Dear Friends,
What a week it’s been with the heat and the threat of wildfires in San Diego. Unfortunately, our northern neighbors have suffered tremendously and for the most part, so far with this weather pattern, we’ve dodged the infernos.
It’s said that a farm is only as good as the observant foot that walks it, whether large or small. And even small production farms have life forms on it that are there for the observant eye, perhaps more so as every square foot counts and needs attention. The sound of droppings of the palm tree dates are subtle as they hit the ground and usually means the neighborhood raccoons will be visiting at night to enjoy them. But last week, early in the morning as I went out to give the wild birds a little seed, I came within a few feet of a big, robust and equally startled coyote that I assume was there for a feasting of them. We had been noticing scat for a couple of days but had thought they were the coons. Since no bones or hair had been in them we hadn’t suspected a coyote. He/she was as startled as I was! In the blink of an eye, it scaled the chain-link fence just feet away to stop about 15 ft on the other side before looking back and casually sauntering off. It was pretty thrilling.
There were other encounters this week with creatures not quite so dramatic and their emergence I think had to do with the heat. One was a beautiful black and yellow coral-like snake that I had disturbed when hand watering on a rock wall. I spent several minutes admiring it as it did its best to tell me to go away. Also, a juvenile gopher snake required ‘surgery’ to remove the plastic netting it had become entangled with. They’re really quite harmless and I think it sensed we were helping it as we cut away strand by strand, removing the choking threads with surgical precision. The spider, though, gave me the biggest start, not of personal fear, but rather of how close I had come to walking into its elaborate webbing and destroying all that work!
As to your produce this week, I especially hope you enjoy the persimmons. They’re a short season treat and delicious. Next week we should be having pomegranates, as well.
I’ve heard from several shareholders that they’d like to have more ready to cook or eat items in their weekly allotments so we’re including the broccoli/cauliflower medley this week. Please let me know if you like it and keep the notes and suggestions coming. We appreciate it.
