Jacques and Hazel Neukom at Neukom Family Farm in Willow Creek.
- Peach orchard at Neukom Family Farm. Jacques learned from one of the oldtimers about the Willow Creek peaches that were famous for their flavor. Jacques and Amy dry farm peaches for a superior flavor — this type of farming doesn’t require watering or tracking the water to make sure you don’t dilute the delicious fruit flavors — they also use this technique to be more sustainable as farmers.
plants around the base of the trees provides a living mulch, bring in beneficial insects, and in the case of sweet peas can also help fix nitrogen.
Asian pears and willow creek peaches
Neukom Family Farm -- organic produce available at local farmers market and recently started a small CSA by selling 50 shares -- those 50 people will receive a box of fresh organic produce each week during the growing season.
Painfully beautiful artichoke -- I've never seen such spines on the flower of an artichoke, but the color is outrageous!
I'm a sucker for chickens -- because this is an organic farm the chickens must be kept from coming in contact with the produce. The chickens had their own large area to roam -- happiness is being a Neukom chicken! Jen, who is working on the farm, is keeping bees -- they live in their hive on the roof of the house since bears are a common problem in this area of Willow Creek.
Just when I was starting to melt...Jacques, Amy, and the rest of the gang invited us to have lunch with them. Jacques explained that they take turns fixing the lunch meal -- one person will take off at 11 a.m. and prepare it -- everyone eats around noon, but then they take off in the afternoon. How long they take off depends on how hot it is, tomatos can cook in the time it takes to get them to the shade. Time for a swim at the river, walking distance away from the farm....still they work 10 hours a day!
Food For Thought Blog 