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

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!

There's a manual used by professional psychologists and psychiatrists to diagnose their patients, and the list of disorders and syndromes in it gets longer every time they publish it. I am completely certain that a

t some point in the future, it will include a syndrome in which an individual firmly believes that she or he can make a reasonable living by growing and harvesting crops. This will probably be around the time that Earth's population hits 10 billion and governments around the world take over food production as part of national security.

If and when this happens, there will be special attention devoted to the particular form of insanity known as viticulture: growing grapes.

Grapes are not vital to human life in the same way that wheat or corn are -- no one would die if they disappeared from the planet tomorrow. And yet, millions of acres of vineyard are planted across the globe. This is particularly incredible given how incredibly difficult grapes are to grow compared to other crops.

Grapes don't like cold weather -- frost kills the new shoots in the spring, and destroys the flowers that make fruit. And while the vines themselves like hot weather, the fruit is easily burned by the sun and shriveled by excessive heat. Rain at any time during the growing season causes problems, especially just before or during harvest. Even simple humidity is bad, as it creates ideal conditions for the multiple fungal diseases that infect grapes -- particularly Powdery Mildew.

At this point you are probably thinking that humanity's persistence in growing grapes is due completely to the fact that they are used primarily to make wine, which is essentially a drug. And I'm sure this is part of it. But growing grapes -- even for wine -- is not always profitable. As recently as 8 years ago there was a global glut, and prices were below break even.

Growing grapes requires tremendous attention to detail, even before you plant them. You need to choose the right varieties for the area, the right rootstock for the soil in the location, and plant the rows in the direction that provides the best ventilation for both hot and cold air given prevailing wind and topography.

There is tons of hand labor involved, most of it requiring skill and experience. Vines are pruned in the winter, but once they begin to grow the work continues. If there is too much fruit, some must be taken off. Excessive foliage must be removed to improve airflow and keep the grapes from rotting. But if bunches of grapes are exposed, vines must be trained to cover them better to avoid sunburn.

In May of 2010, grape growers throughout California were frantically stripping leaves and shoots off their vines in response to cool, wet weather that was causing perfect conditions for powdery mildew. Just a few weeks later, temperatures soared into the high 100s, scorching millions of pounds of grapes left exposed to the sun. We lost about half our crop that year at Terra Firma.

And yet there is something about growing grapes that is immensely satisfying -- and not just at harvest time. Perhaps it is because the plants respond so obviously and quickly to tending. Like a small child or a pet, grapes need human attention. And tending them over the years -- at least on a reasonable scale -- you get to know the vines. You develop a relationship with them, although it has its ups and downs. Or maybe, in the language of the DSM, it's really just co-dependence, writ large and expressed over millenia. Viticulturitis.

Thanks,

Pablito

In Your Boxes

Grape harvest started at Terra Firma this week, and there's a bag of Summer Royal black seedless grapes in everyone's boxes today. These are a soft grape with a crisp skin. They are sweet with just a hint of "grape juice" flavor. Make sure to refrigerate these and all TFF grapes, unless you want to try your hand at making raisins (not recommended). They keep nicely in the fridge for at least a week.

We have a respectable crop of grapes this year, although we did lose quite a few in the early July heatwave. Harvest will continue off and on through September and you will see them in your boxes on a regular basis.

Fig season opens today as well. The majority of the figs we harvest are a so-called "white" variety, which most people would say are green, named Konadria. They have an extremely delicate skin and are highly perishable -- like all fresh figs -- even when stored in the fridge.

It's been quite a while since we've sent you any nuts; there's a bag of Pistachios in everyone's box today.

Recipe: Sweet Corn Tamales
This recipe uses the husks of the corn as well as the kernels, so don't throw them out. Masa Harina is corn flour specially ground for tamales; don't try to use any other corn flour. You can make these in advance (they take a while to cook) and then reheat them just before eating or even serve them cold or at room temperature.

Use a sharp knife to cut the husks off 2 ears of sweet corn right where the kernels begin. Put the husks in a plastic bag and refrigerate. Discard the corn silk.

Cut the kernels off the cob and place in a food processor. Process to make a coarse puree.

Mix 1 3/4 C. masa for tamales with 1 C. plus 2 T. hot water, then allow to cool.

Add the masa to the sweet corn along with 1 stick of unsalted butter cut into small cubes, 1/2 t. salt, and 1 1/2 t. baking powder. Pulse several times, then let the processor run for 1 minute. The mixture should be light and fluffy.

Separate the corn husks into individual leaves. Line a steamer with the smallest leaves.

To assemble the tamales, fill the larger leaves with 3 T. dough. You can add Jack or Cheddar cheese, roasted peppers (hot or sweet), sauteed onions or other savory ingredients.

Place the tamales in a single layer in the steamer, then cover with any leftover corn husk leaves. Steam for 1 hour or more, until the tamales easily come free from the husks.