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Childhood joy in abundance for all at our Solstice Celebration
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I had a flashback to my own childhood when on Saturday, at the beginning of our Solstice Celebration, I was showing a young boy how to plant pumpkin seeds in the ground. I remember helping my mother in her garden where I had a little patch of dirt of my own. Planting seeds and waiting for them to germinate, then caring for the vulnerable sproutlings until they were mature and ready for harvest are vivid childhood memories. I remember planting lettuce seedlings and watching them grow and bolt into inedible bitter stalks, and proudly bringing them into the kitchen for my mother to prepare into something. I had to laugh when I recently dug up a picture my mother gave me of holding a white hen in my arms when I was 4 years old -- it was almost as big as I was! I still remember sitting with her, by her nest in a tall clump of ferns, hidden from everyone's sight but mine. She would willingly let me place my hand underneath her to see if she had already laid her egg, and if she hadn't and I was patient enough, she'd lay one right into my hand. If I scratch the now imaginary surface of that little garden patch, it is probably where my enthusiasm for farming started. As I turn 48 today I am grateful for life to have given me the opportunity to farm and still be engaged in what has delighted and brought me the most joy since I was a little boy.

The Solstice Celebration on Saturday buzzed with activities all day and, as always, seemed to consist of more children than adults... maybe it was because for a brief moment we adults all got to slip back and join the children in their spontaneous playfulness which they

photo courtesy of MariaElena Jarson

share so generously. I spent most of my time offering tractor rides, with the loader bucket always full of children, me in the driver's seat, and the trailer behind me loaded with additional folks. There was something for everyone to do, from exploring the farm to planting the children's pumpkin patch, to going on walking tours, to picking and eating strawberries (dipping them in chocolate!), to baking in the cob oven, milking the goats and making cheese, to face painting, to exploring the newly-erected straw bale fort, to making hand-cranked ice-cream.

We formed our traditional welcome circle before dinner, and I get a little emotional thinking how it has grown over the years. The children together with John started the bonfire without matches or lighter, simply by using a traditional bow drill. Cheers went up when the kindling caught fire; Kuzanga accompanied the dancing flames with their wonderful marimba music and it didn't take long until many of us joined in the dance.

Celebration is an important element of the seasonal dance, and rewards us the farmers as well as our entire community with a wonderful connection to the Earth.  I want to thank all of you who helped make the day a success. Thank you for coming, thank you to those who volunteered their time. Four long tables were covered with wonderful dishes of food -- an amazing expression of the generosity and loving creativity of this community.  Thank you all for blessing this farm with your presence and support.  We wish you all a wonderful Summer Season.

- Tom

More pictures from the celebration: kids, kids, kids
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A little charmer with blossoms in her hair poses demurely for the camera.

Anybody interested in getting their face painted? I'd say yes.

And although Kuzanga took a break to eat with us in the potluck, the marimbas were by no means quiet, as children swarmed upon them and played with abandon.

What's Up in the Fields - all about potatoes
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In previous year's newsletters I would feature different crops as they first appeared in your seasonal shares. This week we are digging our first red potatoes of the season, and since potatoes are one of my personal favorite crops I can't resist sharing what I wrote about this fascinating staple food in previous years' newsletters. 

Slipping my hands under the loose soil and pulling up the first new potatoes is like finding a buried treasure. Although potatoes grow underground they are not really roots. They are the swollen ends of skinny underground stems called rhizomes. To stimulate their growth, about a quarter to a third of the plant has to be covered with soil, or 'hilled up' to stimulate the formation of 'tubers.'
 
The so-called 'Irish' potato is home to the highlands of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, where it has been cultivated for over 5000 years today the potato is the leading vegetable grown worldwide, cultivated everywhere from below sea level to 14,000 feet above.  When I joined the Peace Corps in Western Samoa (South Pacific 1985-1988), I introduced potatoes to local farmers in the higher elevations of the island as a way to diminish their importation from overseas.

The cultivation of Potatoes together with the world's 5 other major cereal grains: wheat, corn, rice, barley, and millet, are the calorific engines of our civilizations. Before the Spanish invaded the Americas it was the Incas who built their empire on the cultivation of potatoes.  Once the potatoes nutritional qualities and production characteristics were discovered in Europe, it directly affected the peasants' standard of living and profoundly influenced the history of that continent. The nutritional status of the people improved, because the cultivation of potatoes yielded 4-5 times more calories per acre than any of the traditionally grown cereal grains. Better fed people were more resistant to disease, and overall death rates declined and birth rates increased. In Ireland where the potato was probably most widely cultivated, it allowed them to survive without having to depend on the English grown grains. In war-torn Europe, peasants planted potatoes as a kind of insurance, since potatoes could be left in the ground through the winter and dug only as needed for daily consumption. This would allow peasants to survive the raids of soldiers during wartime: soldiers usually would not take the time to dig the field to get their food, and certainly they would not do so if grains were stored in neighboring barns. The downfall of potato cultivation in Europe was that only one strain or variety of potato was being grown, very different than in the Andes where even today hundreds of varieties are still cultivated. Given the genetic uniformity, the vast acreage of potatoes being grown in Ireland at the time (1845-46) and the perfect environmental conditions (cool and wet) together caused the devastating "Irish Potato Famine", where a fungus commonly known as Late Blight (Phytophtora Infestans), wiped out most of the potato crop. Hundreds of thousands of people died before public relief could be organized, and scores of thousands who survived emigrated to America.

The harsh lesson of this famine was to avoid mono-cropping, something that continues in today's industrial agriculture model and is only possible because of the arsenal of harmful pesticides being applied. In order to avoid disease pressure, it is critical to rotate potatoes to different fields every year. The reason we are harvesting our potatoes relatively late this years is because our Spring was also wet and cold. However, the soil we planted them in has never been planted with potatoes before, so we are fortunate to have a disease-free crop. Over the course of the season you will receive 5 different varieties of potatoes: besides the Red Norlands we are harvesting this week, you will get several yellow-fleshed varieties including Yellow Finns, 'Yukon Gold' and two type of Fingerlings, Russian 'Bananas' and French Red Fingerlings.

- Tom

Kale ROCKS!

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A lovely comment from long-time CSA member Leslie Mackenzie, worth sharing with the membership, I thought! - Debbie

"I've been meaning to email you about your massaged kale recipe.  We LOVE it! The first season we were with LEF, I started to groan as the season went on and we were getting Red Russian Kale (or RR Kale as we call it at home) again - e v e r y week...  But over the years, I've learned to do so many things with it and now find it so delicious - it has surpassed broccoli as my favourite veggie.  Now I'm disappointed that we've never again had the volumes of RR kale that we did our first LEF season. :]

Anyway, the massaged kale salad was a new one for me and since it involved kale, I just had to try it.  FANTASTIC!  I told my husband about it and he just wrinkled his nose and took a pass (great, more kale for me!).  It took several weeks of me raving about it to get him to sample it.  He's a convert now, too.

Thank you for another awesome recipe and tell Farmer Tom the Red Russian Kale ROCKS!"

Cheers,
Leslie

"Beat the Box" - a game the whole family can play!
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And here's a fun concept from member Melissa Armanini! - Debbie

"The box has been glorious and we have been able to 'beat the box' with pleasure (to beat the box, the family must get through all the veggies each week without freezing or feeding the neighbor's bunny!) :-)"

Best,
Melissa

Reminder: this weekend is Darren Huckle's Herbal Preparations class here on the farm
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This Saturday June 25th from 10am-3pm, come out to the farm and learn how to make effective oils, teas, salves and tinctures from fresh garden or dried medicinal herbs.   This will be a fun and informative class that will allow you to confidently make herbal preparations on your own. Participants will also leave with a jar of all-purpose salve great for cuts, scrapes, burns etc, and a custom-made herbal tincture for promoting sleep/calm or digestion.

Pre-registration is required by Friday noon so I know how many materials to bring.
$75 class fee includes materials.
--
Best Wishes
Darren

Darren Huckle L.Ac, Herbalist
RootsofWellness.net
GoldenShieldQiGong.com
(831) 334-5177

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(click here for cost and scheduling info)
We'll be engaging campers in creative expression among our 100 organic acres of fruits, vegetables, farm animals, and wild spaces. During the week campers will plant, harvest, and create in the kitchen and beyond; make cheese, make masks, print, paint, and sculpt with natural materials.