Pablito....

TERRA FIRMA’S HISTORY
Writing last week’s newsletter and telling you all about the wonderful group of people who help us run Terra Firma, I was strongly reminded that things haven’t always been so peachy here.  Through a swirl of dust on a hot afternoon, one can catch a glimpse of Olde Terrae Firmae…

 When I first started at TFF, none of the tractors even worked.  We had to pull plows through the field by hand, in groups of ten.  Irrigation was immensely laborious — one person manning the hand pump while others fanned out through the fields with garden hoses.  We had no trucks — we brought the vegetables out of the field with wheelbarrows.  The CSA newsletter was typed by hand, and we kept in touch with subscribers via the telephone (not the cellular type) and the U.S. mail...

Just kidding.  (Except for that last part, of course, which is as completely true as it is shocking. ) In fact, when I joined Paul Holmes here at Sky High Farm, there was no CSA.  The farm was much smaller then, but already too big for us to handle.   Like many small farms, Sky High was good at producing crops, but not much else.  Our markets were hit and miss, and we had no overall business plan.   Even though vegetable growing is always a labor intensive exercise, here it was labor extensive.  In the whirlwind of trying to plant, harvest, and sell — and pay all the bills involved — there was little time to sit down and hammer out systems for managing the business.  Nonetheless, there was tremendous demand for the crops we were growing, and we made the mistake of trying to meet that demand by expanding the farm.  Without a solid cash flow, we were borrowing at both ends — to pay the bills and to capitalize our expansion.

 In 1994, we changed our name to Terra Firma and  began the CSA.  The steady income from subscribers almost certainly kept us from going bankrupt, as many other medium sized organic farms did during that time.  But the CSA required us to grow more diverse crops throughout the year — crops we had never grown before, like cauliflower and celery — and lots more of crops we had always grown, like potatoes.  Over time, we learned how and when to plant, grow and harvest these crops.  But we lost money on almost all of them for some length of time.  Then there was the organizational end — setting up the accounting and maintenance database.  Any of you who have been with us for five years or more may remember exactly how disorganized we were for several years.  Thankfully, the CSA has ended up being just what we hoped it would — a reliable source of income that affords us stability and certainty throughout the year.

 Not having the business experience to understand what was going on during this time, we were stressed out and frantic most of the time.  We couldn’t understand how we could be growing and selling so much produce, yet still losing money each month.  Our solution was a common one for farmers:  plant more, buy more equipment, expand — I.e., the same stuff that got us in trouble in the first place.  Suffice it to say that as managers, we were clueless.

Many talented and enthusiastic people passed through Terra Firma during those years, and often had their idealism and energy challenged by the conditions.  We routinely worked 14-15 hour days, and everyone was exhausted all the time.  Tempers were short, and so was money, most of the time.  We put way too much pressure on our employees too correct for our lack of skill at management, and they often took it out on each other.  The ones that knew better would tell us exactly what they thought of our business skills… just before they quit.

By some miracle, though, enough of those folks must have recognized the potential of our farm and stuck with us.  They gradually forced us to recognize the things we were doing right, and the many ways we were doing things wrong and losing money.  Their input was crucial in setting up the systems that now save us so much money while keeping our days to a reasonable ten hour length and keeping our customers happy. We have learned the hard way all about being good employers and good businesspeople, as well as being good farmers.  But now that we know the difference that it can make to have experienced and committed employees, you can be sure that we will never take it for granted again.  And like other organic farmers, we have learned that sustainability is easier said than done.
 
 

THE CHERRY STORY Today you will find the first cherries of the season in your boxes — the Bing variety that we had last year, although not from the same orchard.  These come to you from Everything Under the Sun, certified organic here in Winters  I promised not to write any downer newsletters for a while, so I won’t go into too much detail about the Breznock’s orchard that provided your cherries last year.  This year has been a stressful one for the tiny fruit, since it has rained not once, but twice on this year’s ripening crop.  Many early varieties here in the Valley split as a result of the rain.  This on top of a warmer-than-usual winter, which almost always means a lighter-than-normal crop.  The Breznock orchard has other problems, though, much more serious ones.  The trees are actually dying, row by row, due to harmful nematodes in the soil.  The pistachios are in the same orchard, planted every other row, and are completely unaffected.  If you had walked through the orchard last year, you never would have guessed that there were any problems with it — the trees were full of leaves and hung with fruit.  This year, almost half the orchard has lost its leaves completely; the other half is still green, but has dropped all the cherries that were out there a month ago. As a result, there will be fewer cherries in your boxes than there were last year.  We will try to get them from other growers, but given the overall conditions for the fruit this year, you may see them only once more before the rest of summer fruit begins.  We expect apricots to ripen beginning in mid-June (a little late, actually).  After that, we will be receiving peaches off and on through the summer from Eatwell Farm , as we did last year.  And if it doesn’t stay hot for too long, we expect to have some amount of strawberries for at least another several weeks.  Stay tuned.

Thanks,            Pablito

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

Strawberry Tart with a Walnut Crust — I know it’s too hot to bake, but there’s not much cooking involved here.
Grind 1 C. walnuts in a coffee grinder or blender.  Combine with 1 C. plus 1 T. whole-wheat pastry flour, 1/4 C. sugar, and a pinch of salt.  Add 6 T. butter and 1 egg yolk and blend with a pastry cutter or your fingers.  The mixture should be crumbly but still stick together — add tiny amounts of water if necessary to achieve the consistency.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 and roll out the dough into a 20 inch circle, then fit into a 12“ tart pan.  Trim the edges.
Slice 2 C. of strawberries in halves and arrange on the tart.  Melt 4 T. butter in a saucepan and sprinkle with 4 T. brown sugar.  Caramelize slightly, then remove from heat and drizzle over the tart.    Bake for 40 minutes, or until lightly browned.
 

Produce 101: preparation & storage  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, use in cooking, or puree and freeze for later use. WALNUTS are the last of the ‘99 crop, so don’t worry if you still have some left from last time.  The nuts will keep in the freezer until the new crop comes in October — unless you eat them first. FRESH GARLIC is like dried garlic, but it‘s harder to peel.  Try cutting the top of the bulb off and “popping“ out the firm cloves.  We have harvested the garlic and are currently curing it; it will be dried fully in three weeks.

Terra Firma Basics
San Francisco/Sacramento/Davis Prices
Every Week: Every Other Week:
$70 Monthly $37 monthly
$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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