Notes from Your Farmer

Folks, This Ain’t Normal…Joel Salatin

Dis-sensus…it is the environment where creativity, solutions and ingenuity thrive.  It is what we have going on in our country around food.  In our lives we tend to get together to “build consensus”.  Come to a common place in order to move forward.  We negotiate and compromise.  However, solutions come from another place.  They come from the individual mind, bouncing off others, forming fledgling ideas that eventually turn into the solutions that move forward change.

Joel waxed poetic as only Joel can do with his, humorous, adjectives, noun and verb descriptions of the world in which we participate.  It was, as usual, an inspiring and alarming call to action.  To spend our dollars on local foods, understand the value of healthy real food that is clean, unadulterated, sustainable food. 

It was a call for a cultural change.   To understand the current path our government and food systems are on, feel confident that there are solutions we can participate in and through education we can teach the world to feed itself along with the responsibility that comes with stewardship of the land.  And apathy is its enemy.   

Joel pointed out how our government has “segregated” our food system.  Farmers are allowed to grow food but not allowed to sell it to the consumer.  Think about it.  The current regulations came about 60 years ago, when we little to know understanding of the bacteria, germ theory, and the havoc that can be brought by unclean conditions and overcrowding in city food processing systems.  The solutions solved a short term problem but not long term.  Today we are saddled with these antiquated regulations, segregating our food from us.  From the push to hurry food using fertilizers to antibiotics, it is unhealthy for us, the animals, the land and the planet overall.

And apathy is the enemy.  Read his new book.  It is the best for overall education I have found to date.

And finally, thank you so much for supporting us and your food system.  We are flirting with profitability each month.  We would like to be solid for the rest of the year.  If each family brings 3 new families to the farm to tour, at least one will become a new member.  It’s the big push for May!   And apathy is its enemy…

Your “Take Action” Farmer, Tara Smith

Notes from Your Farmer

I Want to Hear From You!

The topic is organic food.  The question is:

”Why do you think only 1% of the population buys organic food (albeit growing)”.

Here are some thoughts to get you thinking down the right track and engaging people you know to find out their/your thoughts (assuming that you have this figured out for yourself)…

“It costs too much”.  1lb of steak purchased in the grocery store will cost you $815.  A small portion is paid at the checkout stand and the rest is in taxes to the farm bill, health care and environmental cleanup.  http://www.sierraclub.org/truecostoffood/

There is a 15 minute animation and all of the statistic references below the video.

Our steak will cost you $20 all in.  No taxes, all healthy, sustainable and regenerative.  Many people have said they save money as they don’t eat out as much during the month.  Health Care costs, if we eat more greens, less meat (even less of the good stuff and no one needs to eat a 12oz steak for dinner), the assumption is lower health care costs, right? 

“It is too inconvenient”:  Seems like that when we face change.  Nobody likes change if it is not solving a painful (financial, physical or emotional) experience.  It has to be one of those 3 for us to change something and unfortunately the “painful” part comes in a stressful way.  Whether it is needing to diet, cut back spending, end a relationship or mend one.  In the case of our food choices, for most of us, we are not in a painful place.  More of an annoyed place but not enough to do anything about it. (and don’t forget plain old “apathy”)

I love going to the grocery store to walk through the aisles, stand in the lines, pack it up to my car, put it in, take is out, unpack it at home, put more bags into the mess I store them in…ugh…OR  I could pick up my bag of meat, box of veggies once a week and go home.

My decision as to what to have for dinner is in my fridge or freezer.

Did I mention saving money, eating healthy with friends and good wine at home?

Those are my two discussion starters…what are yours?

Your “Pushy” Farmer, Tara Smith

Notes from Your Farmer

“Real Food needs time to grow and it needs the money to work with that in mind.  – Arno Hess, Slow Money

In other words, if we care about access to Real Food, Real Local, and Regeneration of our Environment we need to accept the fact that pushing food to grow “faster” will involve chemical inputs, inhumane practices, and environmental destruction.

The chemical inputs are showing up in our bodies through the applications of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.  Growth hormones, antibiotics and a host of other chemicals in the food sources of chickens, pigs, cows etc…are transferred to our bodies as we eat this “food”.

The inhumane treatment of industrial poultry plants, cattle feedlots and confined pig operations is horrifying.  Not to mention the quality, or lack thereof, of the meat from that system.  Stress is considered to be one of the most significant health risks to humans….don’t think that doesn’t apply to animals.  Hence the need for constant antibiotics/medications throughout the life of those animals to keep them alive (as a close friend commented one day “why go to the doctor when I can get all the antibiotics I need from the meat I buy at the grocery store”).  Hmmm, that’s an idea.

Environmental destruction is everywhere but most of us are not aware of how bad it has gotten.  Take a look at the CAFO production for pork in North Carolina (wikipedia – Intensive Pig Farming) will give you a shock, with pictures and links to articles etc.  70% of U.S. pork is raised there.  In 1995 a manure lagoon broke and released 25 million gallons of noxious sludge into North Carolina’s New River and killed approximately eight to ten million fish and created a dead zone where it dumps into the Atlantic Ocean.  Oops.

Hence the need for local farmers and Farm Membership i.e. the CSA model.

What does Farm Membership mean?

Technically it means you buy your weekly/monthly food from the farm on account.  It allows us to forecast what we will need to grow/raise today to feed you tomorrow and in the future.

Here is what it really means…

·         Feeding yourself/family healthy food that lends to less health issues and lower health costs.

·         Supporting a local business that puts your money back into the local economy by buying local.

·         Supporting the environment.  Reduction of greenhouse gases due to growth of perennial grasses year round that process CO2 out of the atmosphere. 

·         Humane treatment of animals, which you can see for yourself.

·         Regeneration of 300 acres of soil badly damaged by overgrazing for 200 years, increasing topsoil.

·         Education of thousands of kids and adults alike through our weekend free tours, school programs and Tara Firma Farms Institute for Agricultural Education.

But it isn’t easy, is it?  It is in-con-ven-ient (said with harsh tones and drama on each syllable).  I know. 

Nothing worth building, supporting or driving toward is easy or convenient until we get used to it.  You have to make adjustments…

·         Changing the way you plan meals.  You have learned to plan your meals vs running last minute to the grocery store (at least most of the time).

·         Changing what you eat.  Learning to eat seasonal foods, cooking with greens, slow cooking amazing meats, utilizing cuts you never heard of before.

·         Saving money. I hate that part (said, sarcastically of course). Lots of saved dollars eating at home with friends.  Local wine, local food at less than half the price of eating out not to mention the health of the fare you are sharing.

·         Eating out healthy - if you drink wine you know what a corkage fee is.  If you know your chef you can pay a moo fee, oink fee or baa baa baa fee.  Meet your chef and set up a fee that works for both of you.

·         Putting up with your friends that don’t care what they eat and being asked to eat at their home…relax on that one a bit. Help educate them or better yet, bring them out and let us do it.  If you eat mostly healthy then once in a while won’t kill you (at least we don’t think so).

·         Picking up your bag/box/egg carton or storing your bag/box/egg carton – Tedious for most but not the Petaluma members.  We began delivery door to door in Petaluma in January.  It is Convenient. It saves us hours of phone time with missed pick-ups and nothing goes to waste…yeah!  You will see door to door in your neighborhood soon!

CSA Member vs Shopping – “I will just come by to pick up my food instead of being a member”.

While we love our farm shoppers, it simply ISN’T the same.

·         Membership allows us to forecast what we need to raise/grow – veggies, chickens, pigs, cows and turkeys need time to grow!

·         You make a difference.  We need a minimum # of people on a delivery to make the finances work.  If you were the last person to make the minimum number and decide to “just shop” at the farm, the drop becomes costly and we scramble to increase membership or cancel that drop. The other members who picked up there are now trying to make another situation work for them.

·         We want you to know what is going on here – farm events, specials, piglets being born – if you aren’t getting our weekly/monthly food then you’re missing out on all the great stuff to participate in.

·         In-con-ven-ience (that word again). Chances are you will end up shopping somewhere else.  You want to support the farm, but now that the food isn’t given to you on a regular basis, you find it harder and harder to support the farm FIRST, the other stores second. You pick up that package of rib eyes at Whole Foods or that bag of lettuce (probably from Mexico) at Trader Joe’s.  Pretty soon you come out once a month and get a few things – not enough to last you more than a week and you forget that buying somewhere else is supporting the big ag production you didn’t intend to support.

·         Learning to eat seasonally.  Because grocery stores stock things like tomatoes year round, you can literally have whatever you want, whenever you want it.  But that mentality is part of what got us in this food mess to begin with, isn’t it?

·         Knowing your Farmer - do you know that those “free range” eggs are raised in the way you think/hope they are?  When you got eggs from us, you could literally see for yourself that the hens were out in the sunshine, eating grass and bugs.  But I’m sure that farmer in (where is that label again) Idaho is raising his hens outside too……right?

At the end of the day we choose our future and sometimes it is, let’s say it together, with nasty tones, and drama, “IN-CON-VEN-IENT”.  But only for a while. 

Remember Rosa Parks (my favorite story).  She sat on the bus in front.  She went to jail.  MLK paid her $14 fine to get her out and began a yearlong boycott of the bus system.  The day the State Government stopped paying subsidies to the bus system, the bus system said “sit wherever you want”. 

Vote with your dollars…take a stand for Real Food.  Become a member and bring your friends and neighbors.

We love and appreciate all of you.  

Conveniently, Your Farmer Tara Smith

Notes from Your Farmer

From the Farmer Note Classics, last year about this time:

A little bit of lice is good for you!

Knowing me as the positive person I am, many of you might now think I have lice and am trying to come up with a silver lining on my way to have my head shaved…Which I would do (the shaving part), maybe….However, what I have learned about lice makes sense…why I learned it is a different story……

This time of year the pigs will get lice.  A little lice is fine for the older pigs but the piglets get depressed.  They really do.  It is a bit overwhelming for them.

The internet cure for piglets is all about pesticides… lovely.   The treatment most recommended for you and your children is also a pesticide and highly toxic.   It is the ingredient Permethrin.  It is a synthetic chemical pesticide that works as a neurotoxin.  It kills the insect and in quantity can kill brain cells.  It is bad stuff to put on your head.  It doesn’t work much anymore because it doesn’t kill the eggs of the adult lice.  The stronger of those that hatch build a resistance and hence the Permethrin only kills the weaker of the pesky things.  Leaving a stronger strain to deal with while you poison yourself…isn’t that special.  But there is something that actually kills not only the adult lice but the eggs too.  Natural and non toxic to humans - Tea Tree, Neem and Karanja Oil.  The eggs are killed and the lice are gone.  The best mix out there we found is by Access Nutraceuticals Inc.  (you can Google licekiller.com). 

Not willing to wait for an order to be delivered I took the Tea Tree oil off my shelf and mixed it with an organic shampoo.  Armed with a bucket and brush I walked out to the piglets.  Now piglets are not excited about cold water in winter and they do not wish to be bathed in a tub.  But sometimes mom’s gotta to do what mom’s gotta do.  Just like holding the dog in the tub, we put the piglets in one by one and gave them a Tea Tree oil bath.  The sound that comes from a piglets mouth when it does not want a bath is something one should not put on a bucket list of experiences to have in ones lifetime.  OMG.  It is the worst screeching, high pitched nasty sound on the planet.  If you didn’t know better you would think they were having a leg cut off and they don’t stop screeching until you put them back on the ground, at which time they just stop. Instant silence and they walk away.   Just like a human baby, one of them had to poop and at the same time try to jump out, splashing poop water all over me and particularly in my face (I love my job, I love my job).  After getting 9 or so cleaned up I took a break, staring at the little herd digging around the greens in their pasture.  Half of them were so clean compared to the other half that were not bathed yet.  The difference was striking.  I remembered Wilbur and how he glistened when the farmer’s wife gave him a buttermilk bath.  I also remember that he stood there enjoying it.  Duped again.  Covered in mud, pig poop and feeling good about the morning, I walked back toward the house that would offer a shower.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, even a little bit of lice (kicks in your immune system).  I stopped to talk to one of our members walking with her young daughter.  The sweet, cute little darling scrunched up her nose at me and whispered to her mom “she smells bad”.  That I did.

Your Farmer, Tara Smith.          

Notes from Your Farmer

What does Uganda have to do with Tara Firma Farms?

Nothing and yet, everything.

Peter Frances Lustwata heads up a group in Uganda feeding 200,000 families.  This is food they get to choose, this is the only food they get, period.

Fascinating in that it is all organic.  They cannot afford chemicals. 

The Uganda Rural Community Support Foundation: ugandarural.org.

There is a U.S. site also:  goworks.org

There are so many opportunities to participate with this group.  Sending our young adults there to participate in many good works.  It is safe and the programs and well set up.  They can use all the help they can get but there is a huge value in participating.

Seeing the difference and participating in it tends to grow not only minds but hearts.

Peter was here yesterday and walked around looking at what we have going on here.  Perhaps the shock for him is the wealth of land, food, and how our country lacks an understanding of what real food is.  I was about to explain it, my understanding of it but it seemed to be not understandable from his perspective (or at least that is what I thought would happen so I didn’t try). 

What I know is we are leaders in the world and you are part of a much broader movement to take back our lives, the accountability for them.  We are in such a position to do so.

Take a peek at the website.  You may find it inspiring.  

Your humbled Farmer, Tara Smith

Notes from Your Farmer

An Intimate Dinner with Your Farmer and an opportunity to grow the Membership!

Wondering what to do this weekend?  Friends coming for dinner that love the food you serve?  In an effort to grow the family farm membership one of our members recommended the “Farmer” come to dinner.  Works for me.  Talking farm, food and the hilarious stories that go on around here.

Great idea, I love it when someone else cooks! 

So I am inviting myself to your home, if you are game to invite a few neighbors and fun friends, to hear about life on the farm, the industry and whatever intrigues your guests to learn about (these conversations are always amusing for everyone and insightful).   The dinners we have attended so far are full great conversation, laughs, surprise and of course, great food.  Another option is to grill here!  Bring your friends on tour, and we will join you for an early dinner down at the tent!  Another great way to grow farm membership and community.

If you are interested, contact me directly tara@tarafirmafarms.com.  We can figure out a date that works. 

If you haven’t been out in a bit, the piglets are in abundance, running everywhere, unbelievably cute…come visit!

Your Farmer, Tara Smith

Ode to an Early Spring!

Babies Babies
Everywhere
It seems like spring
Is in the air

The little piglets, oh so cute
Their digging acumen
Is quite astute.

Moving rocks
for that scrumptious worm
their palate is complex
in it’s ability to discern.

Chicks on pasture
Running about
Roosters strutting
As if they have clout.

The cows eating sweet grass
Up to their knees
The garden is busy
With pollinating bees.

Such beautiful days
Here on the farm
Come and visit
Take a break
It will do you no harm.

Your connection
To this place
The quiet and sun
Is more than just food
Or Playing or fun.

Its sitting and thinking
Enjoying a moment
With friends and family
It’s a healthy component

To be still and ponder
What is happy to you
That wine shared with friends
Those things that you do

Like rolling down hill
With one kid on top
Or running to catch up
With the one that won’t stop!

Bring your friends
And a blanket
Pick some lettuce
And grill!

The fun and the memories
In our children instill
That the best times we’ve had
Were the simple ones you see

It was easy and fun
A gift given freely
A gift of attention
Given to each other with grace

It leaves memories
That bring smiles
To everyone’s face.

Share the peace
Simple pleasures of laughter abound
This secret, this farm
And the love all around.

Bring your babies to see ours! your farmer.