If you wish to make anything grow, you must understand it in a very real sense.  "Green fingers" are a fact, and a mystery only to the unpracticed.  But green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart. - Russell Page

Regular size CSA items: Haas avocado, blackberries, Valencia oranges, pink grapefruit,  summer squash or 'green' beans or cucumbers, young leeks, carrots or beets, cilantro or Genevesse basil, French lavender, heirloom tomatoes,  lettuce(2),  salad with edible flowers, sprouts, corn and bouquet of flowers. 

 Substitutions may occur. 

Dear Friends,

I could write a book on the phone calls and requests I have had along the years..wanting to rent sheep for a party - a woman that wanted to send her boys over to paint my barns as punishment (haven't a barn nor sheep)..and many for taking rescue or no longer wanted animals.  I help as I can of course.  So when last year received several calls from a woman needing advice on her chickens and then ultimately a request for us to take them, I said yes.  Now, most chickens (no roosters) go into to coup and after a couple of hours of fussing, settle in and are perfectly happy.  I was in the office when she arrived and assigned an assistant to help put them in the main coop.  Hearing cries of distress, I rushed out to see.  Well, let me tell you, these were the most pitiful, featherless, frightened hens I've ever seen.  And this from the woman that with zeal bent my ear on the phone telling me how they were never given anything but non GMO organic feed and she was concerned we might be giving it to hers!  She had kept them in a cage so small they were cannibalizing each other!

So everything else stops and we manage to round them up and put them in a temporary cage while my husband drops his work and shores up the walk-in aviary for them.  I swear, they had scabs and were bleeding in places...well, it took about eight months, but with care, attention, and a good diet, they were the happiest chickens on the place.  Now these aren't 'ordinary' chickens, they are Frizzles...their feathers grow backwards...they turned out to be the sweetest, most talkative and entertaining critters ever..good egg layers and broody too (they want to hatch their eggs).  But no rooster...so last week I found and bought one for the girls...You talk about one lucky rooster!  He's black and white, about 3.5 #'s and they girls took to him the first night.  He snuggled in between two on their roost and from day one took over...next time you come to the farm, you'll have to see him..just ask for Tut (short for King Tut)..just one of hundreds of little farm stories...

Here's our reading link for the week:  Eating with Color

Special of the week:  California Family Farm Olive Oil - Paicines  available on our Green Store: Oils of Paicines

If any one needs cooking suggestions, please remember we now have Julie on board (we're trading deliveries for cooking and recipe support) and she'll be happy to help you.  Her blog is posted on our website or you may reach her and view her recipes here: http://nourishcommunity.com/blog/

Here is a link to see the pictures and to sign up if you'd like notifications of coming events:   http://www.meetup.com/Seabreeze-Organic-Farm-San-Diego-Meetup-Group/.

Please keep your notes and comments coming.  I read them all.

Enjoy in good health. 

Stephenie Caughlin

Seabreeze Organic Farm

Seabreeze Green Store