Theme: winter break

During the Full Belly winter break I visited Mexico with friends and we took a bit of a road trip between Puebla and Oaxaca. Oaxaca is an amazing center of both biological and cultural diversity.  During our drives along windy mountainous roads, avoiding major highways, we enjoyed vistas of subtropical cactus forests, and in the villages and towns we enjoyed the rich cuisine based on native plants. [Read more…]

Your CSA box this week is the last for 2017.  Our CSA deliveries will start again in the week of January 8th. Frankly, we hope that you really miss us — We are YOUR family farmers and your source of fresh, local, organic veggies.  We try to create a surprise, a challenge and an inspiration each week. Should we put leeks in the box?  Or maybe our members would rather see something different and unusual, like the tat soi… Should we put broccoli in again?  It’s a staple kind of crop — people know what to do with it, maybe they would like another week of broccoli?  We want to be the muse that inspires your daily meals!  These vegetables that we send you didn’t come from a faceless, nameless wholesale supplier, they didn’t come from a factory, they came direct from our fields, harvested by hand, by people that care, that show up at dawn every morning motivated by the challenge of keeping the crops healthy and by the beauty of stewarding the few acres of land that we are so lucky to call home.

During the next few weeks, there may be some deep cleaning in barns and offices, and there may be some crops that require harvest.  Certainly the pigs, cows, sheep and hens will get all the care that they need. There may be some meetings, planning and analysis of the year 2017. But the rhythm of marketing, harvest, packing and delivery is going to be on hold for a few weeks. Only a small crew will be on hand and with the cold short nights, the growth of most of the crops in the field will slow to a winter pace.   [Read more…]

Full Belly Break

I have family in Japan, living in Chiba City, about 45 minutes from Tokyo (using the efficient trains). During the Full Belly break, my husband and I had the wonderful experience of spending 2-weeks traveling with family, visiting Kyoto on the main island, and also several places on the smaller islands of Naoshima, Shikoku and Kyushu.

When we travel, we like to try new foods and avoid “westernized” restaurants. In Japan, this can result in experiencing startlingly new and foreign textures and flavors. Slimy, crunchy and chewy textures abound. Meals are usually presented as lots of small plates, rather than one main dish with sides. It was not at all uncommon to have a meal presented to our group at an Inn, or at a home we were visiting, for us to have no idea what some of the dishes were. Perhaps some form of soy? Or fish? Or maybe egg? [Read more…]

While many holidays during the year pass the Farm by with barely a nod of acknowledgement from the busy fields, our farming cycles coincide well with year-end holiday traditions. The end of the year is a good time for reviewing the 12 months that we just passed through and the four seasons coming up.  We are closing last year’s accounts and opening up those for the new year, both literally and figuratively.

Together we can review the crops that we liked, versus those that weren’t as well received, or didn’t work out as well as we had hoped.  Plans for new building and landscaping projects seem to bubble up with new strength.  Experiments for our spring fields get hatched and take root.  We think about ways to build even better soil, grow even more flavorful fruit, and organize an even more harmonious and attentive work environment.  We resolve that we will make this a year of no accidents at work, a year in which all the farm animals will be completely comfortable and happy, and of course a year when all the CSA boxes will hit a home run in your kitchen week after week after week!

[Read more…]