I would not say that every man should garden.  Gardening does not come naturally to every man: we should not expect it of him, any more than expecting all men to be great lovers and all women mothers of children and good cooks.- Richardson Wright  

Regular size CSA items: Seedless grapes, pink grapefruit, avocado, Valencia oranges, fresh desert date,  summer squash or cucumbers, tomatoes or beans, carrots or beets, chives, bok choi or basil, red onions, bell peppers, yellow potatoes, scallions or leeks,  lettuce , sprouts,  salad with edible flowers, and bouquet of flowers. 

 Substitutions may occur.     

Dear Friends,

I have a saying that I'm an optimist by nature and a pessimist by occupation and how true that is for this past week.  First the heat and the humidity.  Now I know this weather has effected everyone in the county, but not everyone had no choice like we did, whether to toil in it our not.  The years are catching up with all of us here but last week was brutal. We were all tested past our points of endurance and I was ready to throw in the towel. 

It got worse.  Wednesday night last week, I had managed to bear the heat in the kitchen and had the entire dinner on the counter ready to grill and salad ingredients prepped and in it's bowl.  I reached up in the cupboard for a plate, didn't even touch the dang shelf, and kaboom..the entire top shelf and contents (old wine glasses and a heavy coffee mug) cascaded down on my head and shoulders sending shards of glass all in my hair, down my blouse, all over all the food and across the counters, stove and floor.  The mug hit the side of my face and instantly my hand went up to stem what I was sure was going to be torrents of blood.  Funny how one's mind races in an emergency....lock doggies in bedroom.  Rush to hospital (no insurance), come home to mess to clean and no dinner..lo and behold, no blood. What a miracle and relief.  An hour later of cleaning everything up, settling my nerves and remaking dinner.  To bed, late.  Bless my husband, Kendall. 

Now if you're waiting for a 'good news' paragraph, you may have to wait until next week because what's coming next is the worst of all...the dreaded bragoda beetle is back with a vengeance.  It's promiscuous, has a voracious appetite, lays 100 eggs at time, they hatch in 4 to 6 days, and 4 days later are consuming every tatsoi, mizuna, arugula, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, salad mixture and collards in sight!  And there are thousands of them scurrying around.  It's like a sci fi movie except it's real.   They were first discovered in 2008 in the Port of Los Angeles, and in just these few years have become a major headache and crop loss for all us that grow without chemicals.  There are no known effective organic sprays or methods that eradicate them.  This is how tenacious they are.  We collected a bunch of them and dropped them into small bowls of the following:  vinegar, ammonia, bleach, hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol.  You won't believe this - they just swam around in each of those bowls except for the alcohol.  My hand is in the air!  I swear!  But at least we thought we had a weapon (Neem oil didn't work either).  So we sprayed with the alcohol but it evaporated too quickly to kill them.  Tried putting liquid soap in the sprayer but the alcohol quickly broke it up..so we have a partial weapon but not a method of application.  Do we have any chemists or specialists out there that might be able to help with the method?  We, and our fellow growers, would be most grateful.

So now I'm going to put a smile on, go outside and pick cucumbers and dream of winter rain storms. 

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