The Roots of Art in Arivaca
April 1, 2009
The Desert seems to lure artists. Back in the days before World War II when Arizona’s population was thin, its wide open spaces and lovely vistas beckoned to those who wanted to paint and draw outside all year round. When the War was over, artists began to move here and spread out across Southern Arizona. Of course the lure of the West with its ranches and cowboys was being promoted by Arizona’s tourism industry. Many of the artists of that era were featured in Arizona Highways magazine. Although Tubac is now well known as an artists colony, the Arivaca area and the Altar Valley have always attracted artists, as well.
Aries
April 1, 2009
Thank goodness it’s time to start over. The new zodiacal year is underway. It began on March 20, the first day of spring, the first day of Aries, the sign of the Ram. It’s time to awaken from winter’s sleep and heed the call to adventure. It’s time to get going.
Eating in Season
April 1, 2009
Eating in Season Last week I walked out to the garden to check on the progress of the peas. We have 3 rows of snow peas and two sugar snaps. They are only about eight inches tall and not yet flowering. I am getting anxious. I want to be the first to discover a pea and the first to eat one this season! The familiar bright green leaves and curly tendrils of the pea plants swept me back to harvesting with my sister, Kristin twelve years ago. We had an endless row of beautiful peas ready for harvest the day she came by to visit. Stewart and I had advertised that it was time for “U-Pick” peas with a few flyers around Tubac and Amado then hung a scale from a tree branch in anticipation, but no cars came rolling down our dusty driveway. In a day or so, the peas would be large and starchy. They needed to be harvested that day. When Kristin and I started picking, we hadn’t planned on completing the whole row! But we started giggling and joking and throwing dirt at each other while crawling on our hands and knees, picking and snacking our way down the row. We were using galvanized pails that we filled then dumped into a larger tub and it became a contest to see who could fill their bucket faster. I think we must have picked fifty pounds of peas that day and thus began my first efforts in “preserving the harvest.” I blanched and froze most of those peas and we enjoyed them all year! To be the one to notice and then eat the very first peas, beans, summer squash, etc., earns you bragging rights around here! It reminds me of when I was a kid in Maine bragging about being the first one to take a swim in the lake in late spring. My sisters were soon to follow and we could declare that summer had begun, (despite our shivering bodies and blue lips). To me, snow peas are symbolic of spring at its peak and I like to be the one to announce the arrival of the crop. It isn’t the kind of competitiveness that fosters jealousy; I just want to be the one to share the good news. Crunchy, raw peas with a tasty dip, lightly sautéed peas with butter and a sprinkling of salt, stir-fried peas with rice – YUM! When the first few appear, I struggle to fill a bucket, determined to have them for dinner that night and have enough to divide between our CSA members, but at the first harvest, there is never enough to go around. Then, five days or a week later, there are peas coming out of our eyeballs. The familiar clanging of the legumes hitting the galvanized pails begins and there is plenty to go around. This excitement does wane, however, when two days later, the crop must be harvested again, then again and again. Achy backs and sore hamstrings accompany the buckets to the field and well before pea season has come to a close, I am “over it” and never want to pick another pea in my life, or at least until next April. Eating mostly vegetables that we grow means that we often go without that vegetable when it’s out of season, so we enthusiastically welcome each food back to the table when it arrives. The celebration of the very first tender peas or baby kale or any crop begins right in the field. Squatting down in the garden or the greenhouse to nosh on veggies is a great pleasure of mine. I feel like a grazing animal sampling all the flavors right out of the ground without bothering to wash them first. Today, while snacking in the greenhouse, I marveled at the meaty texture and flavor of the three varieties of kale that we are growing. I changed my mind (again) about which was my favorite. Then I sampled some young sorrel greens that taste surprisingly like citrus! A crunchy white radish, still speckled with soil was a slightly spicy dessert. Lettuce is an example of a crop that is missed terribly during the hot summer when we can’t grow it. Summer seems to call for a cool, crisp salad, but in Southern Arizona, it’s the wrong season. Once and a while we break down and buy a bag of a mix at the grocery store, but we are always disappointed. The leaves lack flavor and have usually started to break down and are slimy before the bag is even open. In the fall, Stewart and I monitor the progress of the lettuce crop, trying to resist harvesting until the leaves are just the right size, then we stir up a dressing and PIG OUT! In the spring, we have a salad with every meal and never tire of it. We know that come about mid May, the greens will turn bitter in the heat and will bolt, or flower. Lettuce is different than most crops in that there is no way to preserve it for the off -season. It doesn’t blanch, freeze or pickle, so when it’s done, it’s truly done! Right now it is “green” season. Lettuce, kale, arugula, spinach, chard, turnip greens, sorrel, Asian greens and beet greens fill the bags of our CSA members and our evening meals. Salads, stir-fry and soup recipes accompany their bags, offering ideas of how to prepare these foods in different ways. By the time “green season” is over, many will be tired of these foods and will be pining for summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and all the other crops of the next season, but that’s how it goes. Eating local means eating “in season”. It means that you celebrate the first harvests, embracing the foods and the memories they bring like old friends visiting. You celebrate them at the kitchen table but are ready to see most of them go and make way for the next harvests when the season changes. Soon, however, you long for that leafy dish and are wracking your brains to find one more way to cook the zucchini you missed through the winter! If you are trying to eat in season and/or local, preserving the harvest can help add variety to your meals on the off-season. For more information, visit the web site for The National Center For Home Food Preservation at: www.uga.edu/nchfp/ Our next Talk & Tour is Saturday, April 4 at 11am. The farm is open to the public Saturdays, 9am-3pm and Sundays 12-3pm. Take I-19 to Exit 42, go south on East Frontage Road
April 2009
April 1, 2009
By Tubac artist, Nicholas Wilson.