Letters From Andy

Hello Everybody: The harvest season is in full swing now. This coming Saturday, September 6th, we will be popping up on Ross Road in Palo Alto, just off the Oregon Expressway, from 9 to 11 am. A big “Thanks!” to Crystal & Susan for all their support over the years. We will be bringing Dry-farmed Early Girls, San Marzanos, Heirlooms, Piennolo, Cherry Tomatoes, flowers, basils, dried herbs, decorative & ornamental squash and gourds, plus a whole lot more. As always, cash is appreciated, but we accept Venmo & PayPal as well. We will be joined by our friends from Farm Cat Marmalade as well, with their fruit preserves. Swing by and visit us; it’s a very pleasant scene. If you already know what you want to get just drop us an email to mariquitachef@gmail.com and we’ll confirm, but we’re not taking payment in advance at this time. That could change, but right now we’re taking the harvest one day at a time. It’s always tricky making promises deep into the future, but this year, besides the weather to take into account we don’t have as much help in the field as we have in the past.

 

 

Looking deeper into the crystal ball I see that on Saturday, September 14th, we’ll be in Santa Cruz, at the Pumpkin House on California Street, just off of Mission Street, from 9-11. Thank you, Jon & Susie!

Saturday, September 20th, will find our mobile farmstand in West Berkeley on 9th Street at Willow’s House between Virgina and Cedar Streets, from 9-11. Thanks, Willow.

On Saturday September 27th, we plan to be in San Francisco’s Dogpatch, from 9-12.  On Sunday, October 5th, we’ll be back in Palo Alto. On Saturday, October 11th, it’s back to Berkeley and on Sunday, October 11th, we’ll be in our own home city of Corralitos.

Past these dates I don’t want to tempt fate by offending the weather gods with my hubris. People ask me, “How long will the tomato season last?” Truly, if I could honestly and correctly answer that question my talents would be better employed at a weather bureau. Generally speaking, September is a great month for tomatoes and October can be great but it’s hard to predict how the season will progress. It’s worth noting that we produce a lot more than tomatoes and when we can do a pop-up that showcases our other crops and products we look forward to doing so. Also, as our sacramental marigold crop comes into focus we will announce a series of U-Pick Marigold events. Keep an eye on the newsletter for announcements as all dates are tentative by nature. (That’s a pun, LOL, because Mother Nature ALWAYS calls the shots.)Thanks, Starr & Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello Friends: Drop by the Sesame Tiny Bakery in Berkeley tomorrow, Sunday, August 24th from 11 to 2 and visit us and the other vendors. We’re in the fields picking right now and the crop looks good. Dry-Farmed Early Girls will be $50 for a 20# case, and we will have some pint baskets available for $4pint basket or 3 for $10. Cherry tomatoes and/or Piennolo tomatoes will be $4/pint basket or 3 baskets for $10 as well and whole flats for $36/case. San Marzano Tomatoes will be $60/20 lb case. We will also bring herbs, flowers, and other goodies from the earth. As always, cash works best, but we do Venmo & Paypal too.

Next weekend, Saturday, August 30th, we will be in Los Gatos on Izorah Way from 11 am to 1pm. Izorah Way is a short, quiet, residential street. You won’t be able to miss us. We’ll be the only ones out on the sidewalk hustling tomatoes, basil, flowers, peppers, herbs, and lavender products. You could probably just close your eyes and sniff us down!

On Sunday, August 31st, we will be popping up in front of Piccino Restaurant in San Francisco, 1001 Minnesota Street, down in The Dogpatch.

As the season progresses we will schedule pop-up events in Palo Alto, and West Berkeley. We look forward to seeing you. As our sacramental marigold crop comes into focus we will announce a series of U-Pick Marigold events. Thanks, Starr & Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello Tomato Lovers, flower people and friends we haven’t met yet: You’re invited to our first 2025 season pop-up sales events. We’re in Corralitos this weekend at the Jet & Rose Boutique from 11 am until we run out of tomatoes and flowers. Dry-Farmed Early Girls will be $50 for a 20# case, or for $3/pint basket. Cherry tomatoes will be $4/pint basket or 3 baskets for $10. San Marzano Tomatoes will be $60/20 lb case. We will also bring herbs, flowers, and other goodies from the earth.

Our second pop-up will be at The Sesame Tiny Bakery on August 24th from 11am to 2 pm. The Bakery calls itself “A pocket sized bakery down a secret alley at 2533 Seventh Street in Berkeley.” Who doesn’t love being “in” on a secret? I’m looking forward to their pastries too. We will also be sharing this event with our friend, Chef Carlo of @linger___longer . It’s fun to be back in Berkeley and fun to work with Carlo again. He and I have worked together for many years in Santa Cruz, SF, and the East Bay! Thanks, Carlo, for being such a long time supporter of our farm, and thanks Sesame Tiny Bakery for inviting us to join you and your supporters.

As the season progresses we plan on scheduling pop-up events in Los Gatos, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and West Berkeley. We look forward to seeing you. As our sacramental marigold crop comes into focus we will announce a series of U-Pick Marigold events. Thanks, Starr & Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Friends: San Marzano, or “Saint Marcian” to English speakers, achieved notoriety within the Roman Empire as the first Bishop of Tortona. The historical record is blurry but Marzano was either crucified by Emperor Trajan in 117 AD or by Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, a few years later in 120 AD. Christian martyrdom earned Marzano his saintly status within the Roman Catholic Church but he achieved a wider immortality in the world of food. Tortona is near Genoa in the north of Italy. Genoa, of course, is famous in its own right because of their “Genovese” basil, said by some to be the ONLY appropriate basil for perfect pesto. Basil and tomatoes go together like cookies and milk, but the saintly, rmeaty, red, sausage-shaped sauce tomato doesn’t come from Marzano’s Bishopric but from the town of San Marzano sul Sarno in Campania, near Mt Vesuvius, in Southern Italy.Even if you’ve never tasted a ripe San Marzano tomato, you’ve likely seen an iconic image of the long, cylindrical tomato on the cans of imported tomato sauce stacked high in Italian delicatessens.

Marzano could never have tasted his namesake tomato because Italians had to wait another 1400 years after his death for the Spanish Catholics to invade Mexico in 1519 AD and encounter all the miraculous crops that the native American farmers had developed. Even more time elapsed for these “New World” crops like tomatoes, peppers, cacao, corn, squash and beans to make their way back to Europe. Initially these “new” crops were regarded with suspicion; since none of them were mentioned in the Holy Bible it was feared that they were Satanic. It fell to any number of nameless Italian gardeners and cooks who weren’t overly concerned with the Theology of botany to convert these imported pagan crops into “Italian” food.

Poor Marzano couldn’t have tasted authentic Genovese basil pesto either, because the basil plant was developed by SouthEast Asian farmers. Muslim spice traders would have been responsible for introducing basil into the Mediterranean and European cultures. The best pesto is an emulsion of basil leaves, lemon juice, olive oil, and pine nuts. Arab Muslims are responsible for introducing the lemon to Italy too. At least Italians can take credit for the pine nuts in their pesto which come from the native Italian Stone Pine, Pinus pinea. When we start our tomato pop-ups in August we will have a rainbow of basils on the table along with San Marzano tomatoes.

We will also have Piennolo tomatoes for sale. Piennolo tomatoes came to fame from the region around Mt. Vesuvius in Southern Italy, near Naples. Where the San Marzano tomato is big, long, and meaty, the Piennolo is small and a bit more acidic, with a more concentrated flavor. Piennolo tomatoes have gained fame because they will last a long time after harvest without spoiling. It became traditional for Neopolitan gardeners to hang the season’s last Piennolo plants from the rafters of their kitchens as winter approached, the wilting plants still laden with clusters of small, firm, green, pointed fruits. As the Piennolo’s foliage slowly dried the green, hard fruits would gradually ripen in the warmth of the kitchens so that the cooks could reach up overhead and pluck a few ripe, red tomatoes from the withered vines to flavor a salad or a sauce.

This appealing narrative of ripe tomatoes for a hearty meal on a frosty night is fun and factual but it partly obscures the truth that Piennolo tomatoes are great all season long; you don’t have to wait until the late fall to enjoy them. Piennolos are a lovely tomato for eating fresh, for saucing, and for drying. We like to cut them in half, dehydrate them and then pack them tight in little jars that we fill with olive oil. Not only do the tomatoes taste great, the olive oil that has been steeped in the tomatoes is a revelation. Naples, where Piennolos found their fame, is also the home of “Napolitano Basil,” a very large-leaved, sweet basil that is excellent for salads, garnish, and for wrapping up little bites of food a la grape leaves or fig leaves. Also- don’t sue me- Napolitano basil is appreciated by some people as a good pesto basil.

Principe Borghese tomatoes are easy to confuse with Piennolo tomatoes because they are similar in size and shape to their Neopolitan cousins but we grow them anyway. I’m confused too because, while the Principe Borghese tomato became widely produced in Southern Italy in the early 1900s for the sun-dried tomato industry, the name refers to the famous Borghese clan from the Siena region north of Rome. The Borghese family is famous for creating politicians and popes, not tomato growers. We find that sun-drying any kind of tomato is almost impossible because our regular night time marine fog rehydrates the fruit that our midday sun just dehydrated. But with an electric dehydrator in our kitchen we can make lots of “sun-dried” tomatoes. If I had to make a distinction between the Principe Borghese and Piennolo tomatoes I’d say that the Borgheses are typically a bit juicier than the Piennolo, a bit more pointed at the tip, and that their harvest starts a bit earlier.And, speaking of “early,” we will again be harvesting our dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes. I saw the first color in our 2025 Early Girl crop today, which is what prompts today’s note to you. The plants look healthy and loaded with fruit. Dry-farm practices assure a rich flavor. It works like this:

1.Transplant sturdy little tomato plants into moist soil in early spring. For us, that means a transplant date of around April 15th, when we no longer fear frost.

2. As the fields dry out from winter rains and the moisture levels retreat into the earth the tomato plant’s roots will follow the water down into the mineral zone below the topsoil.

3. The top soil may be the richest zone for the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, or the “NPK,” which are responsible for helping plants become big, green, and fluffy, the trace elements and micronutrients  found in the mineral subsoil are most helpful in giving flowers their color or fruits their flavor. True, dry-farmed plants grow more slowly and the fruit is typically smaller, but they make up for it by having a richer, more complex flavor. We also dry-farm our San Marzano, Piennolo, and Principe Borghese tomatoes. We have found that dry-farming also acts to reduce disease pressure and to reduce the power bills that come from running the irrigation pumps.

We do occasionally irrigate some of our Heirloom tomato varieties, as they might have been developed in places that receive summer rains. Our 2025 crop of Heirlooms looks good at this point- a little late, perhaps, but still on track. As usual, the Purple Cherokee tomatoes will come first, followed by the red, yellow, and pink Brandywines, the Marvel Stripes, the orange Valencias, and the green Aunt Ruby’s German tomatoes.

Last, and smallest, but not least, we have a rainbow of cherry tomatoes coming your way, from the popular Sungold and Sweet 100s all the way through black, purple, and yellow varieties to the tiny, pea-sized wild cherry toms. It’s going to be a good year. Keep your eye on the newsletter for details of upcoming pop-ups and farm events. 

Also coming up at the pop-ups we will have Basilico Piccolo Fino, Purple Basil, Cinnamon Basil, Greco a Palla Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Oregano, Savory, Sweet Marjoram and Zaatar, or Syrian Marjoram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Friends: We at Mariquita Farm didn’t go anywhere, but we’re back, and we’ve been busy in our “off-season.” The potato crop is in the ground and the first vines are breaking the soil surface to find the sun. Our Otto File polenta corn stalks are already 6 inches tall, the tomatoes and peppers are being transplanted into their beds as I write, and more herbal, floral and vegetable crops are being sown in the greenhouse and fields. The roses are blooming, lavender is budding, bees are buzzing, and the citrus trees are heavy with fruit. We are growing the crops and creating the gardens for you. Here is a brief sketch of the events that we are planning for the year:

World Labyrinth Day:

Join us for a guided walk in our eleven circuit Labyrinthine path through hedges of English, Spanish and French lavender. We’re celebrating World Labyrinth Day, where people around the globe will be participating in a walking meditation for World Peace that rolls through the time zones- “Walk as One at 1”. Sunny or cloudy, the day will be beautiful and the flower power of the thousands of lavender plants will be strong!

 

Our Day includes a walk with farm owners Starr Linden & Andy Griffin through the flower gardens that embrace the Lavender Labyrinth where we will stop to smell the roses. They’ve planted 200 Rose Bushes over the last three years, and some of them will be in full bloom. Learn about the different kinds of roses that exist, from the ancient China roses to the highly scented European heirlooms like the Gallica, Bourbon, and Damascus roses. We have modern Hybrid Tea roses planted out, and hardy Rugosa roses, Wild roses, climbers, miniatures, and even the sprawling heirlooms that are climbing tall pines.

 

Summer Solstice Self Care  Day:

Join us at Mariquita Farm where you can relax and enjoy the countryside.  You can explore the gardens filled with flowers, while looking out at hillsides  covered in citrus and roses. Indulge yourself in  a variety of self-care offerings while celebrating the Summer solstice with us! We will be joined by several event guides and practitioners that will provide you with a taste of their art and profession.

 

Offerings include:

• Facial Massage Session
• Acupuncture Points for Stress
• 15 Minute Channeling Session
• Labyrinth Walk
• Sound Bowl Meditation

 

 

We grow over 200 roses for fun, for the petals which we sell fresh or dried, and for the bees. This is “Mr. Lincoln,” about to bloom.

Lavender U-Picks/ Herb U-Picks TBA: Follow the website and this newsletter for updates. We’ve got many varieties of basil and other herbs in the ground and we will be offering U-Pick opportunities for cooks & crafters.

Pop – Up Sales with our tomatoes, flowers, fruits, herbs, and other vegetables. TBA as the harvests allow.

Besides our public events we do open the farm and host events for groups and individuals; painting clubs, blessing ways, staff parties, and fund-raising dinners and picnics have all been on the calendar. Let us know if you have an event in mind that would benefit from a beautiful, peaceful rural surroundings with an out-door kitchen, a handy labyrinth and a lot of flowers! Starr does flowers for events and weddings too. Let us know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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