So much happens on this farm – but there's also a simple and daily repetition that makes us all feel like nothing is actually changing…Feeding the same animals, performing the same tasks: cultivating, hoeing, raking, watering and transplanting, and cooking our meals.
And in this routine, we’ve got Harvest. Two days a week we spend our mornings cutting, clipping, washing, sorting, packing, and stacking vegetables. The farm van is packed, and on Tuesdays Gloria drives the produce to a drop off site in Mendocino County where the farm's CSA members come to pick up the goods. On Fridays Steven shuttles down to SF to do the same with members who live there. At the farm, a table is set up for local share holders who stop by to select their portions from a row of public baskets…
This farm does not attend a farmers market - they believe that setting a price on their food diminishes its true value and moves the consumer away from understanding where the food really comes from.
Yeah, this philosophy is fundamental to a biodynamic farm which happens to perform purely on manual labor, no subsidies and absolutely no pesticieds - organic or not. Additionally, as a biodynamic farm, there is no finanical investment in any product foreign to the farm (with the exception of hand tools, seeds and the work horses!) that could help increase the production of the vegetables - this means no peet moss, no pre fertilized soils, nor sprays to ward off bugs, weeds or mildew. And no fossil fuel operated machines to till the land or harvest the crop. All this creates a cyclical micro environment in which everything produced is reused and everything used comes from what was once a part of the farm - animal product, turned soil, bolted vegetables from the previous season...everything is resourced for the next growing period. This is a beautiful way to maintain a healthy balance with the land being tilled and the food being consumed - something a lot of us around the world could begin to re learn. Yet more time on maual labor and general preparation for growing equates to a smaller (more precious?) yield but not necessarily lower operating costs.
Yes, I'm learning a lot about the fundamental techniques of growing food - but the share-holding audience we serve is Small, Privileged and Secluded.
But...
What's in season?
lettuce
radishes
spinach
mustard greens
pak choy (think bak choy)
mizuna
komatsuma
tat soi
beet thinnings
cress
escarole
Oh, and we totally sheared some sheep a couple days ago. No electric razors on this farm - the shears are hand operated and cut right through the wool.
This farm does not attend a farmers market - they believe that setting a price on their food diminishes its true value and moves the consumer away from understanding where the food really comes from.
Yeah, this philosophy is fundamental to a biodynamic farm which happens to perform purely on manual labor, no subsidies and absolutely no pesticieds - organic or not. Additionally, as a biodynamic farm, there is no finanical investment in any product foreign to the farm (with the exception of hand tools, seeds and the work horses!) that could help increase the production of the vegetables - this means no peet moss, no pre fertilized soils, nor sprays to ward off bugs, weeds or mildew. And no fossil fuel operated machines to till the land or harvest the crop. All this creates a cyclical micro environment in which everything produced is reused and everything used comes from what was once a part of the farm - animal product, turned soil, bolted vegetables from the previous season...everything is resourced for the next growing period. This is a beautiful way to maintain a healthy balance with the land being tilled and the food being consumed - something a lot of us around the world could begin to re learn. Yet more time on maual labor and general preparation for growing equates to a smaller (more precious?) yield but not necessarily lower operating costs.
Yes, I'm learning a lot about the fundamental techniques of growing food - but the share-holding audience we serve is Small, Privileged and Secluded.
What's in season?
lettuce
radishes
spinach
mustard greens
pak choy (think bak choy)
mizuna
komatsuma
tat soi
beet thinnings
cress
escarole
2 comments:
It's truly remarkable that there are people in their 20s, such as Karina and many others of her generation, who didn't grow up on a farm but have chosen to work on one, an organic farm at that, for any variety of reasons. I'm also grateful to them and inspired. It gives me hope that young people are more than aware of the mess that my anti-war generation has been a part of creating and, rather than taking at face value that this is the way the world must be, they are stepping up to re-create it in their own image.
It also strikes me that having taken care of farm animals - including shearing sheep - would give these young people yet another level of self-confidence and strength, at least it would me!
the lettuce and those radishes look delicious!
Post a Comment