Sol Food Farm

“Hang on Harvey, We’re headed for the rhubarb!!”

Hello to all the friends of Sol Food Farm! Our names are Ken and Lori Dawn. We are the proud new owners of this locally supported, sustainably minded, West Sonoma County ‘banana belt’ farm.

Some of you may already know us from the Occidental Farmers Market or Santa Rosa Downtown Farmer’s Market as Mudpie Farm. We enjoyed the farming and marketing of our 1/3 acre, organically ammended, Laguna Road location so much we decided to expand. Thanks to Farmer John Born for all his years ammending the soil and all his help over the year!

There are a lot of things that will stay the same about Sol Food Farm but there are a lot of things that we are very excited about changing as well. The biggest change to the Farm will be introducing Biodynamic practices. This includes incorporating animals into the circle. First order of business was to get those laying chickens out of the coop. They are let out into the field every morning and closed in for the evenings. After one day of open grazing they were waiting by the door at dawn, raising a ruckus to get let out again. We’ve also added two pigs to the mix. We are moving them every two days and they are “tractoring” the property. This is great, we havn’t had to turn the tractor key yet and the pigs LOVE the fresh miners lettuce and grub worms.

We have been busy making the most of the warm and sunny weather. Every day spent in the fields tending to the fruit and citrus trees by clearing the drop rings, pruning, composting, and soon to be mulching, shoring up the hoop house frame, getting the tractor back in running order, identifying our weeds and reseeded crops, starting compost piles, moving those pigs, laying down cover crop, weeding the beds, keeping the blackberry population under contol, hauling out the seeds for inventory, ordering new and planning this years course for soil building and planting. We will be attending the California Rare Fruit Grower’s Association’s Scion Exchange to scout out some of the new fruit trees we’ll be planting this season. By the way, if anyone has local, organically grown asparagus crowns they would like to sell, we are looking.

It’s taken a few rainy days to get us back inside, at the computer, working on updating the website and letting you all know what we’ve been up to. There have been countless brainstorming sessions where we’ve come up with some really great ideas for this years CSA. We want it to be a little different. Our CSA box will include options. If you like the straight forward $30 box you can still get it. If you want a little more flexibility in your box, you can get that too. We are putting together an all new website where we will post our weekly available produce and you will be able to visit our online “store” and place an order which more closely reflects your weekly produce needs and the farm’s harvests. The price of your box will be based on how much you put into it for the week. Customize your box. Fill it with your favorites in the amount you really need. If you have family in town, order more, if you’re pantry is full, order less. Information about the 2009 Summer Season CSA Membership will be updating on the website in the coming weeks.

One of the ideas we are tossing around is bicycle delivery of the CSA boxes in West County. It’s a good way to get a nice long bicycle ride and still be farming. In addition, if you pick up your CSA box on foot or bicycle we like to offer a $5/week discount.

We would like to test the idea of being year round. If you would like any of the winter vegetables we currently have growing and would like to get a Custom, off-season CSA box, give us a call 707-604-7120 or email at solfoodfarm@gmail.com. We currently have lettuce, bok choi, chinese cabbage, collard greens, turnips, red mustard greens, broccoli, dino kale, red russian kale and curly kale. A healthy bunch goes for $1.50/bunch (everything except lettuce and red mustard greens which are $4/lb.)

To explain a little about what our motivation for practicing biodynamics is based on, we’ve found a definition from Hugh Lovel in his book A Biodynamic Farm that encompasses quite a lot. Biodynamic agriculture is “a holistic system of agriculture that grew out of the investigations of Rudolf Steiner. It views each farm as a living individual within the living earth and universe. An ideal BD (Biodynamic) farm is a self sufficient ecosystem that produces it’s own composts, seeds, livestock replacements, etc., and operates within the larger context of the district and it’s make up, the country, the world, and the rhythms and relationships of the solar family against the starry background. A biodynamic farmer grows food for nourishment, not simply to make money, and the spiritual human requires nourishment as much as the physical. Thus the farmer seeks to produce food that supports the whole human being, including the physical, etheric, astral and egoic bodies. In the view of biodynamic agriculture the three fold human organism is composed physically of head, heart and guts, and spiritually of thought, feeling and will. Food must contain adequate materials for physical organization as well as adequate forces for spiritual activity. We may think of food as our medicine, and not simply medicine for our ills–though it may be. Above all, it is medicine for our health and evolution.” This philosophy reminds Ken of “Uncle Henry’s” farm in New Hampshire, where he grew up. It is a return to the natural cycle of renewal a farm reflects in the cycle of seasons. Everything is relevant from the fungus in the soil to the smiling Farmer’s Market customer.

Thanks to Brian and Brandon for passing the torch of Sol Food Farm, thanks to Leo, Andy and Laura for the vision, creation and execution. Thanks to the Silvestrich family and the neighbors. Sol Food Farm wouldn’t be what it is without the contribution of so many. A big thanks to the CSA members and customers, friends and fellow farmers, thank you for supporting local, sustainable agriculture. Your bellies will thank you for it!

Peace
Ken Gibson and Lori Dawn Meier

I am sending this out as the last blog from Brian and Brandon. Our CSA was a success, we have returned from our Thanksgiving holiday trips, and are now packing up. I am heading down south today on my way to Tucson to spend some time with my cousin. We will then drive to Arkansas to be with family for the holidays. And that’s where I’ll be staying. Brian is here until the end of the month, then heading up to Portland. What an amazing little farm year we just had.
This year Brian and I grew vegetables and flowers on a little under two acres for two farmers markets and a 20 member CSA. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. We couldn’t have done this at all without the aid of our two farm interns, Brook and Will. I hope these two realize how much they helped us make this all happen. We would also like to thank Henry and Maggie for letting us use their water all summer and to our neighbors for all the support and greetings from over the fence. We sure did miss Leo and the others this summer, but were able to shape this farm the way we wanted and had our most successful year ever. Also a big thank you to our silly roommates for just going with the flow.
Amazing how my five years in California are coming to a close pretty much right now. The one year in Santa Cruz became five years all together. I had a great time California and everyone needs to come visit me in Arkansas. I will be right outside of Memphis and having way to much fun drinking light beer and eating bar b q. Until next time folks, Thank ya thank ya thank ya.

ALSO. Hey we sold the farm!!! So Sol Food Farm will still be around next year. Ken and Lorrie are the new farmers around here and boy have they got some ideas! So lets all see what they will do. Good luck to them!!

Box> lettuce, squash, bok choi, dino kale, red Russian kale, potatoes, radishes, peppers, garlic

Dear friends and family of Sol Food Farm. How are we today? Brian and I are just swell. Yours truly just got back from a week visiting home and preparing myself for the big move back. That’s correct folks. Brandon Pugh has had his amazing California experience and is now heading back to the homeland to start my own project, Delta Sol. This farm has been a dream of mine for a while and at last the time has come. I will be farming the land that I grew up on and will be one of the only vegetable producers for miles around. Memphis is where my markets will be and my mom is already working on my CSA membership. I will be back around my family and am ready for this next step. Thank you all for being so supportive of us young farmers as we figure out how this all works.
Have no fear for the present Sol Food Farm for once again there will be some new folks around. Not 100 percent sure who but we will make sure you know as soon as we have the okay.
Lots of love and a friendly reminder that we one week left ya’ll. Holy cow.

Recipe.
Basic vinaigrette.
2 tbsp cider vinegar or 3 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp dry mustard or 1 tsp Dijon
½ tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
6-8 tbsp olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper until salt dissolves. Slowly whisk in oil. Alternately, combine vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in a covered jar and shake vigorously until well combined; add oil and shake until blended.