Week 4 of Sabzi!

Salam Hamegi! Read on for news about the farm and thoughts on precious herbs. 

Today I was joined by a mini-van-load of friends who helped me weed the farm and enjoy the beautiful hills and sun and soil. It's such a blessing to be supported by the people who have come to the farm to help, and also by the people who have supported by buying sabzi and flowers. 

I realized that I haven't shared important information about the timing and ephemerality of this farm project. I will likely stop growing and selling fresh herbs sometime in August. Why? One reason is that usually in August, we get ridiculous and dangerous fires and smoke events almost every year. In an effort to be nice to myself and my dog, I will likely quit visiting the farm if/when that happens. Another reason is that I'm going to slowly shift from being an herb farmer to being a seed farmer. There isn't really a way to buy seeds from Iran easily/legally in the US, so I am responsible for growing my own seed if we want this project to exist in the future. This, coupled with the fact that we had a very wet winter followed by a cold spring, means that this year's fresh sabzi season is very short! So please enjoy sabzi while it's here! Life is short and we don't know how long we have to enjoy sabzi! 

My best guesses for sabzi availability for next week's sabzi mabzi are: 

Dill from Iran (which is now also flowering), green basil from Iran, cilantro flowers from Iran, parsley from Iran, and radishes. 

I'm excited to add parsley into the bunches for the first time this week. Seen in the far right of the above picture, this parsley has been on a long journey to come to you next week. The seeds were given to me by a friend and are from Iran, and I started them on April 8th (13 weeks ago!!) and only now are they at a size where I'm comfortable harvesting just about one leaf per plant. Parsley is just a really slow-growing plant, but this one is delicious! 

Also, I have a few words to say about basil, which is the namesake of our farm. Reyhan from Iran is thick-leafed and lovely to eat. It's more delicately-flavored than most basils, which means it's so nice to bite into fresh and eat raw. I've been munching on leaves out in the field. I can't believe how lucky I am to be a little being in the corner of a field in a great big valley on Coast Miwok land, surrounded by turkey vultures and red-winged blackbirds, taking a moment to sniff and consume leaves that come from seeds that have made the same journey all the way around the world that I made two decades ago to live here. Lucky to have found a home and familiarity with each other so far away from where all of our ancestors are from. And lucky to be teaching each other about who we are. The basil says to me that it's mild and juicy and I can enjoy whole mouthfuls of it, and it loves to be eaten with watermelon or sheep cheese. It says that my people eat abounding platters of fresh herbs with their food and that made them strong enough to survive centuries of beauty and hardship. It says we will survive the hardship we face now as well, if we tenderly take care of one another and teach each other how to flow with changing times. We may call Reyhan "Persian basil" in an attempt to describe it, but Reyhan has a lot more to tell us about who we are and where we come from. 

And lastly, here's a photo of Memo asking very nicely for a bit of taco meat at a farm event last week. 

Thanks for reading! Wishing you health and peace. Be omide didar. 

Love, 

Farmer Sama :)