As September opens, we at the farm are reminded of the events 1 year ago that chased us from our homes and from the garden for almost a month. The anniversary of the Riverside Fire is here. September 8th marked the day our house was burned and we began a new adventure. Our new house has made a huge milestone…the inside is painted and we have a garage concrete floor! Our exterior doors are being hung as I write. And our flooring, tiling, and cabinet making friends are on the calendar to keep this moving forward. Its humbling and exciting to see the house we designed being born.

Meanwhile, in the garden, tomatoes are ripening, peppers are peaking through deep green leaves in a fiery rainbow of colors, pumpkins are turning their bright orange and the fresh herbs are brilliant green on the farm stand table. Many of my other crops have completed and we have entered the time of massive food preservation to fill our pantry for the winter.

The farm kitchen is hopping! We’ve made salsa fresco for the freezer and canned whole tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato juice. Pesto is up next, as well as pickled sweet peppers, fermented hot pepper sauce and a canned zesty salsa. Then we pull the plums out of the freezer to process into a few sweet recipes including spiced plum jam, plum and jalapeno jam, plum sauce and possibly a chutney. Oh, and green beans! I see Pickled Dilly Beans in our future, too.

I love this time of year. My happy place is in the kitchen surrounded by ingredients from my other happy place, the garden. Because of all of this bliss, we’ve closed the farm stand for the season to focus on food processing. However, we are extending the pre-orders for a bit. So check out the website Farm Fresh page for what’s available in fresh produce, as well as canned or pickled items for sale. Pick up can be on the regular Friday 11 am - 1 pm time slot or another time that is more convenient for you.

Thank you from me and my sister, Karla, for such a great 2021 season!