News from Terra Firma Farm

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

Bulk Items

Still 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.
Do you love the Shishito frying peppers that we've been putting in your boxes and can't get enough? Now you can buy them in on the Web Store, 5 lbs. for $25.

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

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

News From Terra Firma Farm

Community Supported Agriculture

Greetings!

Proposition 37, the GMO Labelling initiative on the ballot this fall, is generating some media attention even from national outlets like NPR and generating lots of questions -- even from TFF subscribers.

A few weeks back, a drop site host emailed with the following question: "Does Terra Firma grow any GMO crops?" Apparently several subscribers had asked her. My answer to her was simple:

Organic farmers are legally prohibited from growing genetically modified crops. This rule is codified in the National Organic Program, the federal law that governs organic agriculture.

I will admit being surprised that our subscribers or other organic consumers might not know this, but I shouldn't have been. There is a lot of information floating around about food, and much of it is confusing. Monday evening on KQED, the Marketplace program used Prop. 37 to segue into an interview with the author of a book on seed saving. The words GMO, hybrid, and open pollinated were used without an explanation of what they meant. And no mention was made of organic. Any listeners not already well-versed in the issue were likely left scratching their heads.

Arriving home to make dinner, I opened a package of tofu and noticed the the following text prominently displayed: "Made with Organic, Non-GMO soybeans". While the manufacturer clearly felt the need to add the text about GMOs, it concerns me because labels like this can create doubt among consumers and pose the question: "If this product says it is Organic but doesn't say anything about GMOs, maybe it contains them?".

Whether or not Proposition 37 passes, it appears that the organic industry needs to expand its efforts to educate consumers on what organic means. After all, one of the primary reasons we pushed for a national law defining organic was to eliminate the possibility of confusion. Here's what it means when you buy an organic product:

--No synthetic pesticides or fertilizers were used to grow it.
-- Certified organic farms must meet certain environmental standards.
-- Organic food is genetically modified, and has no GMO ingredients.
--It contains no artificial ingredients, flavors or colors.
--Making fraudulent claims that a product is organic is a felony.
--Producers and processors are inspected at least once a year by a USDA approved and audited third party certifier to assure compliance with the law.

In the meantime, you can be reasonably certain of two things:

1) You are eating GMOs if you eat non-organic foods made with corn or soybeans, including ingredients like corn syrup and "vegetable oil". The vast majority of the conventional corn and soy crops grown in the U.S. are GM varieties.

2) If you want to be sure that you are not eating GMOs, buy Certified Organic food.

Thanks,

Pablito

Farm Day: Saturday, Oct. 20th, 2-5 pm
Terra Firma's annual CSA Subscriber Farm Day is a low-key event that features hay rides around the farm, pick-your-own strawberries, and a tour of some of our fields. For your Halloween needs, there will be an assortment of organic Pumpkins. You are welcome to bring your lunch and picnic in the shade of the orchard. Alternately, you can hang out at the farm for a while and then head to Winters for some wine tasting and an early dinner at one of our excellent local eateries.

Tickets for our annual Open Farm Day go on sale Thursday, September 20th on the Web Store. Tickets are first come, first served. They are $5 and can be redeemed for produce, pumpkins and possibly other items. Children under 12 get in free, but they will need a ticket to get a pumpkin.

Raindate is the following Saturday, October 27th.

In your boxes
Having sent out our first Asian Pears last week, this week we are putting our entire 2012 crop of Barlett and Anjou (European) Pears in today's boxes (M and L). We have just a handful of trees.

Please note that European Pears are harvested when rock-hard, and must be left at room temperature for several days to sweeten up and soften. As they soften, they will gradually change color. Unlike most fruits, they can be allowed to become quite soft before eating. Some people like them best when they literally melt in your mouth. Others like them still slightly firm. You can make this decision for yourself.

The start of Fall is just a few days away, and although it's been consisting hot here since Labor Day, today there is finally a hint of autumn in the air. Winter squash, sweet potatoes and potatoes all planted in late spring are maturing all at the same time this year, and we are in full-on squirrel mode. With respectable crops of all three, we are looking at harvesting over 100 tons for winter storage. As usual, Acorn Squash are the first to ripen; look for one in your boxes next week.

Recipe: Late Summer gratin with potatoes peppers and onions
Easy, quick, and delicious.

Set the oven to 375 degrees.

Peel and then thinly slice onion to make 1 C. Trim 1 lb. of sweet peppers and remove the core and seeds. Slice lengthwise.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat 3 T. olive oil. Saute the onion until soft, then add the peppers. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, thinly slice 2 lbs. of potatoes in rounds. When the peppers are soft, layer the potatoes on top of the onion/pepper mixture. Sprinkle salt over the potatoes.

Cover the pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Grate 1/2 lb. sharp cheddar or manchego cheese over the casserole. Set the oven to low broil and then cook until the cheese is browned and bubbly.