Not quite the same as geese! For the last 4 days we’ve had a steady flow of air traffic overhead as various important people (mainly Bush, Harper and Calderon) fly over to Montebello for the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) meeting. And they are taking security very seriously with police, service and military choppers. It’s a little unnerving hearing that constant noise as we were outside working in the field — makes us appreciate the quiet that we have all other days. But enough politics, I find food to be much more inspiring!

The winter squash are growing — nowhere near ripe yet, but the shape is right so that’s encouraging! And as you may have noticed, the tomatoes are ripening nicely — even with the blight loss. The cukes are not fairing so well. The dry spell did not agree with them and they are wilting and browning away. Our late beans have started and some of you have had the chance to sample them. And the garlic, ah the garlic! It is currently hanging in our garage and every time we walk by we get a whiff. If you are at a loss to use up a head a week, you can dice and freeze it in some olive oil, make a 40 clove chicken recipe, roast it in the oven and freeze the smoochy mixture, make pesto, pickle the garlic or make salsa and/or stir-fries daily. I had read somewhere that if you feel a cold coming on, you can walk around with a clove of garlic in your mouth for a day and it’s supposed to ward it off. And it stops you from spreading it too ;o) Not too sure what to expect with the corn. We still spent a good chunk of time Saturday hoeing and weeding it, but the stalks are not taller than us yet and have yet to show cobs so we’ll see. Experiments are more fun when they work out amazingly well, but we’re still enjoying the growing corn experience. It looks really pretty!
As I am sure you have noticed, Fall is creeping up on us. Can you smell the difference in the air? Or maybe the chills and cool winds give it away. We are big fans of sweater weather, mainly because half the team here are fair skinned folk that burn oh so easily. We gladly welcome overcast skies, tomato surplus and evening bonfires!
And a little note…we will be participating in Feast of Fields this year. We’ve been teamed up with chef Michael Pickard of Infusion bistro and are looking forward to seeing (and tasting) what he concocts with our veggies. A promo blurb to come when the marketing people over there send us something.

corn, farm, field, garlic, market, squash, sun, tomato, weeding