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What's in the Boxes
Regular ShareBox
Carrots
Celery
Green Beans
Kale
Lettuce
Onions, Red
Peppers, Sweet
Squash, Winter
Tomatoes, Dry-farmed
Small ShareBox
Apples
Carrots
Celery
Green Beans
Lettuce
Onions, Red
Peppers, Sweet
Squash, Winter
Tomatoes, Dry-farmed
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Farm News & Tom's Reflections
Newbies on the Farm: a Bug, a Truck and a Cow!
 Let's start with the "bad bug" news. The prolonged heat wave we experienced last week may have extended the harvest of dry-farmed tomatoes, green beans and peppers for a few more weeks but on the flipside it also attracted a new exotic heat loving insect pest, a stink bug called Bagrada. This African native has already spread to many parts of the world, and was first spotted in Southern California in 2008. With a preferential and voracious appetite for plants belonging to the mustard family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts, chinese cabbage, arugula, bok choi, etc.) it has recently arrived in the Central Coast. Without natural enemies and no effective organic control methods yet identified, we are facing a challenging situation.
 On a more positive note, last week we welcomed the arrival of Bella, our first Milking Cow. Bella is owned by a group of members, and lives in the pastures together with our ponies. I milk her twice a day, and she has been giving an abundance of delicious creamy milk. Writing my part of the newsletter might be bit compromised, though. I like to write early in the morning, the same time Bella needs to be milked. I hope you all understand!!  The farm at long last has its own refrigerated delivery truck. It couldn't have come at a better time. With farm deliveries happening almost every single day of the week, many going all the way to San Francisco, we now have both more flexibility in our schedules and, most importantly, our produce quality is less compromised. This truck, a 2015 Mitsubishi, is brand new. It gives us better gas mileage, has no harmful emissions (water vapor and Nitrogen), and replaces our older trucks which will retire to serve more local and on-farm hauling needs. Read more on our web site
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CSA Program News
In farming you never know...
 Last week when we received an email from Lisa Knudson, the owner of Pasture Chick Ranch, I knew it couldn't be good news. Lisa, who has supplied our CSA with delicious eggs from her pastured hens for the last few years, is suddenly facing a shortage due to the fact that all her productive flocks are molting and going through their cyclical slow down much earlier than anticipated. At the same time, her newer and younger hens are not laying yet to offset the drop in production. She is really sorry, and sincerely apologizes to all our members who have been receiving her eggs. At this point there will be no eggs for the rest of the season, and we are also not planning to offer any egg options for the winter either due to pending uncertainties in her production. We will reach out to other producers and keep you posted since we plan to offer eggs as they are available on a week-by-week ordering basis. Thank you for your understanding!
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Fall Harvest Festival
Pumpkin Patch & Apple Bash
Saturday, October 25th
from 2:00pm till Dark
Honor the changing of the seasons and celebrate the Harvest with us on the farm. Join us for a fun day for the whole family. Activities include: tractor rides, a pie contest, pumpkin decorating, apple cider making, cob oven baking, face painting, local beer, sausages and kraut, potluck, live music, sunset bonfire, and lots more. Click here for more info and to sign up
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Rebecca's Recipes
Lemon-Light Carrots
Rebecca Mastoris is a chef/teacher at Bauman College, and a partner with Karen Haralson in Vibrant Foods Catering. Both Karen and Rebecca teach cooking classes here at the Farm and at Let's Cook! Santa Cruz. Go to VibrantFoodsCatering.com for more information and to register.
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