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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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- We’re Jammin’
- Box Contents September 7-12
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- Box Contents, August 31-September 5
- Eggplant Salad with Dill and Garlic
- moon gardening…
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- Have your Way With Fava Beans
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This past weekend, the lavender blooms were bursting in their full colors, people were gathering in the dust laden parking structure behind our warehouse, and just as the light of one warm summer afternoon faded into a soft, glowing night sky, Suzie’s Farm gained a new family, a new face…
As you’ve probably heard, After many years of land-searching, Roots is collaborating with Suzie’s Farm in the creation of Roots Farm and Education Center at Suzie’s. Now leasing the land that was originally “Suzie’s Farm”, Roots will be transforming that space into a fully functional, educational farm center open to the public for workshops, internships, garden projects, and monthly potlucks. With time and community support, Roots Farm at Suzie’s will be a place to grow the next generation of farmers, to introduce San Diegans to their food as it’s grown, and to work toward a sustainable San Diego.
Saturday marked an inaugural celebration for friends, family, farmers, and new faces to gather with intention and plant sees for the new farm. We planted Pink Hopi Corn, a native heirloom variety that will hopefully be harvested this fall. We planted seeds for our dreams for the farm, for this space- visions for what we want to grow, how we want to cultivate relationships, teach skills for farming and gardening and sustaining, prepare and share delicious meals, dance, sing, and be with one another.
For me, seeing the beaming faces of the people who have crafted this organization, driven it to what it has become, and meshed their passions and talents to make something beautiful and transformational, filled me with such joy and excitement. It’s finally happening. We finally have a FARM!
We were blessed to have the support and participation of a few local chefs who prepared delicious appetizers for us with all ingredients donated by local farms. Big thanks to Sea Rocket Bistro, Sono Trading Company, Starlite Lounge, Stone Brewery (some incredible beer) Peace Pies, Root’s Kind Food (herbal tea infusions) and Bottle Hood (amazing recycled glasses). Creating and cultivating these sorts of partnerships and support networks is exactly what we need to make this farm successful, impactful, and communal.
So here’s to new projects, long work days, new friends, organics, learning about food and culture and one another. Please come visit us, spend some time putting your energy in to this place and enjoy some of the things that will hopefully come out of it! Thank you!
Visit: http://www.sandiegoroots.org for more information about the non-profit and check out http://www.sandiegoroots.org/farmblog to follow all the new happenings on the farm.
Imagine the shock, when a few months down the road you are peeling open the flaps of your CSA box or peeking over the stalls at the farmers’ market and all of the sudden, out of nowhere, a bright yellow-horned and outrageously bizarre looking fruit catches your eyes, silently screaming “EAT ME!!”
Ok. I got ahead of myself. We haven’t even planted this fruit yet, but very soon we’ll be laying seeds in the ground for what is commonly known as the Jelly Melon. In New Zealand they called it a “Kiwano” while in parts of the UK it’s named the English Tomato. Most commonly you’ll hear it called the African Horned Cucumber Melon- and it is just that. A perfect blend of sweet melon & tangy cucumber with enough attitude in those horns to invite only the bravest of eaters to taste it’s delicious, slippery textured flesh.
I can’t make any promises, but the outlook of the late summer months and early fall look pretty scrumptious. Robin and Ellie both agree- this fruit is the best!!!
Pea Shoots!
Onion Sprouts
Bloomsdale Spinach
Heirloom Fennel
Cucumber (Mix)
Celery
Sweet Heirloom Pepper (Beaver Dam, right now it’s green)
Summer Squash
Bountiful Stringless Green Beans
Large Yellow Carrots
Swiss Chard
Thinking of going out of town next weekend? Be sure you contact us by July 1st to HOLD your box or arrange for someone else to pick it up! If we don’t hear from you by JULY 1st, you will receive a box!
Remember - your box is your responsibility!
Email our CSA Guy, Rodrigo by July 1st to hold your box!
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Micro Basil
Purple Scallions
Broccoli
Fresh Pawnee Shelling Beans or Yellow Wax Beans
Lettuce Head
Cucumbers
Bag of Arugula
Summer Squash Selection
Celery
Chives
Carrots
We’re excited to be joining a great group of farmers & food vendors at the new Mission Hills Farmers’ Market. It kicks off this Friday, June 25th, from 3-7pm on Falcon St (between Fort Stockton and Washington).
Join us for some new faces, good music, great neighbors, and some delicious spreads! Come get your weekend veggies before the weekend and support yet another branch of San Diego’s incredible and growing food system…
Visit the “Our Mission Hills” website for more details on who’s participating!
http://www.ourmissionhills.com/mission-hills-farmers-market.html
Many of our CSA customers have asked that we post their box contents early in the week so that they know what might come in the box. More recently we have had to make some minor and sometimes some major changes to the CSA boxes based on field availability and product freshness. You will see this reflected this week, as I have updated the boxes every single day. This will likely continue as we strive to bring you the freshest products.
We’ve been juggling some customer comments about product quality and diminished box size. I wanted to address both so you understand the lifecycle of your CSA box.
Please know that our product is harvested one day before your CSA drop. Getting a box on Wednesday? We harvest on Tuesday.
Based on customer feedback, we’ve changed the way we prepare some products. Originally we would harvest them and put them straight in the box. This proved to be an issue even in the mild spring months when temperatures barely brushed 70 degrees. This still causes heat to build in the plant, especially when put into a box with other too-warm items. The heat built in the boxes in spite of them being refrigerated for at least 15 hours. The boxes are then delivered to your host site in a refrigerated vehicle. Only certain Farmer’s Market host sites (usually OB, Poway and La Jolla) receive boxes delivered in our unrefrigerated van.Those host sites have the advantage of being in the warehouse cooler longer than our regular host sites.
In some cases, like the strawberries, they are ultra-ripe and meant to be eaten immediately. Sometimes that isn’t enough, and the product molds. Some things, like leafy greens or celery, get hot in the box and appear wilted. They usually bounce back with a cold water rinse and refrigeration.
Now when the greens or broccoli come to the warehouse, we give them a fresh water dip to bring their field heat down (think a 3 year-old with 105 degree temperature getting an ice bath to bring the fever down), and then refrigerate them immediately. We are happy to report that this has improved the quality tremendously.
As for the “size” of the boxes, they have always remained within our terms of 8-15 items per box. Based on the “each” cost per item, our CSA members receive a discounted value. Things like the microgreens retail at $4 per box, so they bring the general box price up.
Probably starting in August, we will move to a “small” box and “large” box. We are still fiddling with the details, but the small box will likely contain between 7-11 items, and the large box will contain between 12-17 items. The prices aren’t firm, but we think a small box will run $22 and the large $28.
Now that summer is officially here, I will more closely supervise our field and packing teams to review the quality of our product. Even though we are located 1/2 a mile from the coast and the heat isn’t as pervasive as in the interior of the county, it’s still something we have to analyze.
We always appredciate your support, your comments and your attention. If you are having any issues with CSA box quality, please don’t hesitate to let us know. By bringing these issues to our attention you support us as we cannot bring a quality CSA program to our members without their feedback.
Micro Basil
Onions 1lb
Strawberries 1 pint
Fresh Shelling Beans (Pawnee)
Lettuce
Cucumber
Arugula
Summer Squash (Crookneck)
Beans
Celery!!!
Chives
Carrots!
We have begun a partnership with San Diego Sustainable Roots Project. They have searched for an urban farm location for 9 years. For a myriad of reasons the few locations they found weren’t a good fit. Until now.
As a result of our partnership, they will finally have their outdoor educational farm as we sub-lease them our original Suzie’s Farm property.
Last year, shortly after moving to Kiki Town, when Suzie’s Farm started to wind down, Robin and I strolled the property. Our plants had done adequately there, but we quickly learned that we would not be able to grow the business as we needed to on that small property. We pondered different ways to use it and decided that eventually - 5 years down the line or so - we would convert it into an educational farm. In the meantime we would plant it through with cover crop and attend to our mini-orchard and vines.
We wanted a stand of shady nut trees along the north line of the property, and the permabeds would run East to West in the middle third. We would put the chicken coop here, and the bees there. Here would go the picnic area and the pizza oven. Bay laurel would line the road. A row of fruit trees would welcome our guests. We would give our school tours here - a mini version of our 40 acre farm Kiki Town - and do composting, planting, pruning and cooking demonstrations. We would host parties. Perhaps someone would find it as holy as we did, and have their wedding here. A place for the community to learn, share and enjoy. It would be connection. It would be experience. It would be community.
But as we started to grow more - literally and figuratively - we couldn’t take care of Suzie’s Farm. As we planted more and more at Kiki Town, we spent less and less time at Suzie’s. Kiki Town had its own 3 person (at that time) full-time crew, whereas Suzie’s had a rag-tag crew. Ellie who at that time worked 10 hours a week. Johanna, was home on break from UCSC and working full-time at the family farm. Me looking for more customers and managing the burgeoning CSA. Robin filling in where needed. We harvested and weeded what we could at Suzie’s, and made rows and planted at Kiki. Until finally one day, with nothing left to harvest at Suzie’s Farm, we turned all eyes to Kiki Town.
This double head-light vision toward Kiki Town left Suzie’s in the rear-view mirror. The warehouse is adjacent to Suzie’s property, but it became more like looking at your neighbors yard. The first couple of weeks you notice it with interest. After a while it becomes background. The weeds grew up, we plowed them under. We mulched it with black plastic to control the weeds. The weeds grew up. We watched. We had neither the time nor the team to put toward the task of taking care of our beloved property.
In the winter with all the rains, the trees flourished. Mere sticks when we first planted them last January, they had tripled in height and branches. The early trees were constellated with pink and white blossoms. We dutifully plucked most of them. Every month or so we would see another round of stars. We’d rush over and gather them from the trees. Adorning our hair. Littering the ground. They withered, wheat colored, and coalesced into the bark mulch we had applied around the trees.
A long forgotten friend. The one you always mean to call. Suzie’s Farm - our meditation, our dream - reduced to chest high weeds and the occasional cringing glance.
Since it’s been almost a year since we took over Kiki Town, there is space now. Like Suzie who has been gone for so long, the pain of her loss isn’t as fresh. Raw. We are so wrapped up in the monument of work that is the New Suzie’s Farm, so different from the one we started a mere year ago. There pain now is because the dream hasn’t manifested as we hoped.
I am sad to part with Suzie’s land, even for a few years. It feels like more of a failing on my part. If only I had cared for the land - for her, for you - more. Better. If only I had paid deeper attention. Stopped and listened more. Given time, we could have cared for the land better. Been true stewards of it.
Whenever you plant trees on land you invest your soul. Planting trees is an act of devotion. We planted 38 trees on that property. Used a sharp tool to scoop open the Earth and set, hopefully, prayerfully, a long lived entity in her embrace. Every tree, a longing, a promise, that we would give and that we hoped to receive in return.
Now we are releasing it to a group who hope will be able to do all we envisioned and more. They are not bound by our limiations. They can have volunteers. They can work late or on weekends. They can apply for grants.
Our focus now is on making a profit. We have to make some money. We hope to do that by becoming more efficient at our plantings, harvesting and distribution.
It’s bittersweet. To manifest someone’s dream we’ve had to dash our own - even though the result will be kindred. I contemplate those trees. I long for them and the dream they represent. I eat their small sweet fruit. It bolsters me. The aspiration stays alive as long as those trees do.
Just a few glimpses of the lovely things that are growing right now at our Kiki Town property…
Melon
Pawnee Shelling Beans
Squash Macho Blossoms
Walking through the fields this morning with the late lingering fog was so pleasant, such a reminder of how quiet and simple the earth is when no one’s watching…and simultaneously as I’m picking beans and exploring the cucumber patches and watching the Okra reach for the sun I recognize that it’s not quiet at all. Energy is moving, changing, causing, creating across every in of the soil. I like to imagine what it might sound like if we could listen to life at a microcosmic-level. I imagine it would be a blur of crunches and stretches and yawns and hustles and bustles and creaks and cracks and oozes- an entire symphony of cacophony. Life is tenacious.
Hope you get to catch a taste of these plants- these givers of life. Fresh shelling beans never tasted so good!
-britta
I took a stroll this afternoon through the original “Suzie’s Farm” fields, where we have planted fruit trees, grape vines, different herbs and flowers….For me this is a place to breath, to feel like I am closer to that wild nature that so captivates me, enriches me, makes me feel alive.
As I took gentle steps around the mulch and perma-beds, I was struck by the amount of baby peaches hanging from the baby branches of those baby trees. The fruit is small, lovely, delicate, and dripping with sweet juice. Time and nurturing will hopefully soon yield pounds and pounds of stone fruits, but for now just a few tastes of that quintessential summer flavor was enough to capture my attention and sweeten the rest of my afternoon.
I don’t write this to tease you (too much!) or you make you sad that we don’t currently have fruit available for offering…but rather to encourage you to wait with us as the farm grows, as the trees mature, as the sun ripens the lands, and our imaginations, and our workforces, so that soon we can have bountiful fruit supplies and long, summer harvests.
Onwards and Upwards Till the Solstice,
Britta
Dear Shareholders,
I used to say that I didn’t care for cucumbers. I realize that I don’t care for benign and boring store cucumbers. If you’ve been receiving boxes for the last few weeks you’ve seen that we don’t really have the benign and boring cucumbers. You’ve been receiving the East Indian Poona Kheeras, Armenians or the Mini-Whites. These have a creamy flavor that is absolutely out of this world! Nothing says summer like cucumbers – especially as the days warm up.
Here is an Agua Fresca recipe (Thanks Mom!) for all those cucumbers: 3 cups of peeled and cubed cucumbers, ½ cup, or to taste, of light syrup (recipe follows), 4 Tbsp lime juice, 1 cup of water. Blend all ingredients until smooth, add 3 to four cups of sparkling or still water. Serve over ice and garnish with mint. Light syrup recipe: 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of water. Heat water/sugar mixture until it comes to a boils, and sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat and let cool. Store in a covered contained in the refrigerator.
Remember that those beans are shelling beans, not green beans. Use them as you would dry beans, except you don’t have to soak them. How about a delicious bread salad? Cook the beans about 20 minutes in broth, until soft. Cook the braising mix with garlic, and olive oil until just wilted. Take 4 slices of good crusty bread. Brush bread with olive oil and grill, toast or broil, until nicely browned, about 3-5 minutes. Cool slightly and tear the bread into bite-sized chunks. Spoon braising mix & bean mixture into large bowl, add torn bread, a little more olive oil and some lemon juice, salt and pepper and toss to combine. Shave some Parmesean cheese over that bad boy, and toss again before serving warm.
Eat well,
Lucila and Robin
Check it out-Here’s what is most likely coming out for next week…We’re experimenting with the onions to see how much is TOO much, but they should be tasty!
Micro Basil
Onions
Strawberry (1 pint)
Fresh Shelling Beans (Tigers Eye)
Lettuce
Cucumber
Braising Mix
Summer Squash
Dill
Celery
Chives
I can’t tell you how many people want to Meet The Farmer. They call wanting to speak directly to me like I have some secret. My in-box bursts with email; questions, requests, favors. During tours and interviews I give descriptions of the farm; it’s history and ideals.I talk and talk and talk. This leaves me feeling more like a figure and less like a farmer.
The real farmers are in the field. They are indefatigable. They don’t speak much English. They arrive at 6:00am and leave at 4pm, Sunday through Friday. They toil these fields morning and afternoon, in the wind and dust, the sun and sweat, in the rain and cold. They analyze crop health every time they harvest. As they weed, they inspect the water lines on every row and adjust accordingly. They transplant and direct seed. They gather bunches and cut heads. They trellis and hoe and weed. And weed. And weed.
I talk about the farm a lot. But this does not make me a farmer. When we first started I had my hands dirty every day. I dug holes for trees and laid awkward drip lines. I decided what we would plant and when. My back curved over the plug tables and my hands clawed at weeds. I harvested and packed. I sweat and ached. Now, my role is to effectively communicate the vision of the farm, to get people to believe in us and our product, and then hopefully buy it. I work with our employees and their schedules. I make first contact with many of our customers. Occasionally, I order seed and consult with Robin about planting dates. I do research. I go to meetings. I expand the vision. Does that make me The Farmer?
When people request presentations, I’m the one they want. They don’t want Don Julio or Esmeralda. I don’t think they even want the idea of them. They want my blue eyes and light brown hair and perfect diction. They like it when I introduce myself - Lucila De Alejandro - trilling my Rs with a Spanish accent. They can’t believe I was born there. They like that I look and speak like them. It’s safe.
But so do the farmers. I’m the one the want. They don’t want Beth or Jenny. They wave to me shyly, and greet me with bright smiles when they see me in my field clothes. They want my blue eyes and my light brown hair and perfect diction. They like it when I weed near them, or direct seed. They can’t believe I was born there. They like that I look and speak like them. It’s safe.
It’s not a novelty for them, this farming business. There is no grand ideal they are trying to reach. They could give a rip about our vision or why we plant why we plant. We amuse them with our ideas and our style. They’ve worked on real farms before. They know how it’s done. They school us, and we gratefully listen and act when we can. They’ve mostly worked on conventional farms, so not everything they offer is possible for us. We’re pretty sure they shake their heads at us when we don’t follow through with their suggestions. Even they are taken aback by some of the things we choose to grow. We occasionally amaze them - in a good way.
They aren’t a pastoral ideal. They don’t make suggestions. They come from a poor country whose government has shown corruption and negligence to its people. They don’t have iPhones. Most of them don’t have cars. They execute manual labor that the general population doesn’t want to do. At least not for a sustained length of time. I know they are grateful for a paycheck - everyone is these days. I’m sure they appreciate the steady hours instead of contract work. We try to rotate crews so people aren’t stuck doing the same thing day in and day out. I don’t need them to think about me when they go home to their families. I’m indebted to them. We couldn’t do it without them. I wonder about them and what they think of this crazy adventure. I admire their tenacity and dedication. They are different from our Marketeer crew, or even most of our customers. It really is a cultural thing.
I am trying to get back in the fields at least once a week now - usually on Thursdays, which is when the Farmer’s Marketeer crew works too. The difference is that I don’t typically work with the Marketeers. I work with the farm crew. I ask them to direct me. They laugh. They think I tease them. They remind me that I’m the boss. But I say I don’t know anything. I want their opinion, Where should I weed or harvest? What part of Kiki town needs me the most? How should I do it?
It’s been about three weeks now. I like it. It’s different than our original property of which we only had one acre under production. Kiki Town is 40 acres and Bear Barranca 18 - big expansive fields with activity any and every where. I don’t usually work next to anyone, preferring to work alone. I like to be in view. I like to watch them and learn. I like getting tired. I dress like them, protected by the sun from head to toe. I’m slowly getting back to being less of a figure and more of a farmer.
I just spent an hour and a half writing a blog post that I forgot to save. It’s gone. Safe to say I am upset by my rookie move. I can’t even begin to recreate it. So I’m letting you know, Dear Reader, that I had something to say. I’ll try to say it again later, despues de que se me baje el coraje as we say in Spanish.