"...Help us to devote our whole life and thought and energy to the task of making peace, praying for the inspira-tion and the power to fulfill the destiny for which we were created."
--from Week of Prayer for World Peace, 1978

What’s in the box this week:

... and if you have an extra-fruit share:
Apples (Pippin and Fuji) and dried tomatoes

CALENDAR


Last shares (Week 30) will be the week of November 19. All members (incl. Los Gatos & Willow Glen) will pick-up on Weds Nov. 21, and must call farm by Sunday Nov. 18 to confirm they want to receive this last share (see detailed explanation in body of newsletter, above)

EVERYONE PLEASE READ:

1) IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR LAST SHARE FOR THE SEASON
For the last share of the season (Week 30/Thanksgiving week) ALL SHARES, both Wednesday's AND Saturday's, will be delivered on Wednesday Nov. 21st, the day before Thanksgiving. Los Gatos and Willow Glen shares will be available for pickup by 11am; everyone else's will be available at the normal pickup time.

Because last season so many members did not bother to pick up their shares at all Thanksgiving week (the last share of the season), we are changing our procedure this year so as not to waste your time, our time, and a bunch of beautiful organic produce!

*** We ask that EVERY MEMBER call us at 831.763.2448 no later than Sunday Nov. 18th to confirm whether you will or will not be picking up your share on Weds. the 21st (the day before Thanksgiving; your last share for the season). ***

If we don't hear from you, our assumption will be that you don't want your share and it will be donated.

2) ANNUAL CSA MEMBER SURVEY
There should be a member survey inside everyone's share box this week (and extra copies nearby for participants who split their share with other members!). We hope each of you will take the time to complete and return it to us. There will be a special box at each pick-up location ready and waiting for your completed surveys this week and the next two weeks (but not Thanksgiving week). Thank you!!!

What's Up on the Farm
Happy Halloween from all of us here at the farm. Our pumpkin patch has dwindled considerably as more than 150 children and adults visited the farm last week. We are left with the 'light' of their excitement, laughter and insatiable curiosity. This week we are expecting our first significant rainfall of the season, so all our efforts are geared towards getting the farm winter-ready. We are preparing the land for its winter cover crop, adding soil amendments, and broadcasting the cover crop seed. By the end of November we will have planted over 25,000 strawberry plants and 1000 golden raspberry plants, plus garlic, fava beans and onions in preparation for next year’s spring crop. Enjoy the blessings of our first rain!!! And please read on for farewell greetings from our two interns this season: Kara and Dorle.

Hello faithful CSA Members! This is Kara Brown, one of the apprentices that spent this season on the farm. As the season slows down, and autumn makes itself known with its foggy mornings, I would just like to take a moment to thank all of you who support such a wonderful program. Before leaving the east coast last year, a popular question was, well, what will you do on the west coast? Not knowing exactly where I would land, I did know that after teaching others of herbal medicine, managing a health food store, and cooking vegetarian & vegan food for myself & others for many years, it was time to return to where holistic living all started for me: growing and connecting to the plants that taught me so much. It was also important to create a way to connect with the new community I was moving to. So, months later, it is obvious that coming to Live Earth Farm was a perfect opportunity for me.

Not to say that there weren't some surprises involved! How was I to know HOW MANY tomatoes needed to be harvested? or HOW MANY weeds needed to be plucked? I can only giggle to myself when I think of how I believed farming was going to give me more time to paint or sculpt and to constantly be inspired. Hee hee!

I would have thought my favorite interest would have been the wonderful abundance of yummy food that I was able to witness growing and multiplying and feeding hundreds of people...all from the tiny seeds that were sown in the spring. What a wonderful miracle! But the best surprise came when I started to connect with the flowers. As the world around us dissipates in seeming chaos after 9/11, I was so thankful to be in a beautiful safe place cutting flowers and making bouquets, and feeling like the earth was whispering to me to remind me that it is so important to just be right now. To be simple and know that it is important to bring beauty into people's homes is enough. Art being my first love, I can now say I have tons of inspiration and am grateful to spend the winter to get to work playing with all the colors that I was able to witness in the fields this summer. Thank you all for participating in this experience! And of course thank you Tom, Constance, David, and all the other Live Earth Farmers, from Dorle to Peanut to the field crew and of course, the Land Itself, for a wonderful experience!

Hi, I am Dorle - the German intern! By the time you read this I will be back home, but I promised Tom I would share my experiences with you before I left. Having been in California for the last six months was one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. I learned a lot about the organic concept of farming in California. I enjoyed so much working on the farm (and being outside all the time) and doing the market in Willow Glen -- additionally taking care of the animals on the farm, milking the goat every morning and making soft cheese, baking bread in Toasty (the bread oven) and being surrounded by very nice people all the time. For myself I grew a lot in that time and learned a lot about myself. Going back to Germany means looking for a job in my field of interest (Horticulture), hopefully in the organic vegetable business, and starting to work! It was nice to meet many of you over the course of the season. I will miss California and its people but I know that I will come back, maybe sooner than I think?!?

Member to Member Forum
Only three more issues after this one – get your last communiqués in to the rest of the membership while you can!!

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 (click here) by Monday morning 10am to get it into that 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).

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

More member-submitted recipes!
- Debbie.

from Stephanie Flora of Moss Landing:
Pumpkin Mushroom Soup

2 C boiling water
2 lg. onions, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3 C chopped fresh mushrooms
1 tsp. fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp. dry
1 1/2 tbsp. fresh sage or 2 tsp. dry
dash of nutmeg
1/4 C dry sherry
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 C veggie stock
4 C pureéd cooked pumpkin
(or a 29 oz. can)
salt and pepper to taste
optional milk or half & half

In soup pot sauté onions in oil 5 to 10 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, mushrooms, thyme and sage and sauté until mushrooms are soft, about 5-10 minutes more. Stir in nutmeg, sherry and soy sauce. Sauté a bit more. Add veggie stock and heat almost to a boil. Stir in pumpkin pureé and 2C boiling water. Add salt, pepper and milk. (Stephanie says, "I don't like chunky soups so I pureé it all at the end. Also, I add twice as much pumpkin as the recipe calls for!")

from Vaiva Bichnevicius of Aptos, who says she wishes she discovered this recipe sooner as it is so good (and it sounds really easy too! – Debbie):
Cream of Fresh Green Bean
from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Steam 1 1/2 pounds of green beans until just tender and bright green. Blend with 2 cups of milk (Vaiva says, "I used fresh almond milk - WOAH!!") and optional chives, basil, salt, pepper. Heat and serve, or chill and serve.

and from me (Debbie):
Another quick-and-tasty use for Kale

This is one I made up a while back, and it's a no-brainer (for those cooking days when you feel like you've got no brain left by dinnertime)! All you do is wash, de-stem, coarsely chop and steam the kale until wilted, then serve it alongside baked beans and sauerkraut! The kale works nicely with the 'pickle' of the sauerkraut and the sweet of the beans. You can eat it just like that, or you non-vegetarians can add a grilled or pan-browned pork or lamb chop, or some kind of tasty sausage. Vegetarians, try a batch of buttered, cooked grains, maybe with some toasted nuts.

*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.