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Community Supported Agriculture Newsletter September 28, 2005 9/28/05 |
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Pablito .... 
BLACKOUT IN THE COUNTRY
Mother Nature put on quite a show here
in the Sacto Valley today — not anything near to the Gulf Coast hurricanes
of late, but impressive nonetheless. I was driving a truck back from
dropping off the last of our pistachio harvest at the processor in Artois,
a tiny hamlet about 80 miles north of Winters.
After about 15 minutes on the road, I knew
the weather was going to get interesting. Clouds – never a common
occurrence here in September — were not only in evidence, but had completely
covered the southern sky. And from my perch in the truck seat high
above the cars around me, I could see mist falling from high up.
Then the lightning started. Multiple bursts, lining up one after
the other from one side of the valley to the other. The flat landscape,
framed on either side by mountains and offset by the dark clouds, made
a dramatic stage for nature’s firework show.
| By the time I hit the Yolo County
line, the sky was black above and to the east of me and big fat raindrops
were smacking the windshield. I anxiously phoned Paul Holmes and
we discussed the multitude of potential problems that might occur if the
rain hit the farm: bins of onions , pallets of cover crop seed and
other amendments, and piles of unwaxed boxes all uncovered; grapes and
tomatoes unharvested and ready to split open with just a quarter inch or
so of precipitation. Between our two perspectives — his on the farm,
and mine 30 miles north looking south at the storm — we decided the rain
was going to miss Winters completely and head to the north and east.
I drove through a downpour, and then out of it, and our forecast seemed
well made.
By the time I got home, it was sunny and dry, and although there were clouds on every side, they looked puffy and white and unthreatening. |
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An hour later, it began to thunder and lightning, and then rain, so I headed out to cover the seeds, boxes, and other non-waterproof items lying around our summer fields. As I was driving away from the house, lightning struck somewhere very near by — the thunderclap was simultaneous. I raced around for 15 minutes, although the rain had already stopped. Driving up the driveway, though, I noticed the house was dark. I looked at the neighbor’s house — we only have one neighbor — and saw theirs was dark too. The power was out.
I grew up on the East Coast, where electrical storms in the summer are as common as fireflies. The power would go out regularly for an hour or two, and we’d light candles and watch the fireflies in the yard. I remember it being kind of fun, although it probably wasn’t for my parents.
I don’t remember the water ever going out. But out here in the country, water and power are the same thing, or at least they are intricately connected. Sure it’s fun, and even romantic to sit down to a compulsory candelight dinner with your spouse, but it’s not very romantic to not be able to wash the dishes, take a shower, or brush your teeth afterwards. Our only source of water is a pump in a well in the ground. There’s no bucket and no handle, and when the power goes out the pump stops.
No surprise that we were soon talking about the misery of the hurricane victims, and how much worse even a few hours without power would be if it had been July and the temperatures were in the hundreds. Or if we were in Louisiana, with it’s hot, humid climate.
Around eleven o’clock, the lights came back on. We even got to bathe before going to sleep. All in all, a very small inconvenience but a good reminder of how our modern lives rest on a few very important pillars, and how easily they can disappear. We quickly found out that we need to have more candles and more drinking water on hand in case of a real emergency.
The storm was also a wake up call for the farm, that winter is around the corner and that we need to start preparing —- not just by planting the crops, which we’ve been doing on schedule, but by graveling the roads, moving non-waterproof items into their winter storage locations, and other small tasks that become much, much more difficult once Mother Nature sends us our annual dose of weather. The miracle of California is that every summer, we forget.
BRINGING DOGS TO FARM DAY?
I guess several subscribers have inquired
about whether they can bring their dogs to the farm this year. Everyone
knows that I love dogs, and I want as many dogs as possible to share the
experience of a day in the country. Just a few rules, though:
Leashes may be more necessary at the new farm, because there is a much smaller safe “leash-free” area than the walnut orchard at the usual farmday location. Please bring them.
If your dog doesn’t follow verbal commands, we expect you to keep them on the leash the entire time. To a dog, a strawberry field looks just like a park, but a single dog running circles in it can do terrible damage.
IN YOUR BOXES
This year we succeeded in extended our
summer squash season by almost a month. We hope we found the right
balance between too much and not enough. This week will be the last
for the year, though, as the final planting is now tired and ready to call
it quits. Next week, look for what might be the final week of eggplant
— or not.
The first salad greens of the fall arrive
as predicted — loose arugula. We had planned on having enough of
the greens to include it in all the boxes; unfortunately the harvest came
up short. Small boxes will have to wait another week or two for their
first batch of TFF salad greens, but there are plenty of other yummy items
in the box this week. Arugula is always a fragile item, especially
when picked on a warm day like today (it was almost ninety before it started
raining). So refrigerate it quickly and try to use it within 3-4
days.
| Crimson seedless grapes are one of the most widely planted varieties, but you may not recognize them. That’s because our grapes are much riper than the ones you normally see in the stores, which are often harvested when green with just a tinge of pink. Ours are fully...crimson...as they were intended to be. They are softer than the Autumn Royals, and a little tangier. |
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Asian pears combine the juiciness
of a pear with the crispness of an apple. The variety in your boxes
today is called Shinko, and it is probably the sweetest and most aromatic
of the 6 varieties in our orchard. It also ripens first, and doesn’t
hold in storage well — unlike some of the other varieties — in spite of
its relatively tough skin. If that skin bothers you, just peel it
off before eating the pears. I do. Don’t forget that
Asian pears make a great addition to salads..
Thanks,
Pablito
Recipes..............
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| Monthly | Quarterly | Yearly | |
| Small box | 52 | 150 | 580 |
| Medium Box | 86 | 245 | 959 |
| Large Box | 116 | 330 | 1294 |
**being offered only to existing everyother week subscribers, as the small box has better variety and is more tuned to the smaller household appetite. The weekly schedule is also much easier to remember, and saves us all a lot of problems at the pick up sites. |
46 | 131 | 513 |
| Vacation Credits: | Small | Medium | Large |
| Vacation credits are lower to discourage overuse, and to reflect actual cost to the farm | $8 | $13 | $18 |
We Up/downgrades are $5 per week per increment.
Vacations & Billing Inquiries
We need seven days notice before a vacation hold
or other change of service.
Contact Valerie through voicemail at (530) 756-2800,
or e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com
Account Balance Inquiries The account sheet is hiding under the sign off sheet each week with your account balance on it. Mid month I've been e-mailing statments, so if you're not getting it send me an e-mail requesting to be added to the list. To be able to read the statements you need to be logged in as an administrator on a PC, and virus programs may corrupt the file. Some Mac operating systems do allow the file to be viewed.
MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farms, Inc
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com
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