Harvesting the Heirloom Tomatoes that we put into your CSA boxes. Those little carts that we built really help us get the tomatoes out of the field —
This has been a sad and scary week for many of our friends facing this astonishing explosion of wildfires all over northern California. At this point we still don’t even know the full extent of what has been lost. The Community Alliance with Family Farmers has relaunched its California Family Farmer Emergency Fund, offering direct support to the agricultural community, in particular small farms and those falling through the cracks of traditional safety nets. We know that CAFF will make sure that every donated dollar will count.
State Highway 16 that runs through the Capay Valley held the eastern edge of the LNU Complex fire all of last week continuing into this week. The fire crept over the Blue Ridge and down towards the Valley floor, closer and closer to trailers, homes and barns. CalFire had its hands full on so many other fronts that it wasn’t until day three, when a few structures had burnt, that CalFire was able to offer any support, and even then there were no air resources. Once here, CalFire conducted several effective backburn fires — controlled burns that reduce fuel.
The scene at the Rumsey Capay Valley Fire Protection District station.
We are incredibly lucky to have several local Fire Departments (the Capay Valley Volunteers and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation). It wasn’t only the trained fire-fighters, but also many local volunteers who cleared fire breaks around houses and got water running in order to protect homes and barns. Things could have gone very differently without quick action from the home grown crew. As word got out, our locals were joined by volunteer crews from throughout the region. We are thanking them with all our hearts — they worked in high temperatures and unbelievably long shifts.
Thank you to all our members for your support and well wishes.
— Judith Redmond
Our cherry tomato plants are loaded!
Have you ever had our Full Belly-grown organic sesame seeds? (They are available through our on-line store.) We have really enjoyed growing this crop and learning more about it — it is beautiful at all stages of its growth.
