"Give me a sense of humor,
give me the grace to see a joke,
to get some pleasure out of life
and pass it on to other folk."
- Anonymous

What’s in the box this week:

... and if you have an extra-fruit share:
3 additional baskets
of strawberries

It is Open Farm Day this Saturday, May 19th from 1-5pm. Please drop by and bring your friends. This is always a wonderful opportunity for us to share a moment with the people who receive the bounty of this farm. The kids are free to run around, pick strawberries, ride on Peanut, sing songs and listen to music, stroll through the fields with farmer Tom, and play with the baby goats. Also, we still need more members and this is a great way to spread the word about our CSA and invite people you know who might be interested. Hope to see you all on Saturday!! - Tom

What's Up on the Farm
Many ask me what a day on a farm is like. Here is a snapshot of a spring day for Farmer Tom. At the crack of dawn the birds are the first to welcome the new day and tell me to get up. Walking the farm early in the morning helps me connect with the land, the crops, animals, and the weather. I like to do that before everyone else is awake. At 7 o’clock work starts with a short meeting at the barn with the farmworkers to check in with each other and prioritize the workload. Early morning is the best time to harvest and start watering the plants. I have breakfast with my son David before Constance brings him to school (1st Grade). Right now all the peach and apple trees need to be thinned. Leeks and lettuce need to be planted. Today, we do our weekly sowings of lettuce, broccoli, flowers, and green beans. An order of strawberries and flowers needs to be picked and delivered to Santa Cruz. I have a list in my pocket reminding me that the carrots and beets are waiting to be thinned, the spinach needs weeding and the spring grass is waist high and needs mowing. I notice the pickup truck has a flat tire. On the radio the weather forecast calls for record high temperatures, and 15 new messages are on the answering machine in the office. I recognize the familiar feeling of being overwhelmed as I drive off to get the tire fixed. But then I smile as I pass by the baby goats playing joyfully, and I pop a sweet, juicy strawberry into my mouth. This leaves me with a feeling of thankfulness.

Crops and Critters
Spider Mite Attack: No it’s not the latest Hollywood sci-fi movie. Last week, during the heat spell , I spotted the first two-spotted spider mites in our strawberries (they thrive in heat and dusty conditions). These little insects if left unchecked will bring the strawberry production to a halt. Luckily our best defense is to release another mite (Persimmillis) which will keep them in check. The key is to notice them early to prevent an outbreak.

Member to Member Forum
I have been a member, and frequent visitor to the farm for 4 years now, and I just wanted to share some of the delight that can be yours with a visit to the farm. A couple weeks ago, I stopped by, unannounced to buy some strawberries for a special occasion. I had my two-and-a-half year old daughter with me. We knew the goats were about ready to have their babies, so on the way in we slowed down in front of the goat pen, and were excited to see 3 (!) new little goats resting in the sunshine. They had been born just the night before. We hurried in to welcome them, and spent the next hour or so petting them and watching them scamper after their mother on their wobbly little legs. She was quite full of milk, but being a first time mother, did not quite have all the details figured out yet. She would not stand still long enough for them to nurse, so we also got to help her learn how to relieve her overfull udder. While gently petting the mom, we encouraged the little ones to suck and soon mom and babies were both happy. My daughter, who is still nursing a little herself, was completly tuned in to the whole situation and gently stroked the little ones as they nursed. A couple days later I brought my son up to see the newborns and we were thrilled to find three more new little goats in the pen, born only two hours before we arrived! What a great experience! The new little goats nuzzled us and explored their new world, while their mothers chewed their cuds, and relaxed in the sunshine. Before we left, the kids collected a few strawberries from the strawberry patch, we dug up a few camomile plants from the driveway to put in a corner of our garden and we brought home a beautiful bouquet of peruvian lilies and foxglove. Every visit, no matter what season, has something to offer and special surprises even to frequent visitors. (I haven't tried rolling in the strawberries, maybe I'll try that next time.) - Sara Lyon, accompanied on these visits by Rowan and Willow Limbach.

Remember, if you wish to communicate something to the rest of the CSA membership, such as Sara Lyon has done above, please do so. This is your forum, so please feel free to use it! We welcome stories, event info, dialogs... whatever you feel you’d like to share. To submit something to be included here, please contact the newsletter editor (see contact info below) by Sunday to get your info into the following week’s newsletter.

Crop of the Week
Carrots: (Daucus Carota) The carrot belongs to a large family of friends -- more than 2500 of them. A few which are more common to us are parsley, celery, parsnip, cilantro, fennel, caraway, and dill. The carrot originated in Middle Asia, first eaten by the hill dwellers in Afghanistan. The early-cultivated varieties were purple and pale yellow. The first orange varieties did not appear until the 1600’s in the Netherlands. Although carrots are both popular and plentiful, they are not easy to grow, requiring a lot of attention and work. Carrots need the right soil, ph balance, compatible seed varieties, moisture for proper germination, thinning and successive plantings to enjoy throughout the season. We choose varieties that do better in heavy soils and they will often look a bit crooked. They are very high in vitamin A and beta carotene, the substance responsible for their orange color. Enjoy these crunchy sweet treats and when you’re at the farm try to pull one out of the ground!!

Notes from Debbie’s Kitchen . . . . . . . . Have a recipe you’d like to share? Contact the newsletter editor.

This is a recipe from last year that sounded like it was worth repeating based on this week’s box contents! Hope you enjoy it -- I’ll be making it, that’s for sure! - Debbie

Beet Arugula Salad

diced cooked beets
bulghur
feta cheese, crumbled
freshly washed arugula leaves

This 'recipe' came to me verbally, with no quantities or instructions, but it was the interesting combination of ingredients that tempted my taste buds. So I'll give you a general idea of how I'd prepare it. Cook the beets any way you like -- boil, peel and dice, or roast, peel and dice. Plump the bulghur by pouring boiling water and a bit of salt over it (2C water per 1C bulghur) in a bowl; let stand, covered, about 30 minutes until water is absorbed and grain is nice and chewy (drain off any water that remains). Stir in the beets and feta, then toss in the arugula (you can leave the leaves whole, or coarsely chop them/tear them into bite-sized pieces). Although there was no indication that this salad had any sort of dressing, my gut feeling is that it probably does, so I might dress it with a simple blend of fresh lemon juice and olive oil, and maybe some salt (you shouldn’t need much salt, since feta is usually salty, but taste it and see). A pretty presentation would be to serve a mound of this colorful salad on a nice big lettuce leaf.

If you're looking for some ideas on quantities and proportions... let's say for a salad for about four people, I'd use 1 cup of bulghur (remember, it almost triples in volume when 'plumped'), 3 medium or 4-5 small beets, 1/4 - 1/3 cup crumbled feta, and a large handful of rinsed/dried arugula. For the dressing... about 2 tbsp. lemon juice to 3 tbsp. olive oil. A nut oil, such as walnut oil, would be a nice addition, only don't substitute it for the full amount of the salad oil, only for about 1/3 of it.

*Click Here* for a link to a comprehensive listing of recipes from Live Earth Farm's newsletters going back as far as our 1998 season! You can search for recipes by harvest week OR by key ingredient. Recipe site is updated weekly.