Got Sorbet?

Above (L>R): cases of Meyer and Genoa Lemons

We are very pleased to have added a new corporate account today...
The Penny Ice Creamery cranks out Santa Cruz's finest ice creams and sorbets from scratch daily! We are excited and honored to be a part of their supply chain.

Below: Three members of Penny's Jr. Fanclub hard at work last Saturday

Meyers for Marmalade

This winter continues to bless us with fruit-ripening weather. Last week we picked and packed 600#'s of Meyer Lemons for Farmers Al & Becky at Frog Hollow Farm for their Meyer Lemon Marmalade. With a bit of hustle, we managed to get the last of them safely indoors--and backfill the aforementioned irrigation trench--before a nice spell of rain moved through. (Our rain gauge now stands at 12.96" for the season).

Our kiwis and table grapes had their winter haircut last week as well, while the pomegranates are practically all leafed out already and the roses have yet to slow down. We've finished re-mulching the citrus and pomegranates with fresh wood chips, and a ton of fruit tree fertilizer is due to arrive tomorrow from Cal Organics to be tucked neatly beneath them.

In other news, the log pile that was taking up two parking spots in our driveway is now bucked, split and stacked, and our new (used) walk-in cooler is all hooked up and blowing cold.

Next up: "Genoa" Italian Lemons; "Encore" & "Gold Nugget" Mandarins!

Thrive & Pray for Rain

Greetings to 2012! First of all, a long overdue thank you to our 2011 CSA members. We had a blast growing for you and are already gearing up for this year. Our seeds and seed potatoes are all ordered for the 2012 CSA, and both the depth and breadth of our offerings are greatly expanded over last season.

We've had an amazingly productive (and dry) winter so far.

The concerning news is that with only 5.83 inches of rain to date, our cover crop is just over a foot tall, and we continue to need to irrigate our trees. In addition, Cal Fire suspended our burn season until wetter times.

The rosier side of that equation is that our roses and winter greens are still absolutely cranking, and we have a fantastic citrus crop. We sold our first 140 pounds of mandarins to Farmer Al at Frog Hollow Farm last week. We're selling them our Meyer Lemon crop for their Meyer Lemon Marmalade in a few weeks.

In other news, we've accomplished an incredible amount of tree work and brush removal, opening up new areas for cultivation later this year. We also picked up a walk-in cooler earlier this week to help keep our greens crispy in the summer heat.

An expansion of our irrigation system is on the agenda for next week. Mmmmmmm...ditch witch. Hopefully the open trench will prove too tempting to the heavens, and we'll finally receive some of the precipitation Alaska keeps hoarding!

It Rarely Rains in Dreams...

We've had a bit of a wet fall so far this year with over 2.5 inches of rain falling to date. As such, our tomato harvest was truncated somewhat by cracking fruit. The plants hadn't been watered in over 2 months, so they started moving water a bit fast for their own good when the rains came. We canned the fruit that cracked and are going to do another big round of our paste tomatoes tomorrow. Our peppers on the other hand were watered periodically throughout the summer and are still going strong. The last of the onions went into this Tuesday's CSA Box. We're switching to leeks starting Friday. Also in that box were our Yellow Bartlet pears and Russian Banana potatoes. All of our greens (kale, collards, tatsoi, cauliflower) have thoroughly appreciated the rain so far and are going stronger than ever.

That said, we now plan to end our CSA three weeks early this year (11/01 instead of 11/22) in the interest of keeping both quality and quantity high. To our CSA members reading this, growing for you this year was our pleasure, and we hope you enjoyed receiving your boxes as much as we enjoyed preparing them for you.

In Praise of San Marzano...

Today marked our first round of tomato canning for 2011. In a slight departure from our normal routine, we fire-roasted a few rounds of the San Marzano's in our pizza oven before adding them to the sauce. This process greatly speeds up the cooking time, while enhancing the taste of the final product. We also mixed in Plum Lemon tomatoes for additional sweetness and their psychedelic color!

Peppers Galore...

We included a Chiles Relleños recipe along with the Poblanos today. Nancy had a tray of them waiting for me tonight when I returned home from dropping off the boxes. I am one lucky duck!!! (There are no leftovers). Also pictured above is our first round of pickled Italian White Wax Peppers. Our neighbor Maria was a huge help in preserving them yesterday. She is an incredible cook. Indeed, she makes a world class Chile Relleño!

Additional photos include tomatoes harvested today and the first "naked ladies," a sure sign that cooler temps are on their way.  We've had daily highs in the mid-90's for the past week, and the heat is forecast to continue through Friday. Our olive grafts continue to thrive. My biggest concern, that they would get sunburned, never came to pass. Early next spring, we will remove the nurse limbs and graft additional Manzanillo scions in their place.

Heirlooms... Heroes of the Harvest!

(Click on image to view full size).

I had tears in my eyes harvesting these beauties this morning.  Just north of 85 lbs in all.  The CSA got a very colorful box today between the tomatoes, Mercury red onions, French Fingerling potatoes, Tolli's Sweet Italian peppers, tomatillos with jalapeños, yellow squash, zucchini, Genovese basil, and mesclun mix.