STANDARD REMINDER

Please be sure to wash your weekly share thoroughly before serving. To preserve freshness, it is NOT ‘table ready’ (i.e., pre-washed). We deliver your Olin-Fox Farms’ produce right from the fields to ensure highest quality.

With Mother Nature's Cooperation, the Summer Program will be weekly until the

Reading our plaintive woes over the continuing drought situation must seem rather hackneyed and boring by now to all of the non-farmers/ gardeners among our members. Nonetheless, the lack of rain is a pivotal issue for all of our growers who are being forced by the weather to spend so much of the day watering plants instead of attending to other equally important chores. Sure, we may get a brief ‘teaser’ rain shower now and again, like the one this afternoon late, which was welcome, naturally; but it was hardly enough to put down the dust. We can only hope that the leaves of the crops can absorb some of this tantalizing moisture directly. Farmer John did mention one major upshot to all this, however: with weather conditions as they have been, the harvest from any well-established plants tends to be much more flavorful and intense. Also, circumstance seem to be conspiring to produce an exceptionally bountiful tomato crop this year, if the abundance of blooms on the vines is any indication, as it has been in season’s past. Ditto on the sweet corn. By the way, did you know that corn silk has curative properties, according to traditional medicine? If anyone’s interested in knowing what they are, let us know.

Our newest ‘Employee of the Month’ helping out on the farm, who is both a King and a queen [well, maybe more of a blossoming princess] confirms these observations . Melanie King is her name, in point of fact. She reported noticing even in the few weeks she’s been working outdoors in the fresh air with friendly people and eating more fresh, raw produce that she does, indeed, have more energy, her brain works better and she’s generally a happier person. Thanks for sharing your testimonial, Melanie, and welcome to our fine family of farmers!

Alice has found squirrels have been raiding the potted plants on supposed safely out of reach up on her porches, apparently in search of moisture as well as any acorns stashed away last fall. She says that the garlic is coming along nicely, growing tall, strong and bright green, happy with recent weather trends, it would seem. Master Stevie Jett [who turns 17 next Monday] when asked about the wildlife activity around the farm lately remarked that there are a lot more red fox than in previous years, for some reason --- fitting for Olin-FOX Farms, of course.

Paper Grocery Bags, Please We’re running short on them again at the farm, folks. For the sake of the environment, instead of being forced to use plastic sacks made of petroleum shipped from who knows where to produce a source non-degradable litter, we much prefer using recyclable paper grocery bags to pack up and deliver your shares to you. Kindly ask for them expressly whenever you buy groceries and then remember to pass them along to us. Your mindful awareness is deeply appreciated. Thank you!

Please note: You have paid for 15 weeks of fruit for the 14 week Summer Program.

In keeping with our admonitions previously stated, how about eating this week’s produce raw, for the most part, to get the most benefit from it. Your shares contain the ingredients for putting together a cool, refreshing and nutritious vegetable platter served with an assortment of your favorite dips and dressings. And there are plenty of opportunities for making delicious salads in this week’s shares. Enjoy!

For those of you who’ve never actually seen a kohlrabi before, much less having the remotest idea on what to do with this cabbage-cousin from space semi-root vegetable, take heart. Both Farmer John and I lived in Germany in the past, where the venerable kohlrabi is ubiquitous fare in virtually every and any farmer’s market or urban grocery store most of the year round, and for several very good reasons. One is the fact that kohlrabi thrives in the cooler latitudes of Continental Europe, basically from Switzerland to Denmark, in my experience; and, another being that the humble tuberesque kohlrabi is good, honest, solid, easy to grow, and therefore, inexpensive and plentiful, ergo, often included in the average working-class family’s diet … AND it is good FOR you, nutritionally, like all the members of the cabbage family.

Farmer John and I agree, perhaps the best and simplest sure-fire recipe for enjoying the kohlrabi you receive in your share is to EAT IT RAW AND NATURAL. For instance, just this evening, after peeling the tough outer skin, I feasted on a raw kohlrabi, thinly sliced and eaten at its enzymatic, vitamin and mineral peak dipped in a makeshift concoction of a little Ranch dressing seasoned with sweet pickle relish, freshly ground pepper, and a dash of dill weed and sea salt accompanied by sesame crackers, fresh radishes, black olives and a few chucks of Monterey Jack cheese. Some might prefer a nice guacamole dip or one based on soft cream cheese. Whatever floats your boat. That said, if you’re not quite ready for the crunchy, slightly peppery crispness of kohlrabi eaten raw, you might try it grilled, as Farmer John likes it, upon occasion.

And, if you find that eating too much raw vegetable tends to produce ‘gastric distress’, try mixing a small amount of caraway seed, either whole or ground to a pound, into your dip or as you cook it, if you must. Gradually, you will find that your system can learn to tolerate more and more raw foods in your diet, if you go easy and honor what works for you personally. The benefits may be subtle at first; but, if you persist and stick with it, adding more and more fresh, raw foods to your diet in place of denatured, non-nutritious dead stuff [the English colloquially call such empty calories ‘stodge’, meaning some heavy, starchy bulk usually loaded with unhealthy fats, high in sucrose corn syrup sugars and/ or salt just to fill an empty belly], you will begin to notice that you have more energy, a clearer head, greater emotional stability and even a more sunny and upbeat disposition. See for yourself.

As I sit quite comfortably on my screened in porch overlooking Antipoison Creek here in lower Lancaster County, Virginia this morning, writing up the newsletter for you this week from the peaceful haven of my home, it’s a perfect day: a chorus of songbirds are singing, fat squirrels are goring themselves beneath the bird feeder, a mated pair of ospreys are diving for fish, the resident great blue heron is wading in the shallows hunting for tasty tidbits and a gentle breeze is rustling the leaves in the towering oaks which embrace, shelter and shade my airy home. Life is good! Other than the paucity of rain, the weather is idyllic, reminding me of happy summers spent in northern climes: Sweden, the isles of the Inner Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland, Somersetshire in southwest England, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, the rolling hills of rural Germany and Switzerland and among the Green Mountains of Vermont. Oh, yes, I live a blessed life, indeed! Yet, if I had my druthers, we’d have such weather seamlessly, for months on end, as I’ve heard it can be living in San Diego, with just enough rainfall during the night to keep everything green and growing perking along at its optimal potential. A dreamer’s fantasy, you say? Hopeless idealism? Well, I am a ‘child of the ‘60s, after all, who is this year completing his own sixtieth orbit around the sun. And I still nurture my youthful vision of a better world from that bygone ‘the Summer of Love’. But, wouldn’t it be fun to live in Eden? I dare to be so audacious as to still believe it IS a distinct possibilities, if enough of us long for it will fiery devotion, know how we can make it happen in this ‘waking dream’ we call Life, and actually put it into practice, day by sweet day, in our own lives. Just imagine. Like Dr. Martin Luther King and so many other aspirants before me, I have a dream, a vision; and I want to share with all of you now, if I may. Ready? Begging your kind indulgence, gentle readers, I would never intentionally presume to climb onto my own little soapbox and pontificate to a captive audience. But, I am sufficiently emboldened to offer you the following, on its own merits, for what it may be worth to us all.

It goes something like this: my inspiration arises from the great teaching of a genuine living lady wisdom master, Maticintin, who opus book, Secrets of the Golden Spiral: Handbook for Enlightenment, I am currently studying. She points out the direct synergistic correlation between sentient beings, such as us, and natural law. Allow me to quote her words verbatim:

“Living in harmony with the earth and universe means also that we are living in concert with the movement of life. Our lives metaphorize the earthly expressions of natural law and, in turn, we infuse the dual aspects of good or harm into its assertions. If what we reap is comfortable (without fear, confusion, anger, greed, lust, vanity, attachment) to us, then, we know we have consciously evolved our planet (and our lives) for the good of the whole. If what we reap is, however, uncomfortable, then such conditions should alert us to our unconscious, habitual, mental behavior that is both destructive to ourselves and to the whole; and we either root it out through the development of our awareness, or we continue to destruct.”

“For example, if the soil is dry, we water it, and then it is wet. This is a simple but wonderful display of natural law and how the inherent dual aspects function synergistically to bring about changes that renovate (and sometimes devastate) the earth. And this is where existence becomes interesting. We find, as sentient life forms, that we exert tremendous influence upon the earth and upon earth other. If the earth is nourished and flourishes, the mental imagery of sentient beings living upon it should reflect conditions of life that both uplift and persist in evolution, meaning that, if our bed is comfortable, we should be able to sleep comfortably upon it. If the opposite is true, however, or if we cannot sleep comfortably on a good bed and live happily on a healthy earth, then the cause can only be mental disturbances or unpleasant shifts in imagery. In other words, mental discomfort results in physical discomfort, as well as vice versa, with the results that dependent upon the synchronicity of merged influences. Most unwanted conditions are caused by desire-formed aberrations that mentally distort our interactions with natural energy and eventually bring about a corrupt environment.

So, as spiritual awakening, which in itself is incorruptible because it exists beyond the dichotomies of duality – comfortable or uncomfortable – has to occur to an individual or within a group of individuals to reinstate comfort. …

Spirituality is the only view of life that does not focus on opposites. This, then, is the only stance that can provide real comfort and peace, because its realm is a safety zone protected by our awareness, and yet we can live in the world and be accomplished within it. However, because of our overview awareness, we live in the world without being a product of it.

The requirement for developing such spiritual insight is a willingness to exercise self-discipline. We have to want to train our attention, to be aware of it and how it moves. Through this, we can train our awareness to be aware of our own mental imagery as it spontaneously occurs. In this way, we shift from being an unconscious, habitual being to a being that is consciously aware, 360-degrees, and we sustain this stance throughout our lives.

Most people experience this 360-degree viewpoint periodically in their lives. This means, periodically, their awareness is intact. Those who have felt it once are candidates to sustain that consciousness, but it requires a wakeful hunger to effect [sic.] the self-discipline to make it so.

Devotion is what makes our spirituality pure. Without devotion, our attention wanders from pleasurable desire to pleasurable desire, as we try to keep our interest peaked on life, because we inherently know that, without interests, life becomes dull and lifeless. But this sort of pleasure-seeking makes us afraid, uncomfortable and uncertain of where our next pleasure will come from. What we need to recognize is that everything we want in life can be successfully attained and enjoyed through devotion to our spirituality. Spirituality is not to be confused with religion or religious doctrine, however. Spirituality resides in the overview, that place of reality that exists beyond dualities. The attainment of such divine residence, through which we can live our life, including our relationships, is the reward of our self-discipline. So, spiritual focus is the key to comfort.”

Wisdom Master Maticintin, Secrets of the Golden Spiral: Handbook for Enlightenment, Higher Consciousness Publishing, Oroville, WA/ Osoyoos, BC, 2006. Pp. 50-52. ISBN: 0-932927-23-8