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A Time to Celebrate
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It never ceases to surprise me how rewarding it is to celebrate. Last Saturday's Solstice Celebration once again brought the farm alive with joy and excitement, sprinkled with many moments of magic and wonder.  It is one of four seasonal transitions where we stop for a brief moment in our busy lives to experience the interconnected- ness of community through the nourishing food that we grow and receive from this land.

The pictures capture some of the priceless moments of the event. As always the children brought the farm alive with their spontaneous and joyous energy. Besides harvesting sweet and juicy treats around the farm, children engaged in many other fun activities such as face painting, exploring the new strawbale fort, making ice-cream, baking bread, milking and turning the milk into goat cheese. Many were busy decorating paper hats and braiding garlic (see Farmer Tom's picture wearing gifts of handcrafted farm fashion) and of course the most popular was to spent time playing with the farm animals. Our two pigs, new to both the farm and the excitement of so many young visitors, had to endure being chased by small bands of young "hunters", whereas the baby goats enjoyed the attention letting themselves be petted and carried around.

Taylor, our intern, transformed herself into an Oracle (see pictures below), wildly dressed and decorated with colorful vegetables offering her vision of their 'Spirit Veggie' to anyone who cared to sit with her under the old apple tree. As is a tradition by now, both the Banana Slug String Band and Kuzanga Marimaba inspired us with music and lyrics to sing and dance to.  When it was time to eat, four long tables of delicious foods, gave expression to the generosity and appreciation for the land, and it's entire living community.  Thank you all for bringing such generous and wonderfully cooked dishes of food!!

It was nice to light a bonfire again, since last year we abstained, given the many wildfires that broke out all along the Santa Cruz Mountains. As the longest day of the year finally came to an end, Linnea, as in year's past, performed her graceful and inspiring fire dance. Once again the land wove it's magic to revitalize and nourish our bodies and spirits for the upcoming summer season. Many thanks to all who participated and helped to make this another great celebration.  -Tom

PS - Debbie's husband, Ken, has prepared another video of our celebration; not done in time to make this week's newsletter, but should be in next week's so stay tuned!

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One of my very favorite crops to grow are potatoes. This is the first harvest this year and the red color of these beautiful Red Caribe variety is really stunning.  When I joined the Peace Corps in Western Samoa (South Pacific 1985-1988), I introduced this crop to farmers in the higher elevations of the island. There are several thousand varieties that are native to the Andean mountains. Today the potato is the leading vegetable grown worldwide, cultivated everywhere from below sea level to 14,000 feet above. The Spaniards introduced the potato to Europe, however it was only slowly adapted at first since the potato is a member of the potentially poisonous nightshade family, same as your favorite tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. But soon the potato (considered the poor man's crop) was grown to protect against famine during times of war and grain crop failures. In some countries, such as Ireland, dependence on the potato grew until 1845 when the famous potato blight wiped out most of the crop and catalyzed a severe famine and massive immigration of Irish to the United States. The potato is an excellent source of complex carbohydrate and minerals, particularly potassium (providing the skin is consumed). They are also a good source of vegetable protein. Over the next few months you will receive Red Caribe a white fleshed variety, and Yellow Finn and Yukon Gold two yellow fleshed and creamier varieties. This week we are planting some more potatoes to harvest later in the fall.

Looking ahead....
The strawberries are slowing down, to the relief of some of you I assume, but soon we'll have apricots -- as early as next week -- plums, almost during the same time period, and lots more blackberries.

Helping Hands
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Every year apprentices enliven the farm in their own unique way and fill an important niche by helping us with the farm's heavy workload. For apprentices to learn first hand how to run a farm like ours can be overwhelming and demanding, while at the same they are challenged to integrate the new relationships and choices triggered by their intimate work with the land.  This week Molly offered to introduce herself, and just so you know, she will be stepping in as CSA coordinator while Debbie is off on a well deserved vacation.

My name is Molly Culver. You may have met me by the cob oven this past weekend! (See above picture of Molly baking, above, in newsletter.)
I was drawn to organic farming 5 years ago after spending a year in Santiago, Chile, where I saw how our increasingly globalized and industrialized food system was replacing traditional farming and drastically changing the average person's relationship to their food. Beautiful open-air, centrally located markets where farmers sold direct to consumers were becoming a thing of the past while shiny, freezing cold, new supermarkets kept appearing, though only in wealthier neighborhoods.  I wanted to return to the US and engage in work to reshape our food system, with the hopes that by rebuilding a local food system, we might enable other countries and communities to return to more localized food systems as well. I spent my first months back in the US volunteering at an urban farm, and later found work in New York City coordinating a new CSA program in the South Bronx. We also began growing vegetables in community gardens and started a new farmers market to help bring fresh, organic produce into one of the poorest, most underserved neighborhoods in the country. I fell in love with growing my own food and sharing that experience with others.
I love the experience of being on a larger, working farm. Live Earth Farm is an amazing place, because it offers such a variety of fruits and vegetables, but also because of how many people are supporting it, and how many families it is producing fresh food for - so inspiring! I am very excited to start my own CSA farm one day soon.  -Molly

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