News from Terra Firma Farm

I heard a piece on KQED's California Report last week about how widely farmers in the state have adopted "technology" on their farms, embracing computers and the internet to help manage their businesses. Farmers are use the internet to check the weather, communicate with customers and vendors, and even help deal with bureaucratic regulations.

So it would make perfect sense that technology would now be helping farmers source of their most important inputs: seeds. The internet is perfect way to scour the world for the best varieties, the best prices, the nearest suppliers, and plenty of information about them, right? Wrong.

Enter the world of the seed industry, a place where information is tightly controlled and protected, and products are sold through a regional old-boy network in which who you know is more important than what you know. Salesmen (and they are most often men) protect their commissions and their customers by hording the best varieties and keeping them secret. Most seed companies make decisions about what to grow based on their own internal decisions, rather than doing market research or other modern methods. The primary goal is to produce expensive patented varieties that create profit for the company, rather than provide the best crops for farmers or the best experience for consumers. Monsanto -- the world's largest seed company -- is famous for following this blueprint of bad business practices.

Small farms like Terra Firma are particularly disadvantaged under the current system, where one large grower can buy up all the seed for a new variety say, of watermelons, and gain a huge market advantage. Because we buy small amounts, we also have to pay higher prices. Worse still, we are at the mercy of the seed companies. They routinely discontinue popular and successful crop varieties when the patents expire, offering "new and better" ones. They aren't always better, but they are always more expensive.

There currently exists no Internet clearing house for seeds. So when the regional seed companies I work with tell me they are "sold out" of our favorite broccoli, there is no way for me to quickly check and see if another regional seed company might have it available. I have to go to individual seed company websites and check them one by one.
Researching new varieties is even harder. If you don't know what the best new green bean variety is called, you can't search for someplace to buy it. You have to pore through pages and pages of seed company websites and university field trials.

I dream of a fully searchable website that has aggregated all the seed company offerings in the world and all the research done on them. It would have user reviews ala Amazon.com, so that farmers would have an objective source of information about the products. There would be lists of suppliers ranked by price. At the same time, it would be a place for any and all seed companies to advertise and promote their products -- providing funding to run the site and keep costs down. It would revolutionize and democratize a thoroughly outdated and inefficient market -- the very definition of disruptive technology.

Who would benefit? Farmers, of course, by getting better access to the best crop varieties at the best prices. Consumers, because better varieties mean better food at lower prices. Small seed companies and seed producers, who would now have access to a national and global market without spending millions of dollars on marketing. The three companies that control the world's seed market would still presumably continue to dominate the market. But they would be forced by pure capitalism to listen to the end users of their products: farmers and consumers. If they were not willing to produce the types of seeds the market demanded, other companies would step in and fill the demand.

A billion dollar market somehow has been missed by the legions of tech entrepreneurs looking for the next killer app. Anyone interested in taking it on?

Thanks,

Pablito

In your boxes
Seed breeders in Asia have been working on their varieties for thousands of years, and while most are still unknown to U.S. consumers, they often combine dozens of traits that make them appealing to farmers and eaters both: good looks, great taste, super nutritional value, ease of growing, bug and disease resistance.
Bok Choy is a great example. It's related to broccoli and cabbage, but unlike the former -- which we grow just for the head and throw away the leaves -- the entire plant is delicious. And unlike the latter, which takes up to 4 months to get to full size, bok choy is ready for harvest in just 6 weeks. It doesn't need much fertilizer, and has good resistance to bugs that plague its relatives.
We learned early in our farming career that full-sized bok choy provides more vegetable than most of our customers want -- one plant can weigh 5 lbs. or more. So we were happy to discover Mei Quing, or Baby Bok Choy, which is a fraction of that size. Both the stems and leaves of MQ are milder and more delicate than its full size Choy siblings, making it a good choice either for cooking or shredding and eating raw in salad. Fall is bok choy season around here, so you will see the vegetable two or three more times in your boxes before the dead of winter.

Following the nutty theme from last week, we are celebrating Walnut harvest this week by sending out more nuts. Small boxes get Pistachios, while Medium and Large subscribers get Walnuts. All these nuts are last year's crop. We keep the nuts fresh by refrigerating them, and we recommend you do the same -- on the offhand chance you don't eat them all the day you get them.

If you're getting a Small box today, you've got Asian Pears. These are eaten crisp-ripe, like apples.

If you're getting a Medium or Large box today, the Pears in your boxes today are not Asian Pears, but rather the European type (Bartlett). That means that they are meant to be eaten soft-ripe, but are picked and sent to you while still firm. You can eat them this way, but they will not be as sweet or juicy. To ripen fully, leave in a paper bag until they are soft.

As we anticipated, the rain last week and then again on Monday put an end to our 2011Tomato season. Any fruit that might have ripened this week was split open by the rain. There is still some undamaged green fruit in the field, but the cooler weather in unlikely to allow much of it to ripen before the next storm comes.

Recipe -- Sauteed Bok Choy with Miso and Sweet Potato
You can cook the sweet potatoes in a pan instead of the oven, but you will need to use more oil .
Preheat the oven to 400.
Dice 1 lb. of sweet potatoes in 1/2 inch pieces.
Toss the sweet potatoes with salt and sesame oil, then place on a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in the oven. Stir them several times, until well browned.
Separate the petioles of 2 baby bok choy, then rinse them carefully, especially at the bases where dirt collects.
Slice the larger petioles crosswise, chopping the greens separately. The smaller petioles can be sliced vertically, without removing the leaves.
Mince 2 cloves of garlic.
In a small bowl, mix together 2 T. each red miso paste, soy sauce, and sake or other white wine.
When the sweet potatoes are done remove them from the pan.
Heat 1 T. canola oil in a wok and add the garlic, cook briefly and then add the bok choy (except for the separated greens). Stir fry on high heat until the white parts are tender, then add the greens, the sweet potatoes, and the sauce.
Stir to combine for 1-2 minutes then serve.