Posted By Yan Yin Choy, on July 30th, 2011
The strange cool weather we’ve had this year continued through June, which set us back on some of our crops. But finally we’ve harvested our first sweet corn, tomatoes, sweet peppers, okra and other crops. The long wait for tomatoes was worth it – after carefully restricting water our first batch have become incredibly sweet. Weekly harvest has grown from 500lbs at the beginning of the month to over 1000lbs last week. From now till November this bountiful harvest will continue so please visit our farmstand and farmer’s market to pick up your share. This month again it’s important to put out a call for more volunteer help – as the harvesting has occupied more and more time we’re having trouble keeping up with other farm maintenance, so your help during weekday and Saturday workdays will be greatly appreciated!
Posted By julia, on July 29th, 2011
 Sweet Corn
Traditionally, recipes for sweet corn said something like “Bring a pot of water to boil in your garden and dip the stalk so that the ear of corn is submerged…” This is because, the moment an ear of corn is picked, the sugars in the kernels start to turn to starch. So don’t take your sweet corn home and stick it in the fridge for days. Corn is native to the New World, and its Latin name, Zea mays, may recall those old Mazola commercials (at least, if you’re as old as I am.) Fun scientific fact: there is no wild form of corn. There is a distant relative, called teosinite, but domestication has removed corn so farm from its wild ancestors that it can’t exist without people now.
If you don’t want to boil your sweet corn, you can peel the husks back, remove the silks (which transport pollen to the kernel; there is one silk for each kernel) and rub the ear with butter, salt and chili powder. Wrap the husks back around the cob and grill on the BBQ.
Or, if you actually tire of eating corn on the cob, you can cut off the kernels and make a salad-y dip. (I didn’t make up the name.)
Cowboy Caviar
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salad oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 firm-ripe avocado (about 10 oz.)
- 1 can (15 oz.) black-eyed peas
- kernels from 4 ears of corn
- 2/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2 pound tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- Salt
- 1. In a large bowl, mix vinegar, hot sauce, oil, garlic, and pepper. Peel, pit, and cut avocado into 1/2-inch cubes. Add to vinegar mixture and mix gently to coat.
- 2. Drain and rinse peas. Add peas, corn, onions, cilantro, and tomatoes to avocado; mix gently to coat. Add salt to taste. Serve pea mixture with chips as an appetizer, or add cabbage and mix to make a salad.
Posted By Yan Yin Choy, on July 17th, 2011
Coming August 6th, replacing our workday that Saturday.
Have some fun, win prizes, and support our youth program Dig Crew (and help our summer youth leader Alyssa Quinonez represent us at the National Rooted in Community Conference in Philadelphia, P.A.
Our summer youth leader Alyssa Quinonez will be representing Veggielution and the Dig Crew this summer at the national Rooted In Community conference held in Philadelphia, PA. Rooted In Community is a national grassroots network of diverse youth and adults working together and committed to fostering healthy communities and food justice through urban and rural agriculture, community gardening, food security, and related environmental justice work. Alyssa and fellow youth will work to create the Youth Food Bill of Rights to be presented to congress at the conference. There is even word of presenting it to the First Lady! For more information, please visit rootedincommunity.org
Alyssa has been working hard to plan and coordinate the Farm Olympics as a way to support her trip to Philadelphia. She will be participating in the events and gathering donations for her trip.
Prizes and Games!
Family-fun, including corn shucking, watermelon seed-spitting, giant vegetable toss, cherry tomato chubby-bunny, relay races, and a corn-on-the-cob eating contest. All this will lead up to our main event, the Weed-a-Thon, with contestants scouring the farm for our Most Wanted weeds and weighing in their bounty at the end to win one of many exciting prizes donated by local businesses.
REGISTER BY AUGUST 2nd!
Posted By Jessie Nichols, on July 15th, 2011
 This week’s blog was written by one of our Summer Youth Leaders, Travis Abate. Travis found the farm through a visit with the Discovery Museum’s “Green Team”, was a Dig Crew member last summer, and has returned to serve as a peer-mentor to our current Dig Crew.
As our fifth week of the Dig Crew comes to a close, we have been able to enjoy several workshops outside of “just farming”, such as our Cooking Matters classes. We start off each session with a lesson about nutrition. The Dig Crew got to learn how our digestive system is structured—where all our food is going and what happens to it along the way. This week we learned about proteins, and how they can contribute to our system (as well as be detrimental with too much or too little). After each nutritional lesson, we go over to the potluck area where we start off on the actual cooking. A few weeks ago, our wonderful chef Galina taught us how to make simple falafels with veggies from the farm. This week, we made chicken and rice complete with a demo of cutting up a whole chicken, using garlic, onions, and carrots, all with a lovely cucumber salad.
Aside from cooking workshops, we’ve also taken on more mature topics such as food systems and oppression. On Thursday we learned about all kinds of oppression, from racial to religious. It was just about everything that I normally didn’t think about on a daily basis, like ageism for example. However, now that we had that lesson, it’s something I have taken to heart. Now sure, oppression is a heavy topic, so what do we do? Well, that’s what we’re going to find out today, Friday, in a “Resistance” workshop.
Albeit the fact we already do so much in just a week, there is ALWAYS time for field trips. This Saturday we are heading down to a farm in Santa Cruz, for a youth conference hosted by “Food What?!”. I attended the conference last year, and I remember what a great time it was. With workshops such as candle making or bee keeping, and even flower smelling, it is more than enough to make the weekend about the greatest thing ever. I’m looking forward to going there with the Dig Cre, and meeting other Bay Area youth groups.
To sum up all of this, the Dig Crew has given me a purpose in the summer; I’ve taken away so much about farming and more. This youth program is extremely important to me, and even though I couldn’t see myself working the soil for real two years ago, here I am.
Posted By Yan Yin Choy, on July 7th, 2011
Support our Dig Crew
 Join roots reggae band “Ancestree“ from Santa Cruz for live benefit performance at Streetlight Records. All donations collected at the door will be donated to support our highschool summer program.
When:
7pm-8pm Saturday July 16, 2011
Location:
Streetlight Records San Jose
980 S. Bascom Ave. San Jose, California
Posted By Yan Yin Choy, on July 6th, 2011
Over the past month we’ve been working quickly to make sure that the planting season is successful. Our repsected advisor, Walt references the end of June as the “lay back”, the time where everything is in the ground and all you need to do is weed and watch the crops grow. In two weeks, our main summer harvest will be blossoming and just in time for our new Farm Box program to begin. But really, there is no big pause in work around here. We’re already thinking about our Fall crops – we’ll be getting the greenhouse back into gear for our next planting of brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, etc.) in August.
The summer community at the farm has really taken shape. The Dig Crew youth and youth leaders are doing excellent work and learning a lot. We have a great crew of college interns and a reliable group of volunteers and Mayfair neighborhood families. Looking back this time last year, the amount and quality of community participation is outstanding. It’s going to be a great summer! There’s plenty of work, so let’s keep up our volunteer energy. We can always use help Tuesday-Thursday 8:30am-12pm, especially Tuesdays when the Farm Box program starts. Of course, we will never have a short list of things to do on Saturdays.
Posted By Yan Yin Choy, on June 23rd, 2011
Saturday Workday
Join us this Saturday for our workday from 10am-12:30pm, followed by a potluck! Bring a dish to share–homemade or challenge yourself and buy food locally produced! We need more volunteers on our Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Workdays as well, so learn more information here.
Low-cost Farmstand and Starters for Sale
Every Saturday from 10am-2pm we have a low-cost farmstand. We will also be selling basil, eggplant, and pepper starters for $1.50!
Can’t make it? On Fridays from 9am-2pm we sell at the San Pedro Square Farmer’s Market too in downtown San Jose!
Farm Box Program Launch – Only 8 Sponsor Shares Left!
Making Farm Fresh Food More Accessible to You!
Hurry and sign up for one of our 10 Sponsor Shares to buy produce directly from our farm using the “Community Supported Agriculture” model in which you partner with us to purchase a share of our summer harvest.
- When? July 12, 2011 to November 1, 2011 for 17 weeks.
- Payment? Pay for 17 weeks at $30 per week
- Food? Vegetables will vary each season, and there will be enoughfor a family of 4 for 1 week.
- Our Sponsor Shares support our Family Shares program, which is reserved at a reduced price for 20 families that live in the 95116 or 95112 zip code, or are enrolled in the Cal-Fresh (Food Stamp) program.
- Participants will pick up their food at Veggielution each Tuesday from 1pm-7pm.
- Find out more information here and sign up at farmbox@veggielution.org or call 408-758-8EAT.
Posted By Jessie Nichols, on June 18th, 2011
 This week’s blog was written by one of our Summer Youth Leaders, Molly Cashman. Molly was a Dig Crew member last summer, has served as a Workday Leader facilitating community volunteer, and has returned to serve as a peer-mentor to our current Dig Crew.
This is our second week here at the farm this summer and we have already done and learned so much that will be a great foundation for the rest of the summer. We started off last week with games to get to know our other Dig Crew members and I can already tell that we are going to have a great community here in the Dig Crew. Every Thursday, the Dig Crew is in charge of harvesting and washing all of the food for the farmer’s market and the farm stand. So far, we have learned how to harvest cilantro, onions, green onions, garlic, rainbow chard, kale, beets, and radishes. On Friday we went to the Downtown Farmers Market where we got to taste mouth-watering samples, bond with our fellow Dig Crew members, talk to marketeers and customers, and even take part in a cherry seed spitting contest. We visited Veggielution’s stand and saw all of the produce that we had harvested the day before, so we were all super excited and proud to see our produce looking beautiful and ready to be sold. With “Carrot Cash” from our Cooking Matters class, we bought awesome fruits and veggies- strawberries, potatoes, chard, blueberries, peaches, tomatoes, nectarines, onions, and garlic to name a few. The day at the Farmer’s Market was a great way to see what farmer markets have to offer and many of us are already planning to go back on the weekend. After a great two weeks, I’m extremely excited for the rest of the summer of farming, harvesting, learning, making new friends, cooking, and having fun!
Posted By Yan Yin Choy, on June 16th, 2011
Workday Volunteers!
We need all the help we can get on our workdays on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday! If you are interested in going above and beyond, we can train you to become a workday leader, and help us with workdays, low-cost farmstand, or farmer’s market stand! We also welcome groups to volunteer!
Wednesday 8:30am-12:30pm & 2-5:30pm.
Tuesday and Thursday 8:30am-12:30pm.
Saturday 10am-12:30pm.
Free Tomato Plants at the Farmstand
We’ve planted all the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers we will this year, so the hundreds of plants we have now are extra. We’ll be giving away free 4″ tomato plants this week to everyone who visits our Saturday Farmstand from 10am-2pm, and everyone who volunteers. Limit 4 free plants per individual/family. We’ll also be selling pepper, eggplant and basil starts for $1.50 each.
Farm Box Program Launch – Making Farm Fresh Food More Accessible to You!
We are proud to announce our very first Farm Box program, which will start this summer. This is your chance to buy produce directly from our farm using the “Community Supported Agriculture” model in which you partner with us to purchase a share of our summer harvest. Individuals or families can subscribe to the Farm Box program from July 12, 2011 to November 1, 2011 for 17 weeks for either a Sponsor Share or Family Share. Each week, participants will receive a large box with a variety of vegetables that are currently available on the farm.
With a Sponsor Share, individuals or families pay for 17 weeks at $30 per week for produce enough for a family of 4 for 1 week. We only have 10 Sponsor Shares, so sign up today! Our Sponsor Shares support our Family Shares program, which is reserved for 20 families that live in the 95116 or 95112 zip code, or are enrolled in the Cal-Fresh (Food Stamp) program. Each Family share costs $15 a week, and subscribers must meet eligibility requirements. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Posted By Mark Anthony Medeiros, on June 7th, 2011
Farm Work Schedule this week
We had an epic rainy Saturday together this past weekend – over 20 volunteers braved the rain and help us transplant. This was a very critical step in making sure we don’t get behind schedule, but this week the fast pace of work continues and we’ll need extra help Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
Wednesday June 8 / 8:30am-12:30pm & 2-5:30pm – In the morning we’ll be clearing some beds, pruning and trellising tomatoes. Later in the afternoon, we’ll be direct seeding new crops and working on irrigation.
Thursday June 9 / 8:30am-12:30pm & 2-5:30pm – We need to harvest for the farmer’s market first thing in the morning, which will take several hours. Afterwards, we’ll be seeding our “Three Sisters” Intercrop of blue corn, dry beans and winter squash out in the new acre, along with more irrigation and pruning work and possibly planting watermelons towards the end of the day.
Saturday – We need all the help we can get! We didn’t completely slow down last Saturday, but there is a huge list that needs to be accomplished this week, and if we had 60 volunteers this weekend, it wouldn’t be excessive. We’ll hopefully be seeding our large winter squash crop, weeding a ton, mantaining the greenhouse and further developing the children’s garden, amongst a whole lot of other things.
Free Tomato Plants at the Farmstand
We’ve planted all the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers we will this year, so the hundreds of plants we have now are extra. We’ll be giving away free 4″ tomato plants this week to everyone who visits our Saturday Farmstand from 10am-2pm, and everyone who volunteers. Limit 4 free plants per individual/family. We’ll also be selling pepper, eggplant and basil starts for $1.50 each.
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Farmstand Hours Saturdays 10a to 2p
Monthly Newsletter Sign-Up
E-Discussion List This is an open forum for discussing what's going on with the farm. Join this list if you want to become more involved. (Up to several e-mails per week)
Contact Us info@veggielution.org
General: (408) 634-FARM (3276)
Dig Crew: (408) 6DI-G999
647 S King Rd
San Jose, CA 95116
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