I Heart Farms

Slow Food Notion: I Don't Think So.

Pictured here: a bouquet created by the apprentices up at UCSC's Farm & Garden (aka "CASFS") for a dinner last night. I shopped, chopped (500 cherry tomatoes, eight pounds of yellow wax beans), cooked (the beans), and prepped for eight great hours.

SLOW FOOD NATION 2008

So, unlike tens of thousands of people in San Francisco who are paying $58 and up for the privilege of suffering through traffic and parking and being crammed into buildings like sardines, I am absolutely committed to avoiding all things under the Slow Food umbrella this Sunday. Slow Food Nation: Come to the Table 2008 starts tomorrow.

When I first heard about it, it sounded exciting. But I realized I was Having Thoughts about it, and that most weren't pretty.

Turns out I'm not alone. (I might not be in the majority, but that doesn't matter.) With her usual graciousness and aplomb, Jennifer Jeffrey (who lives in San Francisco) wrote her plus-minus take on the event. She manages to find the possible positives, which honestly would have eluded me.

NEVER Buy Glacéau Water, or "My $1000 Paperweight"

A few weeks ago, it was perishing hot: this was on the day the big fire started in Bonny Doon. I was with my daughter at the downtown farmers market, and a friend asked me to pick up a bottle of cold water for her. Since the heat was staggering, and my own refillable bottle was empty, I got myself a bottle, too.

I hesitated when picking out a bottle of Glacéau Stupid Smart Water, but it was the coldest one on the shelf, and that's what I sought. The hestitation came from an earlier incident, when I put a closed bottle of their water in my giant tote, and the top slid open just enough to leak water. My make-up bag got wet, and some receipts, but it was nothing fatal.

I drank about half the bottle as we walked up the Pacific Garden Mall, and made sure the cap was "closed" before I slipped it, in an upright position, into my bag. Twenty minutes later, I felt something cold dripping on my leg, and my heart sank.

Not a Delicious Treat: Homeless Garden Project Twice an Arson Target

Pictured here, a Christmas fairy, which is the creation of a young woman named Roisin, a ten-year-old artist living in Pescadero. Roisin's Christmas fairies were the hit of the holiday fair at Harley Farms Goat Dairy: she sold every last one of her unique creations. I'm the happy owner of one myself: it's on our Christmas tree with a blue lightbulb up its skirt.

I'm going to take a break from the Delicious Treats student memoirs to bring a bit of news about the Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project. Being a coastal city with a mild climated, Santa Cruz has a fairly large homeless population. In 1990, the Citizens Committee for the Homeless here in Santa Cruz started a small quarter-acre garden on the west side of town, providing "job-training and meaningful work in a therapeutic environment." (That's from their website.) It's a fine, fine organization which has changed the lives of many people—both homeless people who received the benefit of the education and work, as well as the myriad volunteers, staff, and now the families who are the recipients of the weekly CSA baskets.

I was reading the Santa Cruz Sentinel (affectionately or irritatedly called "The Senile" in these parts) last week and read with a sinking heart that the Homeless Garden Project has twice been the victim of arson. The fires, lit exactly one month apart, destroyed a storage shed containing all their hand tools and most of their seed, and on Sunday night, their kitchen.

Every Tuesday through Friday, the kitchen provided two hot meals for anyone who volunteered or worked that day: imagine its destruction. I am horrified, especially because the implication is that the fires were deliberate, targeted, and filled with malice. At Christmas time.

To make a long story short, I donated five boxes (250) of my farmers market calendars to their store in Depot Park, over near the Boardwalk. If you are in the area and want to make a difference, and get a beautiful calendar (or beeswax candles, preserves, knitted goods, or dozens of other items—very high quality stuff), please visit the Homeless Garden Project store as soon as you can. They're organic, and they're committed to providing the best service and products possible to our community.

Thanks for caring. (And for the record, I won't receive any tax benefit from the donation, as I'm self-employed. I had too many calendars as it was.)

That's all for now: I'll return tomorrow with another memoir from "The Meaning of Food" writing class.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be." — Clementine Paddleford

Thanks for visiting. And thanks for visiting the Homeless Garden Project's store, located near Depot Park. I'd call them for directions, as it's easier than trying to find it on a map:  831.426.3609.

"Farmer Dave": I Ain't Buying It

It happened again. A seemingly innocuous e-mail giving a thumbs-up to my blog, but it set my Spidey Senses tingling immediately. (The Hotmail address didn't help: did you read the story about the big companies who automatically rejected job applicants if they had Hotmail addresses? Yep.)

Hi Tana,

Great site! Being a North Dakotan, I definitely support the farming way of life.
I came across this blog from Farmer Dave a Florida citrus grower that made me smile: http://www.orangediaries.com

Cheers,
Kristen

_______________________

I took a glance, already knowing I'd find some B.S. marketing apparatus at the "weblog," and was instantly gratified in my suspicions.

I wrote back to Kristen: "He doesn't look organic. Am I wrong?" Seven minutes later, she replied, "I can't say whether he is organic or not, but given the choice between organic and local, I'll take American grown anytime. What's your stance?"

So I rolled up my sleeves and wrote the following response, which she seemingly had blocked (at least that's what Hotmail claimed*. (That's what pissed me off enough to publish this rant.)

ACTION ALERT: About the Raw Milk Legislation from Claravale Dairy

Folks, this is urgent. Please take a little time out from your day to contact lawmakers, to undo the grave legislation that would decimate the raw milk industry in California. You can do that with information at the first link, and read more about the situation at the second link.

1) OrganicPastures.com
2) TheCompetePatient.com

Here is a letter from Ron Garthwaite, owner of Claravale Farm, which is pictured above. Well, it's his former location that I once visited: last year was rough for Claravale, when their lease was yanked unceremoniously so the owners could get a higher-paying tenant on the land. Relocating to San Benito County after having spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, trying to get the permits necessary from the visionary-impaired bureaucrats in Santa Cruz County, Ron built a new dairy facility that cost about $1M.

From TheCompletePatient.com:

What's made AB 1735 especially shocking to Ronald is that he was submitting plans and having inspections by the California Department of Food and Agriculture during recent months. “Had they informed us of this new regulation we could have made changes to the facilities in order to have a better chance of meeting the new regulation,” he says in an email he just sent to his customers. “Or we may have decided not to build at all.  Or we may have decided to construct it to produce products other than raw milk.

Here is a letter from Ron, which is necessarily long: there is scientific and political information that you need to know. Ron concludes the letter:

If you want to continue to be able to obtain raw milk in California you should fight this law with everything you have. Even if you are not a raw milk drinker but want to be able to get fresh, unadulterated produce or meat or, in fact any fresh food in the future you should be fighting this law. This is only one additional step in the State’s campaign to pasteurize or sterilize everything.

On behalf of the raw milk dairies in California, I thank you.

For a Friend: At a Loss for Words

For the friend who wrote me this morning: "Aw Tana, you sound beleaguered. Don't give up! I know I don't comment much anymore, but I still love reading you. Just give us photos when you're tired."

Thanks, B. These are for you.

From last week's downtown farmers market: Route One yellow bells. Summer's last gasp? It's raining and grey outside today.

Soil Amendments, Avoiding Scams, and Something in Hawai'i

The most recent comment on my weblog is from David, who asks, "What did you amend the soil with?"

This is straight from Linda Butler, whose plants up at Lindencroft Farm resemble ornament-heavy Christmas trees.

Hi Tana,

Here is a list of soil amendments I use.
• Greensand: a product of the sea, supplies trace minerals and boosts microbial activity for long term release of nutrients, potassium source (K)
• Oyster shell powder: calcium source
• Blood meal: nitrogen source
• Rock phosphate

For 100 square feet, apply 2.5 pounds of blood meal, 4 pounds of rock phosphate, 3 pounds of green sand, and 5 pounds of oyster shell powder.

This I use when I work the soil for the first time, when I make a new bed and fill it up. I dig this all in the first foot. Then just before I plant in the new soil I add about one pound each of fish meal and kelp meal and work it into the top six inches. When I harvest and then get ready for all subsequent plantings or sowings I add generous amounts of compost and a little more fish and kelp meal. If I'm sowing carrot seeds I work some worm castings in also. All the leafy vegetables that we harvest for their leaves like broccoli, kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, and brussels sprouts, I give a fish and kelp about once a month in the form of a dilute emulsion. I just dump about a half a gallon of each around the base of the plants for the big ones. The small ones like spinach, chard, kale, and lettuces get a foliar feeding of the same fish and kelp emulsion.

The Year of the Pig: Not So Fast!

Pictured here: these little piglets, the size of puppies, were less than a week old when I photographed them yesterday. There is nothing in the world cuter than a tiny baby pig.

After reading over 400 new posts on blogs this morning, I noticed that some people are jumping the gun on this Year of the Pig thing. Make no mistake: I love the Year of the Pig. I am the Year of the Pig. My previous phone number was HOG-SING (and it was palindromic, too). My favorite radio station: KPIG, (107 OINK 5).

But officially, the Year of the Pig does not commence until February 18, 2007. That is unusually late for a Chinese New Year: most begin in late January. So our Year of the Pig won't last even a full calendar year, alas.

Nevertheless, given that TLC Ranch has nearly 400 mentions on my blog, and Justin Severino, the chef-turned-butcher who processes all TLC Ranch meat, has over 400, I think it is safe to say that pigs and pork will continue to provide lots of fodder, so to speak, for the Year of the Pig, in all its glory.

"Got Milk?" + Tasty Tidbits

(Pictured here, Claravale Dairy: happy cows outside.)

The Cornucopia Institute has published something important for all of us who are truly interested in, and committed to, knowing where our food comes from, and supporting sustainable food sources. Their report card on the so-called organic dairy industry holds few surprises, though they left off one of the best dairies (that would be Claravale).

Also no surprise is that the horrid Heritage paid a $300,000 fine for abusing its farm workers. (Ah, you say, but isn't their milk carton attractive?) Talk about Orwellian language...since when it is "heritage" to abuse the land, animals, and your workers? Well, come to think of it, I guess it is the American way.