“The Manocle”

Mano Farm’s CSA newsletter

Volume 2, Issue #1
January 16th, 2011

Your farmers: Justin & Quin

Phone: 805.758.3184
Web: http://www.manofarm.org
Email: manofarmers@gmail.com

Dearest CSA members,

The past few weeks for us farmers have been filled with both excitement and sadness.
The first, and most pressing news is that David Klein, one of the Mano Farm’s co-
founding members, has chosen to leave the project and pursue other opportunities. It’s
going to take awhile for us to recover from David’s departure. This entails a considerable
reconfiguration for myself, as I was set to be on leave from this project until May.
However, due to some creative rescheduling I will be able to complete my coming
semester of graduate school from here in Ojai. Since it’s largely been a two person farm
with David and Justin for the past season, we know it’s possible to get what we need
done — and thrive. Still, it’s going to be especially challenging for us this coming season,
and we hope to draw more frequently from our pool of volunteers, WWOOFers, and CSA
members for help.
Our excitement stems from the fact that a few of our members embraced our call for
year-long memberships, and the infusion of money has allowed us to buy all of our seeds
for the year, up-front. The total seed bill came to over $600. If you want to get a sense of
what we plan to grow, we’ve included the complete list of our order as an addendum to
this newsletter. Also, since seed saving has become a top priority for our farm, we hope
our annual seed budget will decrease from here on out. We have our first consciously
planned seed saving projects underway for fizz kale, Siberian Kale, sugar beets,
perfection bulbing fennel, danvers carrots, and riverside onions. Additionally, the
substantial garlic crop we saved in November and December included seed garlic (Czech
broadleaf soft neck and duganski hardneck) that we grew from the previous year. We will
grow our garlic supply year-over-year and will soon be completely self-sufficient in this
department.
The next point of excitement is that Mano Farm landowner Kim Ainsworth has invested
in 28 edible fruit and nut trees for our farm. We had envisioned an edible food forest back
when we designed our circle garden, consciously saving space for that hopeful
eventuality. Over the past week, we have been turning that vision into tangible action,
sporadically planting trees in the western portion of our field. Of course, the fruits of our
labor will be belated: sometimes we get lucky and get some fruit the first season trees are
planted, more frequent is a second season crop, but most fruit trees typically take three
years to produce a substantial crop. However once they do, fruits in your CSA share on a
regular basis. To whet your whistle we’ve added the list of tree varieties to the seed list
that follows this newsletter.
This looks to be our last week of savoy cabbage. It was nice to anchor a good portion of
north field with the elegant savoy, as there is no better vegetable than winter cabbage. We
have red drumhead cabbages in the ground, inching along toward a late winter arrival.
You may or may not be happy that this week also concludes our winter rutabaga harvest;
replacing them is the similar, but perhaps more adaptable purple-top turnip. The
electrifyingly frilly purple vegetable in your share is red chiordi kale, most frequently
seen lining the commercial vegetable displays in grocery stores. We picked up seed for
this plant during a visit to the Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove, Oregon last
summer, and were intrigued to find that the company listed this variety of kale in the
vegetable (rather than ornamental) section of their catalog, writing, “Almost too pretty to
eat, but we urge you to indulge!” I finally did just that in this past week, and find red
chiordi’s flavor on par with its vibrancy. Hope you feel the same way. Chop it up and use
it like you would any cabbage or kale.
-Quin
P.S. A number of you have responded positively to our suggestion of sending out the
newsletters via email, and one of you suggested we send them out earlier than Sunday
We have decided to start adopting both practices on a regular basis, but will keep printing
a limited run of newsletters for folks who prefer to read the paper copies. (I’m going to
keep dating the newsletters to the day of the CSA pick itself.) Also remember, we archive
all our previous newsletters on our web site: www.manofarm.org.
 Mano Farm’s Fruit Tree and Seed
Order, January 2011
Apples Peaches Asian Pears Almonds
pears
Honey crisp: Suncrest: 3 Hosui: 2 Comice: 1 All in one: 2
2

Pink lady: 2 Strawberry free: Shinseiki: 2

4

Anna: 2 Red baron: 3 20th Century: 1

Granny smith:
2

Calville blanc:
2

High Mowing organic seeds

Total
SKU Product Price Quantity

Sweet Thai Basil

5031C Options: Unit Size: 1/2 OZ $10.40 1 $10.40

Florence Fennel
2480C Options: Unit Size: 1 OZ $16.80 1 $16.80

Purple Dark Opal

5020C Options: Unit Size: 1/2 OZ $10.40 1 $10.40

Early Wonder Tall Top Beet

2290L001 Options: Unit Size: 1 LB $17.50 1 $17.50

Ruby/Rhubarb Red Chard

2360D Options: Unit Size: 1/4 LB $12.00 1 $12.00

Fordhook Giant Chard

2343D Options: Unit Size: 1/4 LB $7.50 1 $7.50

2863D Purple Plum Radish $17.00 1 $17.00

 Options: Unit Size: 4 OZ

Lemon Cucumber
2430C Options: Unit Size: 1 OZ $5.25 1 $5.25

Delicata Squash
2950C Options: Unit Size: 2 OZ $11.75 1 $11.75

Purple Top Globe Turnip

3185L001 Options: Unit Size: 1 LB $8.50 1 $8.50

Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach

2880C Options: Unit Size: 1/4 LB $10.80 1 $10.80

Parris Island Lettuce

2596E Options: Unit Size: 1/2 LB $18.00 1 $18.00

Red Oakleaf Lettuce

2598D Options: Unit Size: 2 OZ $12.60 1 $12.60

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

2550E Options: Unit Size: 1/2 LB $19.50 1 $19.50

Golden California Wonder Pepper

2776B Options: Unit Size: 1/16 OZ $9.30 1 $9.30

Jupiter Pepper
2774B Options: Unit Size: 1/16 OZ $7.75 1 $7.75

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley

5110E Options: Unit Size: 1/2 LB $18.90 1 $18.90

Corno di Toro Pepper

2778B Options: Unit Size: 1/16 OZ $7.75 1 $7.75

Ancho Poblano Pepper

2782B Options: Unit Size: 1/16 OZ $7.75 1 $7.75

Ring-O-Fire Pepper
2786A Options: Unit Size: 1/64 OZ $2.75 1 $2.75

Black Beauty Eggplant

2470C Options: Unit Size: 1/4 OZ $7.90 1 $7.90

Purple Tomatillo
3182B Options: Unit Size: 1/2 GM $5.50 1 $5.50

Gilbertie Paste Tomato

3040B Options: Unit Size: 1/2 GM $5.50 1 $5.50

Crimson Sweet Watermelon

3205C Options: Unit Size: 1 OZ $8.50 1 $8.50
 Yellow Moon & Stars Watermelon
3202C Options: Unit Size: 1OZ $14.50 1 $14.50

Rocky Ford Melon

2665C Options: Unit Size: 1 OZ $8.00 1 $8.00

Ein Dor Melon

2651B Options: Unit Size: 1/4 OZ $8.00 1 $8.00

Midnight Lightning Zuchinni

2907C Options: Unit Size: 250 Seeds $12.00 1 $12.00

Yellow Crookneck Squash

2910C Options: Unit Size: 2 OZ $9.00 1 $9.00

Benning's Green Tint Squash

2912B Options: Unit Size: 1/2OZ $6.70 1 $6.70

King Richard Leek

2699C Options: Unit Size: 1/2 OZ $9.50 1 $9.50

Golden Purslane
1945B Options: Unit Size: 1/8 OZ $6.00 1 $6.00

Danvers 126 Carrot

2330L001 Options: Unit Size: 1 LB $37.90 1 $37.90

Champion Collards
2552C Options: Unit Size: 1/2 OZ $13.00 1 $13.00

Johnny’s organic seeds:

Product Product Quantity Price Discount Ext. Price
ID:
2581.54 Cabernet (F1)-5,000 Seeds 1 $17.00 $17.00
Vegetables > Onions > Hard Storage
911G.26 Genovese (OG)-1 Ounce 1 $6.25 $6.25
Herbs > Basil > Pesto
2944G.53 Royal Burgundy (OG)-1,000 Seeds 1 $5.75 $5.75
Vegetables > Beans > Beans, Bush > Purple,
Round Pod
2912G.30 Bull's Blood (OG)-1/4 Pound 1 $14.55 $14.55
Vegetables > Micro Mix
374G.26 Osaka Purple (OG)-1 Ounce 1 $8.40 $5.40 $3.00
Vegetables > Greens > Mustard > Red
2667G.30 Ho Mi Z (OG)-1/4 Pound 1 $17.60 $12.60 $5.00
Vegetables > Greens > Mustard > Red
2530.26 Scarlet Frills-1 Ounce 1 $7.75 $7.75
Vegetables > Greens > Mustard > Red
336G.53 Marketmore 76 (OG)-1,000 Seeds 1 $4.60 $4.60
Vegetables > Cucumbers > American Slicing
592G.30 New England Pie (OG)-1/4 Pound 1 $10.40 $10.40
Vegetables > Pumpkins > Small (Pie)
2867.26 Metro PMR (F1)-1 Ounce 1 $12.10 $12.10
 Vegetables > Squash > Winter > Butternut
2416.30 Buttercup (Burgess Strain) (OG)-1/4 Pound 1 $12.35 $12.35
Vegetables > Squash > Winter > Buttercup
431G.30 Red Sails (OG)-1/4 Pound 1 $25.55 $25.55
Vegetables > Lettuce > Leaf > Redleaf
2201.52 Orient Charm (F1)-500 Seeds 1 $11.50 $11.50
Vegetables > Eggplant > Light Purple/Pink
773.10 Goldie (OG)-Mini 1 $2.95 $2.95
Vegetables > Tomatoes > Husk
Cherry/Strawberry
770.50 Sun Gold (F1)-100 Seeds 1 $7.25 $7.25
Vegetables > Tomatoes > Cherry > Yellow and
Orange Cherry
2306.23 Honey Pearl (F1)-1/8 Ounce 1 $13.50 $13.50
Vegetables > Melons > Honeydew
2120G.51 Imperial Star (OG)-250 Seeds 1 $18.95 $18.95
Vegetables > Artichoke, Globe
1462.52 Moulin Rouge (F1)-500 Seeds 1 $16.80 $16.80
Flower Seeds > Sunflower > Tall
1574.23 Apricot/Peach Mix-1/8 Ounce 1 $8.15 $8.15
Flower Seeds > Strawflower
1744.51 Strawberry Blonde (F1)-250 Seeds 1 $8.95 $8.95
Flower Seeds > Sunflower > Tall
1310.51 Giant Sungold-250 Seeds 1 $8.50 $8.50
Flower Seeds > Sunflower > Tall