Remedies by Aubrie

The 2017 Harvest Pick-up Schedule:

Saturdays from 8am - 1pm
Tuesdays from 1pm - 6pm

June 17th - December 12th

Farm, u-pick & garden: Open 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset!

9/8/17 - Week 13 - "Work Song"

Work Song Part II - A Vision (Epilogue)

If we will have the wisdom to survive,
to stand like slow growing trees
on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it…
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
there, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides…

The river will run
clear, as we will never know it…
On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.

The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.
Families will be singing in the fields…
Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom

and indwelling light. 

This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its reality.

by Wendell Berry

(From "New and Collected Poems", Counterpoint Press) 

*********

See you in the fields, 

Kayta and David

THIS WEEKS HARVEST: Yukon Gold Potatoes, Cured Cabernet Red Onions, Scallions, Heirloom Tomatoes and New Girl Tomatoes, Krimzon Lee Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Summer Squash, Loose Radishes and Hakurei Turnips, Striped Armenian Cucumbers, Italian Eggplant, Chanterais Melons, Cauliflower, Murdoch Cabbage, Chioggia Beets, Rainbow Carrots, Celery, Red Russian Kale, Dino Kale, Arugula, Bok Choi, Summer Crisp and Little Gem Lettuces

U-PICK in the GARDEN: Pesto Basil, Amethyst Beans, Dragon Tongue Romano Beans, Frying Peppers, Padrones, Jalapeños, Husk Cherries, Strawberry snacks, all herbs and flowers. No limit on Dahlias. 

U-PICK on the FARM: Cherry Tomatoes (unlimited)

Canning Tomato Gleaning: If you're interested in going through the rows of canning tomatoes to collect enough for canning, please talk to Kayta or I and we'll point you to the right spot.

PRESERVING OPPORTUNITIES:

• No Limit Green Beans: Now is a great chance to put up some green beans. The old succession of Amethyst Green Beans (the purple ones) and the new succession of Dragon Tongue Beans are both loaded. Go for it!
• Pesto: There is a ton of Genovese Italian Basil in the garden ready to be retired into pesto. If you're interested in harvesting large quantities of basil to make into pesto, you can harvest entire plants from the first planting of basil located right as you walk in the garden gate. If you're unsure which plants these are, please check in with us, or another member, before picking. There is a newer succession of picking basil in the eastern half of the garden amongst the new cosmo flowers.
• Cabbages: We'll continue to have an abundance of cabbage this week for all you kraut lovers. Cabbages don't have to fit in your bag and you may take as many as you'll use. Check out Week 10's newsletter for our favorite simple kraut recipe.
• Pickling Cucumbers U-Pick: Pickling cukes are now u-pick. We'll show you where they are in the field!

FARMSTORE & CREAMERY:

In our barn: 

Hawk Hill Homemade Sourdough Bread: Fresh bread will returns this Saturday. Frozen loaves are available the white freezer in our barn.

In the creamery:

• EGGS! The hens at Hands Full Farm have resumed laying and you can find eggs for sale again in the creamery (silver) fridge on your right as you enter.
• Dairy to pick-up milk and cheese raised and crafted right here on the land, join the Bramble Tail Herdshare program. For details, email Aubrie at brambletailhomestead@gmail.com
• Beef Bramble Tail is also taking pre-orders for special beef cuts from steers raised on the land. If you'd like to reserve beef, send Aubrie an email brambletailhomestead@gmail.com. Beef should be ready in the creamery in about a week.
• Whole Chickens from Parade the Land in Graton are in the freezer in the back of the creamery
• Firefly Chocolates
• Herbal Remedies by Aubrie