SlowFood Victory Garden Crate
Learn more and order at www.fruitguys.com/slowfood.

The FruitGuys have partnered with Slow Food San Francisco in a fundraising project to benefit the Schoolyard Gardens project.

What Do I Get?
Each monthly box features:
• Locally sourced artisan food items
• Fresh, ready to use heirloom and Ark of Taste fruits and/or veggies
• Materials for a fun and easy project you can do yourself
• Recipes and instructions

The July Victory Garden Crate includes:
• Heirloom Tomatoes, Avocados, Corn on the Cob, Onions and Jalapenos – everything you need to make your own salsa! Or if you prefer a sweeter version, add in the Peaches and Nectarines found in the crate as well.
• Specialty Vinegar from Chaparral Gardens.
• Fresh cabbage, a delicious sauerkraut recipe and a jar to make your own!

How does it work?
From July through October, a new delivery is made on the last Wednesday of each month.
Order one time for $59 or the entire Slow Food series for $236.
Available for delivery in the West Coast.

Who benefits from this fundraiser?
Your purchase of the Slow Food Victory Garden Crate generates a $20 donation to Slow Food San Francisco and their programs, including public school gardens.

Order now at www.fruitguys.com/slowfood.

Questions?
Call us at 877-FRUIT-ME (877-378-4863) or email info@fruitguys.com.

West Coast customers, get a box of 25 refreshing Black Amber Plums from our crop farmed in Exeter, California. They have a smooth, crème colored inner flesh and tart purple skin. Put them in your refrigerator and pull one out for a cool and light-sorbet like treat on a hot summer day, or try one of the included Plum recipes.

Order now!

We’re dedicated to small family farms, the stewardship of land through use of organic farming methods, helping farmers fund a season so that they weren’t betting their business to the bank each year and having farmers share in the financial fruits of their labor.

This unique box includes a selection of very special heirloom and Ark of Taste produce, locally-sourced artisan food items, and an easy “do it yourself” kitchen project kit.

June’s box features honey from Torrey Olson’s Gabriel Farm. made by the busy bees installed by The FruitGuys Farm Steward program last year. For each $59 crate, $20 goes directly to Slow Food San Francisco to help fund their programs, including the School Gardens Project.

A new Victory Garden Crate will be available each month from June through October. Order now, quanitites are limited!

Get more information and order at www.fruitguys.com/slowfood.

To the casual rider, city streets may seem intimidating, but thanks to membership-fueled bicycle advocacy groups, biking is gaining in popularity as a healthy way to get around everyday. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia works to “Make bicycling better through advocacy and education by promoting biking as a healthy, low-cost, and environmentally-friendly form of transportation and recreation.”  Groups such as this one encourage people to bike regularly and participate in non-competitive events such as Bike Freedom Valley, a ride along the Schuylkill River Trail, coming up on June 20, 2010.  (Learn more about this ride and take $5 off of the registration fee through our EVENTS page.)

Recently, I had a number of conversations with fellow FruitGuys and friends about the important role that exercise and a healthy diet, including plenty of fruits and veggies, plays in making us feel more energized, productive, and balanced.  Amanda, one of The FruitGuys esteemed customer service representatives and master multi-tasker, prefers to get her exercise through walking, preferably in a city where she says “you see a lot of things you might otherwise miss, and when you are done exercising you’ve reached your destination.”

Walking, like many other forms of exercise, such as running, biking, or yoga, can be done independently or as a fun way to get to know your region or even fundraise for an organization you support.  For example, every April you can participate in events like the Stroehmann Bakeries Walk Against Hunger & 5K Run which supports those in need through Philabundance, a non-profit that provides food and resources throughout the Delaware Valley.

With summer approaching, there are countless events across the country that you can participate in—train for a competitive race or opt for a non-competitive event and reap the rewards of taking good care of yourself and your community.  Check our events page regularly to find one near you.  Happy riding, running, or walking to you!

- Bridget Meigs

If you do not live in Philly, do not despair, you can join a “crop mob” and become involved with a farming community near you. What, you may ask, is a crop mob? According to cropmob.org, “a crop mob is primarily a group of young, landless and wanna-be farmers who come together to build and empower communities by working side by side. Crop mob is also a group of experienced farmers and gardeners willing to share their knowledge with their peers and the next generation of agrarians.” Projects range from picking rocks from a field or turning vegetable beds in the spring time, to harvesting and sorting produce in the fall. Back in April of this year, Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming and the Full Plate Farm Collective in Ithaca, NY organized 35 volunteers to help farmers Melissa Madden and Garrett Miller plant 125 apple trees at their farm The Good Life Farm in Interlaken, NY. You can join a crop mob in your area by searching here.

Crop mobs and organizations like Groundswell and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society are actively working towards the goals of building community and inviting individuals to participate in and understand the work behind the colorful bounty that farmers seem to magically produce each year. There is a place for you in this community!

I’ll meet you on the farm.

- Bridget Meigs

Read more about our donation of owl boxes to Kauffman’s and E&M Farm here.

The Hungry Owl Project’s mission is to “reduce the need for harmful pesticides & rodenticides by encouraging natural predators, through conservation of habitat, erecting nest boxes when appropriate, through research & education, and by providing a resource of help and information on alternative methods of sustainable pest management.” The San Anselmo, CA-based nonprofit organization is a program of Wildcare and provides owl boxes and education regarding natural owl-based rodent control. I spoke with Alex last week to deepen our understanding of the magnificent Barn Owls we are getting to know through The FruitGuys GoodWorks owl box projects in California and Pennsylvania.

Alex said that providing nesting habitat, like the owl boxes we installed at E&M Farm and Kauffman’s Farm, can attract owls to the area and contribute to a decrease in rodents, like meadow voles and gophers, that could damage crops.

Barn Owls are non-territorial, so an area’s owl population is limited only by how many rodents are in the area, and by how much nesting habitat – an owl box, a cavity in a tree or access to shelter in a building – is available.  Alex suggests that farmers or vintners who want to attract owls to help control rodent populations can start by putting up 6 owl boxes on 50 acres of land.  If the rodent population is large enough to support them, the owls will move in and get to work immediately.

And when I say get to work…  I mean get to work!  Barn Owls are incredibly effective hunters with a very high metabolism and can consume 1 to 6 rodents per night or 1 large gopher.  “Forty-eight Barn Owls eat the equivalent of 1.3 tons of gophers per year,” Alex told me. Now, that’s some serious hunting!  Alex cautioned that owls are not the sole solution to problematic pests, and that to rid an area of rodents, especially in an urban setting, trapping and exclusion tactics (repairing holes and cracks that provide rodents access to a house or barn) are necessary.  Rodent poisons should never be used when employing owls as a means of rodent control; they can sicken or kill the owls.

To learn more about owls Alex suggests a visit to www.owlpages.com. Stay tuned for more updates and photos from our owl box cams.

- Bridget Meigs

Look who’s on candid owl camera!

Picture of Northern Barn Owl taken this week on The FruitGuys Owl Cam at Kauffman’s Fruit Farm in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. Read more about our owl box installations here.

“Go native.” That was the position taken at a recent Bee Symposium in Sebastopol, CA hosted by BeeKind and The Partners for Sustainable Pollination. The symposium hall was filled to capacity with beekeepers and wanna-bees. Lectures by apiary luminaries Dr. Robbin Thorp, Randy Oliver, Serge Labesque, and Kathy Kellison covered current scientific and anecdotal info on honeybee health and management and the importance of bee habitat.

Dr. Thorp from UC Davis gave an extensive survey of the native bees in our midst. The U.S. is home to some 4,000 species nationwide, but the numbers vary by region. New York is home to about 400 species while California’s diversified climate hosts some 1,600. Of course the non-native European Honeybees are our favorite pollinators – they give us wonderful honey, and they are so, well, organized. Honeybees pollinate 70 percent of our food crops but disease has threatened their numbers so greater attention is now being given to native, non-domesticated bees such as the Bumblebee, Carpenter, Sweat, and Mason Bee, which are also important pollinators. Native bees are primarily solitary; only about 10 percent gather in hives. Some are cuckoos (stealing other insects’ nests) but most nest in old wood or in the ground.

The dark specter of Colony Collapse Disorder still hovers. The exact cause of the mysterious deaths of huge numbers of hives in the last five years has yet to be divined, but many beekeepers, including Randy Oliver of Grass Valley, CA, who has pioneered non-chemical treatment of bee diseases, agree that, along with toxic and viral loads on their immune system, a loss of forage is contributing to bees’ decline. Forage is food: the pollen and nectar bees find in fields, gardens, forests, and wild areas. Bees turn pollen into protein they eat; nectar into honey. The loss of forage is due to a combination of human development that removes natural habitat, landscaping devoid of diverse flowering plants, and the use of broad-based herbicides that kill all weeds.

Gardeners can encourage forage and habitat for honey and native bees this spring:

Plant native plants. Visit your local native plant nursery or check the Pollinator Partnership’s guide for a regional selection of suggested plants.

To encourage wildlife and a variety of pollinators, leave out some old wood or install a Mason Bee nesting box.

Leave open ground. Gardeners know the importance of mulching plants to conserve water and suppress weeds; it also benefits native bees to leave some open ground.

If you are not a gardener, you can still help bees by doing the following:

Save swarms: don’t call an exterminator, call a beekeeper.

Support organic farming and agriculture that doesn’t use herbicides.

Support local beekeepers by buying local honey and hive products.

Observe nature. Appreciate. Repeat.

- Heidi Lewis

On March 18, The FruitGuys installed an owl box at Kauffman’s Fruit Farm in Bird-in-Hand, PA. This completed our first East Coast Farm Steward project.

The Farm Steward program helps farms solve pest problems via sustainable methods. A team, including the organic orchard’s manager, Ken Kauffman, farm maintenance team Ken and Steve Weaver, and East and West coast FruitGuys Bridget, Karla, Jessica, and Sean installed the owl box, pictured here, which should encourage nesting, and consequently, decrease the presence of meadow voles. Daniel Mummert, the Southeast Wildlife Diversity Biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, also joined the group and shared some fascinating information about these incredible owls and the crucial role they can play in pest control at the Kauffman’s farm.  We also set up an “owl cam” to monitor the hunting skills of a pair of barn owls that currently reside in a nearby barn.

On the west coast, four owl boxes were installed on March 21 to attract Barn Owls at E & M Farm in Vernalis, CA. A crew including farmers Ed and Melissa Magee, their two children, two FruitGuys customers, and FruitGuys Karla and Desiree hoisted four owl boxes high thanks to Ed’s engineering skills and the crew’s strength and enthusiasm.  We are looking forward to learning more about owls in the area and will let you know when a pair takes up residence at the farm. Sign up for The FruitGuys News and watch our Field Trip section to learn about upcoming projects that you can participate in!

We will update our site with images of the owls at Kauffman’s Fruit Farm as soon as they fly by the motion-detecting camera placed outside of their barn.  Check back soon to see the fun and informative videos we filmed on both coasts that demonstrate 2 different ways to install owl boxes.

For more information on owls as natural predators, check out the Hungry Owl Project and for an example of an owl cam in action, check out Molly, an owl in San Marcos, CA, who is already an online star.

- Bridget Meigs bridget@fruitguys.com