News from Terra Firma Farm

    The ads for fertilizers and pesticides in publications targeting farmers often use beautiful photographs of equally beautiful produce, presumably grown using their products.
But a beautiful picture can also paint a shocking -- and truthful -- portrait of the cost of industrial agriculture. Photographs taken from the air over industrial waste sites in the southeastern U.S. by photographer J. Henry Fair present stunning vistas of horrendous waste -- thousands of acres of land covered with the toxic and radioactive residues created by the production of phosphate fertilizer, aluminum, and other fundamental elements in our consumer economy. To me, these photos perfectly sum up the rather obtuse academic term "externalizing environmental costs". I as a fossil fuel consumer don't have to live in an industrial wasteland, or pay to clean it up. But part of the reason I can drive to the store instead of having to walk is because that wasteland exists somewhere.
   As I already mentioned, several of the sites that J. Henry Fair photographed result from the mining and production of phosphate fertilizers. Phosphorus is one of the three primary nutrients required for plant growth (nitrogen and potassium are the others), and phosphate fertilizers are an essential component in large-scale conventional agriculture.
   Most consumers, media outlets, and even advocates for organic farming tend to focus almost exclusively on pesticide usage as the primary reason to eat organic food. But synthetic conventional fertilizers shouldn't be overlooked. While the production of nitrate fertilizers is a relatively benign process using atmospheric nitrogen, they cause ecological problems when they leach into ground and surface water.
But as this slideshow illustrates and discusses, phosphate fertilizers have a much more serious impact. The most commonly acknowledged is their devastating effect on salt water ecosystems, illustrated by the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. I confess I had no idea of the toxic legacy of the mining and refining process. How "cheap", really, is an inexpensive fertilizer or the inexpensive food grown using it if this is the result?
Like petroleum, phosphates are a non-renewable resource that we will eventually run out of and have to learn to live without. Unlike petroleum, there is a readily available renewable source of phosphates -- animal manure -- that is already being used by organic farmers as fertilizer. But majority of manure generated by livestock currently is currently treated as waste instead of fertilizer. And although improperly applied manure is a potential pollutant, when properly composted it is an ecologically safe fertilizer. It's the solution both to the coming shortage of synthetic phospates, and the massive collateral damage it causes.

. Thanks,
Pablito

Around the Farm
After a big burst of activity back in Junuary, it's been pretty quiet in the Planting Department here at TFF with regular storms keeping the ground too wet to get much done. We have a greenhouse full of tomato plants that need to go outside, as well as a long list of spring and summer crops to get seeded. The fields for this stuff are all ready, but they're still too wet.
Many of the crops that will make up your Spring boxes, though, have been in the ground for a while now and are growing nicely. Peas got a late start but are on schedule to start harvest in mid- April. Spring Onions are adding girth and will replace Leeks in your boxes soon. And when we finished cleaning up the Strawberry field last week, we were able to see that it has begun to flower in earnest. The stormy weather in the forecast isn't going to lead to any big early harvest, though, and I wouldn't bet on getting any berries until the last week of April.
As we approach the Equinox, our very light Minneola Tangelo crop is finally ripening. We have begun harvesting fruit and you will see them in your boxes next week. We still have a week or so's worth of Oroblanco grapefruit left, and once those are gone, we'll start picking the Ruby Reds.
Late winter and early spring is a green time in Northern California, especially in a very wet year like this one, and you can continue to expect to see that reflected in your boxes as the season progresses.

Broccoli, Italian Style. Chances are, any Broccoli you get in your boxes this time of year isn't the industry-standard big head with a thick stem. Instead, it's probably a golf-ball sized floret atop a long, skinny stem covered with small leaves. This is "side-shoot" broccoli, or as the restaurants call it "De Cicco". It grows after the primary head is cut off the plant, and we harvest it to fill in the gaps between our successions of broccoli. Although it is much more time-consuming to harvest, this time of year we are just happy to have any broccoli for you at all.

Two sizes of De Cicco

If you prepare and cook this broccoli the same way as its older sibling, the results will be disappointing. You will throw away much of the good stuff and end up with just a few tablespoons of over-cooked florets. Instead, think of "De Cicco" broccoli more like asparagus: a stalk of which every part can be eaten.
Unlike head broccoli, the stem of De Cicco usually is tender and doesn't need to be peeled. Just trim the dried end at the bottom (like asparagus). If the stem is fatter than your pinky, peel the fattest part and slice it in half lengthwise. If it's as fat as your (my) thumb, cut the halves in half again. It is more than 6 inches long, you may want to cut it in half lengthwise.
The leaves are part of the vegetable. Continuing with the finger comparisons: if they are longer than your middle finger, cut them off and remove the thickest stem at the bottom -- but still cook them. If they are smaller, there is no need to remove them at all.
Then, simply cook the broccoli the way you would cook asparagus, sauteing over high heat or toss with oil and roasting until tender. Once you've gotten used to eating broccoli this way, the biggest problem might be going back to the other stuff.

Recipe -- Blackened Broccoli DeCicco. It's Mardi Gras week, and in that theme, you can prepare your broccoli with Cajun spices and a hot skillet.

You can purchase all natural blackened seasoning or make it yourself as follows: combine 1 T. paprika, 1 t. cayenne, 3/4 t. each black and white pepper, and 1/2 t. each dried thyme and oregano.
Trim 2 lbs. broccoli side shoots as described above.
In a large bowl, mix 3 T. canola or peanut oil with 2 T. blackened seasoning and 1/2 t. salt. Toss the broccoli with the oil mix to coat well.
Mince green garlic to make 3 T.
Juice one lemon.
Heat a cast iron skillet or wok until it is smoking (don't add any oil).
Cook the broccoli in batches to ensure that every piece is touching the pan. Use tongs to flip the shoots, cooking on both sides until well-browned.
When all the broccoli is seared, add back to the pan with the garlic and lemon juice and cook for another 60 seconds.