Today, the Whole Foods near where I live took a bus of 28 customers to visit 3 local growers - one who supplies produce to the store, one who will in the near future, and a third who hopefully will in the not-so-near future. Since I'm still getting familiar with the local food system here in SoCal, I decided to tag along.
I'll just go through and describe the farms in this diary, but if there's an overall point I can make from this experience, it's that I'm thrilled to see Whole Foods connecting with local farms and including its customers so they can build relationships with the people who grow our food and the land and climate that makes it possible.
Obviously, there's a lot more to do - even in sunny California, you find fruits from S. America on the grocery store shelves - but this is a start. Now's the time to keep asking retailers like Whole Foods for local organic products, to make sure that trips like the one today are more than just greenwashing.
We started off at 8:30am, which felt like sleeping in for me, after a full week of 6am shifts in the bakery. Much of the bus was taken up by local Slow Food members, plus several people who seemed to be there on their own and four Whole Foods employees (including two who organized the event). I sat next to a woman named Sharon who works as a high school secretary and shares my love for Steven Pratt, author of SuperfoodsRx.
I tried to take a nap on the bus, as I was already headachey for the day, but after I gave up, I opened my eyes to the most beautiful scenery. Everything around was lush and green, with gorgeous mountains in the background. I've gotten used to the mountains around here, but typically I see the characteristic chaparral landscape, not lush greenery.
Noel's Farm
We pulled up to the first of the three farms, which was also the biggest, and the only current supplier to our Whole Foods that we would visit. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the farm and all of my attempts to use the Google to find it have failed me.
The owner, Noel, came out to greet us (with his two dogs, Australian shepherds who were both soaking wet) and one of his employees served us absolutely spectacular guacamole and fresh squeezed orange juice. I went back for seconds and thirds.
Noel started talking to us about his farm, and we listened while looking around at nearby blackberry bushes and avocado trees and petting his wet dogs (who definitely smelled of wet dog!). Noel and a brother grew up on the farm, which their dad owned before passing it on to them. I believe he said it was about 600 acres. They grow blueberries, blackberries, all kinds of citrus, and avocados (I'm sure I'm forgetting something!). Noel also sells other products, such as snails (a certain kind of snail he told us was a snail-eating snail... it rids farmers of the kind of snails that are considered pests).
When Noel was born, his father was in the conventional chicken business. He gave up chickens while Noel was young (on what Noel called the happiest day of his life... and after getting a whiff of the big pile of chicken poop he used as fertilizer, I understood why) and began farming some of the crops we saw there today.
The farm wasn't organic back then, but today it is 100% certified organic. Noel also manages land for neighbors who are absentee owners, and he told us that land is in transition to become organic as well. He described the three-year transition, telling us how "the soil goes crazy" in that time. On a conventional farm, he said, the soil is basically sterilized against all weeds. At first, when you begin to go organic, it stays that way. After three years, you'll have weeds everywhere... not necessarily a good thing as the weeds compete with your crops, but it certainly makes a statement about the fertility of the soil and the lack of pesticides and other toxic chemicals remaining.
The main reason for the high cost of organics, he said, was labor. With conventional pesticides, one farmer can go around his farm and spray everything in about four days. Without them, he must pay for labor - and a lot of extra oil to run machinery required to do all the extra work. He has begun using biodiesel, but he doesn't produce a large amount just yet. He also showed us his solar panels, which he uses to keep his power bill down.
I asked him about his opinions on the 2007 farm bill and he gave an interesting answer. For someone like him who grows specialty crops, instead of getting subsidies, he can apply for grants. Then he'll foot the initial cost of doing whatever it is that the grant specifies (like trying out a new kind of mulch, for example) and after he does it and his farm is checked to make sure he really did, he gets reimbursed.
Bella Vado
From there it was a short drive to our second stop, Bella Vado, a small organic family farm (if I remember right, they said 40 acres) that grows citrus and avocados and processes avocado oil which will soon be available at my local Whole Foods.
We watched as their machines pitted and peeled avocados, then agitated and mixed the flesh as it got thinner and thinner, finally separating out the oil, which we saw pouring out the end of the machine.
Then, of course, we got to try eating the avocado oil. They make it with a machine also used for olive oil, and you can eat it as you would olive oil, as a salad dressing or a bread dip. Each visitor got a little bottle of oil to take home.
They also sell lotions, soaps, and lip balm made from their oil. While Sharon and I were trying out the lotions, another woman approached us and recommended we wash our hands after touching the dogs. She said they were wet from their baths, which they needed because they had rolled around in the big pile of chicken manure. I expressed hope that their baths were rather thorough and she added "He probably just hosed them off." I walked away from her and resolved to wash my hands with soap before eating anything (which I did).
Tierra Miguel
Our last stop (and lunch) was at Tierra Miguel, a non-profit farm that offers a CSA and uses the philosophies of "biodynamics" to grow its crops. Biodynamics, so far as I can tell, is the practice of the belief that nature is fucking smart and we humans will do best not by trying to overpower or outsmart her, but by trying to work with her.
Thus, Tierra Miguel was not free of weeds, but the man showing us around told us that nature never likes monoculture and that each of the weeds had both good and bad properties to them. Of course, they do some weeding there - they just aren't obsessive about it.
They also let their lettuce go to seed. First, of course, they harvested what they could from it, but afterwards they let it stick around a while before finally tilling it under, to continue to serve whatever purpose it could, such as providing a home for beneficial insects, or whatever it did.
Unlike Noel, who had hives and hives of rented bees, Tierra Miguel tried to attract local bees. (Noel's bees would leave his farm in a few weeks to go make honey in South Dakota, then return to California to an almond farm before coming back to visit Noel once again.)
From what I could tell, they were also planning to start experimenting with permaculture, to plant their crops without first disrupting the soil in the future. Currently, Tierra Miguel is too small to supply Whole Foods, but apparently Whole Foods hopes to work with them as they grow and to offer their products in the future.
I've gotten ahead of myself, because before we walked around and looked at their fields, we ate. Lunch was mostly vegan (entirely vegetarian), made from all of the foods we saw on our trip - salad with dressing made from avocado oil, a mushroom lentil pate, guacamole (on top of all of the guacamole we'd already eaten... I know it's the good fat, but geez!), and blueberries and strawberries for dessert.
Tierra Miguel regularly welcomes visitors on the first Saturday of each month, so we joined in with their activities, first listening to a talk about GMOs, then splitting up to either go strawberry picking or tour the farm. I toured the farm, which I've basically described above.
Before the tour, I spent all the cash I had with me ($10) at Tierra Miguel's fruit & veggie stand on strawberries, tiny grape tomatoes, and beets. I started snacking on the berries and the tomatoes during the tour and rushed back before boarding the bus to go home to inquire whether they took checks. They did, so I got more strawberries and tomatoes and a few apples too.
So, that's my day visiting local growers. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but the two people who arranged the trip both genuinely believe in buying local food and I know they are doing what they can to bring more into the local Whole Foods store. I think a part of the challenge is getting more of their customers to understand the benefits of eating locally and seaonslly (which doesn't mean a lot of restrictions here in SoCal), and hopefully today's trip and future events will help to accomplish that.
Tierra Miguel Salad
Dressing:
1 bunch cilantro (yes, CSI, cilantro)
1/4 bunch Italian parsley
1 c. orange flavored avocado oil
1/4 c. orange juice
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper (optional, because I don't like it)
Salad:
1 red onion, sliced into rings (again, optional bc I don't like it)
2 heads of romaine, bibb or other greens, torn
3 oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4" wheels
2 avocados, sliced
1 jicama, peeled and julienned
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
chile powder
Serves 8