Every year, the Humboldt chapter of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) produces a gorgeous calendar. It is filled with photographs of local farms, farmers, and produce taken by the very talented Chris Wisner. Chris has an unmatched eye for seeing the beauty in food and farming, and produced both images in this post. The calendar raises funds for CAFF's work of supporting and promoting local farmers in and around Humboldt County.
This year's calendar ventures north to Del Norte County and features two of our wonderful organic farms: Ocean Air Farms and Alexandre EcoDairy. Photos of the Paul and Julie Jo, their produce, and the near-iconic images of the Alexandre's pastured poultry grace several pages of the calendar.
Not only does the calendar feature Del Norte farms, it is also being sold in several locations locally (as well as online at CAFF's website linked above). Del Norte Office Supply, Hiouchi Hamlet, Jefferson State Books, Vita Cucina, and Wild Rivers Market are all selling the calendars. Many thanks to them for supporting CAFF and, through CAFF, our local farms and farmers!
The calendars make great gifts for anyone who loves local food and farms. They don't have to live here to appreciate the beauty of our food system. If you've got someone on your list who has everything, a CAFF calendar is a great gift: practical, beautiful, and, at the end of the year, recyclable! (Although, really, who could send these beautiful ladies to the recycling bin?)
We've featured successes from the Crescent Elk Middle School garden before, but this time Joe Gillespie and his students have taken things a step further. They have been providing food to the school kitchens on a regular basis and have been featured in a "Know Your Farmer" spot! It's a great way to close the circle and make an impact:
Each November for many years now has brought National Blog Posting Month, in which hundreds, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of bloggers commit themselves to blog every day for a month. We blogged every day for Lent a few years ago, but Growing Tables has never participated in NaBloPoMo.
Until now.
This month, we will blog every day. It will be fun. For you, at least, I hope.
Probably, you have a calendar you can follow along with as we blog through November, but you might not have a calendar for next year yet. If that's the case, let me recommend that you find yourself a copy of the new 2014 Humboldt CAFF calendars! Each year, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers creates a spectacular calendar of photographs by the great Chris Wisner. Chris has an eye for capturing the beauty of produce and farms and this year's photos are no different.
What is different is that he captured two Del Norte farms for the 2014 photo shoot. Alexandre Eco-Dairy and Ocean Air Farms are both featured in the calendar and CAFF is currently working to find Del Norte outlets to sell the calendar so we can all hang it on our walls. As soon as outlets are confirmed, we'll post it here.
Enjoy November!
