Right now you can get an 8 lb. box of Peaches or Apricots delivered with your CSA box.

Order one week at a time, or subscribe for the season (peaches only). Go to the Web Store section of your TFF account to sign up.

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

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

As you are well aware, we grow dozens of different crops here at Terra Firma. But the reality is, we are really tomato growers. Tomatoes are the hub crop, the sun around which our farm spins. If we have a good tomato crop, we have a good year. Bad tomato crop, bad year.

Tomatoes have been the number one farm commodity in Yolo County for over twenty years, and Yolo County is the second largest producer in the state next to Fresno County (which is a much larger county). The vast majority of the tomatoes grown here are for canning, not for fresh market. But it doesn't change the fact that the soil and climate here are as close to perfect for growing tomatoes as it gets.

Here on our farm in Winters, it is even a little more perfect. Our location is warmer in the spring than other parts of the Sacramento Valley, especially at night. This allows us to plant our tomatoes sooner without too much risk of frost, and causes them to grow faster and ripen more quickly. We speed the process even more by warming the soil with plastic mulch and using sprinklers to repel frost at night when it does occur.

We grow our tomatoes in extremely fertile soils that capture and release water efficiently -- silty clay loams. This means we don't have to irrigate the tomatoes very much, especially once harvest begins. Less water means more concentrated flavor.

Our tomato plants grow to over 6 feet tall, trellised with metal stakes and baling twine, requiring lots of fertility. To make sure they get it, in the fall or winter prior to planting, we grow a lush cover crop of legumes that provide the majority of the tomatoes' nutritional needs.

We grow about 15 acres of tomatoes each year, in 4 different plantings each with at least 10 varieties. That's less than one tenth of the acreage we farm. But we dedicate more time and energy to those 15 acres than we do to any other crop. And the tomatoes -- usually -- provide for us in an equally disproportionate fashion.

This year, our early planting is absolutely loaded with fruit (later plantings have yet to start making tomatoes). And despite the hot weather the last few days, they mostly still have not begun to ripen yet. We're a little scared about being able to get them all harvested.

Enjoy the tomatoes in your box today. They are the first of many -- our tomato season lasts at least until the end of August and possibly through September.

Thanks,

Pablito

Congratulations!

I'm not one to brag much, but we have some big news in our little farm family that deserves congratulations. Hector's daughter Karen just graduated from high school here in Winters and will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall. I've known Karen since she was a tiny girl hanging out with her mom Elena and grandmother Genoveva while they packed CSA boxes. She is spending the summer working with us, helping out in the office as well as in the packing shed with her mom and dad.

I know that many of you know Hector from the many years he spend delivering your boxes, and I am sure you can imagine how proud and happy he, the whole Melendez family, and all the rest of us at Terra Firma are to see Karen achieve this fantastic success.

Peach Ripening Tips

We've gotten a few questions about the best way to get your peaches to finish ripening at home, so here are the details:
1) Do not refrigerate
2) Store in a warm but well-ventilated place (not a closet)
3) Remove them from the bag. A wire basket or colander is the ideal place to keep them. If you put them in a bowl, don't stack too high.
4) Check them individually every day. They may not all ripen the same day.
5) In 1-3 days, they will be ready to eat. Press gently with one finger on the bottom of the peach. If it gives slightly, it is ready to eat!

That said, we are in a heatwave right now and the peaches in your boxes today MAY be ready to eat when you get them because it's been so warm at night.

This Week's Boxes

Last week, a few tomatoes snuck into some of your boxes unannounced. This week, there are Tomatoes for Everyone! These are EARLY tomatoes, mostly hybrid red tomatoes that are bred to grow quickly and ripen fast. In other words, they are unlikely to be the best tomatoes you have ever tasted. That said, we have done our best to find the best tasting varieties of the bunch. As the season progresses, you will see more heirloom varieties as well as our standard, exceptionally tasty Early Girls (which, despite their name, really aren't early tomatoes).

The first Sweet Corn comes to you today, just a couple of ears per box. The ears are small, and many of them come with a bonus caterpillar. But they are tender and sweet. In the following weeks, you will get bigger ears and more of them. But you will probably still get caterpillars. We do not give credits for worms in your corn.

As promised, you also get the first Green Beans of the year as well as

Our first New Potatoes are in the medium and large boxes only this week. They are freshly dug and we are sending them to you unwashed to avoid further damaging their soft skins. New potatoes are a perishable product and must be: stored in the fridge, in a plastic bag, and used within 5 days. They cook in just about 10 minutes.

We would love to have more Painted Serpent Cucumbers right now (and we will soon) so we could put them in all your boxes -- and send you more than just one. As it is, we barely scraped together enough to put them in the Small and Large boxes this week.

Recipe: Roasted Green Bean and New Potato Salad
It's been so hot up here that raw salads are the only thing I want to eat, but I know it's been foggy and cold in the Bay Area and roasting some summer veggies might help warm up your house.

Heat the oven to 400.

Trim 1/2 lb. green beans and cut into 2 inch pieces. Slice 1 lb. potatoes in quarters lengthwise. Toss the potatoes and beans separately with olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange them in a single layer, on a separate baking sheets or pans and place in the oven.

Mince 2 cloves of garlic.

Dice 2-3 ripe tomatoes, then place in a bowl and sprinkle liberally with salt. Toss them a few times over 15 minutes. When they release their juices, add 1 T. olive oil.

Finely slice red onion to make 3 T. Marinate with 1 T. red wine vinegar for 10 minutes. Thinly slice cucumber or zucchini to make 1 C. and toss with the onions.

When the green beans begin to brown and shrivel slightly, add the garlic, stir to mix together, and cook for just another minute or two. Don't let the garlic turn brown.

When the beans cool, toss them with the tomatoes and the onion.

Cook the potatoes until they are browned on at least one side, turning once or twice. Allow to cool, then toss with the other vegetables along with 1 T. whole grain mustard.