We are happy to be home on the farm and looking forward to serving free meals at San Rafael, San Francisco and Berkeley Cafe Gratitudes on Thursday. We plan on serving over 1000 people, once again, for our 8th year. While times are currently challenging, our Thanksgiving feast is so much a part of who we are that we are choosing to serve once more. Come join us and let's all GIVE THANKS TOGETHER!

We had volunteers from the San Rafael Cafe on the farm today as well as a Chaplain from Kaiser Hospital who knit us all winter caps to keep us warm. You can see Bernadino, Javier, Matthew and I in our matching hats enjoying our time together just after the community lunch. We are so grateful! Thank you Gina Rose. The cow stall got cleaned out today and new hay was spread in preparation for the upcoming birth, still a few weeks away. We had enchiladas, cheesy cauliflower, pea sprouts, spicy salsa and farm made wine for lunch today (just a taste of wine as chores are still happening). What a sweet day it has been. The broccoli and cauliflower are beautiful and being served in our Cafes. Stop by and enjoy the local harvest. We love you all and are GRATEFUL beyond measure. Happy Thanksgiving, we GIVE THANKS for you!

Love. Terces

So much to be grateful for...

our new truck (better for delivering produce from the farm to the kitchen)

blackberries

The baby chicks are here!  We picked them up with the Grandchildren and shared all about the miracle of receiving Special Breeds in the mail. The man at the post office was so precious about handing over the box to Kate. She said when we returned to the farm, “This is my best day ever!” I love the lessons that children can learn living on a farm! 

Tomato plants are in the ground, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for no more heavy frost. The greenhouse tomatoes now have golf ball sized tomatoes! Love the early start we got this year with the new greenhouse. Starts are abundant in the greenhouse and Lindsay is doing a great job of balancing mothering a small child, Newe, and keeping up with all the sprouts, wheatgrass and plant starts too!

Cacao, one of our Dexter cows, is pregnant and due in July.  We can’t wait to have a baby calf on the farm. The grandchildren are looking forward to that as well. Leche, our other Dexter, just returned from two months on the farm where we purchased her and we are hoping she is bred as well and will calf in December or January.

Now that the holidays are almost over, my attention has shifted from sharing warm, hearty cooked meals with family to preparing light, cleansing foods by myself in my sacred space.  My partner and I, both members of the Cafe Gratitude community, are preparing to do a juice fast together to ring in the new year and to help prepare our bodies for a whole new season of growth, release, and lessons.  Amanda and I are both thrilled that Terces, co-founder and community leader of Cafe Gratitude , will be joining us as she begins a second year of the Juice Club.  In 2010, she committed to a full year of juicing for the first week of each month. This year, she has decided to renew her commitment and continue to juice (and to invite her community to juice) into the new year.  It is amazing how wonderful it can feel to drink juice and feel your body go through the experience of cleansing and renewing.

Terces has blogged to the community throughout her journey, recounting her daily experiences of juicing to encourage and inspire those who have joined her in the Juice Club:

"I shared with one of our managers today that one of the things I notice when juicing is that whenever I pass by a mirror or window and see my reflection I am surprised that I look "better" than I think I am going to.... and when I am not juicing I often experience myself as not looking better than I think I will. I am not sure what it is, I just notice that I have that experience."