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Transitions
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Here on the Farm we get to witness the inevitable dynamic of Nature's transitions, through the seasonal and continuous life-cycles of our crops and animals. Everything is in constant flux, and much as we would like to control and predict this chaotic continuum, we are typically frightened by the inevitable truth that nothing is permanent, that the carefully assembled "produce cart" we hold dear will fall apart.

So when a couple of months ago Debbie announced that after 12 years it was time to take leave as the Farm's CSA coordinator, I felt a very strong tug on the core strands that support the fabric of this farm -- Debbie, who has built, nurtured and cared for the CSA program since its inception will be moving on! Debbie, who many have come to know as the voice of the farm will be no more! [Well, not exactly; see below]. No denying it, on one hand I felt a bit stunned, but on the other I am immensely grateful and deeply appreciative of Debbie's wholehearted dedication, hard work and innumerable contributions, all instrumental in the growth and development of this farm. Nothing is permanent, and as in nature, some of Debbie's many gifts and talents will move on so as to be of the greatest fulfillment to her, and I have no doubt to continued service to her community.

Debbie chats with Farmer Tom at the Willow Glen Farmers Market back in 1998

Debbie has agreed to help in this transition and stay involved as editor-in-chief for this newsletter, manage the farm's webpage, and be available as a consultant during her sabbatical. So the last couple of months we have been actively looking for someone interested in coordinating our CSA, and we are delighted to welcome Jason Wade on board; together with his wife Cassandra, they have been long-time CSA members. Although it is challenging to take on this position in the middle of the growing season, Jason is passionate about food and sustainable farming; his interests and previous work experience overlap in such a way as to match the multiple requirements of this complex position. Jason is already getting trained and will officially start taking the reins the 1st of July.

As we welcome Jason into the Live Earth Farm Family, we wish Debbie all the best on her new adventures ahead, hoping she discovers never-before-seen treasures to nourish and realize her dreams. I can speak for all of us when I say that Debbie will always be a member of this farm and its community, and that we are eternally grateful for all she brought to it.

- Tom

Seed to Bread Community Farm Day postponed to July 30th
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The Seed to Bread Community Farm Day, originally scheduled for July 3rd, has been postponed to July 30th. The wheat kernels we planned on harvesting are not quite at full maturity, and in my estimate have another 2-3 weeks before they'll be ready for threshing and milling. So now is a good time to mark your calendar! This is a really fun event, where we harvest together, gather the wheat, thresh, mill, and bake to experience the full circle from field to mouth, baking a delicious crusty pizza in the farm's cob oven. By July 30th we'll also have fresh ripe tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil fresh from the field to add as toppings, and goat cheese from goats we can milk the same day.

For members who like to camp out from Friday to Saturday, we have limited space for about 10 tents, so if you're interested, please make your reservations now.

For the event itself, we request a donation of $10/person or $30/family, and if you are camping overnight $15/person or $45/family. Please RSVP by e-mailing farmers@cruzio.com or calling 831-763-2448.

- Tom

Tom and his childhood chicken
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Well, this is entirely too much fun! Tom unearthed his old family photo album with the picture of him at age 4 holding his pet chicken - the one fully half his size (read the story in last week's newsletter if you missed it "Childhood joy in abundance..."). He brought the album up to the office, where Dawne managed to scan the page and send it to me, so I could include it in the newsletter here. As my neighbor down the street from me would say, "Oh, fer cute!!"

- Debbie

Changing of the guard: Debbie's taking a sabbatical
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I have to thank Tom for such a kind send-off. Of course I wrote this over the weekend before Tom sent me his blurb (last we talked the task had fallen to me to announce my exit) ;-) so there is some overlap - but there's also a nice balance; a verbal picture, if you will, of the kind of yin-yang of how we've worked together over the years, how we see things the same and yet differently. Here is how things unfolded from my perspective.

After more than a decade of managing pretty much all the non-farming nuts and bolts of Live Earth Farm's CSA program... I am going to be taking what I would like to believe is a well-deserved break! I'm calling it a 'sabbatical', but it really is a hybrid mash-up of a sabbatical and leave of absence; it will be a six month hiatus from day-to-day CSA management (no more hour-each-way commute between my home in San Jose and the farm in Watsonville -- yay!), but I'll still be editing the newsletter and consulting for the farm on an as-needed basis, as well as possibly working with Tom on some strategic planning. This week is my last in my 'old' role; my sabbatical starts Friday July 1st!

A little history. Back in 1999 when I took over from Constance, Tom's wife (who was the CSA coordinator back then), we had 125 members, one share size [our "Standard Share"], and 7 pick-up sites -- all but two of which were in Santa Cruz. Today we are closing in on 900 members, with two seasons, three share sizes, multiple options and fifty pick-up sites covering a territory that now extends from San Francisco and Oakland all the way down to Carmel. Over the years I helped design (and then regularly modified) three evolutions of FileMaker databases to keep track of our ever-changing CSA and its growing membership; our long-time members will remember back when all signups were once a year, via snail mail, with paper checks. How quaint and simple that all sounds now! As computers became more powerful and the internet more accessible, I had a programmer create an email plug-in to my database [I mean the farm's - felt like mine though, as I was the only one who used it!] so I could better communicate with all of you and keep track of those communications. Then in late spring of 2009 we were approached by the founders of a software startup in its infancy called "Farmigo"; they were looking to develop a web-based management system for CSA farms. Long story short, Tom agreed to take the plunge, and Live Earth Farm became their flagship farm - which meant yours truly not only had her brain picked for ideas for the new system, but was the primary real-time beta-tester for it as it came online. This is now the system we use today (and if I understand correctly, Farmigo is now used by over 100 CSA farms around the country).

I have been with Live Earth Farm through thick and thin and in so many capacities over the years I have lost track...  but my primary responsibility has always been to you, the farm's members - whether it be answering the phone and taking care of some site or delivery emergency, to honing pick-up protocol or policy, to coming up with recipe ideas for using what's in your box, to advocating for you whenever I thought the farmers markets were being given too much precedence.

With the continual growth and complexity of our CSA, however, this spring it became clear to me that I could no longer support everything anymore all by myself. My job had become unsustainable for one person, yet because I cared too much for it all and for all of you, I kept trying to do so. But my workdays had become too long, extending into nights and weekends, and this was cumulatively taking a toll on my physical health (too many hours either sitting in front of a computer or in a car commuting). So rather than crash and burn, potentially jeopardizing the whole CSA program which I largely coordinated on my own, I wanted to make a soft landing by planning an orderly transition to this sabbatical, and met with Tom to hash out the details. The upshot is, we're breaking my job up into four parts: CSA coordinator, website maintenance, newsletter editor, and recipe writing.

Those of you who regularly read this newsletter already know I turned the task of coming up with new recipe-content over to Rebecca Mastoris about a month and a half ago (thank you Rebecca; you're doing great!). I have also agreed to continue my role as editor of this newsletter (can't tear myself away from the farm entirely!), and to be 'on call' for updates to the website in the short-term, until a larger plan for it materializes sometime this fall.

But taking on the biggest chunk of my old job -- the task of day-to-day CSA coordinating -- will be someone new, someone I wish to introduce you to now. Please give a warm welcome to Jason Wade. As Tom mentioned, Jason is already a CSA member (which is good!), and I have been training him in all the ins and outs of CSA member management since about mid-month. He has absorbed a barrage of information with aplomb and perspicacity, picking things up quickly and already interacting with members. He is careful and thoughtful, and I know he will take good care of you. I hope in the early weeks that you will all cut him a little slack as he grows into this position and learns all the quirks and nuances of this farm and this community.

Right now I don't know what my job at the farm will look like six months hence, but I'm hoping to get some perspective on that during my sabbatical. Where and how might it be different -- perhaps better -- for all parties involved? We shall see. And finally: yes, there is a distinct possibility I may finally write that book about cooking with a CSA share...!

Take care everyone; and feel free to write me at the farm if you like - Jason, I know, will forward it to me. :-)

Cheers,
Debbie Palmer

Farm's Solstice Celebration Reunites Old Friends
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Todd Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen and Aurelio Lopez of Surfside Chickens

This is a story of a long lost friendship coming full circle and reconnecting around the campfire at this past LEF Summer Solstice Party! Back in the golden summer of 2000, having moved out from the East Coast to study AgroEcology at the University of Santa Cruz, I moved onto an isolated tract of farmland in Hollister with my then girlfriend (now wife) Jordan. We pitched a tipi along the Pajaro River with the permission of the farmer we worked for. Turns out we weren't the only ones living out there -- coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats abounded, so we were relived when a black labrador appeared and decided to live with us, becoming our family dog for the next 8 years: Moondog. Our closest human neighbor, though, was Aurelio, a young man recently arrived from Oaxaca Mexico who, like us, was working on farms, carrying in water, and living by the river, off the map, and new to California. We shared a lot of traits and experiences, but not language, cooking over a campfire, struggling to understand each other; yet together we shared an adventure to be remembered.

As the summer faded and autumn rains approached Jordan, Moondog and I moved into the nearby town of San Juan Bautista, and parted ways with Aurelio. We proceeded to develop our concept of preserving the local harvest and founded Happy Girl Kitchen -- making pickles, jams, and tomato preserves from the bounty of nearby organic farms -- then moved to Aromas with the birth of our son Ry and later a daughter Jaya. We began producing preserves for the Live Earth Farm's winter shares a few years ago. Members may remember the apricot and strawberry jams, sauerkraut and kimchee, or dilly bean pickles?! That's us. Working with Live Earth Farm was a natural fit, as we really enjoyed the social aspect of the farm, especially the parties around the fire circle; it reminds us of the good ol' days!

So what a joyous surprise it was after more than a decade to see our old friend Aurelio around that solstice campfire! I learned that he had married too, and was also producing things for Live Earth Farm's CSA - only in his case it was eggs and meat birds. Seeing our paths converge again made me think back to the beginning, and then to how far we'd come -- all of us around that campfire.  Building community, like fertile soil, takes time, but a few years of hard work can reward us all with potent friendships that last; this is perhaps the most savory part of belonging to such a wonderful farm community as Live Earth Farm.

- Todd Champagne
Happy Girl Kitchen

















I came to the United States 11 years ago, at the age of 16, to find work. The hardest thing about being in this new place at first was not knowing the language; this made it hard to the open the doors I knew needed to be opened in order to make my dreams a reality. I was impressed by everything that I saw on my trip to Hollister, CA.  I saw huge farm fields and the way everything is grown with giant machines, and had the impression that farmers in this country were completely advanced in their farming practices. Not knowing exactly where I was going, I came to live next to the Pajaro River and to work on a small farm there. I paid close attention to all of this farm's practices, though, because they were so different than what I saw along the road; the crops they grew were different too.

It was in that place that I met Todd and Jordan, who came to live there as well.  We tried to communicate a little bit, but none of us spoke the other's language. Yet it was still so fun to hang out together until we all moved on. I eventually moved to Watsonville and began work on another small farm where I gained a lot of experience in organic farming.  After that I started getting involved in a local community of people who appreciated small farms and the hard work they do, and through this community I eventually met my wife, Sarah.  Sarah and I started to work together on what is now Surfside Chickens, and soon after began providing our pasture-raised and eggs, and this year, meat chickens, to members of Live Earth Farm's CSA.

Then about a week ago we went to Live Earth Farm's Summer Solstice Celebration, and who do we run into but Todd and Jordan! It wasn't until we talked a little bit about our past and all the things we had been through up to the present, that we realized we were both providing our products to Live Earth Farm.

- Aurelio Lopez
Surfside Chickens

photo credit: Rachael Olmstead, from a wonderful story about Surfside Chickens in the online magazine Eucalyptus

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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.