December Newsletter

Greetings CSA Family and Friends!

Once again, this heralded newsletter appears a day early in order to remind you that TOMORROW is harvest day! With the wonderful weather produce pick up will certainly be at the farm, so I hope to see most of you there. It is getting dark a bit early now, isn’t it, so keep that in mind when coming for your produce. (I will look into some artificial lighting apparatus).

In the previous installment of “What’s Cookin’…at Brookside” I reported on the trouble with deer incursion. My boys and I became “trackers” one morning and found and abundance of hoof prints along the fence line near the northwest corner. You may now witness our technological prowess at thwarting the forest creatures--sticks woven through the fencing to extent its height. This seems to be working!

Just in time for the holiday season, your Brookside Farm basket includes, for the first time ever, a jar of solar-dried tomatoes. Otherwise, you get pretty much what you got last time. Personally, I was very fond of the leeks. They sublimely flavored a potato soup.

Joining us at the farm this week is Adam Gaska, who operates a winter only CSA in the hills above Redwood Valley. Because Adam is growing at a lower elevation than Willits, and near the top of a southwest facing slope, frost is nearly unknown on his winter farm. The result is luscious development of cool season crops (and a good deal of jealous admiration from another farmer whose identity will remain secret). I am almost sure he would be happy to sign you up for future deliveries if the Brookside baskets are currently insufficient. His CSA ends about the same time Brookside Farm begins to deliver weekly in the late spring.

This month has been light on the farm as I am doing more research and writing. I am helping with the Mendo Food Futures project and you can find information about that at the Willits Farmers’ Market each Thursday at the Community Center. Look for Cyndee Logan’s table. There’s also this piece on the Brookside Farm blog: http://gardensproject.org/blog/blog.php?id=4726298678258680356. The magazine “Touch the Soil” has made me a regular contributing writer after publishing two articles from me in the past two issues. You can hear an interview I did with the publisher of this magazine here: http://globalpublicmedia.com/reality_report_ben_gisin_of_touch_the_soil_magazine

The electric tractor won’t materialize until spring. I am now scrambling to get a small regular tractor at the site to quickly perform some light disking so I can sow a cover crop in the fallow sections for next year. We have had unusually warm and dry weather lately so cover crops might establish just fine still, although the weather people forecast snow next week.

And Now for the Most Important Part. Shares for 2009 go on sale in time for Christmas, Hanukkah, Muharram, Kwanzaa and the Winter Solstice. The Brookside Farm Advisory Team decided to do the following:
1. Current members are offered a full share for 2009 at a cost of $750 due by January 9th.
2. Starting January 10th, shares will cost $800 and up to 16 will be sold.
3. The $800 share amount may be paid in full or in two equal installments, an initial one and a second due in July.

Look for 2009 Membership Forms when you get your basket tomorrow. I will gladly accept checks any time and if you don’t find me at the farm (perhaps because of the bitter cold and dark), you may come by my warm and well lit home.

Happy Eating!

Jason