ReFlections of a ReFarmer--Thoughts on the coming season from J
2022 has been a wild ride so far. The unusually warm and dry weather has been interspersed with some of the coldest days I’ve ever experienced in March and April. These swings are changing up how the plants are responding, but luckily most of the fruit trees seem happy; the mulberries are looking fantastic this year and showing up extra early. We expect them to make an appearance in the first few CSA shares of the season. The cherries are not far behind the mulberries and all the young stone fruit trees are looking healthy and should be fruiting for shares in 2023. The late night freezing temps were not so kind to the row crops. The early-planted potatoes were scheduled for early summer shares, but they suffered a small setback last week when the temperature dropped into the high 20s on the farm. Sadly, we also lost almost all of the annual early-planted squash and cucumbers, but the old faithful zucchini are thriving as they always do in the area. They will be ready (assuming no more surprises from nature) in the spring shares coming soon.
Leafy greens are looking fabulous this year. Our favorite lettuce, kale, collards, and chard from years past are growing well and looking happy. To add to the mix, we are trialing 5 new lettuce varieties. We are looking for varieties that are delicate and tasty in the summer heat and a few look quite promising.
We are also testing several varieties of slicing tomatoes. They are not something that we have grown much on the farm, but we have had several requests in our annual CSA member survey. We selected varieties known for taste, most of which are AAS (All-American Selection) winners so they should meet our flavor expectations. They are already in the ground and beginning to flower so we are hoping for fruit earlier than with varieties we have grown in the past.
All farm projects evolve and our protein programs are also being reimagined. This season we are trialing another heritage meat chicken, the American Bresse. The heritage birds are slow growing but more flavorful than commercial breed and the Bresse is known as one of the best tasting birds in the world. Heritage birds are a long-planned project for the farm. Unlike with conventional breeds that have been bred to infertility, heritage eggs can be hatched on the farm and eliminate our need to import from breeders outside California. The American Bresses are expected to be better adapted to our climate and should be happier birds on the farm as well.
Also, on the protein side is our new partnership with Avdis Ranch. They have offered our CSA members an exclusive share of ground beef grown within the city limits of Sacramento. Their cattle are raised completely on grass by third generation cattle farmers who value their animals and environment as much as we do at the ReFarmery. Their beef is not only responsibly raised but some of the best tasting I’ve ever had. There are few farms whose meat I will eat and Avdis is one of them. If you are interested you can have it added on as a monthly addition to your CSA or find them at the North Natomas farmers market when in season.
With the return of spring, comes a new season of CSA shares. Our season is when we make good on the promise of the farm to our members and supporters. If you are receiving this email, you are one of the two and we thank you.
Sincerely,
The ReFarmery ReView--The 2022 CSA Starts in 25 days
The 2022 CSA Starts in 25 days
As a CSA-funded farm, it is through the investment of our CSA members that The ReFarmery continues to grow. The shares purchased by our members directly fund the water, seeds and soil amendments that are needed to rehab this land and pull fruit from it. If you are already a member, we thank you sincerely. If not, we hope you will join us in this whacky but worthwhile endeavor to live well while wasting not. The season begins in just a few weeks and below is a preview of the delights to come.
Old Favorites and New Discoveries
Every year our CSA includes favorites from previous seasons and new varieties for our community to try together. This year’s shares will (nature willing) include:
- our famous mulberries.
- microgreens
- sweet corn
- lettuces, with new varieties ‘Ezpark,’ ‘Ezflor,’ and ‘Buckley’
- carrots, with new varieties ’Romance,’ ‘Javelin',’ and ‘Ruby pack’
- zucchini and new ‘Tivoli’ spaghetti squash
- potatoes, with new varieties ‘Purple Majesty’, ‘Yukon gold,’ and ‘Norland Red’
- tomatoes, with new varieties ’Ananas Noir,’ ’Rosella,’ and ‘Black Strawberry’
- okra, with new variety ‘Candle Fire’
- sweet peppers with new varieties ’Brocanto’ and ‘Oranos’
- and too many others to name here, plus lots of new flowers to mix in with our amazing dahlias and zinnias.
Nursery News
Our baby plants grow bigger by the day in the greenhouse. These little guys will find their way into our members’ kitchens soon.
Fresh for Spring
Spring CSA shares feel so precious. They contain cool-weather foods that our sunny valley cannot support later in the year. Grapefruits and lemons, mulberries and cherries, micro greens, lettuce, bok choy, kohlrabi, radishes, baby onions and early cucumber, zucchini and chard will all (nature willing) grace CSA members’ plates soon.
Two of the first fruit trees planted at the farm were cherries. They have grown tall and bear so much fruit. The crop, however, has been a sore spot for the refarmers. Too often they have been destroyed by birds. But we have a new pro-corvid strategy to save our cherries, please check out this blog post about wildlife at the farm if you missed it.
Radishes are among the earliest veggies of spring. Their crispness is so welcome after a long winter.
Trimming the garlic fields of their scapes (flower buds) helps the bulbs grow fat for later in the year. Use them like scallions or chives, this herbal version of garlic is mild and sweet.
An annual tradition, our mulberries appear overhead for bit of early-season fruit. They are common shade trees in our area but are usually planted in their fruitless variety. They are a sweet gift from those who tended this land before us.
The Secret Share - Hot Peppers
Changes to CSA for 2022: Hot Peppers are now their own separate share, complimentary with any other CSA share. We have learned that too many of our hot peppers have gone uneaten and we are trying to add a little more Waste Not into our process. If you really love your hot peppers and would not mind a little extra when they are available, please order two shares ($0.00) to let us know. If you already joined for 2022 but did not add your hot peppers, just drop us a line and we will happily add them for you.
The ReFarmery ReView--The Birds and the Bees and the flowers on the trees
The Birds and the Bees and the flowers on the trees
The ReFarmery was created as a refuge for people and animals alike. As we restore the habitat and food sources around us, we are rewarded by the cohabitation of more species than we can count. To view a photo history of wildlife on the farm, please see the Wildlife Gallery on our About the farm page.
The Birds
We wanted to include photos of our new bird feeders with this issue, but alas, completion of the project took a temporary back seat to planting and weeding to prepare the fields for the coming season. The plan is to hang milk cartons full of sunflower seed around the property to increase the population of corvids (crows, magpies, and jays) on the farm. It seems counter-intuitive, but these smart birds that are so often regarded as pests can be beneficial for a farm like ours. It is actually the smaller song birds that cause more damage to our young fruits, while corvids prefer to take their share from the unreachable-to-us higher branches of trees as the fruits ripen. It is our understanding that the corvids should become territorial about their newfound food source and help keep the smaller birds back in the surrounding fields where their insect controlling ways can be most useful.
The Bees and Other Bugs
As the farm wakes up to spring, the trees and shrubs are pushing food for early pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Young ladybugs sunning themselves in the warm morning light.
Our California Golden currant is an early season bloomer that is popular with all kinds of flying insects in the afternoon sun.
The jasmine plant is about to explode in flowers for spring bees! This one plant produces so many flowers each year that it has overpowered its steel cattle panel frame and needs something more sound to hold it upright in the coming year.
The Bats
Our new bat houses have all arrived. These beauties will be installed 20-30 feet off the ground all around the farm. Nature-willing, they will soon be populated with little pest-eating friends.
And the Biome
The back 40 (feet) have been reclaimed. This winter we finally pulled back the cover over the southwest corner of the farm. Under it we found thriving earth full of life, free from weeds and their seeds and ready to grow food!
Sheltered under light blocking tarps, worms, millipedes and other critters have worked all year to break down the decades of decomposing weeds, twigs and roots that remained in this back corner. Their labors have provided rich soil for the vegetables we will be planting here in the coming weeks.
Fungi and the other microbial life in our soils are precious on a farm. These tiny workhorses further decompose organic material, releasing nutrients for our food plants while also storing an incredible amount of carbon. Though they trigger a gross-out feeling in most of us, a ring of ripe fungus is a sign of health for the land.
Support Local Food, Join the CSA
nvest in your local small farm and bring home a share of the freshest and tastiest foods available. When you support sustainable agriculture grown with ethical labor, you help our community grow.
The ReFarmery Review--Calling fellow foodies
Do you know who grows your food?
Get to know your local farmer
A profound love of food is at the heart of The ReFarmery. Our founder and leader, Jon Kupkowski, is a foodie of the highest order and a damn fine cook to boot. He loves all things vegetable, but has returned to an omnivore diet since he began raising his own more ethical meat on the farm. A trained baker and pastry chef, Jon tends our live sourdough culture daily and bakes it into crusty loaves each week. He strives to be a fountain of food knowledge and has read nearly every cookbook he can find. He keeps an incredible collection of them in the kitchen–and it is starting to bleed over into the farm office as well. He has curated a body of recipes for our members over the years and they can be found in the Newsletter Library at our website. Wondering where the best tacos or Afghani place is? He definitely has a few thoughts and recommendations on that too–or will see if he can find them when he does not.
Or maybe your question is about how he chooses to farm; how we chose our chicken feed, our bread flour, or a particular variety of camellia? Just ask. Jon will have a carefully considered answer to those questions and is generous with that knowledge.
Got a great idea? He always wants to hear that, too.
As a farmer, Jon strives to always be responsive and caring with his customers and members. If you are ever unhappy with anything you have purchased from The ReFarmery, he wants to know so that he can make it right.
Disclosure: Jon is the BFF of the author of this column, and she may be just a little biased.
Winter Indulgences
In the quiet of the winter Jon finds more time for fun with his food. These photos are from a recent dinner party with friends. “I 3d printed the stencil and used matcha powder through it. Vanilla meringue, starfruit, candied lemon and lime wheels, rose champagne gelée, mini dark chocolate bowls with pastry cream, frozen vanilla custard, and lemon jelly.”
Farm Dinners
Highlights from farm dinners past, hosted by Jon and The ReFarmery staff.
Farm-baked Sourdough
Originally a gifted yeast culture from a friend, Jon has been tending our sourdough for over three years. It has grown beautifully light and sour over that time and he bakes crusty loaves every week for CSA members and special orders. In the hottest days of summer he can be found in the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning, muttering about “too hot the rest of the day…”
Jon’s signature bread is available for online order or as a CSA share.
Local and sustainable cut flowers
Jon is a second-generation floral designer who leads a team with decades of collective experience. He loves growing and delivering flowers for members and friends and is adding a significant expansion to the flower garden over the coming years. For information about fresh flowers from the farm for your event, please contact us.
The ReFarmery ReView—Feathered on the farm
Long before The ReFarmery came together as an idea, Jon began to raise his own eggs. In our earliest days, a band of roving birds moved freely across what would eventually become the farm; cleaning up some messes and making new ones, sometimes even pulling up freshly planted foods and flowers. Over the years the flock was corralled and contained, and grew in size and diversity until there were dozens of varieties with the occasional duck or guinea hens moving into our motley crew.
In October we received a shipment of chicks to grow the flock. By the new year they had grown strong enough to join the mature birds and seemed happy to move to the coop. They were settling in nicely, but on January 20 disaster struck; Jon went out to put the flock to bed and most of the birds were gone. The loss was devastating; a new shipment of chicks would need both time and feed to grow into laying hens and we had already sold some egg shares for the coming season. As is so often the case, it is our community that has saved us. Farmer Deno at The Natomas Farm had been planning to grow his own egg flock, but instead generously shared a batch of 3 month old chicks, so that our season would not be delayed. We are incredibly grateful to this man who always has our back as a supporter, mentor, and partner in the crazy life that is small-scale farming. Please visit him at Natomas Farmers Market or online to buy his incredible fruits and jams for your own family. The ReFarmery is now back on track for 2022 egg shares and we owe it all to Farmer Deno.
We go forward into the 2022 season with some repairs and additions that should encourage these predators to move along now that their food source has dried up. Holes dug under fences have been tightly filled, reinforcing the perimeter fences themselves. The fencing of the goose run is an additional barrier and creates open space that predators must cross unobserved before they can reach the coop, which boasts its own improvements, like an automatic chicken door and new metal skirting around the base to keep out smaller critters at night.
The completion of the long-planned goose run is a recent success, as well. Jon designed this run into the original plans for the orchard expansion of last winter. It weaves among the young trees and more than triples the space available to the geese for exercise, foraging, and exploration. The run was a natural addition to the farm because the geese love to eat the wild grasses that are an unavoidable part of the land we tend. As they move through the orchard together they feast on the weeds, fertilize as they go, and help clear the land for both fire protection and egg flock security, as mentioned above. These loud (so loud) and smart birds with whom we share our home are loved, and we hope they in turn love their new run.
The ReFarmery ReView, Winter Edition
The ReFarmery ReView
Occasional dispatches from your local farmer
Winters in the valley…
These coldest days of the year are passing so quickly on the farm. Each day the earth around us is warming, drying and coming to life. Another early spring is approaching and our team is gearing up for early plantings and projects.
In 2022 the farm will be growing more food and flowers than ever before. To make sales of all that produce easier, we have integrated our farmers market stand with our online store. Members and customers will soon have access to a real-time inventory of farm foods on our online order page. Starting this season, pre-orders for market or farm pickup and in-person market purchases will all be possible from any device.
We are aiming to resume construction of the physical farm stand as well this year. It will be nestled in the planned flower garden expansion and will make for very pleasant farm pickups. We would like to see it completed soon and are applying for small grants to aid us in this, so wish us luck!
As humans who must work in the sun, we are also looking forward to completing some much-needed repairs to the packing and processing station. The shade structure over the area was mostly destroyed in the windstorms of 2020 and replacing it makes washing and packing veggies on hot summer days much more pleasant. Plus, it is just a nice central location to relax for a moment out of the sun.
After the last couple years of isolation, we are most excited to see the farm cleaning up to welcome our members and supporters as soon as possible. More than anything, we hope to see you at the farm soon.
Sincerely,
The ReFarmery
Why the CSA?
There are two major ways of funding a farm these days. The conventional way is to take out substantial loans, with the real risk of bankrupting a farm should disaster strike (an increasing likelihood as climate change advances). The second is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program such as ours.
As a CSA-funded farm, it is only through the backing of our members that The ReFarmery can continue to exist. The shares purchased by our members directly fund the power, seeds and soil amendments required to rehab this land and pull fruit from it. We are not trust fund farmers, there was no family farm to inherit. Jon found the parcel of land he could afford and together with childhood friends and adulthood colleagues he built a community on it. Blessed by the California sun and the rich valley soil, our farm family harvests sustainable produce of a quality matched in few places on earth, a small share of which can be found weekly in the homes of our members.
The CSA returns in April and with it all the special delights of the season. Early shares contain tender spring greens, precious early-season berries, and sweet ripe citrus fruits. Grapefruits and lemons, mulberries, snow peas and their greens, microgreens, lettuce, bok choy, kohlrabi, radishes and baby onions will (nature willing) grace CSA members’ plates. We hope that you will choose to invest in our little farm this year and bring home a share of The ReFarmery’s CSA to your own family.
If you have any questions about the CSA, please contact us. We would be happy to answer them for you. We also have an About the CSA and a CSA FAQ page.
Spring ReFlections
Mulberries ripening on the underside of green leaves
Spring comes each year, and it never looks the same. The date might be the same on the calendar, but we never know if it will still have some frost, maybe pouring rains that flood out the fields or this year heat spikes that appear to be an early warning of summer coming soon. Observing the plants has been the most consistent way to tell spring is here for me and that is exactly what the ripening mulberries indicate. This one seems to be more in tune with the time to ripen than most of the fruit trees as the peaches and plums sometimes miss the mark with our erratic spring weather. This year the trees are not only saying its time to warm up, but also the amount of fruit they are producing is more than I have experienced observing on this farm any year prior.
Mulberries are a special fruit and sitting under the tree eating fresh berries is a flavor of spring I am looking forward to. To sell the fruit each berry is hand harvested as the stem must release from the tree with the least tension and not fall more than couple feet lest it get bruised and turn to mush in just a day or two. Discerning the color and any damage has occurred during growth to each fruit is part of the harvest process and once picked they cannot be jostled much, or they bruise and again turn to mush quickly. As they are so sensitive you will not find this fruit fresh at the grocery store, dried or juiced perhaps, and rarely will you find them at the farmers market when in season. Little containers of these berries go out in our CSA shares and if there is enough extra, they are available for purchase seasonally from our online farm stand. Sharing the vast world of flavors that are challenging to find in the grocery store is just one of the reasons I keep on farming. We see only a tiny fraction of the produce that can grow in our region when shopping at stores that ship it in, and there are so many flavors our there without getting into colors of produce that we attempt to share with our community. Our CSA members support the farm so that we can share this produce with them and if there is enough excess we also share with our neighbors at the farmers market and farm stand.
Funny birds
I have heard stories all my life about how dumb turkeys are, and after having this group on the farm for the last 5 months I know now that is not true.
After lots of research these Narragansett heritage birds were ordered early spring. It was a hard pick between them and the Bourbon Reds. Both breeds which are supposed to be some of the best tasting out there, appearing on the Slow Food Ark of Taste. These birds come from a cross between Wild domestic turkeys and domestic turkeys brought by colonists. Improved and standardized for production qualities, the Narragansett was the foundation of the turkey industry in New England.
When the turkeys can’t see people around, they have many sounds for each other, and when they see people, they have another set of distinct calls they let out. All the sounds they make have been much quieter than the chickens, geese, or even the quail. I might go so far as to say they have the most soothing sounds of all the birds around. They are very curious birds, as you can see here. They all wanted to know what I was doing with the camera. They like to watch whatever people are working on near them, and though they do not want to be any closer than about six feet, they are content to stay back and just observe. The turkeys have figured out how to escape their enclosure, even with clipped flight feathers. They climb up into the mulberries that are growing in their pen for shade and then hop the fence from there, normally early in the morning. Once I am out making my morning rounds feeding and checking on all the animals as soon as these guys see me they run over and follow me to their enclose so I can open the door and let them back in. The Turkeys have been growing on me this season and I’m pretty sure we are going to keep a few of them around, hopefully hatching out some turkey eggs this spring for those of us who want local heritage turkeys for the holidays.
ReFlections of a ReFarmer
It’s a working title. This space reserved for thoughts from our fearless leader. Stay tuned…