News from Terra Firma Farm

Greetings!
The "Buy Local" movement has had lots of successes in the past few years, but if anyone still needed any evidence of how much room for improvement remains, the Sacramento area makes it pretty clear. The Sacto Area Council of Governments found that less than two percent (2%!) of the food eaten in the area is grown by local growers. This is not in Omaha, Nebraska or New York City, but in a small city in the center of one of the most productive farming areas in the country, where fresh produce can be grown year round.
   There are lots of reasons for this phenomenon. And it's true that even here at TFF -- halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco , the vast majority of our produce goes west on Hwy. 80 instead of east.
When you live in a place surrounded by farms but you hardly ever eat the food they are growing, you tend to take them for granted. To the average Sacramentan flying into the airport over the valley, or driving past fields of processing tomatoes stretching to the horizon, the farmland seems to be infinite. What does it matter if suburbs keep swallowing it up. It's not where my food comes from.
Folks living in big cities in the Bay Area are even more removed from daily contact with agriculture: some romanticize it, others villainize it. A few take the time to develop a deeper connection by shopping at the farmers' market or joining a CSA. Most remain largely ignorant about where and how their food is grown. This is a marketing opportunity, and not just for businesses like Terra Firma.
    Perhaps you've seen an ad for the trademarked "Cuties" clementine citrus, or are familiar with the trademarked "POM Wonderful" pomegranate juice. With brilliant product development and marketing the company behind them have successfully created a warm, fuzzy feeling in the hearts of consumers who purchase these healthy, natural brands. Unlike most farmers, they have a generous budget to do it, and they should: Stuart and Linda Resnick are two of the richest people in California. In addition to their extensive fruit orchards, they are also the largest almond and pistachio grower/producer in the state, selling under the name Paramount Farms.
    Sadly, the Resnicks' branding flies in the face of their scorched-earth business practices, which they have used to destroy dozens of smaller competitors. For the most part, they fit many urbanites worst stereotype of the corporate farmers: billionaires who rely heavily on political donations to secure subsidized public water resources while refusing to share their success with the army of employees who tend to their tens of thousands of acres of orchards. In the small town of Lost Hills located in the middle of this farming empire, where almost 100% of the residents work for the Resnicks, people don't even have a place to buy fresh food. The highest paid workers on their farms make less than $9 an hour.
   If you're interested in reading more of the Steinbeckian story, check out this article in the Earth Island Journal. And if you know someone who raves about Cuties and POMWonderful who you think might want to know about the company's actual business practices, forward it along. Better yet, try to get it in the hands of someone who writes for the Chronicle.
   As long as most people continue to get less than 2% of their food from local sources, it will remain easy for agribusinesses to create a warm and fuzzy image for products without much accountability for their business practices. As the Buy Local movement progresses, it will be critical to call draw contrasts between businesss that are trying to do the right thing, and those with big advertising budgets.

Thanks,
                 Pablito

Dreading TFF's Vacation?
Are you one of our subscribers who feels lost at the end of December, with two whole weeks between TFF's last delivery of 2010 and the first of 2011? We feel your pain. But there are three different ways you can stock up your fridge and pantry with extra TFF goodies to get you through the holiday season:
1) Size up your box. If you normally get a Small box, switch to Medium for your last delivery. If you get a Medium, go to Large. You can switch back for your next deliver. Click on "Change subscription" in the right hand screen, and then click on the size you want.
2) Get two boxes. You can add a second box, of any size, to your delivery any week of the year that you need extra produce. Just click on the "more" button to get a second box of the same size, or "Add" for box of a different size.
3) Extra Mandarins. Want to serve fresh OJ for a holiday breakfast, or mix it with a little bubbly on New Year's Day? Order a 5 lb. box (or three) so you'll have plenty of fresh citrus to keep you healthy while we're on vacation. Go to the "Web Store" in the upper right hand corner of your account screen.
4) Try out our new Holiday Share: a second box that you will receive the last week of December, chock full of extra fruits and veggies. No space in the fridge? No worries -- the majority of the items in this box will store just fine on your kitchen counter or on the back porch. Think apples, spuds, sweet potatoes, butternut, cabbage, carrots and beets. There will be some mandarins, too, but if you really blow through those, you'll want a 5 lb. box as well.
You can choose any or all of these options by logging into your account and adding to your regular delivery.

New Stuff

Way back in the 1990s, we used to grow bulb Fennel at Terra Firma. Fennel is a cool season crop, and it was always difficult for us to grow the transplants during our hot summers. When we lost a whole field to aphids one year, we gave up growing it completely.
Fast forward to 2010. We now get a large portion of our fall transplants from an organic nursery in Gilroy, where the climate is much cooler in July and August. And beginning this year, we are using a new biological insecticide to control aphids that has no negative affects on delicate plants. So, we decided to plant a small field of Fennel and see if we could once again successfully grow it.
The results are in Medium and Large boxes today: a nice sized bulb for your eating pleasure. Fennel can be used in many ways, but the most common are fresh in salads, or roasted/sauteed. Tossed raw with a tasty vinagrette, fennel is crisp and refreshing, with a definite anise flavor. Caramelized by high heat, it gets quite sweet and aromatic with a licorice undertone.
Either way, the vegetable is usually thinly sliced across the base after separating it into individual sections. It is one of the trickier vegetables to prepare correctly. If you haven't done it before, you might want to watch this video. In it, they refer to fennel as "anise", to the stalks as "fronds" and to the base as "the root". These parts are too tough and fibrous to eat, but they have tons of flavor in them and make great broth -- as in the recipe below.
The other new item in your boxes today is Watermelon Radish, a type of Asian radish that gets much larger than European radishes without losing its crisp texture or mild flavor. It is also a beautiful vegetable -- green on the outside and red in the center, like a watermelon. Like most radishes, it is meant to be eaten raw or pickled. Watermelon radish is best when thinly sliced or grated.

Fennel Risotto with lemony roasted broccoli
You can make the risotto ahead of time and reheat it when the broccoli is ready. Despite the fennel broth and sauteed fennel, this risotto is very mild flavored and needs the tangy broccoli to bring it to life. Broccoli cooked this way is also delicious served with just about anything else, as well.
Remove the stems, core, and any leaves from 1 bulb of fennel. Place them in a pot with 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
Thinly slice the rest of the fennel bulb. Saute in 2 T. olive oil with a dash of hot pepper flakes until soft and beginning to brown. Add 1 C. arborio rice and gently toast for 2 minutes. Add 1 C. white wine to deglaze the pan.
Add 1/2 C. of the fennel broth at a time, allowing the rice to absorb the liquid before adding more. You will end up using at least 5 cups of broth.
Meanwhile, trim 1 lb. of broccoli and cut the stems into thin 2 inch pieces, slicing the florets in halves or quarters. Toss with 1 T. olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until nicely browned, stirring several times.
Remove the zest from 1 lemon and add it to the risotto. Juice the lemon and pour the juice over the broccoli, then roast for another 1-2 minutes.
When the risotto is creamy and the kernels fully cooked, remove from heat and add 1/2 C. grated parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve the risotto topped with the broccoli.