Farmers Market Samples this week

From the Ferry Plaza:

sesame seeds
soy sauce
seaweed

From Davis:
A very popular and tasty Indian rice pudding! I'll post the recipe as soon as I get it from Marisol. Check back here!

What's happening on the farm

Here's a quick list of what will be going on this week...

1) Almond hulls are starting to split, meaning harvest is only weeks away. Soon the nuts will start to dry and ripen. We should have nuts at our market stands by October (it takes time to process the nuts, including a month in the freezer for post-harvest sanitation.)

2) Our wheat was cleaned last week, and will be bagged on Monday in 50-lb sacks. Our main market for the wheat will be bakeries, but we'll likely sell wheat berries by the pound at the farmers markets as well. Look for it in the next couple weeks, and let me know if you are interested in larger quantities. I already have a few orders for 100 lbs each. I'll be looking for some recipes for you. Here's one.

3) The rice is in the tillering stage, meaning that side shoots are forming from the base of the plant. Each tiller is capable of producing grains, so the more tillers the better.

4) Tractor repair. The small tractor that we use for mowing our orchard broke down last week. I hope to have it back soon (at a cost of $6000!). We're also replacing the cylinder teeth (which separate rice grains from straw) in our old combine this week.

5) Rice deliveries. Almost every week I end up driving somewhere with a pallet of rice. This week it will be Davis, to restock our storage area for the Davis and Sacramento farmers markets.

6) Paperwork! I'm still trying to get the insurance to cover our losses from the wheat fire that happened last month. I also need to start preparing for our annual organic inspection with CCOF. And of course there are always bills (see item 4).

I promise a more interesting post soon...

Bad Air Day

 

Actually, it is more like a bad air month. Our area of northern California was hit by a lightening storm three weeks ago, and the mountains have been on fire ever since, We started with hundreds of fires, and are now down to about 30 or so. Several of them have combined into quite large fires, and have caused a terrible amount of damage. Many thousands of people have been evacuated. The air has been calm, so the smoke is just hanging in the valley, and we have a layer of ash on everything that sits outside. The air quality is now defined as "hazardous," and we are being urged to stay inside and not work or play. Visibility today was less than half a mile. At times, the sun actually disappears like we're in a thick fog. Effects on the crops are minor compared to people losing their homes and the damage to our lungs, but I expect rice yields will be somewhat reduced by the lack of sunshine and excessive smoke this month.

Guest Blogging at Culinate

I was recently asked to be a guest blogger for the Dinner Guest series at Culinate. I'll be doing a series of 5 or 6 posts over the next two months. My first post went up today, so please visit them and check it out!

We're in the LA Times!

Today's LA Times has a very nice story about us titled, "Spreading their ideals organically." The story covers our strawbale home, farming philosophy, and our foster care work. Unfortunately, the photos that appeared in the paper didn't make it to the online edition, but you can read the story on the Times website:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rice6-2008jul06,0,4577023.story

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Wheat Harvest

Note (7-3-2008): I actually posted this a week ago, but after several people told me it was really geeky I took it down. Now they've convinced me to put it back up. It's still geeky, but if you haven't ever been on a combine before, you might find it interesting. --Greg
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6-20-2008

We harvested what remained of the wheat yesterday, and I shot the following video. YouTube reduced the video quality quite a bit when I uploaded it, but you can still see everything. Check it out!

Feeling Lucky

First, we're ok, and the house is ok. We were very lucky today. Some burning debris blew off of a truck going down the highway near our house. It ignited the grass on the edge of the road, and 40 mph winds blew the fire into our wheat field. The fire burned about 20 acres of wheat in just a few minutes. It mostly burned itself out when it hit the rice field next to the house, though it continued down the highway and started to burn up the driveway. We also had a spot fire break out next to the house from flying embers. Luckily we had four guys here working on the addition to our house and they were able to wet everything down and protect the house until the fire crews arrived. Raquel was here with four of our five kids and had to evacuate to get out of the intense smoke. I arrived just as she was leaving, but there was little I could do at that point except make sure that the house and tractors were safe. Fire engines from seven local fire departments showed up and put out what remained of the fire, and then spent several hours mopping up and making sure that the fire was really out.

About half of our wheat crop is gone, and the electrical panels for two irrigation pumps burned up. But we are all just fine, and very grateful for that.