Fall Fun

We are in PEPPER CITY!!! The peppers are in FULL production. We have Spanish padrones, jalapenos, serranos, 2 varieties of Anaheim (Joe E Parker and Big Jim) along with pasillas, tabasco, and then the sweet peppers!!! Right now we have an abundance of RED and sweet Sheepnose Pimento peppers. These little babies are on Slow Food's Ark of Taste list. Last week we were fire roasting the peppers and I thought I was in Albuquerque from the smell!

Our dill is very healthy and of course we are growing WAY more than we need! I guess I will go out and start collecting seeds for use during the year!

We are also in great melon production. Our favorite, Moon and Stars Watermelon, complete with big, black seeds, is so good this year. I will miss having a big slab of it in the fridge. The crop of hard winter squashes are just taking off. They aren't quite ready...but we are growing butternut squash, pumpkins, Sibley squash, also on the ark of taste.

This is a late year for us for eggplant. It is still coming on. I am finally going to make my caponata and see if I can successfully can it. Caponata is a Sicilian eggplant relish and I love it!

The peaches are at an end. Jeff picked the last of them from the tree and made a big batch of jam. I do my best to eat jam every day, otherwise our supplies will be too vast. I think we will see where we can sell it. Maybe we will sell some online.

The pears are here for another couple weeks, the tomatoes are starting to show signs of slowing, but are still wonderful!

Our "shoe peg" dent corn has finally tassled out at 14 feet! We are growing it for cornmeal. Yes, another attempt to do it all!!! We call it the "Field of Dreams" corn patch because you honestly could get lost in it!

Where did summer go? Was it on the fast track? I don't know about you, but I am so happy it is fall. Why? The farm slows down, the catering picks up, it is cooler (or at least it is supposed to be!) and time for slow-cooked "comfort" foods.

I had best get off the computer and out onto the farm to help Farmer Jeff with the chickens. They are all good, healthy and starting their annual molt. We have enough random feathers floating around to make at least one good sized pillow, but I don't think we could ever get the smell out! Yum, chicken feathers!

HAPPY FALL!!!

Playing Catch Up!

This is what happens when I am too busy to blog twice a week...It all builds up! Jeesh! Can't have that? Hm...Where to begin...














The Greenhouse is all done and is now housing tomatoes starts and 2 sets of young chicks! That is fun news! Farmer Jeff is very happy to have the tomatoes transplanted, all 1,000 of them! Once they were transplanted and moved to the greenhouse, then he immediately started the pepper babies in the growing room. They are just now beginning to pop up.

The carrots we planted over a month ago are coming up. This is a first for us. Farmer Jeff doesn't like to grow things that develop under ground. He is more comfortable growing things he can watch as they grow. Me...I am game for anything! Let's grow it all!!!

The chicks that have been in the little videos are growing. Some are developing combs (uh, oh...Roosters!) while the others are not (thankfully!). One of the young roosters looks just like my dear Tyner. He has been named Ivanhoe. Don't ask...I have no idea where that came from!

One of the things that kept us busy in the past few weeks was the class we taught on how to raise a backyard chicken flock for our Slow Food group. It was really a lot of fun and I came to realize that...gee...I really DO know a lot about raising chickens!

Well...I had best get back to my paperwork. Hope you are all having a great Spring!

An Incredible Gift of Seeds

As you know, Farmer Jeff has started his tomato babies. I actually thought he was all done with tomato seedlings, but today we received an incredible gift of seeds in the mail, including more tomato seeds! Who in the world sent us seeds, I asked.

We were gifted seeds from our local Sonoma County chapter of Slow Food. Slow Food is, in the words of the organization, "a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world".

We believe in growing as much as is physically possible. We also make a lot of items from scratch including bacon, wine vinegar, cheese, jams, catsup, and go so far as raising chickens for eggs, composting all vegetable and fruit matter from the restaurant and so on. It just makes sense to us. We don't do it for any other reason than that. It just makes sense.

Now, within Slow Food USA exists the Ark of Taste. What is that?

The Ark of Taste seeks, first and foremost, to save an economic, social and cultural heritage - a universe of animal breeds, fruit and vegetables, cured meats, cheese, cereals, pastas, cakes and confectionery. Slow Foods mission is to preserve endangered tastes - and to celebrate them, by introducing them to the membership and then to the world, through media, public relations, and Slow Food events.

Farmer Chef Jeff and I (and Eastside Farm) were given the following seeds: Amish Pie Squash, Sibley Squash, Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce, Tennis Ball Lettuce (grown at Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello!), Grandpa Admire's Lettuce, Speckled Lettuce, Moon and Stars Watermelon, Sheepnose Pimento Pepper, Jimmy Nardello's Pepper, Lina Cisco's Bird Egg Bean, Christmas Lima Bean, Red Fig Tomato, and Burbank Slicer.

We will be able to introduce them to the public through use at the restaurant AND at the Farmer's Markets! (Farmer Jeff ran downstairs to the sprouting room tonight to get the babies into sprouting trays. ) Most of the seeds are from the Seed Savers Exchange.

We didn't realize before tonight that we are already raising some of the items on the Ark of Taste list. We currently grow Sebastopol Gravenstein Apples, Meyer Lemons, Jacob's Cattle Beans and Cherokee Purple Tomatoes.

In addition to the fruits and vegetables, there are ...drum roll please...CHICKENS on the Ark of Taste list! We raise the following prized breeds: Jersey Giant (Bess), Plymouth Rock (Laverne and Shirley), and Wyandotte (Bebe and Cece). Go girls! (This is Cece)