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.

This Saturday marked the Autumnal equinox and the first day of fall, and also marked the beginning of my fourth week as a CSA intern at Hidden Villa. This first month has been an exhilarating introduction to the farms’ systems, and these weeks have gone by fast. I arrived in early September, when the summer heat was still brilliant, and the sun would not set until after eight o’clock. My large collection of wool hats, blankets, and socks were out of place in the warm evening air. While the seasonal transition from summer to fall can be easily overlooked in California, with Indian summers fluidly stretching into October, the first day of fall is cause for celebration. The fall harvest celebrates a change in pace, and a time to commemorate the bounty of the harvest and prepare for the onset of winter.

On Monday evening we had our fourth annual heirloom tomato tasting with great success. Every year our tomato tasting has been bigger and fancier. This year we had two hundred people RSVP, though maybe only half of those showed up, and we had live music starting around five o’clock. Out of the ten heirloom varieties that we had available for the tasting the top three chosen in order of popularity were: Japanese Black Trifele, Striped German, and Vorlon. For the farm crew these results are a good reinforcement to continue and expand production of these varieties next year because these three varieties continually rank well during the tomato tasting.

Hello everyone, 

This Labor Day weekend marked the end, and the beginning, of a new chapter for us on the Farm Crew. Last Wednesday we planted into the last few rows in the field, meaning that the vast majority of our planting is finished for the year. This, I think, is a cause for celebration. I can vividly recall my first few walks through the fields, looking out at waves of poppies and mustard flowers, not really believing that it would all one day be turned into neat rows of crops. We have steadily worked to till those cover crops under, create beautiful rows, and fill them with a huge variety of beautiful and delicious foods. In addition to this seasonal milestone, last week held further causes for celebration: birthdays, first corn in the share box,  the rediscovery of my favorite pair of pants, and a celebratory Farm Crew (and friends) trip to Nevada City.

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.

It is unusually quiet and calm this morning at Hidden Villa. At first everything seems normal, the rooster is sounding off at 5:30, the squirrel is running across my roof at six to steal golden delicious from my apple tree, and I can hear the crows cawing already even though it is just after seven. Then I realize there is no chanting or children's voices. Summer camp is officially over which means we have two hundred fewer people living here.

As we aproach autumn it is time for summer camp to come to an end. This will be my final blog post for the season and I thought it would be appropriate to focus on our eldest campers here at Hidden Villa, and their journey from camper to counselor in our A.C.T. program. A handfull of A.C.T. campers have completed their training and mentoring program over the course of first three sessions of this summer. During this final session, these A.C.T.s  have become intern counseling staff in the day camp, tipi camp, and rez camp programs. In this role A.C.T.s are full time staff members of the summer camp community.

Tomatoes of all shapes, colors, and sizes are coming in on their vines right now. A great way to preserve or enjoy the harvest is to make salsa. Here is my favorite new salsa recipe from Put ‘Em Up, a great book on home preservation. You can scale it to the ingredients you have on hand. This recipe makes a bunch!

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.

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.

I spent this morning harvesting and drying flowers for my Holiday wreaths. Even though it's the dog days of Summer I am looking ahead and wanting to make all of this Summer bounty last into Fall and Winter. Sign up now to join me November 10th for my wreath making class, using materials grown and harvested here on the farm. Hope to see you there!

-Lanette

Ingredients

2-3 summer squash (depends on your appetite)
3 T olive oil
½ bunch parsley
2-3 peeled cloves of garlic
2 T butter
1 lemon, juiced
one box linguine pasta (or one pound of fresh pasta)
salt
pepper

Slice squash into roughly ½” discs or medallions. Brush with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and place on a preheated grill, flipping once to cook both sides. Meanwhile, follow instructions to prepare desired amount of linguine. With the flat of a large chef’s knife, crush the garlic repeatedly, adding a little salt to help soak up the expressed oil. Once the garlic is an even paste, mince well and sauté briefly in the butter. To assemble, toss pasta with butter/garlic mixture, lemon juice, and generous handfuls of rough chopped parsley. Top with grilled squash medallions and enjoy.

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.

My love for cucumbers developed when I first had a cucumber salad at my favorite Japanese restaurant. Though this is not their recipe, it will do the trick.