Cole Canyon Farm: Briefly

A confession: I visited Cole Canyon Farm in May. As is often the case, when I am photographing, my attention is through my eyes, and I can't keep all the verbal information straight. (I could take notes if I put the camera down, but it's a clumsy juggling act. So I go for photos first, thinking that I can get my information later.) But I never wrote about the visit, as work was plentiful (too busy!) and I just let it slip through the cracks. I owe a follow-up visit for vital information to the farm, and hopefully to photograph some of the rooms inside their house, as the colors were just striking and beautiful. Art—pure farmhouse art. I was gobsmacked.

So while this post will be sparse in farming details, hopefully you will get the gist of the farm, and visit them at the Aptos Farmers Market on Saturday morning, or the downtown Santa Cruz farmers market on Wednesdays, where they bring their seedlings and eggs from the dozens and dozens of chickens Cole Canyon Farm raise.

  Their seedlings are coveted for their glistening health and the breadth of variety. Like most Santa Cruz farmers, Steve and Pamela are really tuned in to the culinary scene. They pore over seed catalogs like I used to cereal boxes when I was an adolescent—and they themselves cook.

Their research results not only in growing things that taste good, but that appeal to a broad audience. Being that Santa Cruz is culturally diverse, and into cultural experimentation that is deeply embedded in the kitchen, Steve and Pamela made it their jobs to become versed in the growing and use of the plants they grew. You want a tomato that can produce fruit on your apartment patio in a six-inch pot? Talk to Steve and Pamela.

(Pictured here: sprouts yearning for the sun.)

Recently, at the Aptos farmers market, rising Vietnamese cookbook author Andrea Nguyen brought a gaggle of followers though the market in her appearance in the market's Shop with the Chef series (scroll down to October 14 for recipes). She stopped at Cole Canyon Farm's booth for their wonderful variety of herbs used in Vietnamese recipes. The herbs run the gamut—you've heard of these, but not of those. What would you do with THAT? Steve and Pamela will help you.

And then there are the eggs. Shhhhh, they will sell out in short order. Well, if you're me and can't get to the market before, oh, ten in the morning. (Hush your mouths, I make big eggies and toast breakfast for Logan and his Poppy every morning, and if we get out the door by ten, it's a miracle.)

But just look at that beautiful coop. Skylights! (Three!) Doors, feeders, clean bedding, and all that is so orderly. (No photos of flocks of all those chickens—they were all outside, but inside the chickenwire.)

I would like to fill in some more details. Cole Canyon Farm is worth it. Their eggs are organic, unlike other eggs at local markets. (Check and ask for facts.)

So, Steve and Pamela, this is just a 3x5 card of appreciation for your work. Which is so fine. Read more of their own words here.

See you soon.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “I like that idea of scattering seeds in a city even though few, if any, will germinate. It is an evocative image-seeds dropping on concrete.” — Andy Goldsworthy

Do you know Andy Goldsworthy? The film, Rivers and Tides, was the first thing I saw, months after September 11, that brought me the first degree of deep peace. Go ahead, Google. Better yet, see the film on some kind of big screen, and disappear into the slow movements of nature…and the slow pace of a man‘s hands who can take leaves, snow, ice, rocks, sticks, and more to make

Thanks for visiting.

Comments

[Lydia]

Andy Goldsworthy is a favorite of mine, too. I've been several times to Storm King Art Center to see the wall he built there in the woods, and I absolutely recommend that (and all of the art at Storm King) to anyone within hailing distance of New York. My son-in-law spent a day in the woods behind our house last summer, building his own creations, inspired by watching Rivers and Tides. A lovely reminder of the inherent beauty of nature, as I sit here watching a noreaster move in to Rhode Island on this Thanksgiving Day.