News from Terra Firma Farm

          Have you ever driven through a rural area -- maybe I-5 through the Central Valley, or perhaps 101 down the Salinas Valley -- and wondered why some land is planted in vineyards, some in orchards, other in vegetables or hay, while still other has livestock grazing on it?
    There are many reasons why one farmer might grow, say, lettuce, while her neighbor grows, say almonds. Many times it boils down to tradition, as for most farmers agriculture is still a multi-generational business. They grow what their parents grew, especially if their parents planted an orchard or invested in specific processing equipment for a certain crop.
   Climate and microclimates also play a huge role in what farmers grow. Hilltops and hillsides in many areas of California tend to stay warm on cold nights, when the frosty air slides downhill into the valleys.
And of course, the availability of irrigation water plays a huge role. If a piece of farmland is located along an irrigation canal, or has a groundwater well with a pump, much more can be grown on it than the same piece of land without water.
All that said, the single most important factor in what crops are grown on a piece of land is the soil type. Every farmer knows this, although few laypeople who haven't taken a soil science class do. There are hundreds of types of soil in California alone, each and every one classified by a universal system and mapped by the Soil Conservation Service of the USDA (now the NRCS). You can look at a map of all the soils in your county (or any other county), and a detailed description and evaluation of each of them, online.
Not all soils are good for farming. There are soils that are nearly perfect for farming just about anything, soils that are more limited, and those that won't grow much at all. There's no such thing as "Bad Soil", but there is bad soil for farming. "Good soils" are a balance of different particles (sand, silt, and clay) as well as organic matter. Too much of any one of those will limit what can be grown in it. Too many rocks and gravel in soil also limit its usefulness for agriculture. Another important element is the depth of the soil and what lies under it.
    The better the soil is for farming, the more food it produces using the least fertilizer, water, fuel and pesticides. This is why most environmental groups recognize preservation of good farmland as a key tenet of ecological sustainability.
   Something else many Californians don't know: our state's irrigation system was designed from the start to bring water to the areas with the best soils for farming. Since reservoirs tend to be in the mountains and good farmland in valleys, this was a natural fit -- especially since very little energy is needed to make water run downhill.
   It's true that throughout history, civilizations have survived in areas without much good soil by developing crops suited to their landscapes. Olives and grapes thrived in the rocky Mediterrean hillsides of ancient Italy and Greece, for example. But to sustain their populations, both civilizations ended up conquering other nations with better farmland. Rice is the only major staple crop that has been bred to grow on land that is otherwise useless for farming -- poorly drained soils that flood annually.
    California's valuable agricultural soils are not protected by any state or federal laws the way some of its unique natural habitats are. Local zoning laws in agricultural areas often give lip service to preserving the best land, but even a quick look at the NRCS soil maps reveals the truth: most new development in California in the past twenty years has been built on good farmland. The only state law aimed at protecting farmland is a tax credit called the Williamson Act that rewards landowners for keeping their land in agriculture. Unfortunately, the Act has repeatedly been a target of budget cutters in the assembly and governors office, dismissed as a tax break for wealthy landowners.
     Eventually, tax credits alone will not be enough to stop the destruction of critical farmland. Human populations will keep growing and good soil will be paved over until rising food prices force a shift in the economic and political reality that currently undervalues farmland.

. Thanks,
Pablito

In your boxes
I have a recurring dream where I am walking through empty fields looking for vegetables to harvest, wondering how we are going to fill the boxes. In the dream, I sometimes discover fields that I had forgotten we had planted, full of crops ready to pick.
In reality, there are no fields like this. But early March is a time of year when we revisit fields that we haven't harvested for a while, looking for leftovers that may have gotten overlooked. This week, a frosty morning walk yielded a patch of uncut Arugula in an otherwise picked-over field. We bunched that and put it into the Large boxes. There was also a section of Lettuce that we had cut for salad mix back in December that had regrown and formed small heads. We harvested those and put them into the Small boxes. If you got either of these items in your boxes, you will have to wash them thoroughly -- separating the leaves and then soaking them in water two or three times to remove a winter's worth of silt that storm rains have splashed into the nooks and crannies.
The Curly Kale in today's Medium and Large boxes isn't in a bunch, the way we usually harvest it. That's because the stems on this particular crop never grew long enough. Instead, the kale grew bushy and low to the ground, most likely owing to the fact that it was planted in late fall. The plants are now beginning to flower, meaning they are finished growing. So we simply cut them off just above ground and sent you the whole thing, The center stalk is woody and inedible, and should be discarded.

Greens -- the Healthy Fast food. There are alot of greens in your boxes today. I know some will be thrilled, but others wondering how they will eat them. Here is one preparation method that can be used to make several different filling main course dishes, none taking more than 15 minutes.

Trim the tough stems from a bunch of chard or kale (skip this step for spinach). Rinse, drain, and chop roughly. Heat 2 T. olive oil in a pan with a dash of hot pepper flakes. Chop 1 stem of green garlic , add to the pan and saute for 2 minutes. Raise the heat to high and add the greens, cooking until they are tender. Season with salt.

In Quesadillas:

Grate 1 C. of cheddar or jack cheese.

In a separate pan, heat flour tortillas on one side it begins to fluff up. Flip it and sprinkle cheese on one side, then use a fork to add several greens (the cooking liquid will make the tortilla soggy). Fold the tortilla, cook another 1-2 minutes and serve.

With Ravioli:

Defrost a package of your favorite locally-made, high quality ravioli. Boil water and cook the ravioli. Drain.

Serve the ravioli topped with the greens and their cooking liquid, with grated romano cheese on the side.

In Scrambled Eggs:

Crack six eggs into a bowl and whisk with a fork. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.

Heat 1 T. olive oil in a pan and add the eggs. When they are beginning to stiffen but still slightly liquid, add the cooked greens along with 1/2 C. soft goat cheese or ricotta. Stir until the eggs are done. Serve with toast.

Bonus Recipe -- Carrot Cake Muffins. Got some extra TFF carrots in your produce drawer? Here's a whole-grain recipe from the New York Times that will make a dent in them. These take about 10 minutes to make, minus baking time.

Heat the oven to 375.
Combine 2 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour, 2 t. baking powder, 1 t. baking soda, 1 t. each cinnamon and nutmeg, and 1/2 t. each allspice, cloves, and salt. Sift to combine.

In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs and combine with 1/2 C. turbinado or brown sugar, 1/3 C. canola oil, 1 t. vanilla extract, and 1 1/3 C. buttermilk.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and add 1 1/2 C. grated carrots and 3/4 C. chopped walnuts. Mix well, then spoon into a muffin tin and bake 25 minutes.