Harvest time

     

summer's bounty(thanks Betsy)

Fall is in the air. Cool north westerly breezes bring the smell of crushed grapes both from the wineries and the vineyards. Sauvignon Blanc grapes are first to be harvested in the valley.  The smell of sweet sun fermenting pears sitting on the orchard floors comes on these same breezes. On a drive to the local goat dairy for a birthday party I witnessed many deer  creeping into the orchards munching on said pears.  One orchard even had out a "deer xing" sign. Nice to see- both the sign and deers.
A large walnut crop is forecast for this season. I heard harvest should begin early to mid October. Most large orchards will shake the trees with a peculiar looking machine, something out of dune, that grabs the trunk and with great force shakes and shimmies all the walnuts to the earth. Next a machine goes up and down the orchard collecting the nuts into rows and blowing leaves and twigs into another row. Then a machine drives over the row of nuts collecting them into  a hopper  then a bin and on their way to a drying/hulling/shelling warehouse.   We wait for the nuts to fall on their own. This makes the harvest last for a couple weeks, more manageable for human hands. Details to come on our walnut harvest party. stay tuned.
I'll leave you all with a harvest chant.

Red Russian Kale: Full Moon. first harvest of this super tender kale. you may notice the whole plant harvested in your bunch. this is our thinning process. Over plant to crowd out weeds and establish a thick stand, then thin to one plant per 8-12". This gets the kale off to a good start. Quick strong unimpeded growth before frost comes. then the flavor sweetens but growth also slows. These plants will feed us all winter long. for now, cook ever so quickly or eat raw as the leaves are very tender.

Yukina Savoy: Full Moon. Spoon shaped chinese spinach. here's a tipsheet from NYC. with a couple recipes. and here's one for a quiche recipe using this great green.

Blush/ Snow white tomato: Full Moon. The snow whites are heavy producers. whoa. more tomatoes in 20 feet than 200 of the blush. I have to say the lower acidity of the blush is more appealing, but the sweet tangy-ness of the snow white is a nice treat. and oh those colors!

Oregon Spring tomato: Full Moon. Despite losing a lot of fruit to sunburn, this variety is top notch. Delightful low acid rich tomato flavor. Most beautiful bright red this week. Perfect for sauce. made a batch this weekend. last chance for sauce tomatoes, send me an email if you want some next week.

Kellogs Breakfast Tomato: Full Moon. Golden orange glowing like the harvest moon. Meaty flesh, high acid, bright flavor. Compliments most any meal. Won awards last year in both size and flavor contests. In my opnion it's still coming into its prime here.

        

"Tomato, onion, garlic, leek, okra and herbs de provence with pasta and red snapper. Yum" - Mary


Red Flame table grape: Dorn Vineyards. Another week of the Dorn's finest.

Bella Dulce melon: Full Moon. Wow. These puppies can really sweeten the air like no other melon I know.
still one of my favorites

O'Henry peaches: Full Moon. Celebrate our second peach harvest with a delicious peach! This week a little redder, a little softer and a little sweeter. mmm mmmm good!

greens under row cover.

did you ever know that you're my hero

a week off sure sounds nice right about now. As a youngster nothing beat summer vacation, and weekends were made for fun (as the song by debbie deb suggests). In my current age and occupation summer is busy as all get out, though I am still having a blast outside in the sun or shade. and weekends... rarely exist unless I am too tired or sick to move. I have been taking naps lately, not by choice entirely, a simple thought of "oh let me sit down after lunch" turns into a three hour nap. I have been totally zonked for a couple weeks, but after a thorough rest, feel sort of "normal".  Lookout weekend cause here I come. (funny I wrote this the night before I woke up feeling sick and unable to deliver...perhaps I really needed the day off)

This week is the heirloom expo in santa rosa, I hope you all can go if you are so inclined. a dramatic display of hundreds and hundreds of old time heirloom vegetables. a real treat for the eyes, nose, tongue, belly and soul. lots of presentations and speakers, some of them heros and sheras of mine. Last year was totally awesome and I am so excited about this years expo.
Lots of heirloom animal breeds too! does heirloom animal manure smell different? like roses.

This weeks box...

Red slicer tomato: Full Moon. Maybe one more week left of harvesting on the Oregon Spring beds. definitely a productive variety that we will grow again. great flavor and size for salad, stews or snacking.

Kellog's Breakfast tomato: Full Moon. After a couple weeks of spoiled fruit with blossom end rot, this is the first substantial harvest ready for the box. Blossom end rot is usually caused by lack of calcium, sometimes due to a real lack of calcium or nutrient leaching caused by over watering. The water has been turned off for a week now and seeing no more rot. yay! These heirlooms are much more sensitive than modern hybrids. Anywhoo. they are nice big golden orange with a nice acidic flavor that goes great on a sandwich, burger, salad or just about anywhere.

Blush tomato: Full Moon. gold and red striped sausage shape, delicious sweet and tangy flavour. I am really liking this tomato, love to toss them in my mouth. 

Sungold cherry tomato: Biofarm. Another mouth poppin treat!check previous posts for other recipe ideas.

Warba potato: Full Moon. Dug up this afternoon, super thin skin, creamy white flesh with pink/red toning around eyes. suitable for baking and boiling. most are "creamer" size, meaning small enough to leave whole and cook to your desire. I sliced mine in full moons and roasted at 425 with onion, garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, oil and white wine. deelish. (dirt left on taters to preserve freshness, simply refrigerate and  wash before using.)

Bella Dulce melon: Full Moon. One of my all time favourite melons. we have grown this variety for the last three years and each year a little different. I usually see some fruits that resemble a lemon cucumber, melon colored but with the "belly button" seen on the lemon cuke. Awesome dulce flavor with the slightest cucumber texture. I detect notes of vanilla and caramel, truly a dessert melon if I have ever had one.

Red flame grapes: Dorn Vineyard. A perfect food. one could live on grapes alone if they were in season year round. a belly ache might ensue, but any active lifestyle can benefit from copious amounts of fresh grapes at hand.

O'henry peaches: Full Moon. Really coming into their prime this week. the o'henry peach. firm texture, (great for the grill), nice sugar content. ready to eat now or let sit on counter or fridge for later use.
If you would like 'B' grade for jamin' let me know, they wont last long!

Yukina Savoy: Full Moon. Yay fall greens. Autumn is my favourite time of year. We get to enjoy the bounty of late summer, with the addition of cooler season greens. first harvest of these great greens. if tatsoi and bok choy had a love child it would be yukina savoy. kind of like spinach without the oxcalic acid.

fruit fruit the magical...

hope you all had an excellent weekend and had a special time under the blue moon. seems there has been a lot of  significant celestial activity in the past couple months, blue moons, solar eclipses, solar flares, meteor showers, and of course the constant rotation of our planet earth. Incredible time to be alive.

The pear harvest is now underway here in lake county. In decades past, lake county was the leading producer of pears in the nation. As states like washington and counries like china and  argentina started to increase their pear production, our pears lost favor in the global market and many local farmers ripped out their orchards to plant wine grapes.  Our farm was once a pear orchard. ripped out about eight years ago, left fallow. I like to imagine what this land was like before pears. There is a mini oak woodland before you come down into our neck of the valley. I imagine this to be an example of the native flora, before agriculture wiped its  hand across the land. So before pears, acorns may have been the abundant tree crop; stored, processed and traded among the local people.

As our climate and environment changes we must adapt. As a farmer and land steward it is my goal to restore and revitalize this land, to leave it in better condition than I found it. (with the destructive farming practices in the recent past, shouldnt be too hard). With major drought conditions declared across the country, this year has been a very challenging year for farmers of all persuasions. But the resounding message I hear (perhaps from biased media), is that land managed organically has weathered this years drought better than conventional/chemical farms. While modern humans have spent billions of  dollars and countless hours bending and manipulating nature to fit our industrial scale ag model, perhaps we will see a grand scale shift towards bending our own desires to match that of a thriving harmonious nature.  I look to that mini oak woodland and the riparian zone along adobe creek to show me how a myriad of trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers thrive together without applied irrigation and fertilizer.

sungold cherry tomato: Biofarm

bartlett pear: Biofarm. A piece of Lake County history. Picked firm to ripen off the tree, these delicious pears deserve a little time to show their true potential. apply some thumb pressure to where the stem meets the fruit, if a little give its ready, if not give it some more time. here's a great article to help.

blush tomato/ snow white cherry: Full Moon. Yay new variety. Blush is the sausage shaped yellow with some red striping developed by a local tomato breeder, Fred Hempel from Baia Niche farm in Sunol. snow white is the yellow cherry tomato. I believe the snow white will hit its flavor prime in  a week or two while the blush is already a tasty hit. More of these to come.

Red Slicer tom: Full Moon. love 'em while you can. and can 'em while you can! 10 lb box for $25 to enjoy the flavor of summer all year long.

red flame seedless grapes: Dorn Vineyards. Awesome seedless grapes from an awesome family farm. Grown on the foothills of an inactive volcano, first harvest of this incredible table grape.

O'henry peach: Full Moon. One of my favorite peaches. one of the last peaches to ripen for the season and one of the best tasting to boot! Picked in the morning as the sun came up to kiss these little ones before going in your box.

satsuki midori cucumber: Leonardis Organics. Named after the woman who bred and developed this variety in Japan. delicious juicy flesh, thin skin. love it.

lemon cucumber: Full Moon

summer squash: Full Moon

on rotation:

Okra: full moon. okra for health , southern style okra , and african style okra

beans beans the magical fruit

     With the dog days of summer behind us for the forseeable future, thoughts and feelings drift towards the harvest season. the late summer bounty. a settling down to the harvest table if you will. a time to gather and enjoy the company of friends, heck, have a weekend. a time for more reflection on the season thus far. The days are not feeling so long and then too short for all the work that needs to get done, but long enough.
The mornings have been refreshingly cold. My feet begin to feel chilled around 4:45 am, and I awaken to tuck the blankets around my bare feetsies and think about getting up. The sun is still in the dreamtime of the morning, and so I follow the sun. An hour later I am awakened again, this time to see an amazing red and orange band hovering above the mountain tops. Atmospheric gases, pollution and particles give a most dramatic show for the early crowd to witness. another hour later the round sun appears- red and orange like its opening act, but more focused and brilliant, charging ahead gathering momentum as the a.m. hours pass.


green and yellow beans: Leonardis Organics. this is a good time for fresh beans in lake county. milder daytime temps and greater relative humidity make for happier bean plants. picked monday morning while the sun warmed my back and a humming melody. stir fry , salad with herbs ,

fresh soybean: Full Moon. first time Ive seen a soy bean grow. Neat plant. with plentiful water exhibited running growth habit, beans seemed to begin drying just as they began to plump, very short window for harvest. a variety of plump green and yellowing, and not so plump green pods for your enjoyment. try my favorite and simple boiled edamame recipe, did someone say succotash?

arava melon: Full Moon. what a difference a week makes. plentiful harvest of melons this week. delicious and juicy. packed with sugar and fiber. best to be eaten on its own as it may cause some digestive disturbance if combined with other foods. makes a great breakfast jumpstart. zing. what kind of flavors do you taste?

lemon cucumber: Full Moon. another week of these cute and convenient little ones. After saying this was the tastiest crop last week, I found some bitter bites. uh oh. no bueno. could be caused by extreme temperature fluctutaions. cukes are muy sensitivo to the slightest stress. and certain bitter flavored chemicals increase with stress, tho the lemon cucumber is usually fine. please let me know if you got any bitter skinned cukes, one should not normally have to peel these, nor suffer a bitter bite.
delicious in salad with cilantro, dill, garlic, vinegar, sweet/spicy peppers. choose your own adventure.

red slicer tomato: Full Moon. steady supply of these sweet and salad ready toms. great on open face sandwich too. nothin like fresh tomato. lycopene is a bright red carotenoid or phytochemical that gives the tomato its color and latin name roots (lycopersicum)

sungold cherry tomato: Bio Farm. pop em, roast em with pasta, blend em gazpacho style

summer squash: Full Moon. crookneck and zucchini,

on rotation this week:
okra: Full Moon

watermelon: Full Moon

let food be thy medicine

 With insane heat behind us, things have gotten back to normal around here. There are still more fires sparking up, this time started by lightning during our brief five drops of rain this week. The smoke can be pretty thick at times, and winds carry lots of particulate matter, some very irritating to the skin and eyes.
Ive been picking the okra now everyday and im surprised by my urge to chomp and chew methodically, till my mouth is full of a thick bolus that so smoothly glides down my throat. Im a newish fan of okra, first tried it  a few years ago while harvesting at a local farm in the east bay, and a farming buddy from the south gave me the grand tour of okra appreciation when I first moved up here. The smoke and the heat have begged me to find remedies that will allow me to continue  my work efforts during the hot day. Cucumbers and Okra to the rescue!

Eating with the seasons is a core component of a holistic lifestyle.without getting too out there, see if you follow my logic. our growing food is participating in the same daily dance of survival that we humans are. subject to the same planetary cycles, daily rhythms, environment and such. Plants and humans have incredible faculties for healing and adapting.Nature provides both the poison and antidote, in the plant world one will often find them growing next to or near eachother. So is it possible that we can heal ourselves, and adapt with our world of constant change, by eating the foods grown in our specific region and season? why is it a cucumber grows in the heat, yet provides a cooling treat?
  "let food be thy medicine..."-Hippocrates.





Garbanzo bean: Full Moon. fresh.exciting. simply pop the pod and release the bean into your salad, soup, or  dish. roast on the bbq with chili powder and a squirt of lime, or in a pan .  complete with green stems and leaves, perfect for a refreshing sun tea. here's a story from mariqueta farm about that.
If the pod is yellow and dry, it will need slightly longer cook than green pods. a unique experience.
more recipe ideas here

Red Lasoda Potato : Clover Creek Family Farm. Thurston and I harvested these tonight. Nice big and small red  new potatoes. New potato? yes fresh and new to the above ground world. a thin skin easily disturbed by sharp things like gopher teeth. Thurston swears that a gopher wound will not fall to rot and some of these wounded beauts grace your box this week. perfect for baking, roasting, mashing and stewing.

Garlic: Biofarm. perfect for mashed potatoes, what can be said about garlic that hasnt been already? anti bacterial, immune booster,  breath freshener... you name it.

Gypsy Peppers: Biofarm. Gorgeous yellow gypsy pepper. sweet. link for stuffed pepper recipe.

Lemon Cucumber:  Full Moon. Despite some cosmetic cucumber beetle damage these are the tastiest crop of lemon cukes I have grown. hope you like em too  and more to come.

Crookneck Squash: Full Moon. the plants themselves give off a buttery aroma and the fruits have a delightful flavor. first harvest from this bed planted by my dad. thanks

Arava Melon/ Green Okra/Udumalapet Eggplant: Full Moon. Ok. some of you will be receiving melon this week, and the others Okra and Eggplant. Unfortunately not enough for everyone this week. Next week I will rotate so if you missed out on one this week, keep your head up for next week.

arava is a delicious and sweet melon. green fleshed and intoxicating aroma. these are a "full slip" melon, meaning they "slip" from the vine when they are ready to harvest. no one likes an unripe melon, it worth the wait.  store at room temperature for quick eating or store in fridge if it'll be a few days.

okra is one of those unusual veggies that comes with some big fans or some big haters. ya either love it or hate it. but like the link says "giving okra a second chance" its "sliminess" is usually the turn off for folks. this can be mitigated by hot and quick pan roasting, or a light steaming and adding to a dish of other cooked veggies. This sliminess is also one of it s strong points too, great for thickening a stew (gumbo) or light soup, and great for coating our internal skin with moist mucilage.

the squirrels and heat left a couple of these for us this week. With last weeks heat wave the eggplants went on vacation, ceased flowering and have now begun to resume their regular work schedule. After removing all the half eaten fruits, and putting up protection we hopefully will be getting a lot more of  these small fruits.When slicing a few of these up the other night I was amazed to smell bannana! the more mature fruits have a yellow skin benefit from a slicing, salting and rinsing before cooking to remove any bitterness near the skin. the plant's own protective barrier to pests.


Red Slicer Tomato : Full Moon. More from our Oregon Spring beds. This is a great canning tomato, if you would like pounds for sauce, let me know-will be harvesting for a couple more weeks. the other heirloom varieties (purple calabash, kellogs breakfast, snow white) are slower to ripen and may be another week or more before we begin to harvest them.

#11

Bella Dulce melon, a few weeks from harvest.

Arava melon one week from harvest.

       Im not sure if you were as disappointed by last weeks box as I was. my apologies if you were. I am sensitive to variety and felt that lacking last week. I am also a fan of novelty and to have nothing new on the menu left me a little sour.  So I am excited to tell you that there are some new items this week and on the horizon...but first... Have you see any of the perseid meteor shower? A good excuse to "space out" after the sun goes down, make a wish on  a shooting star... Everything under the sun is growing well but intense solar heat has put a hurtin on the crops. causing wilting, flower/fruit drop, leaf  burns, sunburn on fruits and has been challenging our farmers as well. Throw in a few fires erupting this weekend and sheesh! what a week.  the local radio station has done a nice job keeping the community informed and up to date on road closure, evacuation zones and where to go for food and shelter. The theme of crisis bringing folks together has come up. Its true. the urgency and necessity for support and interdependent community  is strong in emergency situations. sometimes stressful times can wear our protective barriers thin and we may rub eachother the wrong way while sometimes we let these barriers down by choice when times get tough and we pull together and realize our vulnerability and humanity and generosity takes over. I hope you all enjoy this weeks installment and share a meal with friends for goodness sake.

and on the virtues of patience...
come on melons! dont make us wait so long. the anticipation for melons is high right now. a good handfull are changing color but wont be ready this morn. ahh! next week expect the tropical flavored green fleshed  arava!
the soybeans and garbanzo beans are setting more fruit and looks like next week for them too. woohoo.

Asian Cucumber:Leonardis Organics. delicious thin skinned asian cucumber. satsuki madori. Jim has grown superior cucumbers. Jim was featured in the CAFF e newsletter this month and briefly mentioned us and our working together, thanks Jim and congrats. 

Sungold cherry tomatoes: BioFarm. The best tasting cherry tomato out there! very sweet flavor. bright tangerine orange color. Judith grows the best cherry tomatoes.

Italian Eggplant: BioFarm. Large dark purple glossy skin.  I was hoping to bring you the Listada de Gandia or the Rosa Bianca from our farm, but the squirrels and quail have been at it again, poking and chewing holes into these beauts. A barrier of some sort is needed if we are to enjoy these in the coming weeks. For now we can enjoy these beauts from Biofarm. Judith has been dealing with a lot of squirrel pressure as well this year and suggested the fence idea as well as getting a .22 rifle. I think with the increased extreme weather  we are seeing increased pressure from our furry friends looking for a meal in hard times.

Armenian Cukes: Full Moon. standing up to the heat like champs. thick skin to stay crunchy and ornate seed cavity to delight the eyes. in fact feeling hot or irritated? cut a couple cuke circles place them over your eyes for a minute and tell me you dont feel better. great chopped up in  a salad, juiced! (big hit this week-super hydrating, cooling and alkalizing). check the recipes from july 30 post. actually makes a great pickle too.

Jericho Romaine: Love Farm. Gadzooks. the fantastic romaine showing his/her head in this weeks box. a surprise delivery of Pineapple Tomatoes from Teale this week in your tomato bag.Teale tells me peaches will be coming soon. yippee!

Red slicer tomatoes:  Full Moon. Oregon Spring Bush is the name of these red tomato. Known for its sweet, juicy flesh, this is the premier early- season variety for areas with cool summer nights. and cool nights we do. this week for instance we topped out at 106.4 F in the early afternoon and before sunrise drop  to 48 F. this can throw summer crops off. off flavors, off ripening times, off mineral absorption. 
a nice plant canopy can hold radiating and stored heat off the soil and bear the less than perfect temp patterns. we irrigate regularly to establish deep roots vigorous and lush greenery, ample flower production and hopefully fruit set and once fruits begin to ripen we reduce water to develop stronger flavor.

Onion: Full Moon. harvested cured and ready for seasoning your meals. In  haste I trimmed some tops that were still green and not fully cured, if you find green rings at the top of the onion, either keep in fridge or use first as it will lose moisture quickly.

Dill: Full Moon. the Modern Herbal says:"... Dill possess stimulant, aromatic, carminative and stomachic properties." In laymens terms that means benefits the stomach, apetite, digestion and related gas. enjoy with easy confidence! make a sauce or dressing and garnish a bean dish, fish,  tofu or any meal. It is said that the oils are strongest before flowering, hence the tall stalks and prepubescent flower heads. heres more recipe ideas than one might try to shake a stick at. the champagne dill carrots sound good

Whooah, we're half way there

howdy folks.
I am one tuckered out farmer tonight.
please excuse the less than inspiring post.
we'll be soo excited for next week. see sneak preview pics at bottom.
please check previous posts for recipe links.
many hours in the sun. crispt.

weather forecast says: "Oppressive heat is forecast to arrive in force" and "The 'Dog Days of Summer' are coming later this week w/ very hot days & sultry nights expected. " (really it can get more oppressive?!) hopefully this will be good for the eggplants and tomatoes. just a handful have begun to ripen and a butt load expected in the coming weeks. If you would like to order tomatoes for canning, now would be a good time to put in your order. email me with your interest and we can discuss the details.
mooneymanna@gmail.com

Chorus:
Whooah, we're half way there
Livin on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear
Livin on a prayer

Box number 10 brought to you by bon jovi.

japanese eggplant: full moon farm.  tender and purple.

armenian cucumber: full moon farm. crunchy and green.

summer squash: full moon farm. soft and green. shishkabob?!

carrots: ancient lake garden. crunchy and orange.

purple top turnip: ancient lake garden. round and purple/white.

mixed herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, dill, rosemary): you may have access to wonderful herbs like this already and in case you dont... here they are. great for dressings, sauces (dill yogurt) tea (infuse room temp water with thyme and oregano flowers for nice treat), or cut and dry for later use. using stripped rosemary sticks for shishkabob skewers is all the rage these days, make sure its soaked in water  so it doesnt burn over the flames.


 

listada de gandia eggplant. on bed of wilted amaranth.

fresh soy beans coming soon.

garbanzo filling out their pods.

yellow wax bush bean flowering soon after the heat passes.