Heroes
Friday, August 27th, 2010
The seed packet instructions say, “Store in a cool dry place.” How about the North Pole? The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard archipelago is one of the world’s largest depositories of our planet’s genetic plant record in the form of seeds. There copies of seeds from other seeds banks around the globe are stored for free to help ensure plant diversity for future generations.
But we have seed savers close to home too. Farmers like Fred Hempel and his team at Baia Nicchia Farm and Nursery in Sunol, CA (Alameda County) are preserving heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and squash. And they don’t just save the seeds, but plant them too, and grow unique and outstanding heirloom vegetables.
Why do we even need seed savers? Biodiversity activist Cary Fowler says it’s the only way to protect the future of food. For millennium, it has been a farmer’s job to save seed for the next year’s crop. The techniques include letting some plants go past harvest and “to seed,” then threshing and sieving the seeds, and cataloging and storing them. This process is at the heart of farming which is to make selections for improving the plants. Save the seeds of the best plants and plant those next year. But very few farmers save seeds anymore. And many plants have been patented so you can’t use their seeds, if they even have any.
Why did we stop saving seeds? In the modern agricultural era, what was neighbor-to-neighbor seed exchange became the business of seed catalogs and then larger seed companies. Mechanized cultivations of vast amber waves of grain and the changing American appetite precipitated a demanded for uniformity of crops. The 1930 Plant Patent Act allowed for the patent of asexual, hybrid, or sports (mutants) after the work of master botanist Luther Burbank. This paved the way for a commercial bonanza for some companies, as farmers had to buy seed each year since hybrid plants are often sterile.
Heirloom seeds are seeds with stories, often favorite varieties brought to the U.S. by immigrants, and special features of taste or color. Baia Nicchia grows many heirloom varieties such as the Bianco di Palermo, a white zucchini that, contrary to green zukes, is best at 10”-14″ long. Their Potimarron Squash, originally from France, is a bright vermillion winter squash that Fred Hempel harvested in summer and found it to have a delightful chestnut flavor. Part historians, part librarians, part chefs, and part scientists, Fred and his team exemplify the current small farm movement. Fred has a PhD in plant biology, his partner Jill Shepard is a gardener and chef, and farmers Caroline Geubels and Dan Swansey are soil scientists. They farm at the Sunol Water Temple AgPark, which is managed by the non-profit SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education). They select their vegetables to grow based on taste, Fred says, ”We don’t work on a project unless it has top end flavor.”
On the nursery side, Baia Nicchia (which means “Bay Niche” in Italian) fills the niche for rare tomato and pepper seedling varieties for Bay Area gardeners. They have been recognized by seed organizations such as Seed Savers Exchange for their impeccable growing methodology. The seeds from their exquisite Maglia Rosa tomatoes are now being sold nationally by Seeds of Change, a seed catalog dedicated to organic and sustainably grown heirloom seeds.
Since the tomato season is a little late this year, you still have time to attend Baia Nichia’s workshop and tomato tasting, “Seed saving, variety selection and backyard breeding,” on September 18th.
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: alameda county, baia nicchia, baia nicchia farm, baia nicchia nursery, biodiversity, global seed vault, heirloom seeds, heirloom vegetables, norway, seed savers, seed vault, seeds, sunol, sustainable agriculture, svalbard global seed vault
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Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
It’s quiet at Kokopelli organic berry farm except for the occasional proud exultation of a laying hen. Farmer Dr. Shepherd Bliss loves it that way; the quiet gives him peace after his own post-traumatic stress disorder from joining the army during the Vietnam era. Dr. Bliss grew up in a famous military family (the same one that gave its name to Fort Bliss, TX, one of the U.S. Army’s largest training posts) and teaches part-time at Sonoma State University when not tending to his farm in rural Sebastopol, CA. He has written extensively about the new fields of Agrotherapy and Agropsychology, how farming and working in rural settings can provide therapeutic benefits. “Farming is physical, it’s one of the best health insurances you can have. It keeps your body active. You can swing a scythe, mow and prune and be assertive; you can discharge [tension] in that way instead of violent ways,” Dr. Bliss told The Almanac. “Farms can heal.” Bliss is a contributor to the Sierra Club Book Ecotherapy – Healing with Nature in Mind and has written extensively on the subject.
Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have the opportunity to work the land, whether for therapy or to start up their own farms, aided by organizations working on veterans’ behalf that have paired up with organic farms in California and beyond. The Davis, CA-based Farmer-Veteran Coalition (FVC) holds farming retreats, job training, and career fairs and offers support for vets seeking a future in agriculture. Larry Jacob of Jacob’s Farm Organic in Pescadero, CA (who supplies The FruitGuys with delectable herbs for the TakeHome cases) is a founding member of FVC. “Plants are healing to be around and provide an honest day’s pay…” Larry told The Almanac. “So many young men and women return from the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without direction and needing a space to adjust. We need young, creative people growing food while the average farmer age is over 55.”
A resource for vets seeking land is California Farm Link, a group that hooks up aspiring farmers with retiring farmers. Also present at FVC events is The San Francisco vet advocacy organization Swords to Ploughshares, their name refers to the biblical phrase, “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Farms Not Arms has offices in California and Tennessee to help veterans get into farming.
Michael Porter, Director of Career Development for FVC, said, “It’s a reverse pyramid. Vets can see if the idea of farming appeals to them, maybe get an internship – which might lead to more learning. And then, from there perhaps it’s on to a self-standing farm.” The farmers who support veterans realize that it will be a slow process. “We’re building a sub-structure now, and in the coming years it could be very important. I think FVC understands it’s complicated, and principally not political,” added Dr. Bliss.
For more information on upcoming Food and Farming Veteran Career Fairs or to host a table at a veterans event near you contact FVC at info@farmvetco.org or (530)756-1395.
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: agropsychology, agrotherapy, california farm link, ecotherapy, farmer veteran coalition, farming therapy, farms not arms, fvc, healing, kokopelli, Shepherd Bliss, swords to ploughshares, veterans
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Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
The Bee Beat: an occasional series on our friendly pollinators
“Go native.” That was the position taken at a recent Bee Symposium in Sebastopol, CA hosted by BeeKind and The Partners for Sustainable Pollination. The symposium hall was filled to capacity with beekeepers and wanna-bees. Lectures by apiary luminaries Dr. Robbin Thorp, Randy Oliver, Serge Labesque, and Kathy Kellison covered current scientific and anecdotal info on honeybee health and management and the importance of bee habitat.
Dr. Thorp from UC Davis gave an extensive survey of the native bees in our midst. The U.S. is home to some 4,000 species nationwide, but the numbers vary by region. New York is home to about 400 species while California’s diversified climate hosts some 1,600. Of course the non-native European Honeybees are our favorite pollinators – they give us wonderful honey, and they are so, well, organized. Honeybees pollinate 70 percent of our food crops but disease has threatened their numbers so greater attention is now being given to native, non-domesticated bees such as the Bumblebee, Carpenter, Sweat, and Mason Bee, which are also important pollinators. Native bees are primarily solitary; only about 10 percent gather in hives. Some are cuckoos (stealing other insects’ nests) but most nest in old wood or in the ground.
The dark specter of Colony Collapse Disorder still hovers. The exact cause of the mysterious deaths of huge numbers of hives in the last five years has yet to be divined, but many beekeepers, including Randy Oliver of Grass Valley, CA, who has pioneered non-chemical treatment of bee diseases, agree that, along with toxic and viral loads on their immune system, a loss of forage is contributing to bees’ decline. Forage is food: the pollen and nectar bees find in fields, gardens, forests, and wild areas. Bees turn pollen into protein they eat; nectar into honey. The loss of forage is due to a combination of human development that removes natural habitat, landscaping devoid of diverse flowering plants, and the use of broad-based herbicides that kill all weeds.
Gardeners can encourage forage and habitat for honey and native bees this spring:
Plant native plants. Visit your local native plant nursery or check the Pollinator Partnership’s guide for a regional selection of suggested plants.
To encourage wildlife and a variety of pollinators, leave out some old wood or install a Mason Bee nesting box.
Leave open ground. Gardeners know the importance of mulching plants to conserve water and suppress weeds; it also benefits native bees to leave some open ground.
If you are not a gardener, you can still help bees by doing the following:
Save swarms: don’t call an exterminator, call a beekeeper.
Support organic farming and agriculture that doesn’t use herbicides.
Support local beekeepers by buying local honey and hive products.
Observe nature. Appreciate. Repeat.
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: bee swarms, bees, colony collapse disorder, honey, honeybees, how to get rid of a bee swarm, pollinating, pollinators
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
The first time I went to a Scion Exchange I didn’t know what to expect—was it a science fiction convention? As I drew nearer I saw people entering the building with little sticks under their arms—was it some sect of Wicca? The Wicker Wiccan maybe? But no, a Scion Exchange is where farmers and home gardeners bring twig cuttings from their best fruit and nut trees to swap so others may grow heirloom varieties. The requirements are simple: bring some, take some, and make notes.
The Exchanges take place in winter, when trees are dormant and the gardeners and farmers are restless with spring planning. I went to an exchange in Sebastopol, CA (Sonoma county). They can be found through your local chapter of the Rare Fruit Growers Association or Farm Extension Service. Inside a Scion Exchange you’ll find long tables with heaps of branch cuttings in labeled plastic bags and marking tape. They are laid out under their genus headings for Pears, Stone Fruit, Cane Berries, and Apples. Bags with intriguing names like “Sweet Victoria,” “Fiesta,” “Sunrise,” and “Api Etoile.” Some names allude to previous growers: “Tydeman’s Late Orange Apple,” “Hudson’s Golden Gem,” and “Jeffers.”
The hall, often a grange or school cafeteria depending on the town, is abuzz with gossip—what pests are around, water issues, the dirt on soil, and, of course, the weather. The Scion Exchange is where you can learn the fine art of grafting fruit trees. Grafting is the art of inserting a cutting from one fruit tree into another to propagate a plant. Orchardists wait patiently for a turn with a Master Grafter, who will demonstrate by grafting the special scion wood onto an appropriate rootstock – which you then plant. With grafting know-how and some luck you could successfully graft one variety, of say a Waltana Apple, onto an existing Gravenstein Apple tree. Grafting various varieties onto one tree is a way for orchardists to maximize their harvest and space. Grafting is cloning, but not GMO – it is an ancient technique dating back to Mesopotamia. Growing trees from seeds is not a realistic option on our human time scale.
When I asked one orchardist what she was looking for at the Scion Exchange she replied “Disease resistance. I don’t want to have to spray.” Growing organically is by far the prevailing sentiment among orchardists. The exchange of these varieties not only builds community among gardeners, but diversity in the fruit varieties available. It is a way for outstanding varieties to get known. This is just the bare tree part of the story. The fruit tasting is in September.
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: branch cuttings, buds, cuttings, farmers, farming, fruit trees, gardeners, gardening, grafter, grafting, heirloom fruit, nut trees, rare fruit, scion exchange, spring planning, spring planting, swap, twigs, varieties, variety
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Monday, February 15th, 2010
Auntie Amerika pushes up the sleeves of her purple patchwork dashiki and stirs a large pot on the stove, her granny glasses steaming up as she leans over to catch a whiff. She deftly grabs an unlabeled jar of spice from her collection and sprinkles some into the veggie stew. The kitchen is warm and colorful with some Janis drifting in from the other room. “Auntie A, can we have white rice with dinner?” Auntie drops her wooden spoon with a clunk. “No, honey. White rice is not nice.” Auntie is full of declaratives like, “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’re dead.” A little exaggerated, but then she’s a healthy 94-year-old marathon runner. Go Auntie A!
Brown vs. white rice debates often go back and forth across the kitchen table. Taste is a matter of opinion, but the fact is white rice is refined so many nutrients are scrubbed away with the outer layers. That’s why it is stickier – which is useful for some dishes. Brown rice has the bran and the germ layer intact and rice bran oil has been found to lower LDL cholesterol. Another minus to white is that refining rice takes an environmental toll on waterways near refineries.
The brown rice in the TakeHome boxes this week is nutritious, delicious, organic, local, and grown in the most sustainable and land-loving way possible by Massa Organics. Farmers Greg Massa and his wife Raquel Krach are part of a family that has grown rice along the Sacramento River for four generations. Both trained as biologists. They returned home from ecological work in Costa Rica to do conservation work on their own family farmstead. They began by planting their lands with native trees and creating habitat for kestrels, ducks, and owls. They transitioned their 700 acres to organic whole grain brown rice and implemented a water reclamation system. They even used the straw from the rice fields to build their passive solar straw bale house!
Massa and his family are staples at many local farmers’ markets. He said it “makes a difference when I get to meet the people who will be eating our rice.”
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: brown rice, lower cholesterol, Massa Organics, nutrients, organic farming, rice, sustainability, vitamins, water, white rice
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Friday, February 12th, 2010
Everyone has been touched by the dramatic weather this past month and some got clobbered. A watery deluge that thankfully began filling California’s cisterns also brought waves of mud and coast-thrashing surf. The Mid-Atlantic is digging out from a blizzard that was advertised to be the-storm-to-end-all-storms, however another Eastern front is on its way. On every channel, weather personalities are frantically flailing laser pointers. This is after all the good, the bad, and the ugly of an El Nino year. Nonetheless the devastating frost that threatened Florida’s $9.3 billion citrus industry last month had a separate tormentor to blame for their losses—the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Vikings described aspects of the NAO, which is the east to west oscillations in atmospheric pressure between the Icelandic Low and the Azores High. The NAO forms western winds and Atlantic storms and this year it sprayed a wicked freeze ray on Florida.
Meteorologists and weather watchers model global weather patterns, the synergy of cosmic influences like solar flares and eclipses, and even maps of human influences such as land use and the Ozone Hole. Dennis Klocek, noted lecturer on the cosmos and climates, who hosts Docweather.com, a website that combines weather science and astronomy, writes that “The present eclipse pattern puts a strong blocking influence just off of the coast of the U.S. at mid latitudes and over the Maritime provinces southwest of Greenland at high latitudes. A ridge formation there causes the jet stream that moves from west to east across the continent to dive to the southeast as it crosses the high plains. That pattern is known as a Greenland Block.” During that fateful Florida freeze, Miami was colder than Anchorage.
Forewarned is forearmed, but only to a degree. Farmers have tools to protect their crops like warm air from propane blowers and irrigation. But the frost in Florida was too long and too cold to use these methods and 90 out of 96 counties were declared an agricultural disaster area. Much of the crop loss was in vegetables; peppers and tomatoes were wiped out. The longer effect will be in the loss of blooms and strawberry seedlings—the spring crops. Many established citrus trees do recover, and there are hardy zones and microclimates throughout Florida that have endured. “We’ve been seeing good citrus coming out of Florida especially Marsh and Red Grapefruit,” said Brandon Stolz, sales manager for Four Seasons Produce in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, referring to citrus from areas like the Indian River region that fared relatively well.
“California, we always get your weather,” summed up Ken Kaufmann of Kaufmann’s Orchard in Bird-in-Hand, PA. Weather fronts move across the nation from west to east, but so too can good fruit. A medley of Mandarin varieties is doing well in the Ojai and Fresno regions of California. “Right now the Florida Temple Oranges look and taste fantastic, and there’s plenty of California citrus,” says FruitGuys buyer Benn Roe with a sunshiny smile. If the old weather adage “a year of snow, a year of plenty” proves true, the east will also be in for some great produce after the big thaw.
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: blizzard, el nino, farming, farms, forecasting, jack frost, nao, north atlantic oscillation, rain, snow, snow storms, Weather, winter
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
Match-up game! Draw a line from the hat to the heirloom bean’s best match:
Panama Hat Pinto
Beret Flageolet
Pork Pie Lima
Tweed Cap Butterbeans
Fedora European Solider
Wide Brim Derby Appaloosa
Just as there are hats for every need, taste, or occasion, so there is a bean. Beans grow in every part of the world, touch every cuisine, and nourish the planet as one of its most complete foods. Beyond the basic red, black, and white beans we are most familiar with, there are thousands of heirloom bean varieties that have been passed down neighbor-to-neighbor and generation-to-generation. Take the bag of dried beans in our TakeHome boxes this week. They are a variety called Good Mother Stallard, grown in Thornton, CA (San Joaquin County), and brought to us by bean aficionado Steve Sando at Rancho Gordo.
Good Mother Stallards are one on Steve’s favorite beans, but he doesn’t want to get caught saying that in front of the other varieties. When Steve started Rancho Gordo he became a seed saver and curator of beans. Rancho Gordo grows their heirloom beans in the Napa Valley, in Thornton, and a couple of other California locations. They work with family farmers in Hidalgo, Mexico to help maintain a delicious library of indigenous varieties. “The best way to save the endangered beans is by eating them!” says Steve.
There are numerous opinions on how to cook beans, the first fork in the road being to “soak or not to soak.” Steve soaks but reminds you not to fret if you don’t, “it will just take a little longer to cook.” One option that doesn’t require soaking is the oven method, which is ideal if you have a heavy pot or Dutch oven. Preheat oven to 250°. Wash and sort beans. Put 2 ½ cups water per cup of dry beans in the Dutch oven, place on stove, bring to a boil. Transfer hot pot of beans to oven for 30 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons salt per 1 cup of original dry beans. Check for doneness after 50 minutes. This is a good time to add other ingredients for a one-pot meal. But to enjoy the dense and delicious flavor of Good Mother Stallard beans, Steve suggest a light touch. “Just some onion, garlic, and a splash of olive oil is all you need for a luscious bean fiesta.”
- Heidi Lewis
Tags: beans, dried beans, heirloom beans, organic, rancho gordo, take home, TakeHome
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Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Oroville, CA – Oroville is a gold rush town in Butte County, CA. Oro means gold in Spanish, and during the Gold Rush prospectors stampeded over the area in a greedy frenzy. When Del Chaffin came to the area, he was looking for riches of a different kind—a valley where he could grow crops year-round. Del bought land from a group of professors at UC Berkeley, his alma mater, where researchers had a grove of Mission Olive trees. Five generations later, the Chaffin family still tends the olive grove and has expanded into a diversified farm using an impressive mix of organic and sustainable farming methods.
“The ranch contains about a 600-acre microclimate. Its horseshoe shape creates a natural weather bay that faces west, which sunset fills with warm air. At the back of the horseshoe is Table Mountain, comprised of dense volcanic rock that retains heat, says Chaffin Family Orchards sales manager Chris Kerston. At the top of the mountain Del Chaffin built a large reservoir for irrigating crops that populates springtime vernal pools with 60 species of wildflowers. Table Mountain is famous for its multitude of native spring wildflowers, vernal pools, and waterfalls.
What really makes this 2,000-acre farm outstanding is how it’s run. Many farms in this area of California generally focus on one crop, say, nuts or apples. Chaffin Orchards grows over 40 varieties of different types of orchard fruit, raises 4 kinds of livestock, harvests eggs and wool, and makes olive oil and jam. A handful of family members and three life-long employees are able to be in production year-round by enlisting animals into the operation. “We run the livestock through the orchard to do the land management. Sheep and cows are the lawn mowers. The goats prune invasive weeds to clear out riparian areas and cut fire breaks,” says Chris. Animal power has replaced 85 percent of the diesel fuel they previously used for tractors. And they don’t need nitrogen fertilizer or pesticides because their chickens rid the orchards of pests.
The animals are rotated through the orchards to munch on the fresh grass between the trees, and are corralled by solar-powered electric fences. A regiment of guard dogs protects the livestock from native predators like bear, bobcat, mountain lion, and coyote that reside on the ranch. Chaffin Orchards is certified predator-friendly, meaning the wildlife gets to keep their jobs and the ecological system stays in balance. This symbiotic approach to farming is hardly new, as most farming before World War II utilized a mixture of livestock and crops. It has taken environmentally minded, enterprising people like the Chaffin family in the West and Joel Salatin at Virginia’s Polyface Farms in the East to bring these methods back into practice. Writers such as Michael Pollan have focused the public’s attention on the importance of such efforts.
The idyllic location and environmentally friendly management make for some very fine fruit. Many of the trees were planted 50 years ago. The thick-trunked, well-established trees produce tasty heirloom fruits like Blenhiem Apricots, Fay Elberta Peaches, and the rare Sun Crest Peach made famous by the book Epitaph For a Peach by David Mas Masumoto. Chaffin Family Orchards also offer an array of stone fruits and citrus, from avocados, cherries, figs, and lemons, to mandarins and persimmons—a rainbow of colorful fruit available the whole year long. And beneath that rainbow lies a farm worth more than gold.
- Heidi Lewis
Photos by Chris Kerston and Dan Lemley
Tags: avocado, Chaffin Family Farm, chaffin family orchard, cherries, chickens, citrus, cows, eggs, figs, fruit trees, heirloom fruit, jam, land management, lemons, mandarins, olives, Peach, peaches, persimmon, pesticides, pests, Satsuma, satsuma trees, sheep, symbiosis, table mountain, wool
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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Are you a FruitGuys customer that is closed for the holidays? Why not give something back to those in need. Instead of putting your order on hold, our Donate-A-Crate program lets you send your fresh fruit to a worthy non-profit organization in your area providing services to people in need during the holiday season. In 2008, FruitGuys clients donated more than 180 crates to food-banks and programs for families in need between the Thanksgiving and New Years holidays. This Thanksgiving, 47 crates were donated to organizations such as Women Against Abuse in Philadelphia, where donated fruit supplemented breakfast and lunch. Family House in San Francisco told us that parents and children were able “to grab a piece of fruit on their way to and from the hospital.” Philabundance reminded us that “Fresh fruits and vegetables are often the first food items cut from people’s diets when they have to reduce the grocery budget. Philabundance is committed to driving hunger and malnutrition from the Delaware Valley and values the ongoing support of The Fruitguys and others in the community in this effort.” Crates also went to The Riley Center, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Project Open Hand, Yeah!, and the Sophia Project in the San Francisco Bay Area; to City Harvest on the East Coast; and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
If you would like more information about donating a crate, email us at info@fruitguys.com or call us at 1-877-FRUIT-ME (1-877-378-4863).
Tags: donations, food-banks, holiday, hunger, needy, new years, Philabundance, Sophia Project, Thanksgiving
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“From a career standpoint I would be better off selling apples on the corner then being a VP at General Motors,” Karen Morss’ father told her. Yet Karen has had success in both business and agriculture. She has done her part breaking glass ceilings in boardrooms and the upper atmosphere with careers as a software entrepreneur and owner of a flight school geared toward women. Now she’s an orchardist, or orchardess, as she calls herself. Karen is the lady behind 
d instructors; from her screenwriting chapter, when she developed a script about the Wright Brother’s sister Katherine.
Meyer Lemons are a lemon-mandarin cross. Chefs and bakers prize their thin skin and heavenly scent. Karen’s favorite thing to do with Meyers is add a slice to water: “Everybody knows you’re supposed to drink more water – but it’s not always easy. [Add] Meyer Lemon in water and you’ll just gulp it down – it’s such a treat!” Karen also makes marmalades and recommends an Italian pudding called