Independence Week

More fun stuff on the plate. To begin with, the long awaited opening of our new Paseo drop-off will start up next Monday. July 7th. The address is 8220 San Pedro which is two blocks north of Paseo del Norte on the east side of San Pedro. Like Carlisle, it will run from 12 to 7 pm.

To change to this pick-up, just access your member profile and hit the Paseo Nuevo tab. Then hit update and we will be all set to go.

Next order of biz is for our northern brethren in Los Alamos. We have opened up a new drop off point in LA to alleviate some of the home delivery stress on our driver. It is at Ruby K’s Bagel Café from 1:30 to 5:30 pm. Check it out.

Also, thanks to all who have volunteered for the festival. We got tons of interest and have filled all of the slots. Thank you for the help.

Now it is time for my annual disclaimer for Mother Nature. I call this time of year the Doldrums. A mariner’s term for when the wind would not blow and your sails would fall asleep. And before engines that meant you would have to sit and wait for the winds to return. Patience built.

And although we are far from the sea, the doldrums can still settle in the high desert. For the farm, it is the time of year when the heat has beaten all your spring crops (spinach, lettuce, radishes) down, and the summer crops (peppers, toms, eggplant) are preparing for their first harvest. But for a few weeks there is not much happening.

This situation is pretty unique to the high desert. I never experienced it farming in the more temperate areas of California or Washington. In those areas, you wait for your first harvest, but then it continues until winter comes. No breaks.

On the consumer side, this is a tough time. Shoppers are expecting a cornucopia flowing from the fields like the Nile. But it just ain’t there. I remember my first season with LPO and how frustrated I was with this time. But, alas, there is nothing you can do about it. Just cultivate patience.

It is also at times like this that I love having a newsletter forum to discuss issues. There is no time at a farmers’ market to get into details like this about the growing season and cycles on the farm. It is just too face paced.

Besides using the newsletter as my personal therapy and hopefully avoiding a breakdown where I take a chicken hostage until demands are met, I see it as an educational seed.

Sure I want our CSA to be the healthiest and best fed bunch of foodies around. But I want more than that darn it. Call me greedy, but I would like our CSA to be edjumacated as well.

It is impossible to expect that our members will know the all nuances of the farm life. But it is a goal of mine to share as many as I can. The more informed we all are about our farm and our food, the deeper the connection we can build.

When we have education along with connections, we end up with realistic expectations of our food system. And that, amigos, is the goal.

It always cracks me up to see shoppers at the first farmers’ market of the year in early May walking around asking for tomatoes and melons. It is obvious that they have never grown a garden and are more in tune with the cycles of the grocery store rather than the farm.

With those unrealistic demands at the first market, also comes the potential for another fresh food convert. And that is what I love to see. It is not a quick transformation, but a loyal one. Once our taste buds “see the light,” they do not want to go back to the canned counter part.

So for now, we cultivate our patience as we watch the fruits on the vine mature. Knowing that the summer madness is just around the bend.

Also during this week celebrating our independence, I take a few moments to smile for the choices that we now have in obtaining good food and daydream as to what else is to come.

Happy 4th, Farmer Monte