Farm Day 99 Pretzle Mania - a Farm Day favorite.  This game is infinately flexible, and can be played with anything you can hang from a string, most popularily sticky donuts.   For you adults who want to play  ( I think I know who you are) here are the Rules: 1.. no hands                     2.. first to eat the whole thing wins

What’s Growing This Week:  Arugula Chard Carrots   Onion Eggplant Jonathan Apples# Peppers Broccoli Butternut Squash Walnuts Cilantro

Tuesday boxes will be delivered, as usual, on Tuesday.  Thursday and Friday boxes will be delivered on Weds. Nov. 22, at the usual places.  However, in order to avoid traffic problems (for us and you) they will arrive at the drop-off locations earlier than usual — certainly before noon, and likely much earlier.
The Thanksgiving week boxes have largely already had their contents determined, although certain items are subject to weather or availability problems.  Here is what you will get:

3 lbs. each of potatoes and sweet potatoes, 2 lbs. broccoli, 1 red cabbage, 1 lb. of carrots, 2 lbs. apples, 1 lb. onions, 1 bunch of beets,  and 1/2 lb. salad mix.
Unfortunately, our celery was a complete bust this year, for which we apologize.

EXTRA HOLIDAY BOX
If you are interested in purchasing an additional box during our Christmas holiday , delivered most likely on Dec. 22, please e-mail or write us to let us know.   We will make our decision on December 1st as to whether or not there is enough  interest in this box for us to do it. We have a listing on the website which allows folks to vote for what they would like to see in that box.

A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR FARMWORKERS AND FARMERS?
If you live in the Bay Area, you probably live in one of the few counties in California to vote against Prop. 187, the anti-immigration initiative.  Everyone else in California chose to ignore the fact that the majority of farmworkers and many restaurant workers are undocumented aliens.  They voted to make it impossible for these hard working people to continue living in California.  Not surprisingly, though, no one boycotted their produce departments or local taquerias.  Farmers like us, who depend on manual labor, have been having a harder time pretending that everything is okay.

Finally, a few brave Senators have stepped forward — risking public disapproval to try to solve the problem.  At last, they have acknowledged what every farmer in California already knows — That the tight labor market, combined with ever increasing federal efforts to close the border, would eventually cause a massive farm labor shortage.

  Farmers depend absolutely on undocumented workers to provide farm labor, and thus, American consumers also depend on them — to provide economical (I.e. — cheap) produce.  Closing the border completely and instituting a computerized I.N.S. database of legal workers — which is the official plan — would throw California’s farm economy into chaos.  Crops would rot in the field and farmers would go bankrupt.  In the long run, perhaps, Americans would be forced to pay more for  fresh produce and other farm products as legal farmworkers commanded higher and more fair wages.  More likely, consumers would find all their produce coming to them from South of the Border, where labor costs are inconsequential.

Three Senators have introduced legislation which will give amnesty to all undocumented aliens who have worked at least one year in agriculture.  While the bill also includes other, less desirable provisions, the amnesty is a long overdue measure that would bring a dose of reality back into the debate over immigration from Mexico.  Moreover, it is the least that Americans can do for the folks who do some of the most physically difficult work in this country, for not enough money.  To continue to punish Mexicans for filling jobs that Americans simply will not do is both hypocritical and self-destructive, and it’s time for everyone to wake up and realize it.  Stay tuned here for more information about this important legislation.

Thanks,   Pablito
 

What's missing from the box? Don’t bother double checking.  And there’s no point in calling to report a missing item.  You aren’t the only one who didn’t get tomatoes in your box this week.  Problem is, there aren’t any.  Last week’s rain was the coup de grace, the final straw.  For a month now, we have been scavenging tomatoes out of the field — “Look, there’s some Early Girls over here…” one week, “Hey, there’s almost enough cherry tomatoes out of all these beds to put a basket in each CSA box”.  Late season tomatoes can be among the best of the year, although their skins are tough and they can get sort of ugly.  But for most growers, tomato season has been over since Mid-September.  We’ve been kicking a dead mule, so to speak. We spent the day Saturday the remains of the tomato patch, the other half having been pulled out over the last two weeks.  First, we remove the drip irrigation and wind it up into rolls.  Then, we cut out the twine — by now largely biodegraded by sun, rain and wind.  Finally, we flooded the field in order to be able to pull out the 8 foot stakes.  Now, we pray that this coming week’s storms will be followed by a week or so of dry weather, so we can mow the field and drill cover crop seed into the tired ground to renew for next year’s crop of sweet corn.  Most years we get that task done by Thanksgiving and then take a real break, but this year it seems like we might still be out there fighting the weather until mid-December. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed the 1999 Terra Firma tomato season.  By my reckoning, we started the last week of June, which means we got you 19 weeks of tomatoes.  But don’t worry — OUR tomato season here starts in one month, when we fire up the greenhouse, get out the seeds, and start the plants for next year...

 

Vote for Holiday Box ingredients - here

 

Recipes                               ............................

 Broiled Polenta with Chard and Cannellini Beans —
Cook 1 C. dried polenta in 5 C. water until almost firm.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour into a baking pan and chill overnight.  (Or use store-bought “tube” polenta)
Cut polenta into 1/2” thick slices, brush with olive oil, and broil in the oven until browned on both sides — flipping once.
Meanwhile, saute 1 sliced onion until lightly browned, in 3 T. olive oil with some crushed rosemary and red pepper.  Dice 1 bell pepper and add, along with 4 minced cloves of garlic.  When the garlic is soft, add the chopped stems of 1 bunch of chard and 1/2 C. water.  Simmer for 5 minutes, then add the chopped chard leaves and 1 can canellini or other large beans.  Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes, then stir and remove from heat.  The chard should be bright green but tender.  Serve the chard over the polenta and top with grated fontina cheese.
 

Produce 101: preparation & storage  Store CARROTS in plastic, in the fridge — or cut into pieces and in a container full of water, for easy snacking. BROCCOLI has two parts — the florets and the stems.  When peeled, chopped, and cooked for just slightly longer than the florets, the stems are crunchy, tender, and sweet.  Don’t throw away half your broccoli! EGGPLANT and PEPPERS are almost finished for the year, so enjoy them one more time.    CILANTRO should be kept in plastic, preferably with the roots in a little water.   Add cilantro to food just before serving.  Long cooking takes away the aromatic flavor and makes the leaves stringy. CHARD is like very tender beet greens.  Cut the stems out and cook separately — about 5 minutes, then add the leaves.  Cook the leaves until just tender.  Chard can also be substituted for spinach.

Terra Firma Basics
San Francisco/Sacramento/Davis Prices
Every Week: Every Other Week:
$70 Monthly $37 monthly
$200 Quarterly $106 quarterly
$780 Yearly $412 Yearly
$16 weekly vacation adjustment
Subscriptions automatically renew

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

MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farm
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com em
 

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