Windy day on the farm and frost last night. We've been keeping our hopes up for the early flowering fruit trees!
Planting beets, kale, onions and potatoes. The olives are curing!
I made my first mozzarella cheese from Leche's milk (I still milk her once a day and the calf gets her the rest of the time).
Working on the farm today having just returned from leading our Community Building workshop in L.A. this weekend.
What a great group gathered for doing to the work of looking at what stops us from really taking on the healing that community offers us all. Remember that your community may be your family, co workers, neighborhood, family or origin....
Our view is that community offers us all the opportunity to see what wounds are still open and oozing that we can take on healing. It is an amazing workshop and we are grateful for those folks who show up and do the work. Thank you.
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
Leadership training this weekend was so inspiring. Matthew and I kept on saying to one another, "look at_________(we could fill in so many names), how amazing they are!" What a powerful group of leaders out in the world fulfilling on their commitments! What a tremendous community they are. This was their final weekend of an eight month course, with people gathering from all over the country. I am so grateful for each one of you.
Winter mornings and nights have us warming up around a campfire. Leche is starting to show signs of an upcoming birth, and we are so excited. I'll keep you posted.
Persimmons and pomegranates are just about ready for picking. Walnuts are off the trees drying in the barn. Our wine has been filtered once and the flavor is amazing.
Our community is seeing legal threats as an opportunity to crank up the love! How wonderful is that? We couldn't have asked for better partners for keeping our attention on gratitude!
Love you all,
Terces
A group of amazing young people were out to the farm today to help us collect all the butternut squash from the fields. It is so fun to have them come and see what the farm is really all about. Their energy and help is so appreciated. Thank you all.
Cacao is off to spend a couple of months with Dex the bull. We went to visit her today and she looks great and was having fun, running the hillside with the other cattle. I imagine the exercise is good for her too, she had gotten so chubby! She let me rub her face and scratch her around the horns, one of her favorite things!
Leche is doing great, it is easier to see the difference in the pregnancies now (or what we thought was a pregnancy)! She spends her days with one of the chicken families and they enjoy sharing their sprouts and wheat grass together! It is quite the scene.
These warm days and evenings are appreciated before winter comes. We are able to prepare fields for spring planting and the fall garden is in full swing now. Cauliflour, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce all in abundance. The peppers are still finishing up and we are roasting them daily.
I shared that we bottled last years wine and we crushed and put into barrels (three!) this years harvest. We have enjoyed what is called "fresh wine", only fermented for two weeks prior to putting into oak. It is on the sweet side and delicious! Javier loves making wine and seems like he could do it all day every day, it is definitely his "gift" and passion.
The days are shorter and I can begin to feel things starting to slow down a bit (seasonally). However life still feels like I carry a full bucket. We leave for a family reunion in Los Angeles on Saturday, then return home that night, head to SF to sleep, and leave for Maui on Sunday morning to prepare for our Community Building workshop there.
I am so grateful for the support of community and especially Cary's father Jon, during some of the challenges we are facing. He has sent me so many great references, and inspiring sermons, and daily reads to keep our spirits up and focused on what really matters. I am blessed.
Today I read a sermon he sent that shared how important "strife" is in any community, that resistance is what makes us stronger, more connected, and shored up to our mission.
Thank you all for continuing to support Cafe Gratitude and we are grateful to have you as part of our family.
Love.
Terces
Well, here comes the calf! Cacao, our precious and super friendly Irish Dexter Cow is in labor. This is her picture! She is pretty cute huh?
We are hoping the calf comes on Wednesday or Thursday while we are here, as I really want to be the arms she is delivered into.
This is a view from the kitchen window of Matthews parents home on an island off the coast of Maine, Vinalhaven.
We are loving our time with them, they are in their nineties and our time together is precious.
No news from the farm of a calf birth, so we keep hoping she waits for our return.
It is Rajas season on Be Love Farm!
Today we have several volunteers here and I am so grateful that my BIG batch of bread ( first since finishing a weekend long Baguette class at SF Baking Institute) is going to be done in time for our community lunch! Rajas (fire roasted chilis and onions with fresh artisan bread) sounds yummy!
We just returned from leading our newest workshop in Kansas City on Community Building to over 120 folks there. So inspiring to see what a community will do to have a Cafe Gratitude and the spirit that comes with it to their city. We may just take it for granted sometimes... it is always a good check in to travel to out laying areas. Thank you Natalie and Mike for your generosity and love.
The farm is abundant right now, blackberries, peaches, grapes all sun kissed and delicious. Fall garden is planted, over an acre of all the "Cabbage Family"! Summer garden flourishing. If you love squash blossoms tacos, make it to Gracias Madre on Tues, Thurs or Sat those are the days following a delivery of them from the farm!
Cafe Gratitude Santa Cruz opens on Monday the 15th, come see us we are on Lincoln at Pacific Ave downtown. We are thrilled to be serving the Santa Cruz community soon.
We are so grateful for all your love and support. We thank you for your trust, faith and commitment to our mission. We know that taking such a bold stand for being LOVE no matter what isn't always a popular place to be, and are grateful for the on going opportunity to BE LOVE no matter what.
Love and Gratitude,
Terces
Hi
Just returned home after a weekend leading our Sacred Commerce workshop in Harbin to 85 folks! What a wonderful experience seeing all the people wo are gathering from around the globe to learn about a new way of doing business. Three of our Leadership Course graduates led sections of the workshop this weekend and all three were incredible! I can see our vision for developing future leaders coming into fruition. Thank you Erin, Yebuny, and Alexia.
Today is our only full day on the farm this week as we pick up our new delivery van tomorrow, for our Santa Cruz location set to open on August 15th! Watch for opening announcement.