| What's Growing This Week: | |
Tomatoes (All)
Red Grapes (All)
Basil (All)
Peppers (All)
Red Onions (All)
Green Beans (All)
Zucchini (M,L)
Melon (M,L)
Sweet Potatoes (M,L)
Pears (M,L)
Watermelon (L)
Items may be substituted without notice.
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Bulk Items
Sweet Peppers are available in bulk. Tomatoes are no longer available.
To sign up, log in to your account and go to the Web Store.
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Contact Us:
| terrafirmafarm.com
csa@terrafirmafarm.com
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| CSA Rates 2013 | 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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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!
You may have read a humorous blog post a few weeks back spoofing kale's exploding popularity as a trendy food. In these last few years, certain vegetables have been included on the list of so-called Superfoods -- foods packed not just with vitamins and minerals, but also anti-oxidants that have been shown to help fight cancer in humans. Many of these foods are fairly obscure to most Americans -- niche crops grown by a small number of farmers on a fairly small scale.
Sometimes it is easy for farmers to respond to a sudden increase in popularity of a given food. Kale is a good example. Anyone who already grows lettuce, broccoli or cabbage can grow kale instead the next year. Kale acreage has exploded in the last year with the popularity of raw kale salad as a quick and healthy takeout item. (As an aside: there is actually a shortage of kale seed this year for fall planting but have no fear kale fans, TFF has secured all we need).
Other crops are not so easy to expand, however. Sweet Potatoes have also been deemed a Superfood due to their high nutritional and low glycemic index values. Chefs in kitchens large and small across the country are substituting them for regular potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes are a great crop. They are vigorous, don't take much fertilizer or water, have relatively few pests, and grow in most states of the U.S. They are a pretty crop to grow, related to morning glory and looking a whole lot like ivy. The problems start when it's time to harvest them.
Sweet Potatoes grow deep in the ground and require extremely sandy soil in order to produce the pretty, smooth tubers you see in the store. They cannot be harvested with the same machines as regular spuds, which are covered with just a few inches of soil. The larger harvesters used on big farms cost upwards of $100,000, and are custom built. You can't just go out and buy one.
Once sweet potatoes are harvested, they must be stored in a warm, dry environment. Compare this to regular potatoes, which can be stored in the winter in unheated barns in places like Idaho and Colorado.
There are only four major sweet potato growers in California, who also grow most of the organic crop. The crop is also grown on a fairly large scale in the Southeast. These growers are expanding their production to try to meet the increased demand, but you won't see other farmers jumping to grow the crop based on a short term food trend.
Here at Terra Firma, we have a small amount of land that is too sandy to grow many of the crops we farm -- especially in the summer -- but is perfect for sweet potatoes. We were able to modify our Rube Goldberg potato harvester to dig deeper, although we still break off plenty of tubers. And it takes us roughly four times longer than digging regular spuds.
We are very happy to have sweet potatoes as part of our mix of crops. And we are just as happy to let someone else try to meet the increasing demand for this hot new "Superfood". But we are going to plant a few more beds of kale this year.
Thanks,
Pablito
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Open Farm Day: October 19th
On the third Saturday of October this year, we invite you to come up to the farm for a relaxing afternoon touring the farm, picking strawberries, and picnicking in the shade from 2 pm. until 5 pm. The raindate will be the following Saturday, October 27th. Tickets for the event are $5, and are exchangeable for pumpkins or produce. Kids under 12 get in free, but if you register them in advance they also get a free pumpkin. The event is not open to the public, but subscribers can buy tickets for friends and extended family. We will make tickets available through the web store on or before September 19th, and we will be announcing more details about the event in the next few weeks. Put it on your calendars! |
Melons vs. Watermelons
We are drawing to the end of our summer melon season, but it's better late than never for an important explainer and disclaimer: Watermelons do not ripen after harvest. They are picked when they are ready to eat. A ripe watermelon is juicy, fully colored inside (red or yellow depending on the type), and has seeds that are either black or brown. White flesh and white seeds are an indication that the melon is not ripe. It can be very difficult to harvest watermelons correctly -- it is more of an art than a science -- and occasionally duds slip through. If you get one of these, you are entitled to ask for a credit. Melons are different. Cantelopes, Orange Honeydews, Sharlyns and Passport and all other non-water type melons continue to ripen after harvest. If we pick melons at full ripeness here in the summer, they become overipe by the time you receive them -- even though we keep them cold until delivered. This means that we have to harvest these melons a day or two before they are completely ripe. In other words, the melon in your box is not necessarily ready to eat when you get it. Each melon is slightly different, but the indicators are the same: the rind will change color, the melon will soften at the bottom (not at the stem end), and you will be able to smell the fragrance of the melon through the rind (faintly or strongly depending on the variety). If the melon appears/feels/smells ripe when you get it, you should immediately refrigerate it and eat within 5 days. If not, let it sit at room temperature for 1-3 nights first. If after 3 days/nights, you cut the melon and it is still not ripe, we picked it too green. And if it is smashed when you get it, we picked it too ripe. |
In Your Boxes
Our fall Green Beans season is in full swing. Look for a bag o'beans in your box most weeks between now and mid-October. We have a small orchard of Anjou Pears at the farm, which we refer to as European pears to distinguish them from our much larger Asian Pear orchard. Pears are an old-school fruit. When they are ripe, they are completely soft and cannot be packed or shipped. This means that they are harvested and sold green, and you the eater must allow them to ripen at home for as long as a week before eating. Not exactly immediate gratification. A ripe pear is juicy, sweet and luscious to eat. An unripe one is hard, dry, and not very enjoyable. The pears will change color as they ripen, eventually becoming light yellow. When they are soft to the touch they are ready to eat. Sweet Potato harvest got an early start this year, and we are sending the first tubers out in today's boxes. We don't wash them before sending to you because they don't like to get wet -- we apologize for any soil that might be clinging to them. Wash just before preparing to avoid them rotting in your kitchen, and until then store at room temperature (not in the fridge). Red Onions in your boxes today should be used quickly or stored in the fridge; it is the end of the season and they may start to sprout at room temperature. |
Recipe: Tri-color Couscous
Cooked green beans and sweet potatoes and raw julienned peppers make for a beautiful main course salad.
Bring 1 C. of water to a boil and pour over 1/2 C. couscous in a bowl. Cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Trim green beans to make 2 C. Cut beans into 2-3 pieces. Dice 1 large sweet potato. Thinly slice 1 red onion.
Remove the stem and seeds from 2-3 sweet peppers, then cut into very thin, 2 inch long slices.
Separate 2 T. of the onion and marinate in 1 T. red wine vinegar or lime juice for 5 minutes. Toss with the peppers.
Heat 3 T. olive oil in a heavy skillet and saute the rest of the onion and the sweet for 5 minutes. Add the green beans and continue to saute until they are bright green and tender. Add a little water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.
Combine the raw vegetables in a bowl with the cooked vegetables while they are still hot. Season with salt and pepper, then add the couscous.
Serve topped with fresh basil leaves and slices of lime or lemon.
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