Do You Know Your Farmer?

BIJA~"the seed"

Today is Sunday afternoon.  I just got home from the coolest latest thing SLOW FOOD LAKE TAHOE put on: a food swap!  I was wondering how this was going to work, since the only swapping parties that I have attended, are clothes swaps.  Also very fun!  Now I have a few more jars of homemade jams, dilly beans, homemade toffee, macaroons, beer, etc.  The list goes on!  Kevin will be more than happy when he comes home from climbing today!

It has been a very busy week (or 6) for BIJA Gardens.  Between figuring out the succession planting schedule, wondering how to make my crops extend through 3 different markets, working the 3 markets, showing up to support local food events, and finding time for the rest of my life...needless to say...today I am taking a break and just sitting here in silence.  (and catching up on my blog:)

Here are the last few weeks in pictures around both planting sights:

"Spirit Bed" filled with sunflowers, tobaccos, and sage

Garlic is now harvested and drying in the "pack shed" a.k.a~the garage

"FunGuy" Don and his Oyster Mushroom patch

Oysters in coffee grounds, cardboard, hay, and water

Ms Scarlett and Brody join in on the fun

Seed heads forming on the quinoa!

quinoa is now as tall as I am!

I have been meeting some really nice people at the markets.  Sometimes they ask me to inform them about my products, and then other times they inform me about my products!!  For example, one evening a couple came walking up and said, "Where did you get that wooden crate?" (see picture at the top of the entry)  I told them I had bought it at the thrift store here in Truckee.  The man said, "Well I worked for that company for 24 years."  He proceeded to tell me that the wooden crates were once used out in the peach orchards in Turlock, CA,  but they retired them because they were bruising the fruit.  They switched to plastic and ended up burning most of these crates.  My crate was made in 1962 and is somewhat of a collector's item these days.  His wife told me to hold onto it, so I most certainly will.

On another occasion, two Indian men came up to the stand and commented that they liked the name of my business.   They then told me of a woman named Vandana Shiva and all of her efforts over the years to save small farms, organic practices, and seeds from large corporations and patents.   On her link you can also download her Manifesto on the Future of Seeds for free.  This second clip was the story they told me of her saving seeds:

Sometimes I feel like I am living in a dream state.  I feel like I don't really know what I am doing, but then I just go out and do it.  Like someone or something way down deep is driving me and "I" just follow.   But I continue to love this project for all it stands for~freedom & real change.  That's it for now~thanks for reading.