Giving Thanks!

Every day is “Turkey Day” at Mariquita Farm….but Thanksgiving only comes once a year. We have resident flocks of wild turkeys that roost in the pines in the forest at the edge of our field. It’s funny to see them hopping from bed to bed as they traverse the hand-dug 11 circuit medieval labyrinth that we’ve created in the middle of the field. When Starr created a farm store by our front gate one of the hens was captured by her reflection in the glass until I chased her off and broke the spell. When the turkey chicks hatch in the spring we see the hens lead long trains of little, fluffy, golf-balls through the grass on their daily hunt for the bugs, seeds, sprouts and greens that make up their daily diet. At first, we might see over twenty chicks trailing behind the hens. Then we’ll see 18, then 15, then 9, or fewer. The woods here are populated with fierce creatures that love to eat turkey every day of the year. Wild turkeys may seem silly and stupid, but somehow they survive the Bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, and foxes as a tribe to raise up another brood of turkeys for the following spring.

Turkey reflecting…

Thanksgiving has been positioned by America’s promotional wizards as “Turkey Day” because gratitude is harder to monetize than dead fowl. I appreciate Thanksgiving because, besides being a moment to gather for a meal with friends and family, it also marks the end of the year’s growing season on the farm and I know that I’ll have a couple of more restful months ahead of me before the merry-go-round speeds up again. We’re almost to Thanksgiving again and I’m thankful that we’ve had a year on the farm with lots of work, but no accidents or unseemly drama. It’s been another weird year’s ride through the Covid pandemic, with uncertainties abounding, but thanks to your support we’ve made it through the season, and we’ve got a fall harvest basket full of wonder to share with you for your Thanksgiving meal. We wish you a peaceful Thanksgiving.

Here’s our schedule:

Following Thanksgiving we will step away from our regular delivery schedule but we will do some December pop-ups as we approach the winter holidays. Here’s our tentative schedule for December.

Saturday, December 10, 2022 in Palo Alto
Thursday, December 15, 2022 in Berkeley
Saturday, December 17, 2022 at Piccino Restaurant in SF.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 in Santa Cruz County and Los Gatos

Turkeys roosting…

The holidays are here and we hope that you will consider sharing our gift boxes of dried herbs and herbal infusions, heirloom beans and jarred beets, curried cauliflower, tomato juice, crushed tomatoes and marmalades with your friends and and family. We ship or we will drop off at a pickup location. We also have lots of lavender, rose petals and lavender florets to share before the year is over.

Thanks for support this year!

Your friends at Mariquita Farm!
Andy, Starr, Shelley, Kelly, Gayle, Gildardo, Rebeca, Fidel and Federico, Hose, Abisai, Claudia, Neftali, Ramone and Maria