Pablito .... 

GIVING THANKS
Farmers are well known as “glass half-empty” folks, and anyone who reads this column regularly knows that I’m no different much of the time.  It’s really just a survival technique, to protect the inner core of optimism that you have to have push a seed in the ground and wait for months before harvesting a crop.  Thanksgiving, though, is a time to accentuate the positive.  Historically, it was a time when barns and pantries were full, the result of a season’s hard work come to fruition.  Winter was coming, and no one knew how long it would last or how long the food would hold out.  Spring might be a time for rationing, but fall was for feasting.

My newsletters often look at the half-empty side of farming.  But after 13 years, we have a lot to be thankful for.  Our farm has weathered several really bad years — one year we actually developed a bankruptcy plan.  But over the long-run, our core philosophies of diversification and direct marketing have not just allowed us to survive, but to thrive and grow.

 You, our CSA subscribers are simply dream customers — the customers every business wants.  You are loyal, enthusiastic, and committed.  This raises the bar for us — because you care so much, we have to continue caring.  We fret about little details of each week’s boxes, and we pull out our hair when we hear about squashed tomatoes, smooshed peaches, or overripe melons.  And this newsletter, well, let’s just say that sometimes I wish people didn’t actually read it — that would make it easier to write.

 Three years ago we accomplished our impossible goal of land ownership, and for three years since we have managed to keep making the mortgage payments.  The challenges involved with turning that land into a real farm are big and complicated, but they are also immensely satisfying when reached.  A highpoint of the experience for me was our first harvest of delicious, beautiful grapes from a vineyard that we had planted ourselves, on our own land.  I enjoy all the wonderful fruit that we tend and harvest from groves originally planted by others, but it’s just not the same.

 We are also thankful to have gathered together a team of employees who are experienced, knowledgeable and dedicated to helping our business succeed.  The nature of our farm — a year round employer in a generally seasonal industry — has allowed us to attract good people.  We continue to struggle to find a balance between compensating them adequately and making the economic decisions our business needs to survive.  While our employees earn more than most farmworkers, there is nothing abundant about the pay scale of agricultural labor.

 Two of our employees deserve extra special thanks for the continued success of our CSA.  Valerie, for her ability to cheerfully keep all 700 of your households straight.  And Hector, who makes sure that the boxes always get where they need to go.

 Thanks also go out to the local community in Winters and the rest of Yolo County which has been accepting and supportive of our farm for so long.  Our farming neighbors have greatly aided our success by opening up opportunities that would have otherwise remained unknown to us.  Tufts Ranch has been especially crucial to our business, opening their coolers to us for storage of potatoes, oranges, nuts, and other crops that we simply don’t have the space to store.

 Last but not least, thanks to our families, who for mysterious reasons continue to support us 100% in this endeavor which occupies way too much of our time and continually blurs the line between personal time and work time.  Family ties are also a critical part of our employee’s effectiveness, as we currently include 3 husband-wife teams on our crew as well as numerous brothers and cousins.  Ours is not a family farm in the traditional sense, but then, we like a broad and open definition of “family” better.

 Lest anyone accuse me of ungratefulness, I will close by thanking the state of California and the people in it for providing us the absolutely unique ability to grow fruits and vegetables all year, and deliver them just over an hour away to such a dedicated and appreciative group of people.
 
GIVING THANKS
Farmers are well known as “glass half-empty” folks, and anyone who reads this column regularly knows that I’m no different much of the time.  It’s really just a survival technique, to protect the inner core of optimism that you have to have push a seed in the ground and wait for months before harvesting a crop.  Thanksgiving, though, is a time to accentuate the positive.  Historically, it was a time when barns and pantries were full, the result of a season’s hard work come to fruition.  Winter was coming, and no one knew how long it would last or how long the food would hold out.  Spring might be a time for rationing, but fall was for feasting.

My newsletters often look at the half-empty side of farming.  But after 13 years, we have a lot to be thankful for.  Our farm has weathered several really bad years — one year we actually developed a bankruptcy plan.  But over the long-run, our core philosophies of diversification and direct marketing have not just allowed us to survive, but to thrive and grow.

 You, our CSA subscribers are simply dream customers — the customers every business wants.  You are loyal, enthusiastic, and committed.  This raises the bar for us — because you care so much, we have to continue caring.  We fret about little details of each week’s boxes, and we pull out our hair when we hear about squashed tomatoes, smooshed peaches, or overripe melons.  And this newsletter, well, let’s just say that sometimes I wish people didn’t actually read it — that would make it easier to write.

 Three years ago we accomplished our impossible goal of land ownership, and for three years since we have managed to keep making the mortgage payments.  The challenges involved with turning that land into a real farm are big and complicated, but they are also immensely satisfying when reached.  A highpoint of the experience for me was our first harvest of delicious, beautiful grapes from a vineyard that we had planted ourselves, on our own land.  I enjoy all the wonderful fruit that we tend and harvest from groves originally planted by others, but it’s just not the same.

 We are also thankful to have gathered together a team of employees who are experienced, knowledgeable and dedicated to helping our business succeed.  The nature of our farm — a year round employer in a generally seasonal industry — has allowed us to attract good people.  We continue to struggle to find a balance between compensating them adequately and making the economic decisions our business needs to survive.  While our employees earn more than most farmworkers, there is nothing abundant about the pay scale of agricultural labor.

 Two of our employees deserve extra special thanks for the continued success of our CSA.  Valerie, for her ability to cheerfully keep all 700 of your households straight.  And Hector, who makes sure that the boxes always get where they need to go.

 Thanks also go out to the local community in Winters and the rest of Yolo County which has been accepting and supportive of our farm for so long.  Our farming neighbors have greatly aided our success by opening up opportunities that would have otherwise remained unknown to us.  Tufts Ranch has been especially crucial to our business, opening their coolers to us for storage of potatoes, oranges, nuts, and other crops that we simply don’t have the space to store.

 Last but not least, thanks to our families, who for mysterious reasons continue to support us 100% in this endeavor which occupies way too much of our time and continually blurs the line between personal time and work time.  Family ties are also a critical part of our employee’s effectiveness, as we currently include 3 husband-wife teams on our crew as well as numerous brothers and cousins.  Ours is not a family farm in the traditional sense, but then, we like a broad and open definition of “family” better.

 Lest anyone accuse me of ungratefulness, I will close by thanking the state of California and the people in it for providing us the absolutely unique ability to grow fruits and vegetables all year, and deliver them just over an hour away to such a dedicated and appreciative group of people.
 
IN YOUR BOXES
It has been a goal of our for years to include a head of celery in every Thanksgiving box, and this year we are just squeaking through.  This year’s celery was transplanted into the blastfurnace of July 2005, a cool season crop enduring almost 30 days of 100 plus degree heat.  It was so burned and stunted by August that we almost gave it up for dead, but we kept the field as wet as possible and hoped for the best. The only thing that worked in our favor was the weather of the last three weeks, much warmer and sunnier than most Novembers.  The sad little plants finally had a chance to grow.  Still, the celery is small and probably quite tough — I don’t recommend serving it as part of your Turkeyday crudite, but it has lots of flavor to add to your stuffing, gravy, and post-holiday turkey soup.

Whether you’re sticking to traditional mashed spuds and candied yams, or doing a noveau California roasted root vegetable medley, you should find plenty to work with in today’s boxes.  There are also plenty of salad greens, as well as some cooking greens to serve on Tday or to help you recover later in the week.  And we know it’s more common to serve broccoli than cabbage for this holiday, but the broccoli went on vacation a week early.  Green beans, of course, have been gone for a month.

If you’re not cooking for the holiday, well, please excuse our emphasis on the traditional ingredients.  Lucky for you, most of them will keep well for at least another week, and are also easy to use in lots of other recipes.  Maybe someday we’ll have an “anti-Thanksgiving” box that doesn’t contain any of the stuff that folks eat on Tday.
 
 

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

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Produce 101: preparation & storage  # APPLES in today’s boxes are from our newest orchard, which was farmed conventionally until last September.  The trees have not received synthetic fertilizer since then, and the fruit in your boxes has not been sprayed with any synthetic pesticides.  #FUYU PERSIMMONS are eaten crunchy, like apples and pears, and have no “puckering” affect.  They do, however, have a tough peel that some people may want to remove before eating.  They also have no seeds and a very small core.  Fuyus this year come from the same orchard as the apples and Asian pears, and are also not certified organic.

We Up/downgrades are $5 per week per increment.

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

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.

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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