9/3/2021 - The Fox

Zinnias in the evening.

IN THE FLOWERS

This Week’s Flower Challenge: This week, we’d like to challenge you to spend a few moments thinking about someone in your life to whom you’d like to give flowers. It could be a surprise, a doorstep drop-off, a reason to set a lunch date, or an opportunity to invite them to the garden with you. There is a special pleasure to be found in making a bouquet for someone else, and a sweet, grounding humility that comes with picking flowers while thinking of those you love.

IN THE HERBS

• Oregano, Marjoram, Thyme, Chives & Garlic Chives, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, Tulsi Basil, Purple & Green & Bi-color Shiso (aka Perilla), Mints, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Green Coriander, Dill Flowers, Anise Hyssop, Sage, Tarragon, and Vietnamese Cilantro, Culinary Sage, Sorrel, Husk Cherries, Lemongrass.

Herb Spotlight: This is the moment to enjoy the ephemeral delight that is green coriander. Did you know that coriander is actually the seed of the cilantro plant? Next time you’re in the garden, try tasting a single green coriander seed. They’re like a playful, citrus and hops-tinted take on cilantro, with a wonderful green pop! Try throwing them in a dish, or atop a savory tartine to take your meal to the next level.

FAQ

• When does the CSA end? Exact dates are TBD, depending on the weather. The flower and herb garden will starting winding down in October and we’ll put her to bed in November. But expect some good blooms all the way til then. The strawberries will usually wrap up a little earlier, producing through the end of September.

• If I go away can a friend use my share? Yes! If you’ll be out of town or unable to come pick strawbs and flowers, feel free to send a friend or relative in your stead. Please verbally orient them as to the directions and how things work as we are not always around.

The harvest share from the first week of September 2020

FARMER’S LOG

THE FOX

An osprey flew over the farm this week. We couldn’t help but watch it fly over and think of the privilege and responsibility it is to farm in such a wild place.

The first day Kayta and I worked in these fields was a stormy day in December 2016. I was taking out an old livestock fence in the middle one of our fields, when out from a tiny tunnel in a thicket of grape rootstock and blackberries, popped a juvenile grey fox just a few feet from my leg. I froze. She didn’t know I was there. It was raining so hard that her keen smell and hearing must have been dampened.

She scanned the open ground ahead of her and sniffed the air; her black eyes were alert, fresh, and clear; her torso bounced up and down in a quick rhythm as she sniffed; her heather grey fur was matted from the rain, the wet tips black. She stayed there for so long I could imagine she was my puppy and we were out on the hunt together.

She must have finally caught my scent, froze, and deftly vanished back into the bramble.

Seasons turned. Years passed.

We’ve farmed that meadow for five years now, doing what we can to ensure it remains a home for our wild neighbors that make their home here. And we are often heartened by who we see (or see sings of) making the fields part of their lives. Owls hunt the fields at night; diurnal raptors and myriad songbirds accompany us throughout the day; bobcats play with their kids by the spillway; coyotes leave their digging holes for us to find in the morning; an egret lived in the field for a whole season once; not to mention Mr. Heron in the pond and the myriad skunks and raccoons…

But when I’m in that spot where I stood with the fox, I think of her.

The fox spot has newly flowering cannabis now. And the farm on this warm September afternoon was a bustling, dusty, loud place — a far cry from that serene winter morning I met that fox. If she missed me then, she wouldn't now. Is she still alive? Does she still slink stealthily through this meadow? I’ll never know, but I’d like to think so.

The other morning Kayta was up in the garden checking on a new planting. Some markings caught her eye.

Fox tracks on the landscape fabric.

This place is still wild. Let’s keep it that way.

See you in the fields,
David and Kayta

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8/26/2021 - Work Song

Can you feel it? Fall is in the misty morning air this week.

IN THE FLOWERS

This Week’s Flower Challenge: We just can’t get enough of dried flowers. This week’s challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to make a garlic braid filled to the brim with color from the garden. Garlic braids are quite simple to make (check out this tutorial if you’d like a little guidance) and adding dried flowers turns them into a swoon-worthy gift.

Start by making a collection of drying flowers in the garden. Consider your color scheme: all yellows, all pinks, a funfetti free for all, or a rainbow working from top to bottom? Want your braid to turn into a full-fledged bouquet at the top? Awesome. Then assemble your supplies. We’ll be selling cleaned garlic with its tops intact for a slightly reduced price in the barn right next to our usual, ready-for-use garlic. You’ll want a little bit of biodegradable jute twine, or, if you’re feeling brave, long stringy weeds for tying your braid at the beginning and end (fun fact: the arrangement on the left below is held together by dead bindweed). Then go to town! We find garlic braid making to be a wonderful group activity. Have a party and send everyone home with their very own garlic braid!

On the left: a bouquet for drying in a color-scheme we can get over. On the right: a garlic braid featuring Celosia, Gomphrena, Statice and Strawflower.

IN THE HERBS

• Oregano, Marjoram, Thyme, Chives & Garlic Chives, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, Tulsi Basil, Purple & Green & Bi-color Shiso (aka Perilla), Mints, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Cilantro Flowers, Dill Flowers, Anise Hyssop, Sage, Tarragon, and Vietnamese Cilantro, Culinary Sage, Sorrel, Husk Cherries, Lemongrass.

Herb Spotlight: Have you noticed the lush green grass sprouting between the lemon balm and the garlic chives? If you did you could be forgiven for thinking it was a weed. But all this season it’s been secretly transforming sunlight into fragrant green stalks of Lemongrass! And now the moment has come to harvest it. To harvest, cut or snap off a thick stalk at its base like in the picture below. If you’re unfamiliar with lemongrass, check out this helpful primer on cooking with it that includes links to several Thai and Vietnamese recipes. After using the thick, more tender base, the tops can be made into a delicious tea.

FAQ

• When does the CSA end? Exact dates are TBD, depending on the weather. The flower and herb garden will starting winding down in October and we’ll put her to bed in November. But expect some good blooms all the way til then. The strawberries will usually wrap up a little earlier, producing through the end of September.

• If I go away can a friend use my share? Yes! If you’ll be out of town or unable to come pick strawbs and flowers, feel free to send a friend or relative in your stead. Please verbally orient them as to the directions and how things work as we are not always around.

FARMER’S LOG

Work Song Part II - A Vision (Epilogue)
by Wendell Berry

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.

————

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

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8/20/2021 - Goldenrod

IN THE FLOWERS

This Week’s Flower Challenge: This week in addition to your usual bouquet consider picking a bunch of drying flowers! Check them all out in the picture below! The garden is currently bursting with them.

Pro-tip: Pick a single-type of drying flower to display all together, or to arrange in bouquets or wreaths later, or pick a varied bouquet of drying flowers that you can dry all together. For the best color, and to keep those stems straight, make a tight bunch (twist ties are great for this and can be found in the clipper basket in the barn) and hang upside down in a cool, dry place until they set.

Beautiful hand modeling by crew member Sophia.

Pictured above from left to right.

• Top row: 5 colors of Statice, Ecchinacea, Fama Scabiosa seedhead, Breadseed Poppy pod, Pincushion Scabiosa seedhead, Flamingo Feather Celosia, Temple Bells Celosia, Pampas Plume Celosia.

• Middle row: 9 colors of Strawflower, 5 colors of Yarrow, Nigella seed pods, Veronica seeds, 2 colors of Xeranthemum (Immortelle), 3 colors of Marigolds.

• Bottom row: 6 colors of Gomphrena, Monarda seedhead, Baby’s Breath, Verbena, Godetia pods, and Amaranth.

IN THE HERBS

• Oregano, Marjoram, Thyme, Chives & Garlic Chives, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, Tulsi Basil, Purple & Green & Bi-color Shiso (aka Perilla), Mints, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Cilantro Flowers, Dill Flowers, Anise Hyssop, Sage, Tarragon, and Vietnamese Cilantro, Culinary Sage, Sorrel, Husk Cherries.

Herb Spotlight: The next time you’re in the garden, stop for a little snack at the Husk Cherry bed below the Celosia and above the thornless blackberries. These little berries go by many names including Cape Gooseberry and Ground Cherry. They are closely related to Tomatillos and have been said to taste like a tropical combination of orange and tomato. To find a ripe Husk Cherry, look for golden, papery skins. Inside the fruit should be golden yellow. Ripe fruit are usually carpeting the ground underneath the plants and are protected by their papery wrappers. Enjoy!

On the left: ripe Husk Cherries — the golden color of the berry on the bottom right is what you’re looking for. On the left: a new succession of Cupcake Cosmos! This elegant variety is reminiscent of Icelandic Poppies or the crinkled wrappers of cupcakes and make a delicious bouquet ingredient.

FARMER’S LOG

Today we’ll leave you with a poem. We hope that the garden, and the bees, and the goldenrod bursting into bloom in the hedgerow by the strawberry field has for a moment pulled you into the joyousness of sharing this earth, this moment, with all these other beings.

Goldenrod

By Mary Oliver

 On roadsides,
  in fall fields,
      in rumpy bunches,
          saffron and orange and pale gold, 

in little towers,
  soft as mash,
      sneeze-bringers and seed-bearers,
          full of bees sand yellow beads and perfect flowerlets 

and orange butterflies.
  I don’t suppose
      much notice comes of it, except for honey,
           and how it heartens the heart with its 

blank blaze.
  I don’t suppose anything loves it, except, perhaps,
      the rocky voids
          filled by its dumb dazzle. 

For myself,
  I was just passing by, when the wind flared
      and the blossoms rustled,
          and the glittering pandemonium 

leaned on me.
  I was just minding my own business
      when I found myself on their straw hillsides,
          citron and butter-colored, 

and was happy, and why not?
  Are not the difficult labors of our lives
      full of dark hours?
          And what has consciousness come to anyway, so far, 

that is better than these light-filled bodies?
  All day
       on their airy backbones
           they toss in the wind, 

they bend as though it was natural and godly to bend,
  they rise in a stiff sweetness,
      in the pure peace of giving
           one’s gold away.

See you in the fields,
David and Kayta

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