February 29th Veggie Box News

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Box Contents

  1.  2 lbs Blue Heron Oranges

  2. 1 bu Green Garlic

  3. 1 hd Fennel

  4. 1 pc Butternut

  5. 1 bu Green Dandelion

  6. 1 lb Leeks

  7. 1 bu Rainbow Chard

  8. ½ lb Braising Mix

Box Notes

The oranges are from Blue Heron Farm in Rumsey and are CCOF-certified organic. Leek season is almost over, there are only a few weeks left so enjoy them while they’re here! As a member of the allium plant family, leeks can be used anywhere you would use onions and garlic. They impart a subtle, delicious flavor to most savory dishes including roasts, frittatas, soups, pizza, and veggie sautés.

 

Field Notes

During this dry spell, we are planting like crazy. Last week, we transplanted kale, cabbage, and fennel yet the greenhouse is now filled again with beautiful tomato starts in varying stages of growth! This week we’ll transplant chard and the second round of onions. On Saturday, we planted the potatoes. The stone fruit orchards are in varying stages of bloom. The June Pride peaches are in full bloom this week, loaded with pink blossoms drawing the attention of the busy pollinating bees. This week we hope to seed safflower that we grow as a feed crop for our pastured chickens and pigs.

In addition to growing the grain for livestock feed, we’ve been selling some of our grain crop to a new mill in the valley called Capay Mills. Capay Mills turns the whole grain into flour and sells it to a bakery called Pain located in San Mateo. It’s the best freshly baked bread around! To learn more about the bakery and the mill visit: http://www.painbakery.com/ and http://www.capaymills.com/#capay-mills. This year, the Capay Mills will be growing some flint corn to mill into polenta. We’re looking forward to tasting the polenta! The freshly ground grain (mainly ancient varieties of wheat) is available at Bi-Rite, the Davis Food Co-op and at the Temescal Farmers’ Market in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland.

Our local Almond Festival event drew thousands of visitors! At the historic Rumsey Hall in the northern most hamlet of the valley, we sold out of pulled pork sliders and wood-fired pizzas by 2 pm. We’ll plan to feed more next year as this is the community hall’s biggest fundraiser of the year, bringing in over $12,000 to support the hall and the community events that have been happening there since 1903.