Introduction

Terra Firma Farm History & how our CSA works

Terra Firma was started by Paul Holmes (Pablote) over seventeen years ago, with a old VW van and a rototiller -- a mile up the road and five hundred feet uphill from its present location, on less than an acre of land. Over the years, the farm moved down to the fertile alluvial soils along Putah Creek just west of Winters, at the hilly edge of the Sacramento Valley.
In 1994, Paul was joined by Paul Underhill -- Pablito, and they began to organize friends and acquaintances in San Francisco who wanted to get fresh, local organic vegetables on a regular basis. The CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture project, started with about 50 people and has now expanded to feed over 700 people weekly. In the meantime, the farm has grown to include over 99 acres of fields and orchards, including walnuts, apricots, and citrus.
Hector Melendez worked the fields and currently drives the delivery truck became an owner in the farm. Many of his family members including his mother, father, brothers and cousins all work here together.
Terra Firma, rare among California farms today, is as much about people as it is about produce. Our farm supports 42 employees, many of whom have been with us for five years or more. Some, like our delivery driver Hector Melendez, have been with Paul Holmes almost since day one. Valerie Engelman has been our CSA Coordinator, office manager and bookkeeper for twelve years. People become part of the farm and their personlities come to define their jobs. A far cry from "migrant farmworkers", they have been essential in making our farm what it is today.
Our customers also play an crucial role in helping our business succeed, and in inspiring us. Many of our subcribers have been with us since the beginning of the CSA, and they visit us each year at our fall farm day. Their kids have grown up with the memories of running through our fields and playing in our orchards, and they've grown up healthy while eating our vegetables.

We hope you choose to join us.

With the help of some members who helped us with the downpayment, we bought land ~ Pictures
Field of Spring Onions	I grew up on a small community farm in south Georgia and never realized, until I moved here and started subscribing, how much I had missed being connected with the seasons through food. Dreaming of sweet corn through this wet spring makes early summer even more golden. And now we have dreams of strawberries to carry us through the winter. Thank you. *Pablito, thank you for your essays in the newsletter, one more way we are rewarded for our subscription. Your vignettes and political essays help me feel rooted in the farm. Sometimes, reading them, I almost feel like I just came in with rain in my hair and mud on my boots myself. ~~ Sara Foust, CSA member	Early spinach plants

What is CSA? .
Community Supported Agriculture is a way in which people can directly support a small, local farm while getting a weekly supply of fresh, organically grown products. For city dwellers, becoming a CSA member provides a connection with nature, a convenient, safe, and reliable source for healthy, high quality vegetables. The farm receives an incredibly helpful steady income year round, including those difficult winter months when many farms have to close. Terra Firma Farm in an 99 acre CCOF certified organic farm that grows vegetables and fruit year-round. Terra Firma Farm's Community Supported Agriculture project serves the San Francisco Bay area, Davis, Sacramento, Vacaville, and our hometown of Winters.


picture taken in our apricot & walnut orchard by Valerie	*How does it work?* Each week, Terra Firma subscribers receive a box of freshly picked, organic, seasonal produce. Each week's box is carefully designed to provide you with a week's worth of fruit and vegetables. On occasion when subscribers request we have more expensive items in the box like Shittake mushrooms, herbs and more fruit - and then your box may just last one grand meal with some leftovers. All the boxes are equal in value and well thought out. When some of our fruit crops are in season, subscribers can purchase extra amounts. Our weekly newsletter provides recipes, commentary on the importance of eating seasonally, and farm updates.


	www.capradio.org Pablito & Site Hosts Interview by Elaine Corn of CPR!


	What do I get?


Pickup Sites
CSA Philosophy~ the agreement between city dweller & farmer
Sign-up & Rates

Terra Firma Farms, Inc
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800 vm
Goldenbell@aol.com