Mendocino Organics CSA

Movin’ Along

pasm — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:58:46 +0000

Check it out. This is how we move along our pigs onto the livestock trailer:

Our dogs – sometimes helpful, sometimes not – move along our sheep toward a corral:

Our high tunnel has helped us move along some early spring produce:

The change of pace in April and May is sooooo refreshing. It’s exhausting, yes, but exhilarating, as we can verifiably see the vegetables increase in size each day, the lambs grow rotund full bellies from eating green grass all day, and we’re finally sending our heritage hogs (slower growing than CAFO-type hogs) off to the butcher.

May 15 – Deadline to Join the Veg CSA

pasm — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:40:07 +0000

This was yesterday’s harvest; yes, we had a lovely dinner including lamb chops and lentils. If you are seeking a truly flavorful and fresh farm-to-table dinner such as this, now is the time to join our vegetable CSA!

We are greatly undersold this year, but to be fair with the shareholders who signed up on time (late winter!), we have a cut-off date to join: May 15. Join soon; after May 15, we cannot accept any more shareholders!

Eat well (and join our CSA!),

Paula & Adam

A Few Snapshots of Early April

pasm — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:46:33 +0000

Can we say, “Hallelujah!” As in, hallelujah, we have sun! The kale is taking off, as are the peas, lettuce, spinach, and more. The sheep are finishing off the cover crop in the last block of wine grapes before the vines start budding out. And every other week, we’re hauling off hogs, which are eating a LOT (like you’d expect pigs to do!). AND, we have our first batch of meat chickens in the brooder, who were a big hit with the kids at Barra of Mendocino’s recent Earth Day Family Festival.

Want to visit with us and taste some goodies from the farm? Come see us at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland on Saturday, April 21 from 11am – 5pm for the Inland Mendocino Earth Day Festival. Adam is excited to make a romesco sauce to go with our grilled spring onions. Paula is looking forward to wearing her new apron while giving samples of Berkshire pork. It will be fun this Saturday.

Here are a few photos from earlier this month, so things have grown since then. We just haven’t had time to snap many pictures this week! We’ll try harder next time

setting up the brooder for chicks

building a feeder for the hogs

spinach in the high tunnel

lettuce in the high tunnel

can you tell the difference between leeks...

...onions...

...and garlic?

salad turnips

peas

Happy Easter

pasm — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:38:12 +0000

Rejoice in the good life and what is given to us…like fresh overwintered onions, Italian dandelion, rich soil, crisp air, and graceful mountains.

We now have a monthly e-newseltter

pasm — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:10:54 +0000

Sign up to receive our monthly e-newsletter. Find out what’s in season, special promotions, where to find our food, and pertinent food & farm news! Just go to the link and enter your email address.

http://eepurl.com/ktA31

Crafty Sheep

pasm — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:42:25 +0000

Rain soaked ground = fence down = movin’ on to greener pastures!

From Winter to Spring

pasm — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:35:08 +0000

This week’s rain is a reminder that it’s not quite spring yet, although we’ve sprung forward our clocks and flowers and trees are starting to bloom. We’re in that transition period, where we’re not harvesting much produce. Recently, we started cultivating ground and transplanting seedlings in Potter Valley. Before we could do that, we wanted to clear out the winter crops so that there would be less organic matter needing to break down in the soil. All the crop residue – about two heaping trailer loads – went to our livestock. They were happy!

There was also a small amount of cabbage which went to some good folks making sauerkraut.

With our Ford 5600, we got a couple fields spaded and disked. Before this week’s rain, on Monday, we were able to get in a bit of kale and broccoli. Let’s hope for sunshine and warm weather soon after this rain, so those crops can start growing, and so we can do more planting.

Farm Fact of the Week

This might be more of a food fact, but, did you know that making sauerkraut from super freshly-harvested cabbage is the best? They have more moisture and naturally have a lot of the active bacteria on the outside, which is needed to break the cabbage down in fermentation. If you have not tried simple, homemade sauerkraut, you are missing out! We have a nice crock from Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, which are ideal for fermenting vegetables.

If you join our Vegetable CSA, you will be the first to know about fresh cabbage ready for harvest and kraut-making. CSA members will get dibs on bulk orders of cabbage, processing tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, potatoes, and more, so sign up today! We have enough room for 100 members this year, but don’t delay.

Greenhorns Book

pasm — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:56:39 +0000

Coming in April of this year!

Scoops of info about the Vegetable CSA

pasm — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:10:08 +0000

A few people have asked, and we just want to clarify – YES, we are amenable to payment plans for the Vegetable CSA! Whether you want to do $100- or $80-installments, or something else, just let us know. Don’t be shy about asking. We want to farm organic vegetables just as much as you want to eat them. Maybe more. So we want to make it work. And a suggestion from another CSA farm: send post-dated checks. It’s like automatic withdrawals, so of.

Also, we have been in touch with the Regenerative Design Center in Mendocino, and they are willing to host a distribution site there. So sweet. Here’s to community organizing. They are hosting a seed exchange and Farm-to-Table dinner on Friday, March 23. Mendocino Organics will be there, and you should, too.

A Short Farm Update

We’ve got our Ford tractor serviced. We finally bought our own equipment trailer. No rain and lots of sun this week. So we should be tilling up the ground, doing our field sprays (BD 500), and putting transplants in the ground. Peas are going in the ground. We got a new Earthway seeder to seed arugula, radishes, and turnips. We’ll be clearing out the field of winter brassicas to seed carrots, beets, and spinach. We are March-ing right into spring. Please support us in our endeavors by joining the CSA and co-create a beautiful landscape of food and fill your bellies with flavorful vegetables this year!