Last Summer's Day At Kiler Canyon Farm

As with my previous visit to Kiler Canyon Farm last month which I covered HERE, I threw the adventure together kind of at the last minute last night by way of once again yelling over the fence into the backyard of the Chase Home next door and asking my lovely neighbors there (children or friends of children of the Chase Clan) if they thought I'd be welcome out at the farm the following Wednesday morning (Wednesday mornings are when the weekly harvest occurs). After receiving an encouraging exhortation from Claire and Noah, I headed out there this morning.

Once again today, the final day of summer, high clouds from the remnants of Hurricane Paine were drifting over the area from the east giving us what traditionally was and is called a "buttermilk" or "mackeral" sky, in today's case caused by altocumulus clouds.

I have come to love these people as an extension of my own ad-hoc, motley crew, adopted family which God has given me in light of my having hardly any remaining biological family of my own. It was nice to catch up with the fam and recharge the batteries before going back into the fray at Cal Poly for one more year starting this Friday. Following doing minimal work on the harvest itself as I was rather late showing up in the 8 a.m. hour, I helped as I could and broke bread with them.

Not wanting to arrive empty-handed and be a mooch, I stopped by a Mexican store (La Reyna) in Paso Robles on the way and picked up two pounds of fresh, local chorizo as a sort of breakfast potluck contribution. The Chases sent me home with a half-bushel basket of veggies. I reciprocated by picking up Quill's turquoise-colored stone order once I got back into town and Dan's ruby request for his child. Thanks, fam, for the food and veggies and fellowship!

The lower Chase House with the upper one being on a nearby ridge.

Hurricane Paine moisture streaming over the area this morning before the weather shift to autumn this evening.

Food and flowers are what this farm feeds.

The Barn exterior

The Barn interior showing filled and stacked and ready to go half-bushel baskets.

North view of the lower Chase House

South view of the lower Chase House.

"Scarlet Pimpernel" tomatoes as taxonomically designated by Dan this very morning for the first time.

Breakfast of champions

Communal-style dining that recalls to my mind eating at Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, CA.

Right after breakfast word quickly ran through the farm of a rattlesnake in the garden that might have bitten a Chase cat. As it turns out, a Chase cat bit a gopher snake doing its darnedest to sound and look like a rattler.

I watched this cow get milked (and sampled said milk) at the potluck here in May, 2015.

Here Pig, Pig, Pig!!!

I LOVE this pizza/bread oven!

After hearing a tree cracking in the copse of oaks to the west of the lower Chase House, I headed off into said copse in hopes of watching something interesting. Instead, I found some interesting mechanical artifacts I was previously unaware were parked on this property.

This week's harvest being loaded up for delivery in Atascadero and Paso Robles, CA.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).