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!
It is an interesting time of year. We call it Spring and yet it is unusual to have rain this late into the year, and it is unprecedented for the Vacaville area to be this cold! So while the lettuce and kale love it, the peppers, melons and cucumbers are calling for warmer days along with the ripening cherry crop!
We still need campfires in the early morning and evenings, and yesterday and today kept it going all day long. Easter Baby chicks are now healthy young birds loving the out of doors. They have already been introduced to sprouts! A real treat for all our farm chickens. They LOVE the wheatgrass and sprout trays, and follow me wherever I go when they hear my little tractor and wagon coming their way. (They know sprouts are inside the wagon!)
Mulberries are on the trees but also need more sunshine to ripen. Our neighbors who have farmed here for over 40 years say they have never seen the weather as it is this year. So as farmer, we adjust, we trust and we let go.
Yeah, it is corn planting day! We have a new corn planter, see picture. We are so excited.
It is a beautiful day at the farm and we now have cucumbers, zucchini, beets, potatoes, onions, radishes, daikon, cabbage, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, cilantro all in the ground and more planting coming right behind these. Cherries are growing and starting to turn yellow/red!
Our newest baby chicks are starting to feather out and will be able to go outside soon. Currently they are under warming lights, but we turn them off during the warmer days.
An inspiring new film is Premiering on April 4th at the Balboa Theatre, Rialto Cinemas Elmwood and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Francisco and the Bay Area on April 4th. 5th & 6th!
FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is the story of two men who struggle to lose weight, overcome the same rare disease and change their lives for good. The uplifting story follows Joe Cross on a cross country road trip where he vows to do a juice fast for 60 days (consuming only fruits and vegetables in liquid form). On his life changing journey, he meets and inspires Phil Staples - a 420 lb desperate truck driver from Iowa - to do the same. The documentary is a story about hope, wellness, friendship and our ability to change.
Check out the trailer, see showtimes and more at www.fatsickandnearlydead.com and see what is possible when a man takes on his life and treats his body truly as the miracle it is.
Our trip to Los Angeles was so great. The new employees are amazing and so excited to becoming a part of the Gratitude Community. The team that moved down there and are living together are so inspiring. Their home is incredible and they are creating such an sweet community life together. Our training couldn't have gone better and we so enjoyed having it at our new partners, Chris and Lisa Bonbright's home. We had so much fun together.
The Cafe is coming along and while it is going to take something to get it complete on time (like all new construction projects) , it is going to be a beautiful new Cafe Gratitude, the bathroom tile is my favorite (see picture)! We will be down in LA in another week and I'll share more then.
The ground was dry enough so we turned the soil under and moved the greenhouse into the mid position in order to do so. Pretty exciting! We will plant this week with lettuces and kale and then cover the young plants and give them a head start before Spring!
My egg production has increased due to longer days and warmer weather. It is amazing this early spring like weather in the middle of winter. While we are grateful for the time to dry out a bit and even hang laundry on the clothes line, we also know we need more rain and cold days aren’t over just yet. It is great to be grateful for whatever we have.
I want to again invite any of you who haven’t yet tried or joined the monthly JUICE CLUB to consider it. I keep noticing how wonderful and healthy I feel and people keep commenting on how great I look... and all I can contribute it to is my JUICING one week each month! So check it out, give it a try and see how you feel to make a choice for continuing on or not! Let your body’s health do the choosing.