Peaches that drip juice down your chin green beans that snap with the slightest bend tomatoes oozing with juice and vibrant flavor. The abundance of summer is just around the corner and our…
Columnist
The prettiest barn in Nevada County occupies the corner of Highway 174 and Meadow View Drive only five minutes from the Brunswick basin business district. This iconic red landmark originally housed the goats from Nightingale Farm and other small animal operations. The barn is situated in a lovely valley, rich with water from the surrounding hillsides, in rainy years. The land sat empty and untilled for many years appearing along the road as if it were waiting for just the right farmers. In 2020 the land and barn became the home of Peardale Farm.
Rob and Cathy Chase, partners in business and life for forty years, moved to Grass Valley in 2014. After three decades of winters on the East coast, their homesickness for California finally got the best of them. Among other careers, Rob had owned an organic farm in Connecticut while Cathy ran a marina.
By Liz Kellar | Staff Writer
Amigo Bob Cantisano, 69, an early pioneer of the organic farming movement whose accomplishments have been featured in National Geographic and the New York Times, died Saturday after an eight-year battle with cancer.
“Amigo Bob was a powerhouse to be reckoned with,” said wife Jenifer Bliss. “His wisdom and inspiration will live on around the world.”
It should come as no surprise to those who knew Cantisano that the man who spent decades as a “fierce advocate for the earth” made plans for his remains to be turned into compost to feed the soil.
“Being an organic farmer, Amigo knew that compost is the foundation of all the best organic farming,” Bliss said. “It is only fit that he should be composted and become the living biology that will inoculate and nourish the composts, farms and gardens of others.”