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By Kimberly Wright
July 12, 2003 at High Ground Organics, Watsonville
We had the good fortune to gain permission to hold our celebration of the strawberry at High Ground Organics, a small family farm in Watsonville. To quote from their website, "In 2000, Steve Pedersen and Jeanne Byrne bought the old Cardoza Ranch from the Open Space Alliance, who had acquired the property the year before in order to protect it from development and erosion. The 40-acre farm sits atop a hill bordering Harkins Slough. While far from pristine, the ranch provides habitat for many birds, including several types of raptors, waterfowl, songbirds, owls, and swallows. Several endangered or threatened species of plants also live here.
"The Open Space Alliance wanted to preserve both the native habitat and the rapidly diminishing Pajaro Valley farmland. They did this with two easements they placed on the deed of the property. Half of the acreage is preserved forever for organic agriculture under one easement, and another easement maintains the rest for wildlife and native plant restoration. We are currently working with the Resource Conservation District on plans to eradicate invasive weeds and plant willows and other native plants on the nonfarmed portion."
It was an unusually lovely day for this time of year, with clear skies (no fog!) and a light breeze off the nearby Bay. Several volunteers arrived early to help set up, including Roxanne and Ed Craddock, Linda Arnold and Ned Hearn, and Cathy Henderson. Many thanks! Once all had assembled at the Farm, we began with a tour, led by Steve, to whet our appetites for the feast to follow.
Steve showed us lush fields of strawberries and summer and winter squashes, areas planted to cover crops, owl houses (used for rodent control), native hedgerows for attracting beneficial insects, and pointed out some of the areas devoted to habitat. There are other crops grown on the farm, but we didn't walk the entire 20 acres under cultivation. Our wine glasses were empty, and dinner called!
This was a strawberry-themed dinner, and we began with strawberry gazpacho, made by Roxanne Craddock from a recipe graciously given to us by David Kinch of Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos. Manresa State Beach is just a few miles up the coast from High Ground. Roxanne is a member of the Two Small Farms CSA; one of the farms is High Ground, the other Mariquita. All of the ingredients for the gazpacho came from her CSA box.
All produce for the event came from the farm. We followed the gazpacho with a salad of spinach dressed with strawberry vinegar and almond oil, and topped with strawberries, Fred's homemade goat feta cheese, and roasted almonds. Our entree was grilled Pacific halibut, local organic chicken, or marinated tofu with fresh strawberry salsa, with steamed summer squash and multi-colored potatoes. Wines were selected to complement the berries, and the Hahn Estates dry rose was especially popular. Lloyd Martin brought some excellent freshly baked homemade whole wheat bread.
Lloyd came through again with his Strawberry Bounty sweetrolls for dessert. There were also meringue shells with fresh strawberries and rose geranium creme anglaise. As we finished, the sun had gone down and the air was becoming cool, and we were happy and ready to go home. Everyone helped us pack up before leaving, a great generosity.
I think even our hosts (Steve, Jeanne and their daughters Lydia and Amelia) had a good time.