Farm News & Tom’s Reflections

While cultivating in the field with the old “International” a couple of weeks ago my cellphone fell off the tractor, disappearing under the running blades of a rototiller. With my cellphone shredded, I couldn’t stop myself from cursing out loud, standing in the middle of the field, with no one around, surrounded by rows of recently planted tomatoes and peppers. Of course I was angry about the inevitable replacement cost of the phone, but even more frustrating was this sense of suddenly being disconnected, unplugged from the rest of the world, unable to text, call, e-mail or connect to the internet from the palm of my hand.   These “smartphones” have become indispensible, yes, and I admit, now that I am middle aged, the phone has become a memory aid to store everything I can possibly think of – from fieldnotes, pictures, addresses, wake-up calls and of course a calendar to keep track of scheduled events, appointments, and many other important dates. You name it it’s all there in that small device.  I panicked a bit at the thought of having lost all of this information and for someone who didn’t grow up with computers, the internet, or smartphones it felt miraculous when a “heavenly Cloud” had backed up most of my information, so that when I got my replacement phone it was retrieved and downloaded. Wow… how cool is that!

Some of you might think: “Oh, ‘Farmer Tom’ is getting all excited and catching up with today’s technology”. That’s true, and I may be reinforcing the sometimes popular notion that “we who toil in the soil” are slow to change, especially when it comes to adopting new ideas and technologies. You’d be surprised, however, that today’s communication and wireless technology doesn’t seem to be one of them. It plays an important role on most farms today. Many larger operations, for example, have tractors equipped with GPS (geographic positioning systems) technology that will allow a farmer to adjust field practices, whether it’s plowing, grading, seeding, spraying or fertilizing to ‘real time’ field conditions. Monitoring of irrigation practices, the weather, pests and diseases, planting or harvesting – you name it, seed-to-fork sophisticated computer programs and wireless technology all play a role in collecting and managing a stream of important farm data.

Just like any other businesses, Live Earth Farm has adopted today’s information age technology to network, store and process data.  Most of our information and communication with you our members is electronic, and everyone younger than me can’t understand why I am hesitant to jump on the social media bandwagon.  My lingering resistance is probably because as a farmer my affinity is naturally connected to the farm’s biological network of life.

The sophistication and complexity of my shredded cellphone pails in comparison to the slower-paced, biological network that stores the evolutionary, life-renewing intelligence of an unimaginably large and sophisticated network of living organisms. Every cubic inch of organic soil teems with billions of microorganisms that play many different parts in the soil’s cycle of fertility. These interacting organisms, ranging from the visible to the unimaginably minute, perform important functions which drive the transfer of nutrients to the plants we grow. So when we plant a seed or transplant a tomato seedling into this biotic network called soil, we trust that it will reward us with food; similarly we expect a search on the internet to feed us the desired information when we hit the return key.

It is inevitable that these two networks, one technological the other biological, will grow increasingly closer. I hope that along the way we are able to build a meaningful sustainable food system. One where our relationship with food nurtures, enhances, and strengthens our personal health with that of our natural environment.

“Nature is something we are; not just something with which we relate.” 
- Eric Alan, from ‘Wild Grace’

“You dig all these carrots by hand? ” I was asked when we stood in the carrot field pulling fresh orange “treasures” out of the soil during last Saturday’s Community Field Day.  “We sure do, every single one of them” I confirmed. Digging for carrots almost rivals the excitement kids get when picking strawberries. There is something special about tugging on a bunch of leaves not knowing exactly what will appear out of the ground – like going treasure hunting.

Here on the farm, carrots are harvested by first loosening the soil with large digging forks, after that they are pulled out of the ground, sorted and bunched by hand.

It’s pretty simple, like with all food it comes directly from the earth. Although we now have tractors and mechanical tools to help us, small scale organic vegetable and fruit farms like ours rely mostly on hand labor. It is a collective, mostly manual effort – from sowing the seeds, planting, weeding, cultivating, watering, harvesting, washing, packing to finally delivering the food. And if your kitchen is anything like ours, a lot of hands will continue in the preparation and cooking of the freshly harvested crops transforming them into a nourishing meal.

The objective of our monthly  Community Farm Days is to give an opportunity to interact with the land, to plant, harvest, taste, and “join hands” with everyone involved in growing food.  When it comes to working hands on this farm, I can’t think of anyone else than the incredibly dedicated group of  people who work tirelessly to make it possible for us to enjoy a sampling of their effort, reaped from this land they care and nurture every day.  May 1st is the official International Workers’ Day, a good day to reflect on all those who use their hands to bring nourishing food into our lives.

“It’s all here… the seasons will show you how nothing is ever really gone… We set the seeds, speak to the sky, nurture the plants, drink the rain, give back to the soil, curse the cold, dance to the sun, sing with the wind, weep at the passing, dream with the moon.”   – from a poem by Sherrie Mickel

When the forecast called for light frost early last week, we rushed to protect the most vulnerable of the crops – the dry-farmed tomatoes planted only 10 days ago. The wind was blowing hard, with gusts of 30-40 miles it was not a good time to roll out large sheets of floating row-cover fabric.

It took six of us almost 4 hours to cover 2 acres of plants, and when I woke up the next morning, April 16^th, I was glad we did. The rooftops and windshields had a light coating of ice.

Luckily the temperatures didn’t stay low long enough for it to cause any damage. With temperatures in the 80’s five days later, the tomatoes are safe and all danger of frost is only a distant memory now.

This is the time of year when a lot of attention and energy is spent preparing fields. We’ve been busy mowing cover crops and then tilling and incorporating all that fresh nutrient-rich organic matter back into the soil.  I never tire of watching steel shaped into knives, shovels, shanks and discs flowing through the soil cutting, slicing, digging, and shaping it to create the right tilth for planting and sowing.

I love grabbing a handful of soil in a freshly plowed field; it is moist, crumbly to the touch, releasing a bouquet of sweet, musky aromas.

Although I can get all poetic when it comes to soil, most of us are more interested in the harvestable results that grow from it.

In terms of “what’s in the box”, April and May are the leanest of the season.  It’s the time when a lot of the crops are planted, but only a few are mature enough to be harvested. Spring may enchant with the promise of flowers and new growth, but no matter how beautiful the apple blossom or lush the tomato plant, it will still take a few more weeks or months of nurturing care before we can enjoy a nourishing bite. Although plants will not be hurried along, I will try to give you a glimpse of what’s to come…

Now in early spring we get to enjoy many of our staples crops – a diversity of leafy greens with an abundance of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Green garlic and fava beans are only available in the spring, so enjoy cooking with them now.

Baby carrots are back, and of course we can’t wait until the strawberries ramp up in May. The plants are loaded with green fruit, so a little more patience – a lot more berries coming your way!!

Looking ahead into May and June, we’ll enjoy spring potatoes, also summer squash is starting to bloom, green onions will replace green garlic, and red beets are starting to size up.

The raspberries and blackberries blooming right now will be ready for the pickin’ by early June. After the Summer Solstice, plums will ripen and this year our Blenheim apricots will follow in abundance.

As CSA members you get to “share” in the ups and downs of the seasons, understanding the timing of the crops grown locally, following their lifecycles and acknowledging all the preparations that have gone into growing the food before it reaches your plate.  We invite you to visit the farm, and help us spread the word about our CSA program.  The upcoming season looks nutritious, tasty and abundant and I am glad you can be part of the journey.

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”

-Albert Einstein

No lack of bees here on the farm. The buzzing is all around us, the air is filled with a low, continuous, almost eerie hum. It’s hard to pinpoint where the bees are working and the buzz is coming from exactly. Now that the apples and wild mustards are past their peak blooming period, the bees have moved into the “wilder” oak, redwood, and native chaparral environments of the farm.

I recognize California Lilac with their beautiful blue flowers as well as sage, buckwheat, coffeeberry, penstimons and sticky monkeyflowers all blooming, but the humming upon closer inspection is coming from the poison oak growing green and lush everywhere.

I notice that the poison oak is packed with tiny, hardly noticeable whitish flower clusters. The bees are all in a hurry, climbing in and around these clusters, collecting their loads of nectar and pollen and then quickly getting it back to their hives to feed their brood (baby bees).

Anselmo Rivas, who keeps some of his hives here on the farm, explained that now is a good time to encourage honey production and increase the number of his working hives. When food is abundant the bee colony will increase in size, often to a point where it decides to split and swarm by following the queen and abandoning their present home to a new queen.  Anselmo, like most beekeepers, is happy to capture a swarm; it’s like a present when Mother Nature gives you a complete working hive.

A few years ago I was walking past a row of willow trees near the apricot orchard when an intense buzzing sound caught my attention.  I noticed that a swarm was hanging off a willow tree branch and I immediately called Anselmo.

It took him less than ½ hour to show up with an empty box complete with frames fitted with wax foundations. He slid the box underneath the branch the bees where hanging from and started shaking it until a clump of bees, the one that had the queen in it, landed on the frames. Like a chaotic cyclone the rest of the bees immediately descended upon the box and slowly crawled into it – making Anselmo a very happy beekeeper!

The honeybee is truly one of nature’s workhorses. What makes them so popular, besides the honey they share with us, is that they are able to pollinate a large number of different plant types. Due to their social nature, they tend to recruit other bees to visit the same plant several times during its blooming period, increasing the chances of pollination, thus resulting in higher yields of fruit or seeds.  Imagine what the content of our shares would look like if pollination disappears. No strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears, plums, apricots or cherries. No cucumbers, melons, winter or summer squashes.

According to the Xerces Society, one in three mouthfuls of food and drink require the presence of a pollinator. Beekeepers have been struggling to maintain their bee population.  Anselmo lost almost half of his hives last winter. He blames the decline to the destructive varroa mite and the overall lack of habitat around agricultural and urban landscapes to support honeybees and other pollinators such as bumble bees, butterflies, wasps, and native bees.

Here on the farm we have planted hedgerows, grow sunflower hedges, summer cover crops such as annual buckwheat, or decide to let crops such as broccoli, kale, or any of the brassicas (mustards) go to flower for the bees to feed on before plowing them back into the soil.

The best way to encourage and maintain the presence of pollinators is to preserve more wild land (habitat), set aside uncultivated areas (undisturbed hedgerows and field borders) and grow suitable crops to attract and increase their numbers, making sure to provide sufficient flowering/pollen producing plants to ‘feed’ them year round.

With Earth Day just around the corner, we can all decide to take a few steps to increase pollinator habitat whether it’s in your own backyard, office campus, community gardens, parks, you name it, any place free of pesticides where plants can grow, will serve as habitat for pollinators to forage, nest, lay eggs and multiply. A patch of flowers is fun to have around and observe as butterflies, bees, beetles, birds, moths and other interesting animals will start being attracted to it. With a healthier and more abundant population of pollinators we contribute to a healthier ecosystem around us.

“We need to actively participate in our food system — in our political system — to make sure that the best food we can produce in this country is available to the most vulnerable eaters – our kids.”  – Anonymous

Elisa and I took last Saturday afternoon off to enjoy a father-daughter moment on the farm – just the two of us. First we had to visit “Granny,” one of our female goats who just 2 days prior birthed triplets. All three kids are healthy, taking turns suckling, and “mom” is patient enough to let them be held and cuddled.

After getting our fill of playing with the goats we decided to pack a snack and go picnic by the pond on the upper portion of the farm. It is one of our favorite “get-away” spots with views over the Pajaro Valley and Santa Cruz mountains.  The pond is surrounded by 4 acres of sloping fields, and I purposefully leave the cover crops to grow until the last major rains of the season are over. Right now the lush green cover stands almost 6 feet tall. Still untouched, it looks like an immense impenetrable jungle to 8-year-old Elisa

In no time at all, she and I turn into explorers crawling through a thicket of fava beans, vetch, peas and merced rye making secret passageways and dens, hiding from each other and letting our imagination run freely.

After what seems like “ages”, we finally emerge from the field to catch our breath.  Elisa of course, whose world is all about games, wonders if I could leave the cover crop until later in the season so that she can invite her friends to play in it.  While I explain the benefits of a cover crop – i.e. soil fertility, organic matter, higher crop yields – I feel the regret of having to plow this “magic” world back into the soil.  I guess it’s a lesson of following the lifecycles of nature and understanding that, ultimately, a healthy soil allows us to continue growing more  “magic” moments.  Whether it’s a pumpkin patch, a tall corn maze, or more cover crops – the possibilities are endlessly nourishing.

To wrap up the afternoon we swing by the strawberry patch and I see how one field’s “magic” is quickly replaced by another, as Elisa picks and bites into a large sweet berry. We know the season has started when the strawberry harvest picks up. Every share will get a basket this week!

As the last of the winter cover crop is being mowed the soil is prepared and ready to be planted with summer crops. The first batch of dry-farmed tomato seedlings got planted last week, and this week sun gold cherry tomatoes and peppers will follow. With the soil now warm enough, we will also sow the first of several successions of green beans.  So hold on, the bounty of summer is upon us before we know it!!!

How we eat determines to a considerable extent how the world is used.
                                                                                                          – Wendell Berry

The farm has shed its winter coat and sprung alive! We are excited to welcome all our members, customers, supporters, and friends as we start our 18th Regular Season. I still get that same calling now as I did in 1996, when I dug the soil with a fork and spade to plant the farm’s first potato crop – a desire to work the land and release the soil’s fertile and nourishing bounty. Once again mother nature’s call to join her for another seasonal dance is irresistible as she awakens from her 5 months of dormancy. Dressed in vibrantly colorful flowers, tender green foliage, accompanied by bird song and sweet perfume, I surrender to her intoxicating energy and demanding rhythm.  Little will dissuade me from renewing my vows of stewardship while she whispers a promise of bountiful harvests and nourishing treasures.

Besides my enchantment with the natural farm environment, the people who make up the farm’s vibrant food community always inspire me. As eaters and producers of food everyone participates in the stewardship of the land. I encourage everyone to see the farm as an extension of their home and garden; the farm is a resource where we have the opportunity to experience and revitalize our connection to the source of our nourishment and the seasonal cycles of nature. I hope everyone has the time and opportunity to engage with the farm to enjoy this deeper connection.

Throughout the season we host an extensive program of tours, camps, workshops, U-pick and Community Farm Days, In-the-Field Dinners, and Seasonal Summer and Fall harvest celebrations. For the latest happenings on the farm, check out our events calendar or our facebook page, get on our mailing list for the farm’s weekly news, visit our farm stand which will open every Saturday starting in May or call and we’d be glad to let you know when is a good time to visit.

From all of us here at Live Earth Farm – a warm welcome!!!

This is our last week to harvest and pack your 2013 Winter Shares.  I want to thank everyone who joined us, we were fully subscribed which means a lot to all of us.  Your commitment as CSA members is a cornerstone which gives stable employment to a majority of our workers year-round, providing a healthy continuity for the ongoing operation of the farm. Whether it’s work in the field, the office, selling at farmer’s markets, making CSA deliveries or fixing equipment, there is always much that needs to get done.  With Winter now almost behind us, I am happy with the sampling of produce we were able to offer albeit rain, cold and sometimes freezing weather conditions.  In March we are taking a short break from CSA deliveries, focusing our energy to organize and prepare for the regular season kicking-off on April 3rd.

Spring is one of my favorite times of year, I am looking forward to savoring the season’s first strawberry, the orchards are about to burst into bloom, first the Quince, followed by plums and apricots, then pears and apples. As the farm springs to life, so does the pace of work and we always hope that natural conditions are gentle on all the vulnerable young growth.  In farming, we all depend on a vast and rich web of interdependencies. It starts with the weather, the health of the soil – i.e. all those oft-forgotten soil organisms – the seeds, the equipment, the many dedicated and skilled people working in agriculture, and continues through to all of us who are nourished not only by this farm but by the entire surrounding foodshed.

Live Earth Farm is built upon the generosity of others and this interconnected support structure. We want our farm to be a place where everyone can experience first hand a direct connection to the source of their nourishment and the seasonal cycle of nature.

This year we’re kicking off the Spring Season with our 4th Annual “Sheep-to-Shawl” event on March 23rd.  Don’t miss it, it’s a unique, fun event for all ages. Also, throughout the Regular Season, starting in April, our Farm Stand will be open again on Saturdays from 10am – 4pm, and we’ll continue to host our popular Community Farm Days on the last Saturday of every month (mark your calendars April – November). These community days typically include u-picks, family field activities, farm tours, and hands-on educational programs. And of course we want everyone to join us for our two main seasonal celebrations; the Summer Solstice Celebration on June 22nd and Fall Harvest Festival on October 26th. Plenty of opportunities to enjoy a day out on the Farm at Live Earth in 2013.

“To plant a seed and believe that it will germinate, out-compete weeds, bloom, set fruit, and be harvested and sold at a fair price is a great leap of faith.”
– Organic farming pioneers, Denesse Willey of T&D Willey Farms in Fresno,CA

For some it may be a trivial matter but for farmers and gardeners here in the northern hemisphere Spring is around the corner. Our seed orders are arriving and we are once again committed to engage in the seasonal ritual of planting and sowing, taking that great leap of faith that these seeds, these tiny treasures of nature, will germinate, compete and succeed to yield an abundant nourishing harvest. Of all the seeds we plant, among my favorite ones are the potatoes.

Our seed potatoes arrived last week, stacked on a wooden pallet, shipped directly from a seed farm (Rockey Farms) in Colorado via a semi-truck making deliveries  to organic farmers up and down the Central Coast. Unlike most of our other seeds which arrive in the mail, a few pounds at a time, we have to order a few thousand pounds of certified potato seed to plant out 2 – 3 acres.

Although potatoes grow underground they are not really roots. They are the swollen ends of skinny underground stems also known as tubers. The potato tubers have nodes or eyes from which the new growth begins. The new stems growing from each eye are called sprouts.  Sprouts grow from the tuber after a period of dormancy.

Since we are almost ready to plant, we encourage the seed potatoes we received last week to break their dormancy so that sprouts will grow when they get planted. These sprouts give rise to the plant stems, and in order to stimulate the formation of new tubers about a quarter to a third of the plant has to be covered with soil, also known  as ‘hilling up”. Under favorable growing conditions, 1 pound of planted seed potatoes will yield about 10 pounds of harvestable potatoes.

Potatoes are adapted to grow in many different climates throughout the world.  From their place of origin in the Andes mountains of South America all the way to much warmer coastal areas such as exist on islands of the South Pacific. Although potatoes grow better in cooler climates, during my years as a Peace Corps volunteer (1985-87) I worked with farmers on the island nation of Western Samoa who successfully grew selected varieties adapted to their more tropical farming conditions.  Here along the Central Coast, not too long ago, farmers used to grow potatoes in larger quantities before the more lucrative berries took over.

We’ll be growing 5 different varieties this year. German Butterballs,  a round to oblong tuber with lightly netted skin with deep yellow flesh. Slightly mealy, this variety is superb for everything – frying, baking, mashing, soups – you name it. Russian Bananas, probably best known of the fingerlings, are the only ones of this type we’ll be growing this year.  It matures early and I love them steamed or roasted. Carola, with a beautiful yellow color has a creamy texture and exquisite flavor – great steamed, boiled, baked, or fried. Desiree, has oval tubers with beautiful rosy skin and creamy yellow flesh. Excellent for salads, boiling, or mashing. Finally our traditional Yellow Finn with it’s dark yellow flesh is moist with a little mealiness, excellent for baking, mashing, or frying.

During a discussion about the farm’s finances, Constance wondered whether the prices we charge for our crops reflect their true cost. What does a bunch of carrots in your CSA share really cost?  Is the $2.00/bunch we charge customers at the farmer’s market a fair exchange?

Pricing is complex and not an exact science.  In my head, I can make some rough calculations. Besides the seed cost, there are costs involved for every step in the production process, which starts with the soil’s fertility – the growing of covercrops, adding soil amendments, compost, and organic fertilizer – and encompasses the whole range of mechanical field preparation methods such as plowing, harrowing, spading, tilling, bed listing, and shaping.  Only when the soil is well prepared and the conditions allow will we proceed with seeding, transplanting, irrigating, weeding, and cultivating. Only when we start using our hands to pull a carrot out of the ground and place it in the hands of the person who buys it do we count the cost of harvesting, washing, bunching, packing, cooling, transporting, and selling.  In addition to production costs, there are other “universal” costs such as the cost for the land, the field implements, the tractors, the fuel, the administrative costs, insurance, taxes, and some others I am probably forgetting.

Then there are the costs that are more unpredictable and are inherent in farming since they have to do with mother nature’s dynamic uncertainties, all of which will impact the development process of a plant starting from the beginning as a seed to the mature harvestable crop. Each crop has its unique requirements. Carrots, for example, need 10 – 14 days to germinate, and require uniform moisture levels throughout that period in order for that carrot seed to sprout. Of course other plants, commonly dismissed as weeds, will also favor these conditions and often germinate faster and choke out the carrots unless they are removed in a timely manner.  Weather conditions for all our fruiting crops have to be favorable to induce flowering, encourage pollination, and fruit development. Unfavorable weather conditions will always decrease the yield and quality of a crop.  Finally, let’s not forget the cost of sharing some of our harvest with other lifeforms, whether they are insects, fungi, bacteria, or some of our warm blooded cousins the deer, gophers, rabbits, or birds.

All in all, at the end of the day we are asked to measure, record and calculate all these factors in order to come up with a number value by which we can measure our success of whether we made a profit or not. In our current system this is the best we have, a process of commodification where everything needs to be judged in dollars and cents.  So if a bunch of carrots costs $2.00, is that its real worth? Of course not, it’s only part of the bigger equation. A bunch of carrots should also be valued for the ecological stewarding of the land it’s grown on, the educational opportunities it offers to kids who visit Live Earth Farm every week to experience first hand where, how and by whom they are grown. The price should reflect the value of the farm’s labor practices that benefit the workers and take into account that this bunch of carrots was grown on a small diversified farm rather than a large scale industrial operation.

So, after all these rough calculations in my head, it is hard to put a “true” price on a bunch of carrots.  It is not only difficult for me the farmer, but also difficult to figure out for you the consumer.  I always believed that the best way to honor the true value of the food we grow is through the CSA, where we create a direct relationship between you and our farm that is mutually supportive. So, thanks for supporting our CSA and being a part of our Live Earth Farm community.  Now is a good time to spread the word as we are open to receive more members for the 2013 season, and of course we will continue to grow more carrots and all the other goodies this earth provides us with.

Once again mother nature is stirring to commence another seasonal cycle of life. The strawberry plants are starting to sprout new leaves and flower buds, signaling that the winter energy stored in the soil is starting to push up to the surface. Right now is a good time to remove any weeds growing in the furrows or poking through the mulch, competing with the growing plants.

To ensure a healthy crop and an early harvest when spring arrives we have to establish a healthy population of beneficial red spider mites, also known as Persimmillis. Now is the time we release them in the tens of thousands in order to control and prevent any future outbreak of another mite, this one known as the two-spotted-spider mite, which if left un-checked can cause serious leaf damage and loss in both yield and quality.

Growing strawberries organically has many challenges. Every part of the plant, from its root tips to its leaves and berries, is vulnerable to being eaten or damaged by something. It’s a formidable odyssey for an organic strawberry to end up in your hand unblemished.

We grow two different varieties: Seascape and Albion.  Much about the qualities of a strawberry variety is determined by its genetic make-up and the result of decades, if not centuries, of careful selection and breeding. Over the course of the season you will likely receive berries from each variety, and have the opportunity to experience their differences in flavor, shape, texture, and storability.  Some have an early start, others spread their production over the entire season; some are firm, others are juicier and softer; and for us, the farmers, we like to see that they are resistant to pests and diseases and vigorous under different soil and climate conditions. Not all aspects of strawberries are determined by genetics, especially when it comes to what is ultimately most important to us… flavor and taste. The subtleties of coaxing the best flavor out of a particular fruit or vegetable has a lot to do with a farm’s specific soil and weather conditions, and each farmer’s specific growing practices focused on enhancing flavor rather than yield. I’ll share more on those growing practices once we are starting to enjoy these red jewels. My favorite way to enjoy them is to pick them straight from the plant, red-ripe and sun-warmed.  Don’t forget to Sign Up! 🙂

Only two short months from now, we’ll all be smiling!!!