"Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
- John Muir

What’s in the box this week:

... and if you have an extra-fruit share:
Berries and pears

A moment for Peace: Finding a way to come to terms with the reality of this inconceivable act of brutality which was unleashed upon the American and World community last week is and will be a difficult and transformative process. Amidst the torrent of emotional confusion running through my mind and body, I joined the millions of people around the world by lighting a candle in prayer. We all struggle to find a space of inner peace that will allow us to redirect the power of this event into compassion, and a deeper connection with the essential goodness of human- kind and the peaceful energy of the earth. I found peace in the laughter and innocent joy of my son David, in the embrace of loved ones, in the eye of a sunflower, the root of a red beet, the baking of bread. As a community that shares nature's gifts of food which grow on this land, may we all take a moment and be mindful of the healing power of these gifts. My wish and prayer is that amidst this tragedy we discover within ourselves, and as a community of people, the transformative power of love and peace.

I welcome everyone to join us this Saturday the 22nd to celebrate and express the light of peace amidst the darkness, as we transition into our Fall season.


What's Up on the Farm
Last Saturday everyone who works on the farm, along with their families, came together to prepare and share a meal. It was a nice distraction and a moment to acknowledge the effort and dedication of everyone who brings this farm alive by growing and caring for the crops that nourish us every week. We baked bread in the wood-fired oven, and made "birria" a traditional Mexican dish made with goat meat. You can all guess where the goat meat came from...

We are planning to plant a 800-foot hedgerow along the western edge of the property with a mix of trees, perennial shrubs, grasses, and flowers to enhance our wildlife and beneficial insect habitat. It will bring an element of wilderness to the farm which we believe will help increase the diversity and biotic stability of the farm.


Member to Member Forum
Nothing this week.

If you wish to communicate something to the rest of the CSA membership, or start a dialog among members on a particular topic, you may use this forum to do so. Please submit info to the editor (see below) by Sunday to get it into the following week’s issue. Keep in mind that members don't receive newsletters until the following Wednesday and Saturday (if you're reporting on a timely event).


Crops and Critters
The tomatoes on the farm are quickly dying off as we are experiencing cool and moist coastal conditions. The disease that thrives under these conditions, and which is currently affecting our tomatoes, is called "Late Blight". It is the same fungus which destroyed the potato crop leaving most Irish households without their staple food crop a century or so ago, causing widespread famine and the immigration of millions of Irish people into this country. In our case, however, since we have been enjoying a wonderful tomato harvest since early July, at this stage in the season we do not try to control it.

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

Like everyone else, I am having a difficult time getting anything done, in light of the current situation. It is like trying to not think about the elephant in the room. Talk of war is disquieting, and invades and distracts my thoughts. But life continues for the moment, and so shall I. I pulled out a cookbook I hoped would inspire me with recipes, but instead I found a passage I remembered that I loved, because it resonated so with my own philosophy about cooking. So this week, instead of a recipe, I am going to share this delightful passage with you. - Debbie

From "Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings," a book of recipes and reflections by Edward Espe Brown, author of "The Tassajara Bread Book" and co-author of "The Greens Cookbook." The bit I am going to share with you is excerpted from a section entitled, "Acting on Your Own Recognizance."

Who says you can't cook? I give you permission. You can look with your eyes and feel with your hands, smell with your nose and taste with your tongue. You can think and create, be inspired, or stumble along. You keep finding your way.

...You can learn many things about "cooking," about ingredients, cutting, combinations, and procedures, but even more fundamentally you can learn to act on your own experience, outside of recipes, relying on your innate capacity to taste and sense and decide for yourself what you like. By this I do not mean follow your "instincts," which seems to me a rather amorphous concept, but being present, carefully observing the obvious, acquainting your palate with your palette.

When I helped Deborah Madison write The Greens Cookbook we worked very hard to produce a well-crafted manuscript. She edited the recipes on which I worked, and I edited her recipes. Then the two of us went through all the material together, and finally we went through the whole manuscript with a cookbook editor, checking everything: Does Parmesan have a capital "P" every time it is used? Is that "4" or "four"? We thought we had a highly polished draft, so we were dismayed when the manuscript came back with numerous pink press-apply labels sticking out the right side.

Where we had written, "Cook the onions until they are translucent," the little label would read, "How long?" Where we had written, "Season to taste with vinegar," the question was, "How much?" Deborah and I were pretty frustrated and annoyed because we were trying to teach people to COOK!, not by following directives but by paying attention to the process. We were giving out visual and sensory cues, not times and amounts. Are you going to cook by looking at the food or by looking at the clock?

Finally we came to a recipe in the pasta section where we had written, "Cook the vegetables until they are as tender as you like," and our editor asked, "How long? How do we know?" We threw up our hands. "If you don't know what you like, who does?" we raged at the heavens, or "Establish a standardized 'chew' which you will use to test whether or not something is 'tender' then place food in mouth and apply standardized 'chew'. If standardized chew manages to divide food in mouth, call that 'tender,' say you 'like it' by definition.

But clearly there is no definitive answer. You just have to wing it and feel for yourself. You're the expert on whether or not you like something. You have eyes and ears, a nose and a mouth, likes and dislikes (which can be revised sometimes). You can learn to trust your own taste, which will change and develop, get tired or be stimulated, as you go along.

*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.