June 11th, 2021

.:: Fruit Updates ::.

Next week your FEED Bin will have Apricots sourced from our food hub collaborator, Capay Valley Farm Shop via 3 of their farms

Blueberry and Strawberry seasons are in full swing, as you've probably taste and we're hoping for raspberries soon! Meanwhile, hyper-local stone fruit locally will be here in a few weeks and apples by the end of July.

:: This Week's Tepary Beans ::.

A gift from a customer long ago, Lee and Wayne of Tierra Vegetables have been selecting these gold colored Tepary Beans from an originally all white bean crop. According to Native Food Historian and Culinary Anthropologist, Lois Ellen Frank, Tepary Beans are "called bawi by the Tohono O'odham people of southern Arizona [and] have sustained Native communities for generations. Some ethnobotanists believe that cultivation of the bean began approximately 6000 to 8000 year ago. These resilient plants are one of the most heat and drought-tolerant annual legume crops in the Southwest, if not in the world."

While Lee and Wayne James navigate a series of crises, FEED's market outlets and the farm's storage crops like these beans are helping keep the farm afloat.Between the compounding effects of the 2017 Tubbs Fire, the pervasively challenging economics of farming as a livelihood, the ongoing pandemic, the drought, and now a failing water well, they are struggling to sustain their farm. As a community, we need to rally behind our local farms, and explicitly support them. More details on how to directly support them coming soon. In the meantime, please encourage your community to continue supporting our FEED Box program! Your local farms need you.

.:: As the Drought Worsens ::.

This drought has been affecting our farms since long before it was in the headlines. From the crops they plan to grow for the year, to the contracts or reservoirs from which they receive water, our farmers are swimming upstream in a dry creek bed. The list of farmers being directly affected by the worsening drought lengthens as the season wears on. This week we learned of two more farms in our county that are facing water right restrictions that will slow their farming operations severely as we hurtle towards the agricultural high season in the North Bay Area. We will share more about this developing crisis as our farms see fit. Plus, as you know, Marin Roots isn't growing this year and that striped serpent cucumber in your boxes this week is likely the penultimate item we'll be getting from County Line Harvest's Thermal location.