Oak Slough Farm

5.31.24

Windy Days

The windy days are hard on everybody and everything.  The wind dries out the soil and the plant leaves.  So, we have to water to keep the plants happy, or at least alive.  The sprinklers in the spring crops have trouble battling the wind, but fortunately (sort-of) everything needs water, so if it’s blown four beds from where it is supposed to land, it’s okay.  We wash and pack the vegetables outside under a shade cloth, but the wind blew that over.  We made a makeshift windbreak out of a tarp and used all of Asa’s weights to hold it down.  Jess managed to get the mid-week orders washed and packed, but she looked a bit haggard.  She faired better than Asa and Kat, who were picking vegetables in the field.  Still, the wind made the warmer temperatures bearable and made the evenings and nights delightful.  The highlight of our week was having our neighbors and Jess’s folks over for dinner.  We ate outside, and for the most part, the wind kept the mosquitos away.

Broccolini Surprise

A surprisingly good meal we had this week was pizza.  I know, pizza is pretty much always good.  But Jess surprised us with zucchini and broccolini on it.  I made the crust using water, yeast, ½ whole wheat flour and ½ unbleached flour, a little olive oil, and salt.  Then, Jess used our canned tomatoes from last year as the sauce (with some of our oregano) and put a layer of broccolini on top of that.  Prior to this, we had only eaten the broccolini in Asian-style dishes.  In the pizza, it added a whole new dimension.  As always, we also had onions, garlic, pineapple, olives, and cheese (except for Kat’s vegan version) on the pizza.  Somehow, Jess managed to cook it just right, so the zucchini was crisp.  Maybe because she cut it thin and put it on as the final topping.  As a bottoming, we put cornmeal on the pan to keep the crust from sticking and to add a bit more flavor.

Tractor Woes 

At our dinner party, I was bragging to our neighbor, Seth, the pecan farmer, about being able to plug a giant hole in our tractor tire.  I was excited about the plugs because they cost around $10, and a new tire is about $800.  Of course, the next day when we were using the tractor, the plug came out and the tire went flat.  We were using the tractor to do more mowing of the starthistle.  We were also using it to bale starthistle hay to use as mulch in the vegetable patch.  The kids, who like to work barefooted, aren’t super excited about the starthistle mulch, but it is all we have, and we are trying to cut it before its spikey flowers appear.  Nevertheless, the plant itself is pretty tough and makes barefoot walking hard.  I’m pretty sure it was a dried up starthistle stalk that punctured the tractor tire.  We put more plugs in the tire and have been calling around the local tire shops to see if we can get it patched professionally, with hopes we won’t have to buy a new one.

Farmer’s Market

Next Wednesday is the first evening farmer’s market of the summer season in Red Bluff; they couple it with a concert series (Cisco plays July 10).  Everyone is excited, but the only problem is that we are in a little lull between the early spring stuff and the summer stuff.  So, we’re not sure what we will have to bring to fill out our table.  Asa is looking into ordering Oak Slough Farm stickers.  They’ll probably be the best seller.

Missing Sadie

Sadie took part of the week off to visit my folks in San Diego.  We certainly missed her guidance and work ability.  We also missed having Cisco here to help and entertain us on the guitar.              Take Care – Josh