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

It's been a rough week since I wrote wondering "how cold is it going to get". The first day of the "cold snap" it was actually much colder in the Bay Area than it was at Terra Firma. We caught up on Friday though, with a low temperatures of 18 degrees. And although it "warmed up" over the weekend, nothing really thawed out until Monday afternoon. On Tuesday morning the mercury dropped back to 22 degrees. This morning it was a balmy 25. Generally speaking, anything under 27 is "too cold" for many of our winter crops.

Ice in our cabbage field at 2 in the afternoon

We got plenty of warning from the National Weather Service about this freeze, and we took advantage of it to harvest as many potentially susceptible crops as we could. We have many tons of mandarin and navel oranges in the cooler as well plenty of cabbage -- these are all crops that will store well for over a month.

And of course we still have our other storage crops: nuts, apples and asian pears, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash.

Carrots and leeks are relatively impervious to the cold, although we have to wait for the ground to thaw out to harvest them (the ground rarely freezes here). Beet roots, too, but the greens are ruined so you won't see bunched beets until new leaves grow.

The spinach in your boxes today came through the cold with flying colors. On the other hand, much of the kale was damaged by the freeze. The Red Russian, which is in your boxes today, seems to have handled it okay due to its Siberian heritage.

The biggest loser award in the freeze of 2013 is a tie, awarded to our broccoli and cauliflower fields. We will also likely have significant losses in our later-ripening citrus, which was not ready to harvest yet.

We will do our best to keep your boxes as full and diverse as possible through the winter. A lot will depend, as usual, on the weather. It's supposed to get quite warm next week, which might help some crops recover and ripen later plantings of others.

We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we try to cope with the extent of this event, which is a natural disaster for us and everyone else in California growing winter crops.

Meanwhile, we remain extremely concerned about the lack of rainfall. Last week's rain wasn't even close to closing the gap, and with no more rain forecast through Christmas, 2013 is almost certain to be the driest year in recorded Northern California history.

Thanks,

Pablito

This week's Boxes
Up until now, the warm, bounteous fall has kept us from pulling out the nuts but the time has arrived. This week you will find a bag of Pistachios in your boxes, and next week it will be Walnuts.

The Garlic in your boxes today is the last of the year. It's starting to think about sprouting -- as is any TFF garlic still sitting in your kitchen -- so should be refrigated until used.

As I mentioned above, Red Kale is the only cooking green that seems to be unaffected by the freezing temperatures. Nonetheless, the stems are mushy, which means we have to send it to you in loose, bagged form as we are not able to tighten a twist-tie around it. The other kales and collards will grow new leaves as soon as we get a couple of weeks of warm weather.

Next Week's Box

Next week is our last delivery of 2013, with no schedule changes. Your boxes next week will contain almost 100% items that will store in your fridge for three weeks:

Mandarins, Navel Oranges, Cabbage, Nuts, Winter Squash, Carrots, Leeks, and Asian Pears.

We didn't plan it this way, but it should work out relatively well whether you are staying in town for the holidays or leaving for a week.

Primer: Vegetable Juice/Smoothies

Here's my disclaimer: I do not personally drink my vegetables. However, I know that more and more people are finding this to be a convenient and tasty way to maximize their consumption of healthy fresh produce.

This week's box is fairly loaded with ingredients that are perfect for juicing or smoothie making, as many of our winter boxes are.

As you probably know, if you want to juice anything more than oranges, you need a serious juicer. And if you want vegetable smoothies that aren't mealy or full of chunks, you need a serious blender. I'm not making any recommendations, but these machines require investing more than $100, unless you find one at a yard sale.

If you're just looking for a light, healthy nutrition you can go with a simple carrot/apple/mandarin combination. The carrots add richness, and the apple (cored) adds body. Add mandarins (juiced first in a citrus juicer, or at least peeled) last, as this will thin the drink. More = "juicier", less = "smoothy-ier". If the drink is too sweet, add a small piece of fresh ginger or a few tablespoons lemon juice.

Want a beautiful magenta smoothie or juice? Add a red Beet. Raw Beets are very sweet, although they have a slight astringency when juiced on their own.

If maximizing your intake of nutrients is your goal, it's time to add the greens. Spinach is mild and tender enough that you can add it to your juice/smoothie without affecting the flavor much. Kale, on the other hand, will assert itself in the mix. Removing the stems first will help you avoid a lumpy drink. Extra lemon juice will balance it out.

Looking for a thicker, more "milkshake-y" smoothie? Sure, frozen bananas are a common, nutritious way to do this. But avocados work just as well without adding any more sugar to a drink that is already sweet enough. They have healthy oils that will keep you feeling full if you are "drinking your breakfast (or lunch)" instead of eating it. And most of the year they are also available from California, so you're keeping your smoothy a little more local.

Whatever combination of ingredients you use to make your juice or smoothie, remember that even a high powered juicer or blender needs plenty of time to turn large amounts of cellulose in things like kale or carrots into a smoothly drinkable substance. It's not juice, or a smoothy, if you have to chew it while you're drinking. Enjoy.

Need More Ideas for Cooking Winter Vegetables?
The New York Times has created an amazing database of holiday recipes for vegetable lovers, vegetarians and vegans alike. You just type in the name of a vegetable.