I Heart Farms

It's Not Easy Being Green: Ask Guillermo

It's been a while since I wrote about my friend, Guillermo Payet, who is pretty much fully recovered from a very bad hit-and-run accident last April. Now that he's feeling better, I've been happy to invite him on excursions, our most recent being the Pork and Beer dinner at the Big Sur Bakery on Sunday night. Justin Severino* and two other chefs produced a multi-course extravaganza that was finger-lickin' good...and the band, Sex Farm. (Don't worry, it's safe for work: only a link to Spinal Tap lyrics, which I assume is where they got the name.)

Guillermo is pictured here with the pig noses that graced each table setting.

* Justin's pork products (cuts, sausages, patés, etc.) are sold at farmers markets in the Santa Cruz-Silicon Valley area weekly. You can check his market schedule here.

"Surfing Farmer" to Carlo Petrini: "Whatevah!"

THIS POST IS AN EDITED VERSION OF ONE THAT APPEARED PREVIOUSLY.

Steve Sando, known as "Rancho Gordo" to his legion fans, wrote in more detail about the flap centering around Carlo Petrini, "President for Life" as Sando referred to him, of Slow Food International. Petrini fictionalized, in an unflattering and rather dishonest fashion, some farmers up at the Ferry Plaza market in his new book, Slow Food Nation (no Amazon link: I ain't pimpin' for Petrini). Over at his weblog, Rancho Gordo, Sando published the excerpt referring to a farmer who surfs: Petrini implied that it is the farmer's usurious pricing that allows him to work two weekends a month and surf the rest of the time. (What he was trying to accomplish with this fiction is really beyond me.)

Petrini wrote: "The former [of two farmers], with long hair and a plaid flannel shirt, held his lovely little blond-haired daughter in his arms and told me, in a conspiratorial tone, that he had to drive two hundred miles to come and sell in that market: he charged incredibly high prices for his squash, it was “a cinch,” in just two monthly visits he could earn more than enough to maintain his family and spend hours surfing on the beach."

UPDATE: May 17. I talked to "Surfing Farmer," who had left a comment in response to this statement by Petrini. Surfarmer was, at the time, able to laugh but was still a little bugged by it, because he's sort of well-known as being the surfing farmer up at the market in San Francisco. As he told someone on the phone, "Even if it's not me, people think it's me." But in hindsight, he asked that I remove the comments, which I admit I made worse with my own attempts at thumbing my nose to the person who would write such things about my friends who farm.

So I removed it, because as he further revealed to me, Surfarmer is about to announce his candidacy for President of the United States, and wants all evidence of his goofball sense of humor eradicated. Oh, if only Google would comply.

About Petrini's fiction, as I think of it: I could not understand how he who in his own words never finished college, could call farmers "dropouts." I left a comment on the Rancho Gordo blog:

The remark I found most offensive was about the "young dropouts-turned-farmers." Most of the farmers I know have college educations: many have graduate degrees. I would be willing to bet that Bay Area farmers are among the most educated in the world, if only because the University of Santa Cruz's farm apprentice program has been turning out organic farmers for forty years. Many of the graduates, of whom Surfarmer is one, stay close by—because the support is here. We do love our farmers, don't we?

I'm sure the maelstrom will continue when Steve Sando publishes his account of his meeting with Carlo Petrini at CUESA. I'm sure he will keep an eye on the situation.

And that is all for today.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “I prefer fact to fiction.” — Richard Attenborough

Thanks for visiting.

Sooooey! (Chop Suey?)

The Chinese have designed a stamp in honor of The Year of the Pig, and this is it. Not only is the front of the stamp "scratch and sniff," but the back, when you lick it, tastes like the sweet and sour pork you will smell.

Can someone please get me some? (Hmmm, my nephew lives in China. Maybe he can score some for me.)

I've been busy, ramping up on two new web designs for new clients, and hope to get out to a farm soon.

That's all for today, and thanks for visiting.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.” —William Butler Yeats

Farms Not Arms, & More

Farmer Jim Cochran (pictured at left in the blue shirt) is, by any sane person's estimation, a hero in California. (I won't limit him to our community here in Santa Cruz.) His farm, Swanton Berry Farm, was the first certified organic strawberry farm in California—he dared to think that methyl bromide wasn't necessary to grow a tasty strawberry. And he was the first organic grower to use unionized labor. (Read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle...he also implemented an employee stock program at the farm.)

His latest endeavor, being co-chair on Farms Not Arms, is just one more indication of Jim's commitment to a better world for everyone. Today's Santa Cruz Sentinel spotlights Jim and Farms Not Arms, which was founded less than a year ago: article 1 and article 2. (You can go to the Farms Not Arms website and register as a supporter, as I did, for free—and you can make a donation there, too.)

Gasping for Breath: One More Day!

This photo was taken up in Petaluma, in the Twin Rocks valley, at Canvas Ranch earlier this month. I found it on my desktop and thought it would look nice.

Since I am still laid up with bronchitis, no farm visits for me this week. So today: tidbits from all over.

FARMER CAL SOCHACKI NEEDS ABLE HANDS ON HIS FARM

Remember Haddock's post about The Farmer's Hands? And his subsequent request for me to put out a short mention that the farmer who will be healing from his surgery over the next six months, has a position available on his farm? Here is more information about that:

This is a temporary position (6-12 months) beginning in December 2006. Located in Jackson State Forest in rural Mendocino County, 10 miles east of the coast, Old Mill Farm is an off-grid small family farm.  Diversified production includes pastured pigs, 25 sheep, a year-round market garden, and a one-acre vineyard. We are seeking a replacement farm manager to begin as soon as possible, who will work closely with the business manager and garden manager, and have primary responsibility for the maintenance of all farm infrastructures and animal husbandry. Housing, partial board and salary provided.

You can download the rest of the details in this 56K PDF: OldMillFarm.pdf.

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