Growing Healthy Families

This year Hidden Villa provided 6,045 pounds of vegetables to our neighbors at the CSA of Mountain View. A serving of vegetables is approximately 4 oz. (depending on the type of vegetable), and we grew 24,190 servings of vegetables exclusively for the clients at CSA of Mountain View.

 The Food and Nutrition Center at the CSA of Mountain View served 2,248 individuals during fiscal year 2015. 100% of the clients served through this program are low-income. 56% of those served are children under the age of 18 and seniors over the age of 65. Some of the clients shared how pleased they were with this partnership:

 “It makes us appreciate more that what we are getting is really organic and that is really rewarding.”

“It’s good to know that there is a Hidden Villa that preserves the natural cycle of food production. Two thumbs up.”

Our biggest challenge this year was facing the California drought and all of the changes in our agricultural production. We installed various water catchment systems and have found ways to slow and sink rainfall into our aquifer. We have already received over 6 inches of rain this winter and are hopeful that we will have a wet season this year in order to prepare us for next year’s growing season.

We are excited to install a new deer fence around our farm operation. Our current deer fence has various holes and has become easier to bypass. This year fruit trees were under particular pressure from deer, decreasing the fruit output we were able to donate to the CSA of Mountain View. This new, more reinforced deer fence will help us to ensure that deer are not able to access the harvest, most likely increasing the fruits we can offer to clients of the CSA of Mountain View.

Our partnership with the Community Services Agency of Mountain View is such a rewarding collaboration and we are so appreciative of your support, helping us make fresh fruits and vegetables more available to folks in our community. Happy 2016!

At 10am last Saturday, a school bus arrived in our CSA parking lot, marking the beginning of our 6th annual Harvest Festival at the farm! The Harvest Festival is a half-day event that we organize to celebrate Hidden Villa's unique relationship with the clients of the Community Services Agency of Mountain View (CSAMV). The Harvest Festival is the Hidden Villa farm crew's annual opportunity to connect directly with 80 CSAMV clients of all ages who share in harvest activities, animal visits, and a community meal in our outdoor kitchen. 

CSAMV is a wraparound social services agency that provides clients living on low incomes with a variety of programs including rent assistance, senior services, a food pantry, cooking and nutrition classes, and prepared meals. With the support of grants and donations, Hidden Villa gives 25% of our annual harvest to CSAMV. The agency in turn is able to distribute the freshest local produce directly to clients, improving their ability to meet their families' nutritional needs on a limited budget.

For many CSAMV families, Saturday was their first visit Hidden Villa and a unique opportunity to meet the farm crew and help harvest food that will come back to the CSAMV pantry. The day began with an introduction to our farm, our organic practices, and our crew. Jason took the group on a tour of our lower fields, stopping to talk about the importance of diversity on the farm and about how we’re managing during this prolonged drought. CSAMV clients come from a wide range of backgrounds, so Jason paused frequently to allow the group’s interpreters to translate his thoughts into Spanish and Chinese. The kids loved visiting the five rowdy teenage pigs that share the lower fields with us, and spirits were high as everyone worked together to harvest close to a ton of winter squash. HV staff from other departments volunteered to take the group on a tour of the goats, chickens, cows, and sheep up-ranch, and the day culminated in a shared farm-to-table lunch of smoky vegetable soup, oven-baked flatbread, coleslaw, and fresh-pressed apple cider. Yum!

The event was a huge success, not just because everyone left smiling and well-fed, but because 80 CSAMV clients now know that Hidden Villa is their farm. Many families expressed an interest in coming back to visit, and we distributed free day passes to help folks feel welcome in this wonderful community space. For the farm crew, the Harvest Festival was a chance to put faces and human stories on our twice-weekly produce donations—and a reminder that, as CSAMV’s website says, “hardship can come at any time and knows no age limit.” We are humbled to be able support our neighbors in a time of need and to celebrate with them the incredible bounty of a successful farm season. THANK YOU for helping us make this partnership, and successful event, possible. 

Links:

• Sustainable Agriculture at Hidden Villa
• Community Services Agency of Mountain View