Fire and Food inc.

One Sunday (yesterday) a few of us went down to see the movie Food Inc. that was being shown locally at the State Theatre in down town Auburn. The house was packed full and Auburns Farmers Market founder and local Placer County Ag advisor, Joanne Neft, gave a short uplifting speech before the show. We were horrified by what we saw during the movie and deeply disturbed until me and my Mom, Marcella, got an urgent phone message from my Aunt saying that we had to evacuate our businesses (two care homes) and that a fire had broken out behind the Target down the street from us. There was a reported voluntary evacuation which rapidly turned into a mandatory imposed evacuation of a 7 mile radius. We had to leave in the middle of the movie and rush across town hoping that every one was safe. 

On our way we could see the billowing black smoke of a massive fire that seemed to be coming directly where our little house and farm was by the highway across from the shopping center there. To our relief as we neared the scene we saw that the fire was a few blocks farther down highway 49 and we were able to calmly evacuate the area. After everyone was safely on the other side of town (we didn't know how destructive the fire would turn out) my immediate thought was for the animals. By then through Auburn's local radio reports we learned that the mandatory-evac had been reduced to only the areas and close surroundings that were engulfed by the fire. I popped Hunny in the car anyway and turned on the sprinkler full-blast just as a precaution in the back yard where the chickens reside free-range (we knew the fire wasn't headed towards us at that point) and joined my family at our meeting point under the distinctive beacon of the Mc Donalds golden arches. 

The mixture of emotions were confusing once they caught up to us. On one hand, we were all safe and sound from a devastating fire that ended up burning a few hundred acres and wiped out over sixty houses just a couple blocks from where our home and business is located. On the other we had met, during a crisis, in an all-too-convenient and all-too-familiar fast food joint which was one of the leading contributors to the food and health crisis which is corrupting our country and becoming a world wide epidemic. It seemed like nothing was really safe and secure in the world and a certain urgency still lingers after a harrowing day. 

Through waiting and watching the local news (a good friend of ours was interviewed live with his dog in his arms while houses all around him were burned to the ground), though no one was badly hurt, we learned that some people barely escaped with there lives as the prevailing north-bound winds swept the fire over the dry hills and that many pets were injured. Luckily, our fire-fighting resources here in California are primed to respond quickly and efficiently and the animal control responded as well to get many animals free from burning buildings. 

For now I (we) are just thankful to be home and continuing on with our lives. Our thoughts and concern go out to the many long-time Auburn residents who have lost their houses and worldly possessions. 

Fencin'

Today was the last day of building/repairing the shambles of our backyard fence and we're finally able to move on to other projects. Next we will be putting a new compost pile along the far end of the backyard to contain the growing mountain of dry weeds, dead lawn chunks, and chicken manure that has been occupying the middle of the yard for far too long. After that will come, yes, more construction. In addition to a spiffy new structure to house all the animals, we still need to complete the storage/studio before the rain comes. As if we didn't have enough to do around here!

While the guys (Bryan and Justin) were outside mending the back fence today I finished putting some home-made applesauce into two quart jars and stored them in the fridge. Everyone here LOVED this sweet treat. The apples came from my parents two apple trees (at one time there were four) planted over twenty five years ago at the bottom of the hill of our 5 acre home when we were raising cows. Over the years we somehow forgot about the trees and recently discovered that they were thriving and still producing apples! Untouched and unnoticed for so many years, these may be the most organic apples I've ever eaten...

A few days ago I was browsing some of my favorite youtube videos for recipes and found one that I really enjoyed trying. Dandelion greens!!! I have always wanted to try them and now I am glad to become a fan of this highly nutritious vegetable growing wild and free right out in the yard. Here's the recipe:

 I used to harvest these tasty "weeds" daily for the chickens to nibble on but I figure there's enough for all of us to share. I used the rest of what I picked in a casserole dish I made for dinner and it wilted down just like spinach would. It's amazing to be able to walk out the front door and pull up a gorgeous salad that cost me absolutely nothing. 

Status Update

Just got the computer back from the shop finally with not much luck on file recovery. :(

Moving on! Will post more tonight about recent happenings here at the urban farm (with pictures!). Lots to tell about recent projects, successes, and the ever present misadventures of homestead life. 

Busy!

Since the last time I posted, there have been a few changes in our regular scheduled program...

First of all, the computer, we are currently still experiencing technical difficulties due to the service company we took it to were not what they claimed. The initial quote of three to five days quickly dissolved to mean something more like over a week and while we called them repeatedly with no answer as to what was wrong. After eight frustrating days with no call back (even when we requested one) I had enough of the waiting game and went down and spoke to the manager directly. I was informed that they were so backed up that there was a wait list two weeks long just to have my computer looked at! 

Needless to say we were very disappointed with their service and lack of communication efforts. We have since brought our computer home and have made arrangements with an Apple Store to have it checked out. It's interesting to note that we found that customer service there has been much more professional and satisfying. Now we can only hope that the files and photos that we lost might still be retrievable. So, lesson learned and I don't think we will have to think twice about backing up our files in the future! We're definitely not perfect. 

Another wall we've encountered lately in the self sufficiency tail is when we discovered it was illegal to keep chickens where we live! It seems that Placer county is not concerned about the growing urban chicken movement and here at our "residentially zoned" urban lot there is a lot of discussion as to what can be done about it. We recently attended our local slow food convivium meet and potlouck and learned that there is a growing fight to change policy regarding small-scale livestock and it helped to prepare us for the day that may come if someone were to cite us for raising chickens in our yard. We know of many Auburn residents keeping "secret urban chickens" and were even let in on the "stealth" chicken coops that are becoming popular by a local farmer and friend of ours. After researching our options, it's starting to look like there may be a major uphill battle ahead of us. Still, being that we have a place to move the chickens if it were to come down to that seems not only a privilege but an obligation to raise awareness of this issue instead of hiding the fact that we are keeping chickens in the city limits. 

On a lighter note, the summer garden is in full bloom now and there's just no reason for us to go out and buy fresh vegetables these days. SWEET! Squash, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, carrots, corn, eggplant, peppers (hot and sweet), beans, and even the very first of the salad greens are keeping us in all we can eat plus more to share. The sunflowers that are heavy with big tasty seeds are tempting me to make a Nutty Taco recipe a friend shared with us. It's amazing how many dishes its possible to make with these few simple delights fresh from our front yard while the backyard is filling out with the various citrus trees we've planted throughout the year plus more eggs than we'll ever be able to eat ourselves. 

With all the recent goings on we haven't been able to put together a working solar oven yet but my Brother, George, and I are going over some plans. With luck, they'll work better than the old bbq I tried to convert on my first try. (Almost cooked a potato!) Other projects such as getting the back yard secure for the animals have taken top priority and I'm thankful that we're close to done. Also, fall garden seedlings are taking the heat better than anticipated and our shaded salad green experiment seems to be working. (actually something came through and devoured it so we're having to replant! oh well.)

With growing vegetables, construction, and preparing for harvest at the vineyard consuming so much time lately, its important to us that we take breaks to just have a little fun now and then. I recently attended a party at a friends house where they had several gorgeous yurts set up on their property and now am completely in love with them! One of our neighbors at the winery also has a yurt that his daughter lives in and it's just nice to see people who are open to new ideas of what "living" actually means and don't subject themselves to the popular notion that we need four walls in order to have a roof over our head. It's too bad there isn't more room here at our urban farm for one of these lovely creations!

Strange Sightings

There have been a few recent "happenings" in the garden that have left us puzzled. The first surprise was earlier this week when I was wandering around checking some of our late plantings of tomatoes and saw what I could only describe as some sort of spongy life form attacking one of the plants. It looked like some weird alien fungus has developed over night around the stalk. Later that day it dried out somewhat and broke apart easily enough and came off. Come to think of it, every place we've used this particular mulch there have been all sorts of crazy mushrooms sprouting overnight after we water. Definitely need to find a new source for our mulch next time. Who knows what else may be lurking... *shiver*

After that one of our corn plants started growing what looked like actual kernels of corn right on its tassel. The corn bed hasn't been growing very well all year and this was just downright weird. Maybe this is just a strange anomaly that happens in nature or some recessive gene coming through. We are keeping a sharp eye out for more creepy things showing up in our yard and keeping good notes for future sightings. Nothing is certain in nature and one can always count on expecting the unexpected. We're certainly never bored these days.

Right Now.

Peppers

Summer veggies

Fig

Flame.

Pink

Heirlooms

Spuds

Thai Chilies

Watermelon

Cantaloupe