Somehow, we have reached the end of August. The mornings last week were brisk; it only hit 87 degrees on Friday, and we all scratched our heads on Saturday as a light rain sprinkled down on our valley and left the fields and trees slightly less dusty than they were before.
As a seasoned resident of the Capay Valley, I know that we have not yet reached fall. In fact, we are currently passing through the middle of “fake fall” where the cooler mornings and slightly less busy days have us all drooling at the thought that the next season is not too far off. There are some perks that come with fake fall such as a jacket in the morning (which is often quickly discarded and forgotten until the next day) and giant white clouds that move lazily across the sky, often creating magnificent sunsets when they light up the sky with pinks and oranges. This fake fall also reminds us just how fleeting these last summer moments are and supercharges our efforts to preserve as much as possible.
The Farm Kitchen is bustling this time of year. Often, when I am working on flowers out in the field, I can forget that we have a beautiful certified kitchen that fills countless orders of sauces, olives, pickles, zucchini tea cakes, dried fruit, and jams. That is, until I can quite literally smell the aroma of sweet fruit being cooked down into jam wafting towards me. This time of year, it’s the smell of our fan-favorite tomato sauce. Our sauce is made with roma and Early Girl tomatoes that didn’t quite make our standards for orders. Slightly soft, sun damaged, or misshapen fruit gets cooked down for hours with Full Belly Farm herbs and salt before being jarred, labeled, and then stored away. This preservation will hopefully last us and our customers into next spring, allowing us to remember the sweetness of the tomatoes currently dripping from the vine.
As a member of the Full Belly Farm flower crew, “fake fall” means that we are surrounded by the incredible abundance of blooms in our summer flower fields, and the realization that there is not enough time in the day to preserve them all. For us, preserving flowers means hang-drying them in our Wreath Room where we naturally dry flowers by attaching them with rubber bands to wires across the ceiling. At the moment, the wires are heavy with amaranth, strawflower, broom corn, milo, celosias and marigolds. If it stays hot enough, we will continue to dry flowers for the next couple of months. These preserved flowers allow us to work with seasonal blooms year round, and remember the bright colors of the flower fields even in the midst of winter. In June, I released my book, Designing With Dried Flowers, to help readers learn all about preserving the seasons through drying flowers like we do. It also demonstrates what you can create with them once they have dried.
Along with the sweet aroma from the kitchen and vibrant views of the flower fields comes a much dustier job in preservation that began this last week. Almond harvest often reminds me of a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie; my dad often comes in from the orchards coated head to toe with a thick layer of dust that gets cast into the air from the tree shaking, and the nut gathering machines look like vehicles from a Mad Max movie – this video captures what it can look like. Despite the wildness of the harvesting scene, the creamy delicious butter that is made from simply grinding these almonds makes every dusty moment worth it.
If you too would like to partake in the preservation of this summer season you can get any of these items (including my book!) via the online web store or by stopping by one of our three farmers markets! And let us know how you are preserving these last summer days.
Hannah Muller
