Greenjeans Farm

September is almost gone, I am staring at a bushel basket of basil, a bushel basket of tomatoes, a bushel basket of beans, a bushel basket of crooked neck squash and thinking I would rather write tonight.  The wee hours of the morning are better spent on putting things up when it’s 100 degrees at 2pm.  It’s cool and quiet then, with nobody running in and out of the kitchen.  I have a reverence for food, and if I can’t give it my whole attention I would just as soon give it away or leave it out in the garden. 

My mother’s family was a German/ Irish bunch.  And my fathers family French / Norwegian!  At the Hellwig’s and Weller’s there was always cabbage, root vegetables, potatoes and roasts, good substantial meals.  At the Sorensen’s and DeSelle’s, you could bet on fresh fruit and cream and wonderful roasted things with delicate herbs.   I loved it all.  From the Raspberries and cream my Pa DeSelle used to feed me for breakfast, to the wilted cabbage and wonderful spice cookies Aunt Memo used to make us.  All my relatives were either directly from or one generation away from Europe.  AND I had an Italian Uncle Frank who was my best uncle!   They all came to the United States to make a life and they all ended up on the west coast! 

There was always someone cooking up a mess of beans.  There was always someone putting up a batch of jam or jelly.  There was ALWAYS someone trying to make me try yams in a way that would not make me throw up!

Then there were the neighbors, Hispanic, Eastern European, Texans!  As kids we used to run around to each others houses eating our way through the day, until the street lights came on and our mothers started calling us home.   Summer was always the best time for food.  In my book it beat out Thanksgiving!  Everybody had the same stuff on Thanksgiving! 

I don’t know how many people actually read I Village articles, but sometimes I do.  Today I ran across quirky kitchen things we learned from mom.  Lot’s of peeling and throwing salt type things.

Honestly, I think the best things I learned from my mom were substitutions.  She grew up in the depression and was a young wife during the second world war when there were wide spread food shortages.  She taught me how to make sour cream from canned milk, garlic powder and wine vinegar. (I actually prefer that in my stroganov).  Things to do with crème of tartar! How to make a substitute for unsweetened chocolate out of cocoa and make the best black pudding ever. How to make REAL dressing, and great sauces though my recipe and her’s are very different.  The main lesson being It doesn’t matter what you don’t have!     The entire thread of the article even though it was not really brought out, was never waste!  How totally true that is!  There is nothing about a single piece of food that can be considered waste.  Either it feeds you and your family or it feeds your animals or the birds, or your compost pile!  Waste is the plastic that wraps the plastic bags in the macaroni and cheese you are cooking out of that box.   

We never peel a vegetable here at Greenjeans  because there are lots of tasty nutrients in vegetable skins.   We are lucky to have enough to be able to cook things whole like carrots and turnips and potatoes to make wonderful broths for soup skin and all. 

Truth be told I like my veggies whole.  I grow and care for these things to give me their whole flavor.  If you wash any vegetable well, it can come to your table in all it’s glory.  Double truth be told I like to stand out in the field and eat them dirt and all.  I don’t mind a little dirt in my teeth for eating a great green bean or a piece of lettuce .  I am a great grazer.     

It dawned on me the other day, I’m getting old!  It’s probably already dawned on me, but I’m getting so old, I probably forgot that it dawned on me!

I am in good physical shape and healthy.  I try to manage my vices, but thoroughly enjoy them!  I simply cannot imagine getting old and NOT enjoying it. I’m almost on the back side of the 50’s.  It’s easy to keep your body in shape and your muscles toned when you are a farmer.  And I truly like getting up at 3 or 4 and going to bed by 7 or 8.  My husband is full time farm and men always grow old gracefully, I have a day job so we can do this, but there is always something physical you can do here that stretches your body and your mind at the same time.

The problem is the FACE!!!!!  When you look in the mirror and try to stretch your face back toward your ears and you don’t have enough fingers to pull back all the places- that is a tell tale sign.  It makes me wish I would not have scoffed at sunscreen as a teen, or thought that baby oil would give me a great tan. I grew up in Washington State, but we were all still trying to “be California girls”.  Gallons of Noxema, which I don’t think they even sell anymore, and then Vaseline, ICCCCCCCCCK.   Trying to pull back all the places just makes you look like an alien, so plastic surgery is out.  Botox is not an option because I use my face to communicate!  I still keep looking for and spending money for that dewy fresh moisturizer that will take 10 to 20 years off my appearance, when I really think it comes down to olive oil.  I think about gaining 5 or 10 pounds, but wonder how I would get it from my butt to my face!   

I placate myself by telling myself that I have smile lines and they are a part of my personality.  True I do smile and laugh a lot, but sometimes I look at some of those lines and think, “I’ll tell people those are smile lines….”  In my heart I know that some of those lines are “worry” lines, and some of those lines are “putting up with things I hated lines”.   Spent way too much time doing that!    

The fun thing about all this, is I really do not care!  My face is like a fly I can swat at.  It bugs me I can’t look like my 24 year old daughter, but she is beautiful.  I couldn’t look like Christy Brinkley either!  It keeps coming back, but it’s not important enough for me to stop everything else in my life.    

There is nothing I hate about my life anymore and age has given me the ability to put “things” in perspective.   I am grateful for an almost grown family.  I am happy where I am in this place that grounds us and feeds us each day, not just our bodies, but our souls.  I’m madly in a love relationship for 20 years now, with a fabulous man who is my best friend and love of my life.  I can get up in the morning and NOT do my hair, and NOT wear makeup and go outside and feel good because it’s cool and damp and yesterday was so darn hot.  I can wear what ever I want, or what ever I don’t want.  You only have to spiff up for company, or work or if we’re going somewhere.     I am finally, the beautiful me, and I have wrinkles on my face!    

It’s almost like riding a bike for the first time, or driving your first car! 

You can bet I will be one of those little old ladies with no filters in the end.  Probably scaring children showing them how I can pull my face back with all my fingers!       

“Happiness isn’t having what you want, but wanting what you have.”  This is our family motto.  These words are in a frame in my kitchen above my stove and have been since my children were toddlers reminding me and them to be happy every day for the people and things that bless and add to our lives. 

In the summer months it seems like I spend my days in the kitchen.  Cutting, Chopping, Canning, freezing, drying, sweating, more canning.  My husband Jeff harvests and drops baskets in the kitchen and putting it up is my responsibility.  There are times when I wilt to the floor when a new basket hits the door, but I have that farmer mentality; “do it now, it’s ripe, it’s at it’s peak, what else could I possibly do with a tomato, basil, corn, a cabbage?”  Later on in December and January I thank myself for doing something with that tomato, basil, corn, cabbage.  We make the best Marinara on the west coast!  And Jeff makes the best spaghetti ever!  And then he makes Chicken with the sauce!   And there is nothing like homemade red or green tomato catsup or relish. And then I have my friend Barbara call me to let me know that her sourdough starter is ready and she wants to share!  Good I’m doing spaghetti on Sunday!  Another neighbor has a bottle of wine, and another wants to do sausage! Another has Abolone that she wants to trade for beets!  (go figure)   I am famous for cherry and peach wine!  Tastes great on a January night in front of a fire!    These are the things your life is made of.  It’s the cookies at Christmas and the caramel apples at Halloween.  These are the things you take to your grave!   

Some of the happiest moments come in the most odd times and carry you through your day if you open yourself up to the world around you.  It can be as simple as getting up before sunrise, grabbing a cup of coffee and listening to the frogs and crickets and then as the sun starts to come over the hills the birds and roosters and cow symphony.  A flash of a smile from a teenager that “used to be your baby”.  How rare!  Having a real baby wave at you in the grocery store, then turning down another aisle and having an old woman wave at you from the motorized cart and ask for some help grabbing some garlic! How could a life be better? 

All I’m saying is live in the moment you are in.  It is a whole lot better than regrets or what if’s.  No worries about what you want because it will happen if you live in your moment. 

We have had three children graduate college this year.  It has played havoc with the CSA.   Both of our oldest boys graduated as Jurist Doctorates and my Daughter as an Ag Major, and we have a high school student who is well on his way to college.  They all have jobs and life is good.  The past three weeks in the middle of May which is my planting time has been a little nerve wracking on me the planter and organizer.  Lots of friends and parties and kegs of beer and graduations!  Do not get me wrong, I enjoy being a mother and I can party with the best of them.  But as I said before I am a planter and an organizer.  I planned my family.  3 years apart worked for me.  It didn’t work for them.  I like to think one can plan.   They all came to it in their own time and we have one more to go!   But to me it is like opening up a gift every day of the year to be able to talk to and love your kids.  My most fun times were when they were all 3 – 9 years old.  All of our children are way on the other side of that, and they are still totally fun   Each has a gift that is unique and a total surprise.  Each interaction means something.  If I could leave my kids with 10 to do’s in life I think this would be It. 

1. Say your rosary each morning.  This is something fundamental that I know. 
2. Laugh every day. The world is full of funny stuff.  Even if it is just your cat or dog, or you.  It’s a lot of fun to laugh. 
3.  Love somebody alot, Sex is good!  A friend is better.  Know someone who loves you for all your warts and whiskers and loves you just the same. 
4. Wake up early and enjoy the morning! Take your time getting to work, eat breakfast every day,  but be there on time!
5. Never turn down a great cup of coffee, ever.
6.  Shut up a lot, nobody really wants to know what you think. 
7. Listen, and ask, you learn a lot more that way, if you engage people in what they know.
8. Pay your bills on time.
9. Don’t be afraid when the wind blows, sometimes an umbrella turned inside out can become a great pea trellis
10. Don’t sit around at work if your work is done.  Go home and do something that is constructive to your life.  But work enough hours in the meantime to make your money’s worth. 

I am so proud of our children, they tend to exceed expectations always! 

I finally got the rest of the garden in and we’re getting baby peas and new potatoes!  Pot roast for dinner, damn the hot!  I need some fatty meat and veggies!  Jeff put in a new screen door in the kitchen that slams and Squeaks! We have both decided that there can never be anything that really fits in this house and if it doesn’t squeak it isn’t worth it.   I absolutely love summer.  Flip flops, the river, the sun, eating, planting, eating, harvesting, eating, canning and freezing, eating! 

I have a bouquet of hot red sun flowers on the kitchen table with a bright yellow table runner,  and the freakin’ robins are eating my Rainer Cherries which are almost ready to pick!  A flock of geese flew like two feet over my head this morning!  They just went swoop, swoop, swoop.  No honking. Really spooky, it was like one giant bird!  They are getting better at flying in formation, Potter Valley geese are kind of retarded.   And I saw a bald eagle fishing the pond.   

There are times I just don’t care how funky this house is, you can’t keep a floor clean here and you have to dust and vacumm every day, and bugs crawl in and out – we found a potato bug in the bedroom today,, ugh, they look like little aliens! But otherwise it’s beautiful.  When it gets too hot we sit on the porch with the misters and the fountain going.  The lavender will start to bloom next week so it’s good the garden is done!   There is a climbing rose that grows up the crabapple that is in full bloom and honeysuckle and roses just make the air perfume!      

 When I think of my happiest times I think of my mom and dad drinking a beer on the porch after a hard day of yard work in Tacoma, dad in shorts with  his sandals with socks, brown ones with stripes at the top and his horned rimmed glasses (such the geek)!  Looking at Mount Rainier while it turned all pink and purple in the sunset.   And then I think of Memo’s  five foot back porch and the screen door and her yelling at me don’t slam the screen door, and stop jumping off the porch!  And then I would jump off the porch and cabbage wilting on the porch and running through laundry on the line because it smelled so good!   And that crazy folding stool thing in her kitchen!   

As a farmer, there is nothing I like better than rolling around in the dirt.  My knees are always dirty and I am constantly cleaning my nails.   I have better things to do than remembering to take my shoes off before I come in the house.  I fully expect to mop the floor and turn around to see muddy paw prints within five minutes.  More than one time, I’ve stepped on a slug inside my house that has come in by way of the bottom of the kitchen door in his nocturnal wanderings.  Our dogs jump up on the furniture.  It never fails to rain right after I wash the windows, or our neighbor decides to plow in a windstorm.  Our son Joey has a thing about leaving his nose print on the bathroom mirror just for fun (and because he is 15), and our water is so hard that it turns the sinks yellow.

This is not to say we are slobs, we vacuum, sweep and dust every day.  Dishes are done, counters clean, Zud has become my best friend.  I have just ceased getting angry that dirt happens. 

It took me a long time to get here.  Growing up with my mother for a mother, bless her heart, the quintessential 50’s housewife. Cleanliness and order were the most important things a home could have.  I used to get in trouble if I put my hands on the wood work. In my mothers kitchen there were two huge picture windows that looked out on the neighborhood and Mount Rainer in the background, if you ever drew with your finger on a steamy window in my mother’s kitchen you were grounded for a month. Our dog Tiker was never allowed in the living room.  Naturally I took these values into my adult life.

Four children later and who knows how many dogs and cats we’ve had, I can honestly say I’ve learned to live with dirt.  We live on a farm for Pete’s sake!  There is not a single stainless steel or granite surface in our kitchen and the counters are tile, with grout that has to be cleaned.  To me, giving a whole day over to cleaning is like meditation.  When you clean your windows first, it gives you a totally different outlook.

The other day Jeff and I cleaned house together.  I agreed to wash windows, which of course leads to washing my paperweight collection and everything glass in the house!  Though I just wanted to go out and play in the garden, something drew me to cleaning windows. 

As I cleaned I noticed how many things I knocked over.  Things I brought home from my mothers house after she was dying.  Snuff bottles and carved eggs on little stands that she used to get upset about my children playing with.  Things that reminded me of her.   

We got to the end of the whole house cleaning experience and I noticed that though it was Jeff’s job to clean the rooms while I cleaned windows the dining room had not been cleaned.  I had a fit! 

He stood with me in our dining room and said in a low soft voice, “Toni lets take everything out of this room, clean it and then put it back.”  I looked at him like what are you nuts?  He then said, “ I don’t even like to go in this room, It’s your mothers room, and you are turning into your mother.”  I opened my eyes and I saw the shadow boxes I had taken from Moms house and the shelve.  Propped against the wall since last July when she died.  And all the Chinese goo gaws that she absolutely loved.  Filling up my dining room so there was no room to walk no room to grow.  I don’t love Chinese goo gaws and I have a very small house.

We took the shelves to storage and the goo gaws went into boxes for another generation to find. 

There is a framed postcard in our bathroom that greets me each morning on the shelf where I keep my make up brushes.  It portrays a 1950ish beautiful blonde woman ala Lana Turner in full make up and the caption on the bottom is “Frugal is such an ugly word.”  There is also a framed postcard on another shelf in our bathroom that portrays a 1950ish beautiful red headed housewife type and the caption on the bottom is “My Garden Kicks Ass”.  

These two postcards totally explain my relationship with frugality.  On one hand thinking frugal is a pain, on the other hand it can be greatly rewarding and a heck of a lot of fun.  The fact that I chose to place these two in our bathroom is beyond me.  I guess I think of the bathroom as a place of reflection!  And I am definitely a split personality.

There is the me who wants to be able to live in the Pottery Barn Catalogue.  And there is the other me who looks at the pictures in the  Pottery Barn Catalogue and can figure out how to get the same look and feel at a fraction of the price!  That spurs me on to other frugal adventures.  It would be wonderful to be able to hire people to decorate your home, or landscape your property, or if dogs and cats and mud and dust and fly’s didn’t exist!  And yet it is rewarding to be able to plant with abandon and make things grow and have a beautiful multi colored frog visit you in the bathroom while you are brushing your teeth.  And to not have to pay $300 for a slip cover that your dog is going to destroy in a matter of months. 

I long for an all white living room, I always have.  If I ever lived by myself I would have one, it would also have a view of city lights and ever changing floral themes in the room.  But I live  on a working farm with the people I love, so I won’t attempt an all white living room any time soon and if I ever get there I think it would be initially satisfying, but really lonely. You are never going to get alot of people that want to live in an all white house.    And hey, I can always go to my all white living room in my head and the people I love know not to bother me when I’m there! 

Visiting second hand and consignment stores rather than “antique” shops.  Making new friends, finding friends who have saved what they tore out of their homes and are willing to give you that wood that is just laying around, or the clawfoot tub that didn’t fit in the new bathroom. Or trading a tent for a mattress!   Buying that fabulous three door refrigerator that is marked down by 50% because there is a scratch on the side that no one will see.  These are the things that make frugal fun.  Trading plants and recipes with a neighbor.  Buying a side of organic beef that two families can share!  Now that is fun!  That is participating in your life, being conscious of what you are doing!

There are a lot of people who think they are entitled, either because of education or their “place” in society, what ever they think that is.  But none of us should think that it’s not work, getting up everyday, hitting the ground running.  Here and there you slam your head against a wall or fall down and brush yourself off and hit the ground running the next day!  The only rule should be it is never at the expense of another. 

I am not sure what this whole ramble means, except that I am leading up to taking a sledge hammer to my 7 foot living room ceiling.  Honey get the tarps out and catch on to the vision! 

I read an interesting article yesterday, I found it on the get rich slowly site. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/    This tugged at my heart!  We've all been around this block,and living there at one time or another or now.  Thank God for the blessings we have and the ability to raise our heads up to look at the sky!

An opinion from my son Nick who is a law student at Gonzaga:

I've got two you probably won't like:

Being poor is a cyclical problem resulting from generations of parents who have not properly pushed their children, taken care of their children and themselves, and demanded that there children get proper educations.  

Being poor is giving up on yourself and your children because one is (1) incapable of figuring out how to succeed because no one has ever shown them or demanded it of them, (2) being physically or mentally disabled without proper care and in such a way as to limit development, and (3) so used to being given the tools to barely survive by the state that one is not interested in working towards achieving a better life.

I am not quite a republican yet, but I don't care about the symptoms of poverty, but I care about the causes.  I have worked with and for some of the poorest people in Spokane County and the problem is three-fold: 

Not enough opportunity for growth and development.  Poorer populations see a world where other people receive opportunities they do not, and they give up.  They become satisfied with subsidized housing as long as there TV has HBO.  Then they have kids who grow up in an environment that enforces, every day, a declaration: you can not achieve what you want. 

Systematic exploitation of poor communities.   Ever since there were poor people and rich people the rich have determined new and innovative ways to screw the poor to take every last penny they have.  Examples of this are sub prime mortgages, rent to own furniture, and check cashing places.

Acceptance.  This is kind of related to the first one.  When poor people see they don't have anything, they get used to it and stop trying.  The difference is the responsibility for the first one, to a certain extent, rests with all of us.  This one, however, rests squarely on the shoulders of the poor communities themselves.  It is a generational problem and with each generation of SSDI and subsidized housing children learn, don't go to school or work, chill out at home, drink booze, watch TV, and don't worry about it.  Because if you try, you will just be disappointed.  

The point I am trying to make is if all the people who pointed out the symptoms of poverty spent that energy trying to fix it, even on the smallest of scales, we all good contribute to a better world.  The systems are in place to help.

<and I climb off my soapbox>

My Answer:

I totally agree with you.  It’s the “why try” mentality which is caused by generations of getting slapped down, and being expected to be stupid, and having the person make the fast buck on your back.  It is sitting in your living room because it is the most safe place you can be with your tv.   It is the (not so) “funny” joke at the expense of a childs self esteem when you should be building children up “OH Look you got a B”  “How the hell did that happen?”.  How did the abnormal become the norm?   It is all of us not being able to reach out a neighborly hand.  NOT a “helping hand”, but a caring neighborly hand. It’s buying a pair of  new basketball shoes for a kid who cannot afford them, no big deal and that kid takes that gift into the rest of her life. A freakin plate of Christmas cookies!  A bag of tomatoes.  Sticks that turn into roses!!    

Also being poor is being so self absorbed that you cannot enjoy the sun in your face.  And that has nothing to do with money.  Being poor is living within your self and not being able to experience the world or a bird, Laughing,  or a funny look on a dogs face or hearing the  unbridled laughter of children  or even the ducks across the street which is my most treasured music in the world.  Those are the poorest people of all.

I have one picture of you kids that I hold dear to my heart.  It was your high school graduation  day.  That is probably the most poor time we have ever had.  You were there in slacks and a nice shirt and tie and sunglasses.  Your brother Christian in jeans and a tee shirt.  Your sister in my old boots which at the time were the only shoes she had and a pair of who knows who’s boxers and a tank top, and Joey just enjoying a sunny day on the patio!  You are all (except Joey) standing there with your fingers down your throats like this sucks!  Look at you now. (two lawyers, an Ag Business major, and a 15 year old who is on track for college!)       

SOOOOOO I’m starting here with a commitment. We have produce, lots!  We have 4 paid subscriptions so far this year (we are actually at a profit so far, seeds and trees and all.  All we need for GJ is another load of Spy Rock and maybe some more potting soil!   ) We have plenty to share and feed us too.  Nobody should have to choose between paying a bill and eating and yet it happens all around us all the time.  I’m actively looking for people in that spot.  Not for self gratification, but because I can help.  I would certainly want some one to help me if I were in that position and people have when we were in that position.    You know I love to teach people about what we do here.   Our neighbors!  I am sure I will get a couple of wonderful recipes or growing tips out of the whole thing, and probably make a couple of friends!  We always have seed I have started that I do not plant because of room or variety constraints, so people can have them for their own garden if they wish.  It’s no fun to have all this and not share further than we already do!  And I’m not talking adopt a family, I’m talking having an open door (heart).   Open heart is going to become my new hobby.  Attitude of Gratitude.  Great, your mom is going to become a door knocker.  “Hey I have food, do you want some?” 

Love,

Mom

This year at Greenjeans Farm we are going to conduct a commitment!  We will give away a share for every share we sell.  We know there are families in our area who have to choose sometimes between paying a bill and food.  No one should have to have that worry.  We are asking Potter Valley residents to connect us with people who would benefit from our commitment!  No strings. 

We just want to GROW.  At Greenjeans Farm we grow organically, we are not certified because the paper work is ridiculous and would take up valuable moon and family time, but organic is all I would feed my family. Or any one else that grazed our farm.     It is ridiculous  to think that we have to sell the concept of healthy earth to people.  As opposed to what?  It has to be fast.  Fast food for people who care about what they eat! 

What about the concept of well thought out local food?  You start it in August, November,  January, February, March and its ready to go April through November?  We plant year round here and there is always something ready.  Even though Jeff hates turnips!  I love them.   The winter crops are my faves!  And I’m telling ya, turnip jam is good!         

Greenjeans Farm and CSA becomes the NWF 113,581 Certified Wildlife Habitat

The National Wildlife Federation has announced that Greenjeans Farm & CSA located in Potter Valley is now recognized and an official Certified Wildlife Habitat site.  Greenjeans Farm attracts a variety of birds, frogs, and other wildlife, while helping to protect the local environment. 

The Wildlife Habitat certification program began in 1973 and since has certified over 110,000 habitats nationwide, including the special 100,000^th certification of the U.S. Botanic Garden’s National Garden in Washington, D.C. at the base of our nation’s Capitol. 

The majority of Certified Wildlife Habitat sites represent the personal commitment of individuals and families to provide important refuge for wildlife near their homes, but NWF has also certified more than 3100 schools and hundreds of business and community sites.  The average habitat is between  one half and one third acre, but certified sites can vary from urban balconies to thousand-acre farms.

Any habitat enthusiast can create a certified habitat and learn the rewards of gardening for wildlife.  NWF teaches the importance of environmental stewardship by providing guidelines for making landscapes more hospitable to wildlife.  In order to become certified, a property must provide the four basic elements that all wildlife need:  food, water, cover and places to raise young; and must employ sustainable practices.  Habitat restoration is critical in urban and suburban settings where commercial and residential development encroaches on natural wildlife areas, limiting the availability of resources wildlife need to survive and thrive.  In addition to providing for wildlife, certified habitats conserve our natural resources by reducing or eliminating the need for fertilizers, pesticides, and/or irrigation water, which ultimately protects the air, soil and water throughout our communities. 

Jeff Adams, owner of Greenjeans Farm sums it up:  “Seven years ago we moved to this abandoned piece of land envisioning a Farm, the soil was sog in winter and hard packed clay in summer and the only wildlife we entertained were Ticks,ants,earwigs,flies and gnats from the vineyard across the street.  By using Organic practices,  building and feeding our soil first, and using no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, we have enabled a rich and varied environment in which many birds, bees, butterflies, frogs, bats and other animals grow and flourish.  The bird that eats a couple of our plums, cherries or raspberries also eats thousand of bugs that are trying to get to the vegetable garden!  We have a couple of covey of quail that live in the blackberry bushes at the bottom of the property. And many finches and hummingbirds of all colors.  We have bats that from time to time fly into the bedroom at night if we leave the door open but they also eat something like three times their weight in bugs a night. The toads like to eat the slugs and they are very comical popping out in the strangest places!  And it is not unusual to have a brightly colored tree frog jump out of the sink overflow drain while you are brushing your teeth in the morning if you leave the bathroom window open!  They take care of everything BUT the weeds!   The real reward is when you are working in the field and you hear the wooosh wooosh  of giant wings and look up to see an eagle or a giant red tail hawk coming right at  you and then you watch it soar over your head and high into the sky and dive down to catch a fish in the pond across the street” 

Creating habitats not only helps wildlife, it can help reduce global warming, pollution and save energy costs as well.  Burning fossil fuels to heat and cool our homes and maintain our lawns releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.  Strategically located trees and other native vegetation can insulate our homes for heat, cold and wind, reducing our heating and cooling needs and thus our carbon emissions.  Wildlife friendly native plants don’t need constant maintenance from gas guzzling lawn mowers or fertilizers that require fossil fuels to manufacture and often leave  harmful chemical salt residue.  An additional benefit is that plants actually absorb carbon dioxide, helping to further reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  All of this adds up to increased areas available for wildlife and a better quality of life for all.

Habitats can also produce an added value to your home.  A beautiful, living landscape is an acctractive element to many potential home buyers looking to share their homes with Mother Nature.

The mission of the National Wildlife Federation is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.

Yesterday it was my birthday, hung one more year on the line.  We planted willows and hazelnuts Thank you my wonderful work friends for your generous gift certificate to Oak Valley!  Today I planted lots of herbs and flowers in the greenhouse and more chives and walla walla onions!  I also took the pruning cuttings from the willows and stuck them into the ground to see if they would grow.  So we might have about 8 willow trees!   It is cold and there is a promise of rain.  First from the southwest and now from the north!  Could be the perfect storm! This would be great as it has been way too dry.    I am into experimenting this year and planted some of the broccoli starts out in the garden to see what they’ll do this early.  I also planted poppies outside, it will be beautiful in a few weeks if they go!  We have daffodils and robins so anything goes!   

By the time I was done it was freezing cold and I didn’t have to ask Jeff to build a fire.  I came in the house and started reading seed catalogues for things I have yet to purchase, (potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins).  Territorial Seed is great and has a really comprehensive catalogue, but Peaceful Valley is just as organic and cheaper.  I went with Peaceful Valley.  They just seem a little bit more real and a little less yuppie.  44 dollars for what I wanted to order as opposed to 150 dollars at Territorial.  But without the two of them, I would be hard pressed as an organic farmer. 

It’s early February and I can’t wait to get out to the greenhouses! Today is damp and foggy and cold.  I am eyeing the  packets of herbs and flower seeds on the kitchen counter anxiously.

Jeff has the habit of inventorying our food which drives me CRAZY.  Nobody owns food!  He knows I would give it all away in a hot minute.   But as usual with Jeff, there is a method to his madness.    We put a lot of food by in the late summer and fall and always complain about not having enough room to stuff another thing in the freezer or the pantries.  How great is that?  Even after the CSA season is over, there is always excess.  There are also things I would never give to a subscriber, unless I knew them very well and explained it to them first.  (Corn with worms (don’t use that part), over ripe peas that we didn’t get to in time. (good soup stuff)) We throw nothing away. And we totally use it.  I’d rather eat an organic worm or a starchy pea.    Truth be told we will let a huge zuchinni fly from time to time.  If we throw it, it goes to our neighbors cows who enjoy a delicious treat! And treat us with some thankful moo’s.   We take over the top vegetables to Plowshares, and there still always seems to be an abundance!   

By the end of winter after Christmas and the first property tax payment, when we are feeling very small and poor, Jeff always knows exactly how many bags of corn or peas or cauliflower or broccoli, onions, marinara sauce we have in the freezer.  He does all this in his head!   On the days we have to pay PG&E for our winter “Got to put up Christmas lights” sins.  I come home to a hearty healthy meal from our farm!   These are the days that make me feel grateful for our life! I am perfectly happy to be the day job partner in this farm if I can have a corn soup made with a little broth and rice or barley that warms my body and my soul in front of a good ol’ fire.  If we have some meat to add in it is a plus, and we have herbs to flavor it. But a good loaf of bread is great with it.   We both reville in the taste and the fact that we grew this food!  I can pull out a bag of black berries from early august and make a pie in January and it tastes like August! 

Life is great, and made to share!      

Went to the grocery store today to buy a couple of things for dinner.  I got in line in the ten items or less line  feeling good that my purchase was less than ten items and bruised that that I only had 20 dollars to spend.  January is a tough time for our farm and our bank account!    

There was a woman in front of me that I noticed had two frozen pot pies, a loaf of bread, and envelope and a newspaper.  She was waiting for her daughter to come back into line that she had sent for something else.  The ten or less line is always very urgent and I actually enjoy going through it, because some people are so weird about fast, and I like to make comments that screw around with their heads.  Her daughter came back with a gallon of non fat milk and she was looking at it like it was  a twelve pack of coke to one of my kids.  The clerk rang it up and she was two dollars short.  I could feel her fear and her pain as she paid her cash, (like 15 dollars and then told the clerk to put the 2 dollars on her ATM, I know she was sweating whether it would go through or not. I know that she knew how much a gallon of milk meant to her daughter at that point.   It worked for her, but I tell ya I was ready to give her my 20 and walk out of the store with nothing.  I actually regret I did not give her one of our cards.  And  hope that I see her again sometime.