~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You gotta love it - Timing and Lucky Breaks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am always amazed how all of us who live and work here tune in and juggle the many tasks the farm calls upon us to accomplish every day. Last week was a perfect example, when we all turned into a family of multi-tasking agrarian acrobats: juggling unpredictable weather conditions, and hosting 24 visiting Montessori high-schoolers from Cincinnati while organizing the start of our 15th CSA season. Each of us wears many hats, whether in the field, education garden, office, greenhouse, packing barn, at Farmer's Markets, on the tractors, or working with the animals. I am certain that the creativity, flexibility, dedication, patience and skill required from each one of us is only possible because we love the work we do.

Strawberries, which are the most vulnerable to water damage when they are ripe, had to get picked first thing on Tuesday morning before the rain moved in. Luckily the rain didn't materialize until about 9am; by that time, most of the ripe berries were picked, packed and safely stored in the cooler. As a result everyone got a basket with their first share of the season.  

In addition to all the harvesting for the Farmer's Markets and CSA shares, we also worked late on Wednesday to finish planting an acre of asparagus before the rain fell later that night. Luckily the rain amounts were less than expected, which allowed us to also plant Rhubarb with the high-schoolers on Thursday morning. I am grateful that we had the help of all the students, especially when we were running against the clock trying to plant a large field of potatoes on Friday morning, just hours before more rain moved in early Friday afternoon (see pictures in Jessica's Education Programs Update, below).

Every year in early Spring when our Warren Pear orchard starts blooming, some of us turn into human pollinators. For some still mysterious reason, this particular pear variety has poor fruit set when left to its own devices, so to ensure a reasonable harvest, every year we engage in this cumbersome courtship between us and the pears, which means dusting the flowers with pollen at least three times over the course of their bloom period. Successful pollination is largely dependent on the weather. Luckily, the week before last was sunny and we were able to make two applications, and then last week we had enough of a break between rain events to apply a third and final dusting of pollen. I'll keep you posted as to what the fruit set ended up being. (Above right, Jeff pollinates some pear trees.)

Another practice where timing is critical is weeding. It's the most critical with carrots, where if we miss the opportunity to eliminate weeds before the carrot seeds germinate we lose the crop. Carrots are sown directly into the ground and take approximately 8-14 days to germinate. Typically weed seeds will germinate before the carrots will, which means if the weed seedlings are not removed before the carrots emerge, the tiny carrot seedlings will be smothered before they have a chance to develop into carrots. Weeding carrots by hand is prohibitively time consuming. I was relieved when the seedbed where the carrots were sown into got "weed-flamed" just before this weekend's rains, since all the carrots had germinated when I checked this morning.  

In anticipation of our next plantings of cucumbers and tomatoes, it was also important all the field and soil preparations were finished before the soil got too wet again. Anticipating more rain, the best preparation is to hill up the soil - this is known as listing - so that when it rains the water will drain away, reducing compaction and the time one has to wait before being able to plant again. (Below, Juan prepares the big Kubota tractor to cover the potatoes; inset: Juanillo listing a bed with our small tractor.)

This may all sound pretty straightforward, but as a grower one needs to time things just right and keep a fine eye to details; the soil moisture has to be good (too wet and you get clods to last the summer), the shanks and shovels on the tractors have to be digging at the right depth (not too deep, not too shallow), and all the while you have to run the tractor in straight rows.

It's easy to romanticize farming when looking at the beauty of an apple blossom, however behind the beauty of every flower, sprouting seedling, tender shoot, root or fruit is a team of dedicated, hard working, skilled caretakers and stewards.

- Tom

About the apples
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some of you have had questions and comments about the apples, and so we wanted to provide you a bit more information, so that you understand the situation.

The apples you are receiving in your shares now were harvested last fall, when they were at their peak of ripeness and flavor. For each variety of apples, we pick all the fruit at once (some varieties ripen in early-fall, others late-fall), and then store them in our big coolers and bring them out in small batches over time to put in CSA shares and send to farmers markets. This system is not unique to our farm but rather is common practice with any apple grower. Apples are the cabbage of the fruit world, in that they can store well for long periods of time when chilled properly. (We could never do this with apricots or strawberries!) But like any fruit or vegetable, they don't last indefinitely, and quality will diminish over time. So the apples you are receiving now, although not at their crisp and succulent best like when they were first picked, are still good to eat and cook with.

When we prepare to pack your CSA boxes each week, we pull bins of apples out of cold storage and sort them, separating out any that are bruised or starting to go bad, in order to give you the best ones we have. The trouble is, we are sorting through thousands of apples at a time, and, being only human, sometimes a bruised or damaged apple will sneak past an otherwise watchful eye and end up in your box. There is also a phenomenon called "bitter pit" which is when an apple starts to go bad from the inside out. The outside looks perfectly fine. So when we are sorting apples, these may come through and end up in your box and we would not notice - which is as frustrating for us as it is for you! But we are constantly testing batches of apples to watch for this, and so if we saw too much of it, we would stop giving you apples, however it is not all that common.

Because our apples are near the end of their "shelf life", we are giving them to you in greater quantity, so that even if you should receive an occasional bruised or bad apple, you will still have plenty of other good ones! We hope you understand. The only other option is to cease giving anyone apples at all, and we feel that since they are mostly still good, that would be a waste. We want to give you the benefit of the additional fruit in your shares. We do, however, recommend keeping your apples refrigerated and eating them within a week or so; they will not keep out on a basket on your countertop the way a freshly-picked apple would in the fall.

Telling Small and Family Shares apart
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If there are no signs telling you which are which, you can always go by the color of the box: the Family boxes are white on all sides; the Small boxes are brown (with some white and blue printing on them). In this photo, the small shares are on the left, and there's a Family Share on the right. Note the binder: remember, you always want to look for that binder first, and see what's listed next to your name for what to take!

Where is my "Extra" or "Bounty" fruit?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For our eager fruit-arians out there, you will need to be patient a few more weeks yet. Remember, our fruit options - both 'Extra Fruit' and 'Fruit "Bounty"' - don't begin until May (the strawberries you're receiving right now are part of your Family or Small share). Usually "Extra Fruit" starts in early May, and then "Bounty" kicks in in mid-to-late May.

What's the difference between the two fruit options again?
Pay attention. There will be a test at the end of this newsletter. (Kidding!) ;-)

Extra Fruit = 29 contiguous weeks of fruit starting in May and running through the end of the season. It will be a generous quantity of fruit to supplement that which comes with your weekly share. This fruit option contains all the different fruit we grow, as it ripens, so at first it will be simply additional strawberries, but then as summer progresses you will see our other berries (blackberries and raspberries), and stone fruits (plums and apricots), and then in the fall, our delicious Warren pears and crispy fresh-picked apples in several varieties.

Fruit "Bounty" = 15 floating weeks of fruit starting sometime in late May. This option can contain any of the fruit in the Extra Fruit option; it all depends on what we have a 'bounty' of! We created this option so that more of you could receive additional fruit. Although we don't have enough fruit to promise everyone 'extra' all season, there are definitely times when we have a 'flush' of something, so to take advantage of that (and also to provide more members with supplemental fruit), we came up with this option. You will not know until you receive this newsletter whether you will have "bounty" fruit in a particular week.

Education Programs Update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week the farm welcomed, educated, and integrated 24 juniors and seniors from Clark Montessori High School, a group which came all the way from Cincinnati, Ohio. Fortunately the week turned out to be a lot less rainy than "they" were predicting, so while the group did get wet in the evenings, we enjoyed drier and productive days.  As with everything on the farm we all had to stay flexible, so that when the time was right and the fields were ready, we could seize the opportunity. 
 
On their first day we had planned a long stroll around the farm designed to introduce them to both the space and the sustainable agriculture concepts they would implement with their own hands in the coming days.  However, the asparagus field was dry, and ready to be plowed and planted so we directed our introductory walk to the asparagus field.  When we arrived, our plans changed again, because the tractor Juan was using to dig the trenches for the plants, was slipping through the damp and sandy soil.  In order to get trenches dug into that field he would have to go back for the crawler tractor.  So while we did not get to plant asparagus there and then, we found ourselves in a great spot to introduce Farmer Tom and talk about soil quality, then move through the lower fields and to the new barn, where we caught the team packing the very first CSA shares.  (Not to worry, those of you who plan to be CSA members long enough to enjoy that exciting new perennial crop we were supposed to plant -- David and a crew got that field planted later that afternoon, and we should be enjoying a growing asparagus crop in the spring seasons to come.)
 
Such flexibility, as demonstrated in that first afternoon with the high schoolers, has become my mantra while educating at Live Earth Farm.  I have learned to plan blocks of possible activities, rather than detailed schedules because in order to participate in the work happening on the farm you have to account for many factors, especially the weather.
 
Clark High School's visit progressed through rainy evenings and mostly dry days.  They held at least one camp fire, and luckily had a dry place to hang out, as they were the inaugural group to use our new breezeway education space in our old "upper barn".  We did a lot of work in the educational garden, getting several beds ready for planting, building new wattle walls, planting flowers, building arbors, and starting the long awaited herb spiral.  Those who were interested helped the farm's apprentices (Taylor, Molly, David, Jeff) with animal chores.  Clark and Wavecrest [our local Montessori with a weekly class on the farm] worked together to plant another exciting perennial crop - rhubarb - into very different soil from that of the asparagus field, on a nearby slope.  And we all went down to the Santa Cruz Farmer's market to learn about how some of our produce makes it out into the world, and to see the kind of community Live Earth Farm has come to thrive in.
 
All of the work and learning culminated in a fine day of planting potatoes into damp soil, just before Friday's afternoon rain, then preparing a pizza party mostly under cover of the breezeway.  We planted about an acre of Russian Banana and Yellow Finn potatoes on the very back of the property (see pictures, below), learning about the Irish Potato Famine and the thousands of varieties of potatoes grown in the Andes as we went.  Then we spent the afternoon building a fire, making dough, chopping kale and leeks, milking the goats and making cheese, squeezing lemons, chopping strawberries, and whipping cream.  And this is where I send a big shout out to the LEF apprentices who helped a lot throughout the week, and were integral to our Friday afternoon as they lead groups in these final tasks.
 
The pizza party was sweet and felt well earned.  Once again, in the final minutes of our closing circle, I was impressed to hear all of the things the Clark Montessori High School students learned during those few days on the farm.  Closing circles are illuminating because the students get a chance to express what mattered to them in all of the experiences we provided for them during their stay.  They digested a lot of information and experiences and will take a little bit of Live Earth Farm back to Cincinnati with them.  For leaving a bit of Cincinnati behind, thank you Clark Montessori High School.

Jessica Ridgeway
Director, Live Earth Farm Discovery Program


[Farmer Tom at lower left, orange jacket; Jessica in orange sweatshirt, at right, holding daughter Ophelia]

Understanding Gluten Sensitivity - lecture and cooking class at LEF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's demystify the subject of gluten sensitivity. This condition afflicts many more people than commonly thought, with affects in body systems beyond the G.I. tract.  Undiagnosed gluten sensitivity is the root cause of many cancers, autoimmune and neurological disorders, chronic pain syndrome, psychiatric and other brain disorders.  The lecture will cover the different types of gluten sensitivity, its various manifestations, testing options, and healing.

We will make and share a delicious, healthful gluten-free meal , and learn how to make the transition to eating  a gluten-free diet. Recipes, resources lists, and meal plans will be provided.

This workshop will be lead by Karen Haralson, M.A., N.C and Rebecca Mastoris, N.C., natural chef instructor at Bauman College

Date:  May 1, 2010
Time:  11-4
Place:  Live Earth Farm Barn Kitchen
Cost: $65
Contact:  Karen at 831-335-3245 or ktese@cruzio.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~