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PHONE: 619.662.1780
CSA Inquiries, please email rodrigo@suziesfarm.com
Local Chefs, please email robin@suziesfarm.com
For Farmer's Market Info, please email britta@suziesfarm.com
ADDRESS & DIRECTIONS:
For scheduled farm tours, our Kiki Town address is:
1856 Saturn Boulevard, San Diego CA 92154
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Restaurants & Chefs
Did you know Suzie’s Farm delivers in San Diego five days a week? Not only that, several acres of our farm in San Diego’s Border State Park is dedicated to custom growing for the specific needs (and imagination) of our local chefs. Can you say boutique and convenience all in one breath? You don’t have to. Just say Suzie’s Farm. Visit our Chef's Page to view our delivery schedule and learn more about our partnership with restaurants.
Recipes
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Most recent entries
- Local Locavore Enters Killer Sandwich Competition
- We’re Jammin’
- Box Contents September 7-12
- September Newsletter
- Winter Squash with Caramelized Onions
- Box Contents, August 31-September 5
- Eggplant Salad with Dill and Garlic
- moon gardening…
- Box Contents, August
- Have your Way With Fava Beans
- Box Contents, August 17/18
- Box Contents, August 14/15
- Box Contents, August 13
- Zesty Wheat Berries…Friend or Foe?
- Much Ado ‘Bout Okra
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Many people new to the CSA are asking me, what’s coming in the box? What can we expect?
Don’t forget to check the harvest schedule to see what we’ve planted. It will give you a pretty good idea of what you’ll be eating in the next few months.
As long as the bunnies don’t get to them first, that is…
Our second week is upon us, and our little CSA is growing and growing! It’s not just my Mom! We have already doubled our members in one week - which I guess isn’t that hard when you start with less than 20! Word of mouth has gotten us here. So keep spreading the word! We hope to have at least 100 shares by the end of this year, if not sooner.
Most people picked up at the North Park location, but people are showing interest in Univeristy City, Chula Vista, La Jolla/Pacific Beach, and Ocean Beach/Point Loma. If you live or work in one of these areas, and prefer to pick up there, please contact me at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We would like to diversify our pick-up dates and times. The more people we can get in other areas, the sooner we can get hosts in those areas, and you’ll be closer to saving gas and freeway time!
We’ve gotten almost all positive feedback from our guinea pigs. Everyone loves supporting a local San Diego farm. Everyone loves the “surprise” factor when they open their box. Everyone loves knowing that the produce is farm fresh - picked that day. Some had the challenge of not knowing what the items were or how to use them. We have a recipe page and a “what’s that?!” page that obviously I need to work on updating. Something they also mentioned was too much packaging. We recognized this as we were packaging the product, but it was getting late and we had to finish what we had started. We ask our CSA members to bring their own bags to take home their produce. And we will work on ways to minimize packaging within the box, but use enough to keep the produce fresh and perky.
I’m also realizing that the quantity in the “mini” box is probably what a small box will contain. We just got so goll dang excited, and have enough produce in the fields, that we really filled those boxes up!
We also wanted to provide a big “WOW” feeling when people looked through their box. So it contained lots of “specialty” items. But specialty can also mean eccentric, crazy or downright weird, if you don’t know what to do with the product. One of our CSA members mentioned how “epicurial” the box was. Certainly in the future, it will be less so as our field production increases and we are able to bring tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, muskmelons, watermelons, corn, spinach, head lettuce, beans, tomatillos and many more organically grown items to our CSA members.
I walked the property with Robin today, and we are making plans to clear out another part of the field and several greenhouses to accommodate more product. I’ve ordered more seeds from Seeds Of Change in New Mexico. I love their variety and love that I don’t have to worry if the seed was constructed in a laboratory. Seeds Of Change offers only organic seeds, seedlings, nursery stock and live plants. They are a perfect partner for Suzie’s Farm.
Eventually we also want to offer “flower shares”. We’ll be supplying a flower share this week, just so people can get a taste.
We welcome all questions and comments from our CSA members - both current and potential!
Let’s grow together!
It’s quiet in the office today. I’m the only one here. The phone isn’t ringing. My email isn’t pinging. Everyone has the day off, except us. Robin is outside, on the tractor, making 30 more rows in Field Two. He’s discing in horse manure and farm waste to get those rows ready for what’s next.
And that’s what I’ve been figuring. What’s next? What new plants will we add? Will we add new varieties? We can already see some of the mistakes we’ve made in Field One. Nothing disasterous - nothing life or death, except the life and death of the plants, I suppose. But it’s a puzzle we are figuring here. How does this fit and where will it go?
We have to consider crop rotation, crop maturation dates, individual plant feeding and watering requirements and much much more.
It’s a slow death to continue to plant the same things in the same places. That kind of planting encourages soil diseases and pests to entrench themselves in your field. This is why so many conventional, big business, single crop farms rely on pesticides, fungicides and insecticides. It is certainly more efficient to plant one thing in your field. It’s all seeded the same, watered the same, fertilized and harvested the same. Your learning curve is mild - you learn pretty quickly what the plant needs and how to grow it.It’s an assembly line. If your only job is to spread the mayonaise on the sandwich, you get pretty good at it pretty fast. A no-brainer, as they say.
But we aren’t farming like that. It’s an ALL-brainer, all the time.
Where this went this year, is not where this will go next year. It probably won’t go there again for another 8 years. EIGHT years between broccoli - and everything else - plantings. I don’t know what else I’m doing in 8 years, but I know the brassicas will be planted in plot 1, Field 1 again. Plus, I’ve got to make sure I don’t plant the 25 day radishes next to the 120 day onions, or else I can’t get the tractor in there to disc it up and re-plant. I’ve got to watch which new bug has landed among the Opal Basil (a pink/red aphid, in case you are wondering) and wait for the lady bugs to do their thing. I’ve got to soak the heirloom tomatoes deeply and irregularly. I’ve got to be careful when I transplant squash because they don’t like to be transplanted.
I’ve got to wait and remember. I’ve got to listen and plan. I’ve got to observe.
I hope you spend some time today remembering and observing.
Happy Memorial Day.
Everybody’s guilty of making the occasional mistake, right?
We had a schduled pick-up for today at the farm. Normally, our sister farm, Sun Grown, works a full crew six days a week. We share warehouse and cooler space with Sun Grown and were going to have one of Sun Grown’s employees be responsible for getting those happy CSA boxes out to our new customers. But with Monday being a holiday, Sun Grown only has one employee work, which meant that Ellie couldn’t get into the warehouse to finish packing the boxes.
Well, I made a few calls to our customers, and sent out a few emails, and I think it resolved itself in the end. But this is exactly what we mean when we say we are figuring it out as we go along! Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding.
Well today was the first day of the rest of our CSA lives!
We had our inaugaral CSA pick-up day! And I can’t tell you how exciting it was! Filling each box! Lining each CSA box up on our porch! Imagining your face when you open it! It’s a thrill!
To be out in the fields, looking at the product and hoping that you enjoy the process as much as we do - it’s amazing!
There has been a lot - a LOT - leading up to this day. Some of it mundane, most of it magnificent. All of it anticipatory.
I must tell you, Robin and I harvested the majority of the produce ourselves, with super back-up work by our amazing assistant, Ellie. We truly are examining every radish, every piece of swiss chard, and wondering, is it good enough? Will they like it? Would I eat this? Time and again, in the field, we are taste testing and confirming that, YES, it is delicious! We would eat that! We think that you will enjoy it!
The packing was a bit crazy. I do have to pick up the twins at 3pm, after all. So it’s all about the crunch time. Can I put together these boxes, and make them a sight for the eyes, as well as a delight for the nose.
I won’t lie. At first I was throwing everything into the box. Does every box have a pound of Cascaida Peas? How about Rustica Italian Arugula? Did I miss anyone for Easter Egg Radish? But once everything was in, I wanted to make it beautiful - a gift for you to open. Christmas Day in May. Colors, smells, patterns - all of these things would hit you, tantalize you. Then you can begin to dream - how do I cook this? How will it taste? What is this?!
We are proud of our first fledgling boxes. We can already see how and where we would improve the process. We know we have a long way to go. But we are grateful that you have chosen to join us on this ride.
Would you eat that?
I asked myself this time and again in the field while weeding among the Cascadia Peas.
Would you eat that?
Cuz dey is ugly.
If you look at them, the pod mottled with small brown spots, and shriveled in some places, they aren’t the most gorgeous things on the planet.
But take a chance. Right there in the field, among the stinging nettles and the chysanthemums, pop one off the vine and test it. See how it tastes.
Would you eat that?
At first, I shudder at the sight of the pod. After all, it’s not purdy. Will our customers like them? Will they eat them? So, I zip the string along the pod, to open up and see the peas inside.
There they are, seven peas, bulging and green with life. Just like they look in books! I’ve never actually seen them like this! You know what I’m talking about. If you get them from the can, they’ve already started to shrivel - maybe they need a small Botox injection to make them look good.
But here, in the field, with a grasshopper two vines away, eyeing me suspiciously as if to say “I’ve had these rows to myself for 5 weeks, what are you doing here?!”, I’ve got a pea pod in my palm, and I finally understand what they mean when they say “like peas in a pod”. They are tight and close and comfortable. And sweet. Oh boy, are they sweet. I flick them out of the pod with my finger, and they bounce into my hand. I’m tasting spring with every chew. And then I ask myself, what about the pod?
Well, the pod is sweeter - muchsweeter than the peas themselves! If you eat the peas first, and then brave the pod, you won’t believe it. If you are like me, they won’t last to be shelled, you’ll eat them fresh, straight out of the bag.
Although, I will say, some made it into the pasta primavera I made on Monday night. Thing Two kept asking for “Mas”.
Hopefully you too will ask for “mas”.
We are getting very close to our Pre-CSA opening! Many people have expressed an interest in joining San Diego’s newest Community Supported Agriculture endeavor. Now we actually have produce that is close to harvest ready. Looks like the first things in the CSA Mini -Boxes will be radishes, peas, chard, spring mix, herbs, edible flowers and zucchini.
If you want to be part of the “local food” movement, check out the Join Our CSA page for more details!
As a child in elementary school, my favorite book was The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Do you remember it? Robin, the daughter of a migrant worker, discovers an abandoned house near the migrant camp. One room in particular is perfectly in tact, with velvet curtains, velvet cushions on the chairs, sofas, and in the reading nooks. The room is filled with books and other precious items, even though the rest of the house is in disrepair. Robin would escape from life on the apricot farm, from her four noisy siblings, and from the relentless sun, to read in the cool, muffled quiet of the velvet room.
I often wished for my own hideaway - especially one with unlimited books, so I could read and let my imagination take me where the author wanted me to go. It seemed like magic that you could have a place to go when life was really bearing down on you. A secret place, where you could be your true self.
Keatley Snyder describes the farm where Robin’s family toils. It’s one of my favorite passages from the book. At first, Robin is mesmerized by the fruit. She eats apricots by the fistful, still warm from the sun, sweet, the juice running down her face staining her dress. After picking, the children cut each apricot in half, to dry them. Soon Robin comes to abhor the apricots. Her thumb has infinite cuts from the knife, each cut burns from the juice, and she has lost her taste for the fruit.
But I will never forget the way Keatley Snyder described the sunny halves, lined up in rows on the drying trays. I can still imagine how those first apricots tantilized Robin, how strong her desire was for them, how delicious they were. I have searched for those apricots ever since.
I’m always hopeful when I see them in the stores. They seem such a cheerful fruit. I want to bite them and have the juice run down my chin. I want to savor that sweet nectar, the smooth flesh. But because they come from forever away, they are either mealy and dry, or hard and crunchy. Rarely are they sweet.
I purchased the first ones of the season from the store today. They were like chewing ice. Sour ice.
The first thing we did at Suzie’s was plant fruit trees. Apricots, pluots, cherries, pomegranetes, nectarines, peaches, figs, mandarins, oranges, cherries and apples for days, we wanted to offer, and eat, fruit picked in it’s prime. Fruit that hadn’t been trucked from a million miles away. There are many low-chill varieties offered in nurseries now, and we selected those best suited for our mild San Diego climate.
The trees will take at least three years to establish. But I’ve been waiting for that perfect apricot since 5th grade. What’s a few more years?
This is a great, crispy side dish for anything related to South American or Mexican food… Chile is optional since radishes already have a bit of a zip.
Ingredients:
2 bunches finely diced radishes (watermelon is the pretty pink striped one)
1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro (or Sun Grown Micro Cilantro)
1 raw jalapeño chile chopped very fine
juice of 1 lime or 1/2 lemon
top with some flax or sesame seeds to make it more interesting
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients and chill for at least 3 hours before serving.
Ellie came to us today with a fist full of damaged tomato leaves.
Uh-Oh. Another crisis.
We’ve struggled with the rabbits. They have devoured almost all of our greens - lettuce, chard, arugula. The tender brassicas seedlings - broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts, are no match for the bunnies. We see their paw prints between the rows, the droppings here and there like confetti after a party. At least they are fertilizing the ground, we sigh, as we silently calculate the cost of fencing the farm. It’s our belief that if we plant enough for them and enough for us there will be enough. But there only seems to be enough for them. Where are the hawks?! I think a few tall poles for hawk nesting may be cheaper than fencing.
The tomatoes and zucchinis are impervious to the toothy ones. But now something else is doing damage to the bottom leaves of the tomatoes. We consulted our trusty Bible for situations like this, The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control by Barbara W. Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley. It looks like a combo platter of aphids and some unpleasant caterpillar. We picked all the damaged leaves from the tomatoes, and are hoping that will be enough to give the plants renewed strength and to lure more ladybugs to the field.
The tomatillos are completely unaffected by the buggies and bunnies. They are growing and growing, as are the fava beans. The zucchinis are thriving - as they tend to do. So we are looking forward to seeing some regular harvesting of these items.
In the meantime, we are going to wait and see about those tomatoes. We don’t want to take it to the next level, but we are wont to see all of our hard work go to waste. So we’ll just sit back and wait for nature to take the lead.
After a long hike, a dreary day, or anything where you just need to come home and have a cup of soup and fill up on bread and warmth, this recipe hits the spot. Thanks to Heidi Swanson and Nigel Slater for creating and sharing such a delectable dish
Ingredients:
onions - 4 medium
butter - 1 - 2 tablespoons
a glass of white wine
vegetable stock 6+ cups
a small french loaf of bread
grated Gruyere, Emmental or other good melting cheese - a few generous handfuls
Set the oven to 390 degrees. Peel the onions and cut them in half from tip to root, then lay them in a roasting tin and add the butter, salt and some pepper. Roast until they are tender and soft, and toasted dark brown here and there. You might have to turn them now and again.
Cut the onions into thick segments. Put them in a saucepan with the wine and bring to the boil. Let the wine bubble until it almost disappears (you just want the flavour, not the alcohol), then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about twenty minutes.
Just before you want to serve the soup, make the cheese croutes. Cut the loaf into thin slices and toast lightly on one side under a hot grill (broiler). Turn them over and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Get the soup hot, ladle it into bowls and float the cheese croutes on top. Place the bowls under a hot grill (broiler) and leave until the cheese melts. Eat immediately, whilst the cheese is still stringy and molten.
Enough for 4.
I like to add thyme to most meals (the sprigs in salads, soups and chowders give a potent green taste). It is also said to have a slight aftertaste somewhat like cloves. Thyme also goes well with most meats if added toward the end of cooking, and is another incredible tea infusion that has tons of medicinal benefits like soothing sore throats or respiratory issues.
Here’s a yummy recipe for a sweet and savory jelly that will make your lips and your taste buds smile. You probably wouldn’t normally think of adding an herb to a jelly, but thyme and apples meld into an incredibly flavorful result. I like it on a good toasted whole wheat bagel or spread as a chutney with a pasta or meat dish. Sometimes I’ve been known to eat it straight from the spoon…
Ingredients:
2 cups apple cider
3-1/2 cups raw organic sugar
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 pouch (3 ounces) liquid fruit pectin (optional- I think Pectin gives its a weird aftertaste, but it also really helps make that jelly consistency, so its your call. I say try with it and then go without on the next round to compare.
Preparation:
Combine the apple cider, sugar, and thyme in a 4 quart microwave-safe bowl, and stir well. Cook, uncovered, at full power (650 to 700 watts) for 10 minutes. Stir, return to the microwave, and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has reached a full rolling boil, about 5 more minutes . Stir the pectin into the mixture, return it to the microwave, and cook for 1-1/2 minutes. Skim any foam off the surface, and pack the jelly into sterilized jars according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Yield: 1 quart
Source: The New Basics Cookbook
As far as lunch goes, egg salad sandwiches will always hold a high place on the threshold of goodness. This recipe includes tarragon and vinegar, which gives it a tang that you can’t resist! I like to mix it up and add cucumbers and sesame seeds as well, but make it however YOU like it, and share with your friends!
For egg salad:
8 large eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon, or to taste
2 teaspoons tarragon vinegar or white-wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
For sandwiches:
Mayonnaise for spreading on bread (optional)
12 slices seedless rye bread or 6 kaiser rolls
3 cups tender pea shoots (3 oz) or shredded lettuce
Source: Epicurious.com
Sage Tea Recipe (Relives Cold, Sore Throats, and Cold Sores, Good for Tummy Aches too)
1 ounce sage leaves
3/4 ounce fennel seeds
Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1 1/2 teaspoon of this mixture and steep. Use as a gargle for flu and inflamed throat. Drink as a tea for any infections of the mouth and throat. The fennel gives the tea a sweet, mile, licorice-like flavor and helps digestion.
Ingredients:
3/4 c olive oil .
1 strip lemon peel (about a 1-inch x 1/2-inch strip) .
1/4 c lemon juice .
1 garlic clove, peeled .
1 sprig rosemary
Directions:
Crush the rosemary and garlic on the cutting board, mincing and crushing
Put the rosemary, garlic, & lemon peel in a clean bottle or jar with a tight fitting lid.
Add the oil & the lemon juice & cap tightly.
Shake well- Drizzle over any salad or pasta or bread and enjoy 