Standing outside the silent auction tent at the 16th annual Duveneck Dinner I was taken aback by a vision.  This vision was of Frank and Josephine treacherously climbing the mountainside and looking down on the canyon and I wondered what they saw all those years ago. Could they see then the potential this land had to bring communities together and collaboratively work towards a just and sustainable future? Surrounded by the diverse group of staff, board members, donors and honorees, I stopped and thought about how this farm has changed so much since the Duvenecks came here but how their legacy still continues to inspire so many.

 
When I came to Hidden Villa four years ago I was searching for a place to find myself.  I grew up in a very conservative Midwest town in Indiana, a place where I never truly felt comfortable in my own skin and was left searching for confidence.  It’s funny  but reassuring that I ended up in a place that teaches kids to have that confidence in themselves; something that I had never been able to do though I understood all too well the challenges of loving yourself as an individual.

Every year during our largest annual fundraising event, the Duveneck Dinner, the farm crew has offered a meal for 10 served out in our fields as an item for silent auction.  Selling this unique experience has been an important way for the farm to support our fundraising and has also been a specialized kind of mission-oriented outreach.

This week I am house sitting at a home that has a special perk: wireless Internet in the house! I have been saturating myself online, including some non productive catching up on friends’ latest photos, and some more productive perusing of websites of other small-scale farms. Last night I discovered a small farm in Vermont that offers a year round CSA, something I had not considered until then, especially for a farm in such a cold weather climate. Upon further investigation, I found that the farm employs people specifically to preserve the year’s harvest through canning and freezing. In this way they ensure that CSA members have access to farm raised food, year round. I was equally impressed and inspired, and started thinking more about successful marketing styles utilized by small farms.

Pounds and pounds of green beans are proliferating on their vines right now! A great way to enjoy the overload is to make pickles. Green beans make crisp, tangy, delicious "dilly beans," which use a brine of apple cider vinegar and fresh dill.These will last for at least a month in your fridge.

Last week there was a mother picking up her share box who was carefully explaining to her son that we did not have strawberries this week and that we would probably not have them this year. It is probably the saddest thing for me to hear when a long time share member has the expectation of receiving something with which I know we are having difficult problems.

Wednesday of last week was homemade roasted tomatillo salsa and chicken enchiladas, fresh guacamole, Spanish style rice and homegrown pinto beans. Saturday afternoon was Czech style cabbage, slow roasted pork, Peruvian style onions, fresh slaw, double and triple cream brie, fluffy ciabatta, and homemade blueberry cheesecake ice cream. Monday of this week was homemade pizzas with sausage, broccoli, padron peppers, onions, tomato sauce and beets all from Hidden Villa, a beautiful handmade peach pie with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Well, Summer is definitely in full swing. These days our work typically revolves around weeding, harvesting, eating, preserving, and more weeding. Amidst the weeds I have been working on improving my new farming skills, learning entirely new ones, and reflecting on the lasting impact of first experiences.

It was a beautiful and rare sunny day on the coast at Pie Ranch. Sitting on a straw bale and listening to the blue grass band strum away, I took in the scene. In the open valley below the eucalyptus grove, people in the crowd chatted, shook hands, and exchanged information. Others waited in line for the potluck, to slip enchiladas and homemade pie onto their plates. Some casually stopped at tables to try samples and pick up information about the showcased entrepreneurs. Farm Fest, an event organized by Slow Money, brought together food entrepreneurs and local investors. As the program started, people took their seats, eager to hear about the new businesses taking their place in the local food economy.

Hi CSA Members, Summer is finally here! I was looking forward to watching our summer crops come on, and long days of hiking and swimming. However, back in May I injured my knee. Being couch and crutch-ridden has forced me to slow down, and I’ve struggled to adjust to this change of pace. But there’s always a silver lining, right? As I heal, I’ve had time to work with other departments at Hidden Villa. (And I caught up on my reading. Seriously, ask me for suggestions.) As the sidelined Farm Crew member, I want to share what I’ve been working on in the past month or so.

Legend has it that composting dates back to the early Roman Empire. Roman farmers put left over organic material in piles to sit over winter, and by the next season they had decayed into fertilizer to use in the soil. But no matter who “discovered” composting, we do know that thousands of years of successful agriculture preceded industrial, synthetic fertilizers. So how does decomposing stuff turn into fertilizer and why does it work?

Photo Credit: Laurie Aubuchon

On our field walk today we saw newly sprouted bush beans coming in healthily next to fifteen lines of hearty looking potato plants. At the same time our old strawberry patch is almost completely inundated with noxious bind weed and some of the tomatoes that we planted on Friday have already been eaten by voles. It also rained on us, which was both good and bad. Getting a little extra water helps our crops grow but it also made it so that we couldn’t get into the field to do some needed tractor work and planting. The rain will also increase the weed pressure on all our crops.

This is why I love small scale diversified organic farming. Everyday is a new and different challenge and I get to work outside with a small crew of good friends to grow some of the best food I have ever had in my life.

By Suzanne Allcroft, Agriculture Intern

Hidden Villa's Interns recently had our weekly enrichment class at Community Services Agency (CSA) Mountain View to learn about the organization and volunteer at its food bank. We donate a quarter of the produce we grow at Hidden Villa to the CSA Mountain View food bank during the farm season, so I was curious to see where our produce goes and how it's distributed.

Hi CSA members! I’m Suzanne Allcroft, and I’m grateful to be entering my second year as an intern at Hidden Villa. With one farming season under my belt, I’m looking forward to what I can learn from my second. Last year I think my eyes were so wide open from moving to the farm from San Francisco, I wonder if I farmed half of last season in shock (a good shock).

By Suzanne Allcroft, Agriculture Intern

Last fall the Agriculture Team at Hidden Villa decided we wanted to improve upon our pasture-raised egg production. What if we built chicken coops that were mobile? While our previous laying hens could wander freely, their coops stayed put. But with mobile coops, each coop could house a flock of laying hens and move locations every few days.  We were excited about this new system because it would enable our hens to continuously graze on fresh grass, fertilize the areas they passed over, and eat insect pests such as flies, mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas.

Photo: Joey and Max at Let’s Go Farm in Santa Rosa

Hello CSA Members. It’s Taylor, your newest member of the Hidden Villa Farm Crew. As Jason mentioned in the last newsletter, I joined the Hidden Villa community in the beginning of April. I am coming to Hidden Villa with some farming and gardening experience from small farms in both Boston, MA and Western Marin County here in California. The internship program at Hidden Villa is a very exciting prospect for me as I am working with wonderful people and taking a strong first step towards my goal of one day running my own farm. So far I have been acclimating to life here on the farm, building new muscles I never knew I had, showing off blisters, eating and growing amazing food, and generally having a great time.

By Suzanne Allcroft, Agriculture Intern

This Tuesday I had the privilege of attending a pizza party hosted by a group of students from Kennedy Middle School.  But this wasn’t just any pizza party. The students made everything from scratch (even the cheese!) and it marked the finale of an after school class called Kitchen Literacy: Cooking, Nutrition, and Food Justice. For the final class, the students had invited their parents and teachers to enjoy their cooking.

Guest post by Margy Dorr

My time as a volunteer at Hidden Villa has been a unique and treasured experience. Not only am I enamored with the beautiful natural landscape, I am also surrounded by a rich history while working with the development team in the Duveneck House.

Guest post by Daniel Chmielewski

"Connected, connected, everything’s connected.” One of the well known songs at Hidden Villa, it strikes a central point in the ecological imperative of our times: "to recognize and understand that humans are intrinsically related to all life and the systems which support it (water, air, soil).” Once “unconnected” we risk alienation from the natural flow of life processes and education, whether through formal or informal experience, is a bridge into being connected. My internship at Hidden Villa has been rich in education and in my eyes, most importantly, exposure. In my second year here, seasonal changes of weather, edible and ornamental agriculture, animal husbandry, environmental education, and sustainability have deeply connected me to the land and to the future. 

After graduation, I headed down the well-trodden path of a 9-to-5 office job, and under fluorescent lights I whistled while I worked inside a world of spreadsheet cells and cyberspace.  I was more than lucky enough to have access to a grocery store with copious amounts of fresh organic produce and live where a farmer’s market took place almost every day of the week. Despite the knowledge gained about the food system through my education, my work and lifestyle kept me very removed from the production of my food.  It’s the same systematic distancing that keeps most of us from seeing the connection between our strawberry milkshakes and manure.