Greetings!

Did you know we have an experimental flax farm right in Chico? Flax is the plant that makes linen but you can also eat the seeds (Just for fun, we’ll share a recipe for Flax Seed Crackers at the end of the email).

Sandy Weaver and Durl Van Alstyne have created a really exciting project out on the north end of Chico. Their impetus was driven by Sandy’s devotion to weaving beautiful fabrics for our community and beyond. You can keep up with them and this project at their website and facebook page. When life is more normal, they have fun harvest and processing events on the farm that you won’t want to miss.

Check them out via this fun video, then subscribe to our fledgling local news channel on Youtube.

Want to help us start our first Neighborhood composting Center?

Along with all our other projects we have been secretly plotting and planning to fulfill a vision we have for our county: We want to see neighborhood composting centers in EVERY neighborhood that wants them. We hope to open our first one soon at Vecino Victory Garden, our developing Demonstration Permaculture Food Forest. We LOVE how this is all coming together. Intrigued? Email me back and let’s talk.

What’s going on “Local Food” around the county this month?

Our Upcoming Events

October 17- Work Day at the Paradise Community Guilds – come on up to beautiful Paradise Saturday morning and put your hands in the soil. Jennifer, the PCG Garden Maven will have plenty for us to do. Come to the Paradise Community Guilds grounds at 5704 Chapel Dr. from 9 to noon.

October 18- We will be back up at the Paradises Community Guilds grounds for in person and online/zoom workshop called “Sweep Out The Broom and Urban Gardening Workshop.”

Matthew Trumm will lead “Sweep Out the Broom: Weed Abatement Without Roundup.” Jennifer Peterson will lead “Urban Gardening: Grow Your Garden in Small Spaces.” Dan Joseph will lead Workday projects like watering, weeding, and spreading wood chips. Join us for a community-building and educational morning in Paradise–or livestream from the comfort and safety of your home! Find out more and get your free tickets here.

October 27 – Creating Food Independence In Butte County- in this month’s installment of this

series, we want to invite you to meet our Board members and learn about their passion project in the Network. We know once you meet us and hear more, you’ll figure out the project that you feel passionate about and join that team. October 27, 5:30 at Vecino Victory Garden and on Zoom. If you want to join via zoom, email me back and I’ll send the link. Or check out the event page on Facebook to keep updated and invite/share with your friends. In person event will be distanced and COVID safe. (please wear your masks)

Partner Events

From The Ground Up is VERY busy throughout the rest of this month into the next. Check it all out on their Facebook page.

October 19th from 10 am to noon – Kentfield Garden Maintenance
October 24th from 10 am to noon – Kentfield Garden Planting
October 31st – Halloween Party at Toni’s
November 8th from 1 pm to 6 pm – Fire Memorial Gathering at Toni’s. We don’t care which fire, just come be together.

For more information, please pm us. Social distancing protocols in place. Please contact them via their facebook page to find out more.

Other Announcements

Glean those persimmons! (and figs) Coming up, exact day is contingent on when they are ripe and ready. We had some folks sign up to be on the glean team, but could always use more. If you’d like to join this amazing new project, email me back.

Tiny Libaries are being stocked very weekend. Let folks know, find out more and join our Tiny Seed Library team by emailing me back and visiting our website to find their locations.

Thanks to Sherri Scott for her great talk last month. If you missed it and want to learn, we taped it (well…most of it…it starts about 5 minutes into the talk). Enjoy and learn from our font of information on All Things Plants. Watch the video here .

Flax and Chia Seed Crackers

There are different varieties of flax, some better for food sources, others for fabric. Sandy and Durl don’t sell the eating variety but we thought it would be fun to share a quick recipe for flax crackers that are incredibly easy to make in lieu of the VERY expensive ones you can buy in the store.

Pamm’s recipe for Flax crackers:

Soak 1c flax seeds and 1c chia seeds with 2c of water for at least an hour.

Add around a ½ to ¾ cup other seeds- sunflower, pumpkin/pepitas, sprouted/dried watermelon seeds, sesame, etc. if you wantIf you want them savory add herbs, diced onions and/or garlic, any kinds of nuts, savory spices.

If you want them sweet add dried fruits- goji, plum, peach, apricot, date, etc. You could add cinnamon or whatever you want.

Soak them for an hour then spread them on the drying tray. I use parchment paper on my slotted trays instead of silicon as they dry more quickly. Be sure you put them on thickly- like a little over ¼” thick as they dry down lots and if they are too thin, they will just crumble. I often score mine with a knife. They’ll ooze back together mostly but there will be little indentations to break them apart more easily and in a more “organized” fashion.

Put them in the dehydrator for a day or two until they are dry then store them in an airtight container. I generally have the temp around 105 to 110 tops to make sure the enzymes stay intact. I usually make the crackers either neutral or put in some dried fruit bits, then top them with Almond Butter from any of the vendors at our farmers market: Massa, Alvarado, or others. After tasting fresh almond butter, at such good prices, you won’t be able to eat any from any store again. Just sayin’.

Well, that’s all for this issue of our infrequent, yet always informative newsletter! See you on the streets!

Best Regards from the Board- Pamm, Ali, Amy, Jarrett, Donna and Toni

Chico Flax Farm and Sweeping The Broom