Terra Firma Farm Newsletter April 9, 2008


Terra Firma Farms Community Supported Agriculture Newsletter April 9, 2008 4/9/08

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Spears of Asparagus	What’s Growing This Week: Green Garlic Carrots Asparagus Salad Mix Kiwis—-# Tangelos Head Lettuce (M, L) Bunched Spinach (M, L) Grapefruit Potatoes (L)—-% Golden Beets (L)

The economics of agriculture frequently operate on a different wavelength than those of the rest of the economy, as the last decade illustrates well. During the late 90s and early 00s, agriculture in the U.S. was in a deep recession. Prices for most commodities and crops were flat and while inflation appeared low to most consumers, it never felt that way to farmers earning the same price for their products as they had in the 1980s.

Now, with the dollar falling in value and demand for food rising in other parts of the world, demand has caught up to supply. Farmers had been losing money for so long that they finally stopped overproducing, right around the time that people in India and China started eating more. Some people are quick to blame the current spike in food prices on the conversion of food crops to ethanol, but to me it is much more simple: Farmers, like any businesspeople, couldn’t keep losing money forever.

Organic agriculture has never followed the exact path of conventional farming, economically. For one thing, we are ineligible for government crop subsidies. This creates more freedom to respond to supply and demand, but it also increases market volatility. This was exacerbated in the early days by the small size of the market for organics. There were times when the wholesale price of certain organic vegetables was much lower that of conventional, simply because someone had grown more of that product than the market could absorb. On the flip side, gaps in vegetable production caused large price spikes, which tended to alienate customers.

Terra Firma started our CSA in the 1990s partially as a way to escape the volatility of the wholesale organic market. Some other farms our size attempted to “size up” very quickly to better compete with big growers, and many of them are now gone. By growing “under contract” directly for subscribers, our farm and several others managed to survive a difficult period much better than most small farms. When the organic market began to stabilize after 2000 and “organic” became a household term, we were in a solid position to respond to the growth and our farm has thrived ever since.

Still, I wonder how the recession our country appears to have entered will affect people’s food buying choices in the future. Some people, like Michael Pollan, argue that local organic food will become more economically competitive with conventional food, and thus continue its appeal. Among other reasons, he cites fossil fuel costs for transportation and fertilizer. To his arguments I would add this observation: For several years, the supply of organic produce has regularly exceeded the demand. This has already been built into the price that consumers pay for organic produce. So it’s possible that prices will not rise as much as those of conventional produce, which have been depressed for ten years or more.

Still, organic produce will remain more expensive than conventional, and people trying to cut their budgets may change their food buying habits. A person can save far more money by skipping meals out and cooking at home than they can by switching from organic to conventional. But dining out is not just eating, it is also entertainment. And our society places a much higher value on fun than it does on sustenance.

Nonetheless, as a CSA farmer, I believe that our marketing model is hugely flexible. We have shaped our boxes to fit the priorities of our subscribers: freshness, variety, and flavor. TFF members have always been more concerned about throwing away unused food than about getting lots of volume. Once we introduced different box sizes, we were able to cover a larger range of needs, with the Small boxes offering the most convenience and the Large boxes the most value for the money.

If the needs of our customers change, however, we could easily shift some or all of our boxes towards providing a higher volume of lower priced items. Our goal is to provide our subscribers with the best possible choices for their circumstances, without altering the basic concepts of a CSA.

It has been almost three years since we have raised prices for our customers, and we are now finding that increased expenses across the board but particularly payroll expenses, have finally caught up with us. This is despite numerous innovations we have undertaken to reduce our labor and fuel costs.

At this time, we are looking at a July 1st, 2008 price increase. Our other alternative would be to reduce the number of items in the boxes to make up for the higher cost of producing each crop. We will keep you posted, and please feel free to provide us with any ideas you might have. We are looking forward to a bountiful season of tasty, nutritional organic food and hope you will continue to share in the harvest.

IN YOUR BOXES

If you’ve been to TFF’s Farm Day, you’ve seen our asparagus field — the tall, fern-like plants with red berries on them. It’s hard to recognize that same field this time of year. An large expanse of dirt hilled up into tall ridges; to the untrained eye it seems to be devoid of all plant growth most the day. But if you were out there first thing in the morning, you’d see the eight inch high spears poking from the soil on tops of those ridges. And you’d see our crew walking down the rows, harvesting the spears one by one, leaving any that are still smaller behind to grow until tomorrow, when they’ll be tall enough to pick.

Asparagus is one of the most labor intensive crops that we grow — and that’s saying a lot, since we seem to specialize in vegetables and fruit that take lots of hand labor. Although there’s actually more “foot ” in asparagus than “hand ”, with our three acre field measuring out at just under a mile if you stretched it out in a single bed. There’s some “back” in there, too, since every time a spear is cut, someone is bending down. The tall ridges help bring the spears up closer to the level of the folks that are picking.

From the long, stopping and bending walk through the asparagus field every day, we get just 125 pounds of asparagus or so. When it’s at its peak and we’re harvesting every day, we still don’t get enough from the field to meet the needs of our CSA. That’s why we’ve been augmenting our own asparagus with the help of the Durst’s farm in Esparto. They have 30 acres of the crop.

We originally planted almost ten acres of asparagus here on our farm, but have had problems with perennial weeds and diseases that led us to remove most of it. We had planned to remove the remaining patch after this season, but it’s putting up a protest, producing well in the warm, dry spring. Maybe we’ll hold onto it for another year and see how it does.

Thanks, Pablito

Please make sure to include your account name, the one on the sign off sheet ~ on the box, in every correspondance to Valerie

Please make sure to include your account name, the one on the sign off sheet ~ on the box, in every correspondance to Valerie

Recipes............................

Easy Asparagus Frittata — This recipe uses the grapefruit juices as part of the vinagrette. Take care to remove all the white pith from the grapefruit sections.
Dice bacon to make 1/2 C. Place in a 10” cast iron skillet under the broiler in the oven, set to high. Broil for 2-4 minutes, until the bacon begins to brown. Remove from the oven and reset the control to 400 degrees.
Chop 1 large or 2 small stems of green garlic. Add the pan and stir.
Trim the tough ends of 1 bunch of asparagus. Cut off the tips. Cut the rest of the spears into 1 inch pieces, and slice in half lengthwise any of the pieces that are fatter than a Sharpee (magic marker). Stir the asparagus into the pan with the bacon and garlic, adding a little olive oil if necessary.
Return the pan to the oven and cook for 15-25 minutes, stirring a few times, until the asparagus is begins to shrivel and brown.
Meanwhile, beat 4 eggs with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley (optional).
Add the eggs to the pan and bake until they rise up and set. Turn the oven to Low Broil and place the frittata underneath the flame to brown the top.
Serve with a side salad, or on toasted Ciabatta bread with the salad on top.


Produce 101: preparation & storage KIWIS in your boxes today come from Chase National, just north of Marysville and are certified organic by CCOF. We try to send you kiwis that are almost ripe, but sometimes they may take 4-5 days to soften up. To ripen, leave in a paper bag outside the fridge. When they give to thumb pressure, they are firm-ripe. <>POTATOES in the Large boxes are from TD Willey Farms, near Madera and are CCOF certified.

Terra Firma Basics
Please include your full name, or if different, the name on the sign off sheet, with any and all correspondance.

CSA membership fees ~payment due day is first of month.~~ Quarterly discounts are given for any 3 month period only if paid in advance.
They are given as an extra credit when the payment is applied, you won't see your monthly rate change.

New Rates starting July, 2008:

	Monthly	Quarterly	Yearly
Small Box	59.00	170.00	658
Medium Box	98.00	282.00	1094
Large Box	132.00	380.00	1473
eo Box*	75.00	216.00	837
*no longer available except to existing eo accounts
	Quarterly Discount	Yearly
Small	-7.00	-50.00
Medium	-12.00	-82.00
Large	-16.00	-111.00
eo	-9.00	-63.00

Vacation Rates:
Small	$10
Medium	$16
Large	$21
EO	$16

Current Rates:


	Monthly	Quarterly	Yearly
Small box	52	150	580
Medium Box	86	245	959
Large Box	116	330	1294
EveryOther wk* **being offered only to existing everyother week subscribers, as the small box has better variety and is more tuned to the smaller household appetite. The weekly schedule is also much easier to remember, and saves us all a lot of problems at the pick up sites.	46	131	513


Vacation Credits:	Small	Medium	Large
Vacation credits are lower to discourage overuse, and to reflect actual cost to the farm For each vacation date you will be credited these amounts: There are no "temporary cancel" alternatives ;) We need seven days notice for vacation notices, and please be sure to include your full name and the date you'd like to skip delivery.	$8	$13	$18

For mid-month changes, Up/downgrades are $5 per week per increment. Small to large is $10.

Vacations ? Billing Inquiries
We need seven days notice before a vacation hold or other change of service.
Contact Valerie through voicemail at (530) 756-2800, or e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com. Include your account name in full (what's on the sign off sheet).

Account Balance Inquiries The account sheet is hiding under the sign off sheet each week with your account balance on it. Mid month I've been e-mailing statments, so if you're not getting it send me an e-mail requesting to be added to the list. To be able to read the statements you need to be logged in as an administrator on a PC, and virus programs may corrupt the file. Some Mac operating systems do allow the file to be viewed. We can't resend them, and it wouldn't work any better the second time anyway.

MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farms, Inc
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com

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