Most of my work for the farm involves communicating with people from behind a computer or phone, so when an opportunity comes up to step out a bit and mingle with people face to face, it’s a real thrill! I had three such events recently.
The Sunday before last (June 22nd) was the Jewish Music Festival at the Addison-Penzac JCC, one of our long-time host sites in Los Gatos. I did a mini farmer’s market booth for the event, selling baskets of berries and other produce to the folks present, as well as promoting our CSA program. It was really great to meet many CSA members in person and to have my husband and daughter there enjoying themselves too at this family-friendly event. My “Mini” especially enjoyed transforming into her alter-ego persona.
The next event was a CSA cooking class at another of our host sites, th
e Monterey Peninsula Country Club in Pebble Beach, which took place on Tuesday, June 24th. Chef Colin Moody engaged a team of Country Club members to prepare an exquisite, high-class meal from the CSA boxes harvested that very day. From appetizer to dessert, we honed our chef-skills in the country club’s industrial kitchen, preparing the elegant creations of Chef Colin. Once we finished the preparations, the students gathered in a special room overlooking the breaking waves on the 18th hole as we were served the meal we had prepared together. I really can’t explain the feeling of being served such a fancy meal that we had created ourselves! Here was the lineup:
Carrot Top Pesto Bruschetta
Parma-Wrapped Grilled Romaine with Scallion, Olive and Tomato Tapenade
Fennel and Chick Pea Soup with Piment d’Espelette Prawns
Golden Swiss Chard and Local Mushroom-Wrapped Lamb Chop
Honey Rosemary Frozen Yogurt with Flambéed Strawberries
Last, but not least, I took on a canning adventure with my good friend and host of our Happy Valley site with some of the left-over produce from the JCC event. We spent nearly two days making pickles and jams of all sorts. It feels really great to have some of the summer preserved for later. There is nothing like pulling out the flavors that remind you of warm breezes and flip-flops in in the dead of winter. Here’s what we produced during our “jam session”:
Pickled Beets
Bread and Butter Pickles
Zesty Zucchini Relish
Mixed Berry Jam
Low-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Low-Sugar Blueberry Basil Jam
Low-Sugar Blueberry Rose Jam
Dried herbs: Dill, Scallion Rings, Basil, Parsley
Hopefully, some of these events can help raise our CSA numbers as we are approaching the peak of our production (with tomatoes and beans and peppers coming in shortly) just at the time when many people are holding their deliveries due to summer vacations. If you are going on vacation and would like to have your box donated to the Loaves and Fishes charity, you can earn a nice tax deduction and we still get to harvest the crop. To do this, just change your pick-up site to “donate” in your account (don’t forget to change it back when you return) or email me and I can rig it for you. Or, better yet, offer your box to a friend or neighbor you think might be interested in the program (if they end up signing up you can earn $10 credit in the webstore toward berries and flowers). Thanks!
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