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- Warren Pears & Pink Lady Apples; Frog Hollow Farm,
Brentwood, CA
- Clementine Oranges, Blood Oranges; Olson Family Farms, Kingsburg, CA
- Hayward Kiwi– Chiechi Farms, Gridley, CA
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From Farmer Al
Paradigm Shift
Dear CSA Members– 2012 Will (could) be the year FHF makes a major shift in the way we farm and produce our fruit. It’s all based on compost and fungi. Knowledge of the soil, developed by hosts of scientists from many disciplines over the last century, has been coordinated, organized, and developed into a cohesive body of scientific study called ‘The Soil Food Web’. This movement, led by Elaine Ingham at the University of Oregon, will change the way we farm here at Frog Hollow.
We have mentors, a husband and wife team, actually– Christophe and Monique Krees, who live in San Francisco, and visit the farm weekly to guide us in compost production. They take samples of the compost to study under their electron microscope, and look at the microbial populations of our compost piles. They monitor levels of activity between fungi and bacteria, the two great decomposers of our planets’ organic and mineral matter. “We want fungal dominance in this compost”, they say, and tell us when to add what materials, when to water the compost piles, when to turn, etc. Internal temperatures are important and are being recorded daily by farm staff, especially Karen and Melissa.
A team of 4 men are shredding tree branches (from the prunings of our trees) to produce a ton per day of wood chips, which is the foundation material for ‘fungal dominant’ compost. Once the piles meet the ‘Soil Food Web’ criteria for microbial activity, we will apply the compost to the soil in the orchard, starting with our most delicate trees, the apricots.
Our goal is to create a healthier soil environment for the trees and to shift the balance of fungal populations in favor of a healthy fungi over pathogenic fungi.
Stay Tuned,
Kimi’s Citrus Dressing-
I asked Kimi, our Marketing Coordinator and Mail Order expert for a favorite recipe using ingredients from this week’s CSA share– she suggested something I’d never considered– using Clementine juice to make a dressing! Duh! I guess I have always relied on vinegar or lemons, but I love a vinaigrette that’s not too tart.
-Juice of one Clementine
-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil (Frog Hollow Farm Olive Oil if you’ve got it!)
-1 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar
*You can add chopped shallot, garlic, a bit of salt, fresh ground pepper, and sugar to taste
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