| What's Growing This Week: | |
Tomatoes
Garlic
Green Beans
Peaches
Carrots
Sweet Corn
Summer Squash
Basil (S,L)
Melon (S,L)
Summer Squash (M,L)
Carrots (M,L)
Sweet Corn(M,L)
Watermelon (M,L)
Cucumber (L)
Padron Peppers (L)
Items may be substituted without notice.
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Contact Us:
| terrafirmafarm.com
csa@terrafirmafarm.com
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| CSA Rates 2011 | Boxes are charged on Monday for the week's deliveries at:
$14 Small
$24 Medium
$32 Large
For a payment of $300, get a 3% bonus. Your account balance will be $309.
For a payment of$850, get a 5% bonus. Your account will be posted as $892.00
For a payment of $1,400, get a 7% bonus. Your payment will be posted as $1,498.
Vacations are charged weekly when notice is given as a fee, no charges occur during the vacation week.
$4 Small
$8 Medium
$11 Large
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Bulk Items
Now available, 10 lb. boxes of ripe tomatoes ready for saucing, jarring or canning. $15 each delivered to your drop site. You can buy boxes one at a time, or subscribe and a get a box every week. Go to your account page to sign up.
We also have a limited amount of peaches available. These are not first quality, but may be slightly bruised -- perfect for cooking or canning. $15 for ten pounds when available. |
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Pledge of Authenticity
Terra Firma is a real farm. We grow 99% of the produce that goes into our boxes on our 220 acres of certified organic land in Winters. If we do buy produce from other farms, it's almost always from a neighboring farm and we give them full credit in the box list.
The owners of Terra Firma are involved in every aspect of making your boxes a reality: walking the fields, planting the crops, selecting and checking what goes in the boxes and finally delivering them to you. We eat the crops from our fields every day, just like you do. Thanks for supporting our efforts and enjoying the food we grow.
Paul, Pablito, & Hector
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Payments, Billing, and Changes
| Schedule vacations, change box sizes, make payments or sign up for autopay by logging in to your subscriber account at terrafirmafarm.com
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News From Terra Firma Farm
Community Supported Agriculture |
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Greetings!
We farm in a valley that has no name. The Wintun band of Native Californians who inhabited this area for millenia certainly had a name for it, but somehow in the 150 years since the first European settlers arrived here, no one has come up with a moniker in Spanish or English. Were most of the land here planted in winegrapes, growers here certainly would have come up with a designation for it and applied for official status along the lines of "Dry Creek Valley" or other well-known appelations. After all, like many of those wine growing regions, this place has its own unique terroir, a combination of microclimate and soil types that makes it different from the surrounding area.
Our little valley west of Winter is formed by a creek which divides it roughly in two where it flows west out of the Coastal Range at the point where the Monticello Dam forms Lake Berryessa. At the outset, the valley is less than a mile wide but as the creek flows east, it opens up to about 3 miles. Between the foothills on either side of it and the creek, there are thousands of acres of alluvial soil. The valley ends roughly in downtown Winters, at which point there are no longer hills immediately to the north or south. Once you head east from there, you are entering the valley proper -- the enormous Sacramento Valley.
It's true that many valleys are named after the body of water created them, so why isn't ours? The Native Californians called the creek "Liwaito", but for unknown reason, European cartographers labelled it "Rio de Los Putos" on the first maps of the area. If you speak Spanish -- like many of the Spanish, Portugese and Mexican immigrants who settled here did and still do -- you know that the "P" word is an nasty insult. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names insisted on changing the name to "Putah" to make the distinction clear but perhaps they just should have gone back to the original name. One day last week while I was working on one of our taller tractors, I was struck by the diversity of the agriculture that was in my field of view. Rimmed by the hills and the coast range that outline our little no name valley, I saw a field of sunflowers with a backdrop of walnut and fruit trees.
Next to it, a field of onions grown for seed. Turning north, my glance passed over the riotous diversity of our own farm -- tomatoes, grapes, pistachios, corn, melons and peaches.
Continuing to turn my gaze, I saw a herd of sheep grazing on the hills that make up the southern edge of the valley and mark the virtual boundary between agriculture and the ex-urban sprawl of the Bay Area. Doesn't a place like this deserve a name?
A while back, Caltrans built a new bridge on Highway 128 near our farm where it crossed an arroyo that is unnamed on maps but that everyone around here calls "Dry Creek". An engineer at Caltrans must have decided there were just too many "Dry Creeks" in California, so when the bridge was finished, they stenciled the name "Apricot Draw" on it. Ten years later, everyone still calls that arroyo "Dry Creek". Maybe this proves that -- around here at least -- that just because you give a place a better name doesn't mean anyone is going to use it.
In the end, I guess it doesn't matter much. Our little valley is still beautiful and bountiful, even if it doesn't have a name. And our little creek is still lush and beautiful even though its name is a dirty word Spanish. They just deserve better, that's all.
Thanks,
Pablito
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Challenged by Summer Produce?
As most folks who read this newsletter know, in the section below, I try most weeks to give a few useful tips specific to some of the produce in your weekly box. If you're looking for more information like that, check out "Coping with Summer's Bounty of Produce"in today's New York Times. It also includes a few recipe ideas that may come in handy. |
In Your Boxes: Melons 101
It's been over a month since we harvested our first watermelons and sent them along to you, and we've harvested many more since. But with the exception of the Galias, our Melons have been incredibly slow to mature this year. We're not sure why -- the green fruit sat in the field not ripening. But the four-day heat wave last week kicked them into (slightly) higher gear, and we finally are picking enough to send them to some of you.
Whenever possible, we try to let you know which type of melon you are getting. Until harvest picks up, though, this is not possible -- we simply aren't getting enough of any one type. So this week, you may get any of the following:
Cantelope: Round, netted rind, orange flesh.
Sharlyn: football shaped, netted rind, pale pinkish-orangish flesh.
Orange Honeydew: Round, smooth skin, orange flesh.
We harvest all melons before they are 100% ripe and chill them to ensure that they will not become overripe by the time you receive them. Before cutting your melon, let it warm to room temperature overnight. Once you smell its fragrance, it should be eaten or refrigerated. There are also visual clues if you need them:
Sharlyn Melons should not be cut until their rind is at least 50% tan, as in this photo.
Orange Honeydews will reveal the color of the flesh through the rind in the spot where the melon was sitting on the ground -- a slight orange glow.
Cantelopes should be tan in the low spots between the netting on the rind.
Once a melon is cut, it will keep in the fridge for several days as long as the cut side is protected from the cold. Another alternative is to remove the seeds and rind and cut the melon into slices or chunks and store them in a plastic container for easy snacking later. |
Large Boxes: Padron peppers
There's a new item in your box today, one that we haven't grown before but that we are excited about. Padron peppers are a special type of frying pepper that are most commonly roasted in a skillet with salt and olive oil. They are a traditional Spanish "tapa" item and you may have had them before. Many people find them quite addictive.
While Padrons are sometimes spicy, we are growing a "non-hot" variety in deference to subscribers who can't eat hot peppers. We didn't plant a lot of these this year, so we are sending just a quarter pound of them. Let us know how you like them.
To cook: heat a heavy skillet and add a generous amount of olive oil and salt. When the oil begins to smoke, add the peppers. Cook until are browned on at least two sides, using a tongs to turn them. They will be quite soft when done. There is no need to peel or trim them in any way before or after cooking -- just eat them and discard the stems.
Feel free to experiment with other uses for the peppers, but be forewarned that they are surprisingly flavorless when eaten raw or cooked in a different way.
Note: Padrons grow much more quickly than the other peppers we have planted, and it will be at least another week or two before we have other peppers available.
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Recipe: Summer Quinoa Salad
I'm sure many of you have a favorite recipe for Tabouli, the classic bulgar wheat salad. We don't have any parsley right now (although we are once again attempting to grow it) and I'm not a big bulgar fan, so instead I am sending this recipe based on the same concept but with different textures and flavors. In the meantime, if you have a great Tabouli salad you want to share with your fellow subscribers, send it along and I will publish it.
Rinse 1 C. quinoa (any color) in a fine sieve to remove the bitter coating. Place in a pot with 1 1/4 C. of water, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat until the water evaporates and the quinoa is tender. Fluff it with a fork and allow to cool. You don't want mushy quinoa for this recipe.
Boil a small pot of water. Trim green beans and and cook until just tender, then cool in a basin of water and cut into 2 inch pieces. You want about 1 C.
Dice 2-3 tomatoes and place in a bowl with their juices. Sprinkle with salt. Add 1 small clove of garlic, minced.
Shuck 2 ears of corn and cut the kernels off the cob. If you are happen to be grilling, you can roast them first (or use leftovers). You can also steam or boil them if you prefer.
Pull leaves off a bunch of Basil to make 1 C. Rinse the leaves and spin dry. Chop finely and toss with the tomatoes, then drizzle 3 T. olive oil over them.
Toss the corn, quinoa and beans with the tomatoes and 1/2 C. crumbled feta cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar to taste. If possible, allow to sit for half an hour before serving and toss a few more times to combine the flavors.
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