Our summer simply flew by this year. Its most lasting legacy is our Recipes page, which catalogs the past 15 weeks of CSA boxes. The truth is that we were often too busy to take photos, and there's so much in my mind that isn't in the above slideshow, but c'est la vie. We had a terrific season this year right up until our well ran dry! 30" of rain last winter (much of it in 5" bursts of runoff) proved inadequate to recharging the cracks and fissures that feed our current well. In order to save our fruit trees, we were forced to end the CSA a few weeks early this year. A huge thank you to all of our CSA members, who supported us through this ordeal. Your kind words and encouragement mean the world to us.
We've got our fingers crossed and our palms pressed together for a wet winter, but in the meantime, we were forced to dig a supplemental well. Pipes and conduit are laid; wires are pulled; all we need is a pump, which arrives tomorrow. The new well appears to be a gusher, and we're quite hopeful that our old well will recover along with groundwater levels this winter, so that this doesn't happen again.
In the meantime, we've begun our winter citrus harvest. We delivered a case of Buddha's Hand Citrons to The Penny last week, so look for that flavor soon. We made ice cream from them ourselves a couple of months ago, and I also candied one yesterday. The taste is out of this world: pungent, sweet, old-fashioned delicious! Our pomegranates are a couple of weeks from being ready, and the kiwis a few weeks behind them. We have outstanding crops on the trees and vines respectively. Our citrus and avocados are heavily laden as well.
We had .27" of rain last weekend, but another high pressure ridge is rolling through this week. The mercury is projected to visit the low nineties on Wednesday and Thursday. Our annual beds are thus on a bit of a holding pattern until a significant storm rolls through, enabling us to incorporate this season's crop residue and sow our cover crop into moist soil.
As our CSA members know, we partnered with a farm in the Upper Sacramento Valley to put our own label of handpicked, Organic olive oil this summer. It will be available year round for both shipping and local delivery. The oil is from the mid-season harvest on 80+ year-old Mission Olive trees. It is green enough to be excellent raw--on salad, in dressings, etc.--but buttery enough not to have the bite or aftertaste that limit the cooking potential of early-season harvested oils. We use it exclusively at home and are continuously impressed by its scope and versatility. Please contact us directly to place an order.
