Pablito....

I USED TO LOVE SPRING RAIN
By now most of you are probably getting tired of reading about the many ways in which rain and strawberries are mutually incompatible.  I myself used to love spring rain, because it meant I could take a day or two break and fix some of the many things that we would have broken in the frenzy of spring planting.  We could skip irrigating for a few days, too.  Now, we dread the dark clouds and dropping temperatures.

The rain this time was much lighter than two week’s ago, and the time we spent cleaning the strawberry plants off last time should prevent any major loss of berries to mold.  Still, most of our strawberry fields hadn’t been picked since Friday, and boxes and boxes of dead ripe berries simply melted in Sunday’s mist .

As a result, we were forced to pick some of the less-ripe strawberries in the field this morning.   We did our best to dry them in our cooler (by leaving them uncovered and providing for good airflow before packing them up for you.  But the fact is that they still got rained on, so we recommend that you eat them quickly.  In fact, I would recommend using them in a baked dish, such as the cobbler recipe on the following page — where they will benefit from the addition of the sugar.  If the berries are unusable when you open your box, please let us know so we can give you a credit (and so we know for future reference than even underripe berries cannot be picked after a light rain).  But if you leave them in your fridge all week, please don’t be surprised if they are not usable.

HIGH TECH FARMING
We don’t get any sympathy in these parts for problems with strawberries, oranges, or other perishable crops.  As I have mentioned before, the farmland around Winters is a sea of walnut and prune orchards.  These crops are considered safe and foolproof.   Resistant to most of nature’s whims, they provide a steady, reliable harvest most years.  The crops are non-perishable, meaning that they can be stored for long periods of time and sold whenever convenient.  Growing them involves little or no labor —harvest is fully mechanized and most orchards are irrigated by computer-controlled underground sprinkler systems.  Large operations can be run with a handful of year-round employees and almost no seasonal labor.  Almonds and grapes are similarly modernized crops, but can be riskier.

 In Silicon Valley and elsewhere, this type of innovation tends to lead to higher profits and successful businesses.  In agriculture, the reverse is true.  Initially, the modernized operations reap the benefits of their improvement — they receive the same price for their commodities as their less-high tech neighbors.  But as soon as word gets out about the benefits, farmers statewide begin to mimic their successful neighbors — spurred in part by the UC system, which sponsors research projects demonstrating the superior production models.  Growers involved in riskier crops are encouraged by their loan officers to “diversify” into walnuts or prunes.  Very quickly, the majority of operations are equal in efficiency — the less efficient ones forced out or forced to improve.  By then, not only has the total acreage in this crop expanded greatly, but the yield per acre has often increased — meaning a greater overall supply of that crop than in previous years.  At this time, members of the general public might begin seeing generic promotions encouraging people to “Eat More Prunes” as industry marketing reps begin to freak out about the supply exceeding the demand for the crop.

Finally comes the inevitable price drop, when the first of many bumper crops from all those new, efficient orchards comes in.  With a perishable crop, this type of buyers’ market only lasts a few months — a year at most.  But because this is a buyers’ market in a non-perishable commodity, there is no waiting it out.  Walnuts will keep for years with proper storage.  With conventional walnuts, prices have dropped now for four out of five consecutive years.  As prices continue to drop, it will be the largest, best-capitalized operations that can win the price war.  And for all their efforts to secure a reliable farm income through high-tech, modern methods, everyone else still won’t be able to compete.  Unfortunately, a walnut orchard is not the simplest thing to remove.  And when you sell out to a bigger walnut grower, especially in a depressed market, you don’t get stock options.  Many farmers will just get a second job to make ends meet.
From our perspective losing a few strawberries in the rain is a small price to pay for our independence from macroeconomic cycles...

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

Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler — Rhubarb is one of the few things we can’t grow up here — it just won’t tolerate the summer heat.  It does, however, grow great in the Bay Area and doesn’t take much space…
In a bowl, combine 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 C. brown sugar.  Cut 1/2 stick of cold butter into small pieces and add to the bowl, then blend together with your fingers.  The mixture should be crumbly, not doughy.
Peel the stringy outside of 1 stalk of rhubarb, then cut into thin slices.  Remove the tops from 1 pint of strawberries and cut into pieces, then toss with the rhubarb, 1 T. flour, and 1 T. sugar.  Add to a 7 or 9 inch square baking dish and cover with the topping.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until the top is crisp and the fruit is bubbling.
 

Produce 101: preparation & storage   Store CILANTRO in a cup full of water, in or out of the fridge.  It will keep for a week.   STRAWBERRIES keep best in the fridge, in the paper bags we pack them in.  They will not keep more than three days, even under perfect conditions.  Eat them quickly or puree and freeze for later use. SUMMER SQUASH comes in many shapes and colors, but it is all prepared the same way as regular green zucchini.  Squash is often overdone — it needs only 4-6 minutes of high heat to make it tender but still firm.  Overcooking will render it limp and pasty.

Terra Firma Basics
San Francisco/Sacramento/Davis Prices
Every Week: Every Other Week:
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$200 Quarterly $106 quarterly
$780 Yearly $412 Yearly
$16 weekly vacation adjustment
Subscriptions automatically renew - and arenot cancelled for late payment / So tell us if you choose to cancel.

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

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

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