The Jackson Farmer's Market is officially underway! (Sundays from 10
a.m. to 1 p.m.) Last weeks turnout was great despite the heat. Vegetable
and herb starts, greens, onions, carrots, radishes, strawberries,
artichokes, herbs, bread, cookies, candles, soap, lotions, honey and
homemade pies were just a few of the items showcased at the market. Come
down to the Busi Parking lot on Sunday mornings and enjoy!
Kriletich Family Farms:
Our vegetables are grown at 2 different locations, Paloma and Jackson.
This week at the market we will have:
Lettuce
Chard
Kale
Peruvian Peppers
Onion Tops
Honey
A myriad of herbs including:
Calendula- edible petals that will brighten any salad or
dish
as well as boost your immune system
Oregano
Marjoram
Rosemary
Thyme
Cilantro
Parsley
Anise Hyssop - makes a great tea when combined with lemon
balm and borage
Lemon Balm - use in tea or salads
Borage - dark semi laxative tea or steam/fry in your dinner
Grapefruit (from Mokelumne Hill)
Tomato and zucchini starts -we encourage everyone to
cultivate their own food!
Fertilizer and Vegetable Info:
MULCHING
Don't throw out those cardboard boxes! Use them as a highly effective
way to mulch your garden and improve the soil over time. Simply
flattening boxes and covering them with a layer of soil, yard clippings
and other nitrogen rich matter will produce soil that plants can thrive
in. Mulching in this manner is a resourceful, free and effective way to
build and improve your garden soil while reducing waste. Adding a mulch
layer such as wood chips, or straw to the top of beds will cut down on
evaporation and mediate soil temperature. This saves water and keeps
your plants healthy and therefore tasty.
PESTS
Are slugs marauding your strawberry patch? Try using food grade
Diatomaceous earth as a way to combat strawberry snacking from unwanted
garden guests. Diatomaceous earth is a naturally occurring substance
available at garden supply stores. Either sprinkle small handfuls over
plants or use a bucket filled with the powder and a small rag dipped
into the mix as a way to distribute more evenly. Guaranteed to increase
your strawberry consumption within days.
RADISHES
Spicy and refreshing, these little ground gems are mostly used raw but
are fabulous braised in butter or olive oil with salt and pepper.
CHARD
Use in salads or lightly steamed, chard has a similar taste and texture
to spinach but without the astringent flavor. One of our favorite ways
to enjoy chard is lightly steam the leaves, then use them as wrappers
(think sushi) for rice and grated carrots.
ONION TOPS
The stalk and flower tops of the Allium (onion) family taste just like
the bulbous fruits they produce. Use the stalk and flower tops chopped,
fried or fresh in place of onions.
UPDATE ON OUR GARDENS:
We have all been blessed with the rain this spring the gardens are the
living proof of that. We are looking forward to an especially
productive year after almost doubling our garden space over the winter.
Here at Manzanita Ridge (between Jackson and Pine Grove) the tomatoes
are producing tiny green fruits almost every hour it seems and you can
almost watch the five- foot tall sunflowers growing. Chard, Kale and
Radishes abound and the beets are starting to bulb. Beans and corn are
coming up strong and the squash is beginning to blossom. The bees are
having an exceptionally productive year. The palette of wildflowers
covering our landscape has given the honey a deliciously light, floral
taste that is almost clear in appearance. We hope to make time to
extract this in the next week and have it available for your palette at
the market.
I would like to remind you that all of our veggies are
started
from organic seed, many of them saved by ourselves and therefore
adapted to our local environment. We then continue loving these
plants by using only locally sourced materials to feed and water
them. We never use pesticides, herbicides or petro-fertilizers.
Our belief is that by using local resources to help our selves,
and
by producing food for local consumption, we are allowing
others’ around the world to do the same. We are also conserving
energy by greatly reducing the distance food travels from
producer
to consumer. The average fresh item in U.S. grocery
stores travels over 1500 miles just to get there, the distance is
even greater
when it comes to packaged foods. When you make purchases at
the Farmers'
Market you too are conserving energy. If every person in the
U.S.
ate just one meal a week that they produced themselves or bought
from local organic producers the U.S. could save 1.1 million
barrels of oil per week, or at least use this energy for other
projects.
AMADOR CO-OP
Growing our own food allows us to move towards community self-sufficiency and puts control back into what we consume while allowing others around the world to do the same. Having a venue not unlike the farmer’s market for local producers to sell their food and fiber products would bolster the local economy, which in turn improves the quality of life and health of our community. If your interested being part of/ learning more about what a food/fiber cooperative is and the benefits of having a co-op for the Foothill Region, consider attending the next Amador Co-op meeting on May 27th at 10 a.m, held in: the conference room at the Amador Co. Health and Human Services Bldg 10877 Conductor Blvd. Sutter Creek, CA 95685 off Ridge Rd between hwy 88 and hwy 49.
Any further questions or comments regarding the market or co-op meetings, please feel free to contact us via email or 209-223-1307.
Thanks for your support,
Sean Kriletich
--
Paloma Pollinators
Purveyors of fine honey and vegetables
palomapollinators@fastmail.es
