Pages from a Farmer: Seasonal milestones for farmers

Originally published on February 24, 2023 in the Napa Valley Register.

By nature, farming is a process of cycles. Cycles of planting, tending, harvesting, birthing of animals, death of animals, spring growth, winter hibernation… on and on every year. For every farmer there are certain seasonal milestones that punctate these cycles and mark the start or passing of different cycles.

In Napa, one seasonal milestone everyone is aware of is the harvest, or cosecha, of grapes. For several weeks it is all hands, all tractors, and all hope on deck. Brix are measured, equipment is prepared, harvesters are hired, and after, comes the relief that this year’s fruit is out of the field. There is always more work to be done, but grape harvest is a milestone.

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For my shepherd friends Christian and Shannon of Perennial Grazing, who run a sheep grazing service, there are two seasonal milestones.

First is grazing their sheep in vineyards or orchards during the winter. It is a tight window to navigate between winter rains that can compact soil if too many sheep are out in the fields, and getting as much grazing done before buds break in the vineyards and orchards.

Soon after the grazing season comes the spring lambing season when mothers are giving birth to lambs. Suddenly their flock is particularly vulnerable to stress, predators, sickness, weather and the complications of giving birth. The work of a shepherd goes on throughout the year, but these two seasonal milestones mark the success of their business.

On my farm, Sun Tracker Farm, we just passed a major seasonal milestone that was particularly poignant this year. Because of the previous years of drought, last 2022 growing season, my husband and I made the difficult decision to not plant summer crops due to a failing water well and a year-long waitlist to drill a new water well. This meant that by May of 2022 we no longer had crops growing in our fields. This December we were finally able to drill a new water well, and we thus had a secure source of water for the coming years.

Since November we started sowing seeds in anticipation of the 2023 growing season, but it was not until this week that we felt the true start of the farming season. You see, for us vegetable farmers our major seasonal milestones revolve mostly around potatoes.

We normally plant our seed potatoes anywhere between the middle of February to the middle of March. Planting seed potatoes literally means taking thousands of pounds of potatoes that we bought from a seed potato company, cutting them to a small size, and planting them in soil. It is important to buy seed potatoes from a company because potatoes are very good at harboring and propagating disease, and purchased seed potatoes are “guaranteed” to be disease-free.

Potato planting time is also a stressful and narrow window to navigate. During years of heavy rain we must sometimes wait weeks until the soil is dry enough to cultivate. If we plant our potatoes too early we run the risk of April frosts that can kill the newly sprouted potato plants. If we plant too late, we miss the opportunity to be the first farmers on the market selling new, spring potatoes with their lovely thin skins and unique flavor.

Over the years of growing potatoes we also learned that nothing “waters-in” a potato planting better than rain. Some years we planted potatoes too late with no spring rains to follow and harvested half what we expected. You can water-in potatoes with sprinklers, but it never soaks the soil and triggers sprouting as well as a good storm from Mother Nature. So if we want the best potato harvest possible we try to plant potatoes right before a storm.

This year there is snow and rain on the forecast for late February, a perfect time to plant potatoes. Last Sunday we therefore cut and prepped our seed potatoes in the evening while our kids were asleep, and yesterday we planted rows and rows of seed potatoes, tucking them in for the next few months.

In May we will start hand-digging our spring potatoes, uncovering the desiccated seed potato bits that yielded dozens of shiny tubers powdered in soil. And again in July we will go through another important seasonal milestone of harvesting our storage potatoes. Oftentimes this is during the hottest time of the year, and also when we are the most tired, but I will not worry about that today.

As I write this article, I see a storm heading our way. Our potatoes are in the ground and for this farmer, the 2023 farm season has officially started!

Pages from a Farmer: How did rain affect California farmers?

Originally published on January 30, 2023 in the Napa Valley Register.

The last few weeks you probably noticed a little extra sand at the bottom of your lettuce heads when prepping a salad. A veteran lettuce eater will tell you that rain always causes an extra bit of soil and sand to creep into the leaves of lettuce heads. And while sandy salad is never pleasant, it is a minor inconvenience compared to both the good and the bad that resulted in California’s recent bombardment of atmospheric rivers.

After a few consecutive weeks of rain in California, many are breathing a bit easier knowing that we replenished some water in our reservoirs this year. This winter is still considered a La Niña year, which often comes with drought in California, but this January’s global weather patterns brought California a big round of atmospheric rivers.

On my farm in the Capay Valley, we calculated an estimated 19.5 inches of rain since the first September rains of 2022. This is a great improvement over the 16.6 and 5.6 inches of rain we measured in the last two rainy seasons, but it still keeps us in a serious drought condition for the coming summer.Ori

What hurts California’s water systems and farmers is when we do not receive rain in the spring months, causing farmers to irrigate early and temperatures to prematurely warm up. So let me say it loud and clear, California is still very much in a precarious drought state if we do not receive a significant amount of rain in the coming months.

Last week I attended the EcoFarm conference in Asilomar, an incredible grouping of farmers, ranchers, and food system changers to learn about, share in and discuss ecological farming and the food system. Aside from being inspired by so many people committed to improving the sustainability and equality of farming, I also gained new perspective and knowledge on the future of farming in California’s changing climate.

The pendulum of drought years and rainy years in California has always existed, but with climate change the swings of this pendulum will last longer and swing to more extreme levels of drought and rain. In addition, our overall climate is warming, meaning warmer temperatures during California winters.

In a talk I attended by the UC Davis professor Dr. Amelie Gaudin, she shared that eventually California will no longer be able to grow our main cash crops like walnuts, pistachios, almonds and stone fruit. Surprisingly, this is not because of lack of water, but rather because the total number of chill hours during the winter will not be enough to trigger the plant’s biology to produce flowers and thus fruit. This means that in our lifetime, we will likely see the end of one of California’s main economies.

We are living climate change in California, and it will undeniably be a driving force in our future. We still can and should do everything in our power to reverse its cause, but we must also adapt to this new future. That means continuing to support ecological farming practices and green economies, but it also means working with our natural landscape to be more intelligent with water.

In another talk I attended by Dr. Graham Fogg of UC Davis, he shared information on how we can better capture water in our ground water during these years of massive rain and flooding.

The California Central Valley is filled with networks of underground ancient rivers. These ancient rivers, or paleochannels, are massive aquifers that have the potential to absorb and hold incredibly large quantities of water. But for these ancient rivers to take a “Big Gulp” of water during rainy years, they must be discovered and protected. Unfortunately, cities, dumps, and housing developments are actively threatening this perfect way for California to replenish its aquifers.

The last few weeks of rain undoubtedly brought a temporary sigh of relief to many California farmers, but it also caused uncalculated harm to many of our state’s most vulnerable farmers. The California Central Coast was disproportionately affected by the storm’s violence and rising rivers. And while many of saw President Joe Biden on the news in downtown Capitola visiting the wreckage of its coastline, you may not know that most of Santa Cruz and Monterey County farmers were severally harmed by the floods.

For some farmers, that meant their crops were underwater for several days, or their pack sheds experienced flooding. For others, it meant losing their whole farms, all their inventory and equipment, and even their homes. I know a dozen Latine farmers in the Central Coast who must now start their farms from scratch, who may lose their organic certifications due to the floods, or who may not be able to pay their employees in the coming months. This includes Napa Farmers Market farmers such as Picoso Farm, who lost equipment and have waterlogged fields.

It is hard to know what is worse, ash or mud on the food California farmers grow. What we do know is the future will undeniably bring us as many years of drought and wildfires as years of rain and flooding. But it is never too late to make a change, and one of the best ways to do so is by supporting your local and sustainable food system. With that, I will see you at the Napa Farmers Market next Saturday!

If you would like more information on how to support Central Coast farmers affected by the floods, visit kitchentableadvisors.org.

Pages from a Farmer: A Grower of the Small and Mighty

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on January 9, 2023.

With their cotyledon leaves packed full of flavor and nutrition, microgreens are not every farmers market shopper’s usual staple. Luckily for us, if you stroll down the producer aisle of the Napa Farmers Market you can meet Jonathan Jones of Delta Microgreens. With an ever-present smile, abundance of knowledge, and an obvious passion for his work, Jonathan will teach you about all the many different microgreens he grows, their countless benefits for your health, and how they can be used to spice up your weekly cooking routine.

A local from Suisun, Jonathan is also a trained chef who cooked everywhere from Switzerland, the Caribbean, and New York City. After his worldly culinary experiences, Jonathan returned to California in 2011 and worked in the food and wine industry until 2018 when his friend introduced him to growing microgreens.

Jonathan’s friend, now business partner Lyle Bynum, was a backyard microgreen grower who recognized a niche market waiting to be filled. Together he and Jonathan started Delta Microgreens. Their first year was spent in a backyard greenhouse, learning what varieties grow best, growing cycles, and how to market their new product locally. Since then, Delta Microgreens grew into a thriving business that is still growing and adapting to be one of the Bay Area’s primary local microgreen producers.

One of the first things Jonathan will tell you is he is an entrepreneur and an overachiever. He never hesitated to start Delta Microgreens because he knew it was a project he could fall in love with, and it was something to channel all his skills and work ethic. And as Jonathan will tell you, “Everyone needs to eat, and someone needs to grow that food. So, people may as well eat something healthy, and I can be the person to grow their healthy food”.

Jonathan stumbled into being a grower, but now he finds growing to be a favorite part of the job. As a chef he always loved to learn where food came from, how it was delivered, how it was prepared, and on. Becoming a grower was eye opening to see how food is produced and much work goes into growing food.

Something Jonathan learned since starting Delta Microgreens is that people often take for granted the work that goes into making healthy food because so many people prioritize paying for unhealthy food that comes from larger, non-local companies. Jonathan and Lyle are still trying to crack the code on how to make shoppers value local producers who grow healthy food, but that is part of what makes Jonathan so good at his job. When you speak with Jonathan you feel his passion to educate shoppers and grow his business not only for himself, but also for the betterment of his community.

Previously Delta Microgreens sold at up to six different farmers markets in the Bay Area, but they now only sell at the Napa Farmers Market and direct-to-consumers. This was in part due to their need to focus the business and streamline after the loss of employees during last year’s labor shortage, but also so Jonathan and Lyle could focus on the many things that are required from a small business. Jonathan and Lyle’s teamwork are the indispensable strength in their business, but they look forward to finding new team members to help grow Delta Microgreens and take it to the next level.

Despite the many challenges of starting a business and becoming a grower, not once has Jonathan thought of giving up. Or as he says, “It won’t happen”. When challenges arrive, he knows he will never quit, so the only thing he can ask himself is, “What more can I do?”

Jonathan takes great pride in what he and Lyle accomplished. They started Delta Microgreens with only a vision and an idea, and never relied on the help of outside investors. For Jonathan, that means being proud of changing careers, learning about agriculture, gaining new skills, becoming an entrepreneur, being a successful Black business-owner, and being an example and legacy for his nieces and nephews. All these accomplishments are an anomaly to what he thought he would be doing, but he feels very fortunate to be on this path. He hopes to share this knowledge with others around him and to be a testament that they too can accomplish their goals with hard work, drive, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment.

So, if you want to try something new and healthy in your cooking routine and support a growing local business, come meet Jonathan at the Saturday Napa Farmers Market. You will love to meet him, you will learn from him, and he in return will be so happy to meet you. Because when asked what motivates him to get to the market every week he answered, “The people, meeting someone knew, growing our business, and changing the future”.

Pages from a Farmer: A time for lists

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on November 28, 2022.

November and December are a time for lists… for kids it can be lists of presents and for adults it may be parties to attend, gifts to buy, recipes to try, and resolutions to think of. While we all know what kind of lists Santa is making at this time of year, not everyone knows what kind of lists a farmer is making.

The fall brings the onset of cool weather and a natural pause to the growing seasons on a farm. Crops we plant in the early fall will mature at nearly the same time as crops planted in mid-winter, thus there is no real reason to plant heavily at this time of year. Instead, farmers allow themselves the break to do other projects on the farm.

During this break, farmers make their lists. It can be anything from paperwork to file, hopes for the next season, or projects to finish while there is time. During the summer, we depend entirely on the rote weekly routine of harvesting, packing, selling, planting, or weeding that lists become a superfluous redundancy. There is no space for anything but working on autopilot during the summer. So, in the winter we love making to do lists that we finally have the time to finish rather than allow to collect dust.

One of the most important lists we write during the winter is our crop plan. A crop plan is a farmer’s way to know exactly what they will grow throughout the season, when to sow or seed the crop, when to transplant it to the field, when to expect the start of harvest, and finally, when to expect its end. All these dates require so many calculations and depend on specific experiences as each crop responds differently to a region’s microclimate. Suffice it to say, a farmer does much more than randomly buy a bit of seed and plant it at a hap-hazard date. Instead, they use a complex and crucial crop plan to ensure they end up with consistent amounts of produce every week.

On my own farm, creating a crop plan requires several full days of work and a complicated spreadsheet that we continue to improve each year. Once we finally finish our crop plan, we next come to the fun and equally difficult task of buying the lists of seeds we need for the season. We generally buy from 3-6 different seed companies… some who specialize in potatoes, some in organic seed, and some in new varieties. The price differences for seed and availability can be very significant, thus requiring additional lists and labor.

It feels symbolic that the seed we buy in winter represents almost an entire year’s growth for a farm. Like these seeds, our farms must naturally slow down to prepare ourselves for the next year. But while a seed’s biology slows down during dormancy, it is still very much alive and active… waiting for the right conditions to germinate. And so it is for a farm. In the winter we may seem slower and sleepier, growing only kale and radishes, but we are just recovering and preparing for the long summer days.

So, while you make your next list for the holidays, or perhaps your next shopping list for the Napa Farmers Market, you can think of farmers and their own lists. From these lists we create now will come the blossoming of so much beauty, food, and labor in the months to come.

Pages from a Farmer: Eating with the Seasons

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on October 24, 2022.

One of the many magical reasons to live in California is our relatively mild climate, full of many pockets of microclimates. From the cool, foggy coastlines to the hot, dry summers of the Central Valley, it can sometimes feel like we have no real seasons in California. While many East Coast natives may emphatically argue that California is seasonless, one group that knows California’s seasons are farmers and seasonal farmers market shoppers.

California farmers are spread throughout the state in all its many pockets of microclimates. This means some farmers have hot, dry summers with cold, long winters, temperate coastal seasons that do not vary in temperature, or places in the South that are warm almost year-round. Each farmer adapts to their climate to grow as much produce as they can in each season.

Despite these ranges in temperature and humidity throughout California, one thing that stays constant is day length. Many crops require specific day length to transition their development from one stage to another. For example, onions will not create bulbs without a certain number of “short” and/or “long” days. Temperature can override day length in certain circumstances, but many farmers do not fight a plant’s normal pattern of development and instead plan their crop plantings according to what day length best meets the plant’s needs.

One reason I support farmers who grow their crops outdoors, rather than in greenhouses, is because outdoor-grown crops are planted at a time that best meets the plant’s developmental needs. Not only does this make more nutritious and delicious food, but it also requires less energy input. For example, greenhouses can be cooled or heated, they can use artificial lights to mimic longer days, and they are innately more consumptive on plastic and fertilizers. Certain farmers will still nurture their soil and farm sustainably in greenhouse-grown crops, but greenhouse-grown crops are often an extractive rather than a regenerative form of farming. Buying outdoor grown crops that are in season may mean you do not buy tomatoes in February, but it does mean you are shopping more sustainably.

Right now, California is wrapping up its autumn “shoulder season”. September through early November is a unique season where you can find peak summer produce such as tomatoes and eggplant alongside your winter staples like cabbage and lettuce. The summer crops were growing and establishing their fruit when the weather was warm, while the winter crops were just starting to germinate and establish themselves. By the time cooler weather in October arrives, the summer fruit had just enough early-summer heat to finish maturing, but the winter crops enjoy the cooler temperatures at the end of their lifecycle. And ta-da, you get shoulder season.

“Wait”, you may ask, “I can buy lettuce and cabbage year-round at the farmers market, so how are they a winter crop?” For that you can thank California’s coastal microclimate that grows crops such as lettuce, artichokes, cruciferous crops, and strawberries practically year-round. Coastal farmers allow California shoppers to buy cool-climate crops in the peak of summer, while still buying locally and sustainably.

Other produce is strictly seasonal, no matter where you are in California. One obvious example is citrus. California boasts some of the most spectacular, varied, and diverse citrus seasons in the country. What is even more incredible is that citrus is ripe in the peak of winter when most other sweet fruit is dormant. To enjoy a tangy, sweet, and colorful fruit in the dreary peak of winter is like storing and enjoying a little burst of sunshine when you need it most.

If you never thought of “citrus season” before, then I encourage you to make this winter your first foray into citrus. Just remember, citrus is meant to be eaten in the winter, and never in the summer. There is no comparison for the difference in taste between a locally grown California orange, lemon, kumquat, grapefruit or other, and something bought outside of California and stored or shipped so you can eat it in July. The best way to enjoy citrus season is buy shopping at farmers markets, like the Napa Farmers Market, or other local markets that are attended by California citrus farmers.

I encourage everyone to shop seasonally! There are so many benefits, not least of is how delicious in-season produce is compared to stored or shipped produce. In addition, you will find yourself eating more fresh and healthy food, and you will be supporting a more sustainable food system. The first step to shopping seasonally is to attend your local Napa Farmers Market and befriend your local farmers. Happy shopping!

Making a Whole Pumpkin Soup

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on October 10, 2022.

It is finally October, and everyone knows that means pumpkin season. Be it a decoration, an activity for your kids, a caffeinated beverage, or a meal, starting October 1st pumpkins are suddenly the fruit you find everywhere.

Pumpkins are sister plants to melons, cucumbers, watermelon, and summer squash, and were first domesticated in North America by Native Americans. Thanks to Native American farmers we can now enjoy this truly “American” food and appreciate the long and important history pumpkins hold on our land. There are now over 45 varieties of pumpkins to pick from, some for eating and some for decoration.

When it comes to growing pumpkins, it takes a skilled and patient farmer. To make those flawless shiny orbs you need a lot of water, time (it takes over 4 months for a pumpkin to mature!), and the right amount of protection from their many pests. Be it squash bugs that steal all the pumpkin plant’s sugars, powdery mildew that diseases the plants, or pill bugs nibbling away at the bottom of the pumpkins, growing pumpkins organically is quite the challenge.

I am sure that many of you only ever bought a pumpkin to carve it and stick it on your front porch. Those pumpkins are not the pumpkins you eat in your delicious pumpkin pie as they were bred to be low in sugars and instead be aesthetically pleasing. But at the Napa Farmers Market or other markets you can find edible pumpkins that make for a delicious culinary adventure.

A few years ago, my husband and I watched an episode of the late great Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown in which he visited the family of Chef Boulud in Lyon and made a whole pumpkin soup. Since then, we always dreamed to make this dish on a cold fall day. Truth be told it was not until just last week that we ever had the time to try the recipe, but it did not disappoint.

If you are holding a dinner party, want a complete change to your Thanksgiving menu, or even want to venture into your first pumpkin-cooking adventure with the most epic possible recipe, then this is the perfect recipe for you. It may seem daunting and difficult, but in truth it is a very forgiving and flexible recipe that requires less energy than carving a Jack-O’-Lantern.

I am sharing the recipe with personal notes on what ingredients you can find at the Napa Farmers Market, and from which vendors. Finally, do not feel beholden to any one way to make this recipe… look for different variations online and add or subtract ingredients as you please!

Whole Pumpkin Soup

Adapted by Robert Hines from Daniel Boulud’s Stuffed Cheese Pumpkin with Gruyere, Bacon and Walnuts recipe, and Bon Appetit’s Pumpkin Soup with Gruyere recipe by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer.

Ingredients

In italics are information on where to find ingredients at the Napa Farmers Market

1 large whole cooking pumpkin such as Musquee de Provence, Cinderella, or Jarrahdale

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

½ cup walnuts

All of the above can be found at the stand of most farmers at the Napa FM

1 lb smoked bacon cut in thin strips Find at Contimo

1 lb mushrooms such as chantarelles or black trumpet, chopped Find at Far West Fungi

Several slices of day-old bread, toasted Find at West Won Bread

3-5 cups stock (chicken or vegetable) Find at Contimo or make your own with a chicken from Channa Ranch and farm veggies

2 cups of grated Gruyere cheese or ask Achadinha Cheese Company if they have any recommendations

1-2 cups of cream or crème fraiche

1 tsp ground fennel

1 tsp ground Espelette pepper

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground clove

½ tsp ground nutmeg

5 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Salt and pepper

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees.

Cut off top of pumpkin at an angle as if carving a pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and strings until pumpkin is clean. Seeds can be cleaned and toasted in the oven lightly as a later garnish for the soup.

Sprinkle inside of pumpkin with salt, pepper, and all the spices. Remember, if you prefer to omit a spice here or there, this recipe is forgiving!

Fry bacon strips in a heavy pan until crisp. Remove bacon but use remaining bacon fat in the pan to cook onion, leeks, and garlic until translucent, then add mushrooms and further cook for 5 minutes.

In pumpkin, layer onion-mushroom mixture with the stale bread, walnuts, and cheese. Alternatively, for a gluten-free option you can omit the bread during the baking portion and use later when serving the soup.

Finally, partly fill pumpkin with cream or crème fraiche (depending on the size of your pumpkin you may want to add more or less cream) then fill the remaining portion with stock.

Cover pumpkin and place on a baking sheet and bake in center of oven for 2 – 4 hours (depending on size). It is important to give your pumpkin plenty of time so that the flesh is soft and tender. Pumpkin is done when the skin is browned and mostly bubbling off the flesh of the pumpkin, and a knife slides easily through the inside of the pumpkin meat (poke pumpkin from the top-inside cavity so as to not make a leak).

Ladle out the soup of the pumpkin (on bread if it was omitted during baking) and carefully scoop out chunks of the pumpkin flesh to place in soup. Enjoy!

Pages from a Farmer: All hail Athena and her gift of olives

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on September 26, 2022.

This summer I found myself many miles from California, travelling through its sister lands. We started in France, then went down Italy, all around Greece, and up through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. In many ways these countries boarding the Adriatic Sea are like California. A Chapparal landscape of scrubby brush, small trees, rocky soils, and mountainous terrain falling to the sea. Dry and hot, with scars of fire.

It was a once in a lifetime trip. Particularly because we would normally be farming under the hot dry sun of the Capay Valley. But drought and a bad well allowed my family and I a “forced sabbatical” (it sounds much better than climate refugee). With the kilometers passing by and nothing but the next destination ahead of us, we had the time to mourn, explore, and dream.

These weeks I allowed myself to mourn the summer of farming that should have been and was not. I mourned the uncertain future that California and the whole planet faces in the coming years as climate change rears its hot, dry head around the globe. I mourned that I could not fully enjoy all the beauty I saw without wondering if it would still exist in twenty years.

Then came the exploring. We went through valleys, over mountains, along seas, into bays, across plains, everywhere. We saw small farms growing in every corner of the land, sometimes on top of a mountain, sometimes in the bottom of a karst polje. And in every country, growing in the most unlikely places, were grapes and olives.

In Napa, a land of Dionysos, it is old news that grapes are planted everywhere and in the most unhospitable places all through Europe. Afterall, we brought some of this madness to California, with our grapes planted on hot mountain hillsides and wines to rival the old world. The gifts of Dionysos are seen all around the Adriatic but let us not forget that he was the youngest Olympian, and before there were grapes, there were olives.

In a contest between Poseidon and Athena, the first Athenians chose Athena’s gift of the olive tree over Poseidon’s saltwater spring. As myth goes, this was the first olive tree and forever gave Greece and its sister lands the many offerings of olives: food, oil, wood.

Driving around the Adriatic Sea, Athena and her olive tree reign above all else. If there is a square inch of land, a lonely mountain, a cliff overlooking the sea… you are sure to find an olive orchard. In fact, I do not think you can call yourself a farmer in Greece or Italy if you do not have an olive orchard.

By orchard, I am sure you picture a square, flat field with orderly rows and neatly pruned trees. But an orchard is a much looser term in the land of Athena. Instead, they are ecosystems of olive trees, planted in any which way, with trees pruned into the shape of goblets, witches, waterfalls, and bouquets. Spacing between trees is in soft organic lines, with rocks and the occasional fig tree underneath the olive canopies. It is simply beautiful, and seeing these orchards touched some primordial part of my soul that knows olives are a gift so good, only a goddess could grant it.

California, so similar an ecosystem to Greece, is also a land of olives. But as we love to do in California agriculture, we grow this beautiful plant efficiently and profitably by planting olive trees in hedges. Every year the trees are “pruned” by an overlarge side-ways weedwhacker to make dense, straight rows of olive plants. We grow a lot of olives in California, but it is not in orchards that inspire stories of goddesses, nymphs, and legends.

Travelling the Adriatic Sea and seeing all these olives grown in every corner of land made a small farmer like me dream. I now dream of a beautiful orchard of olive trees on our farm, grown with art and with nature, not against it. I dreamt of farming for beauty and not just for profit, and of farming a plant that adapts to our climate rather than gives up. Who knows, perhaps the future of California farming can replace large orchards of thirsty walnuts with small orchards of olive trees.

At the Napa Farmers Market, you can find one wonderful olive farmer, Atlas Peak Olive Oil, who grows her olives with heart and art on the hills of the Napa Valley. If you are lucky, you can enjoy their fresh olive oil in the coming weeks, as this season’s olive harvest is upon us.

Pages from a Farmer: The story of a chef turned rancher

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on August 28, 2022.

You can always tell a lot about someone by meeting their friends. Afterall, true friends are those who celebrate with you, pick you up at your lowest, and support you when you get the crazy idea to start a farm or ranch.

If ever you have the luck to enjoy an Oktoberfest at the ranch of Sean Canavan, and his partner Vio Minderman, you will find it is surrounded by all their incredible friends. Sean started Channa Ranch when he and Vio moved to the 8-acre property Sean bought in 2018 in the Capay Valley.

But we do not need to meet Sean Canavan’s friends to know what a wonderful person and rancher he is. Many Napa Farmers Market shoppers have likely had friendly chats with Sean on a Saturday morning to buy his chicken, pork, duck, guinea fowl, or eggs. It is also likely that Sean shared a few helpful hints on how to cook the food he sold you.

Sean spent most of his career as a celebrated chef everywhere from a Michelin star restaurant in Berlin, Germany, to Lespinasse in New York City. But it was when he moved back to California to cook in Larkspur that he started shopping at the Marin farmers market and befriended all the ranchers and farmers. Thus began his journey to becoming a rancher.

Sean’s interest in farming started at a very young age. Growing up in industrial Germany (what Sean proclaims is the ugliest part of Germany), there were not many opportunities to experience agriculture. But when he visited his mother’s hometown in Southern Germany, he was able to spend his summers picking potatoes and bringing cattle in from the pasture.

Speaking with Sean, you can tell these are some of his fondest memories, and the reason why he always wanted to become a rancher. But in the Germany Sean grew up in only farmers’ sons became farmers, and so Sean became a chef. Never forgetting the desire to farm. It was not until a life-changing event that Sean realized he could work in the kitchen the rest of his life, or he could try to make ranching a reality.

Sean spent years looking at ranch land in California, but it was not until he visited the Capay Valley that he found his perfect piece of land. Everything came together for him to buy his perfect ranch.

Channa Ranch is a dream in motion. It has come so far from the neglected property it was, to the small ranch it is now. Starting a ranch from scratch is after all no small feat, and I have watched as Sean and Vio tirelessly support each other in reaching their dreams. Be it Vio milling corn Sean grew in a test plot, or Sean helping Vio, a pastry chef, open a specialty donut shop in downtown Vacaville.

Sean mostly raises animals for meat or eggs and milk, and grows some plant crops. Sean’s birds are all raised in mobile coops and his pigs get all sorts of good food and the comfort of digesting in a cool mud pit on a hot day. But Sean’s hopes and ideas for the future are still being tried every day.

As a chef, Sean has the knowledge of what is good food. He wants to raise his animals in a humane and sustainable manner, but he wants to raise food that is culinarily the best. It is why he is always trying new breeds of animals, be it Bresse chickens, quail eggs, or Friesian milk sheep.

Sean is now a rancher, but he will always have his experience as a chef to bring perspective and work ethic. When I asked him how cooking compares to farming and ranching, he told me they are the same because the work and the learning never stops. He can work 10 hours or 16 hours in a day, and it will never make a dent in the workload. The difference with ranching is that he can do it on his own terms and time.

“It’s not easy, hasn’t been easy, and isn’t getting easier”, Sean says when talking about ranching. But in the evening after the chores are done and all the animals are fed and watered, he can sit on his porch and know there is no place on earth he would rather be.

Pages from a Farmer: Become a Friend of the Market

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on July 25, 2022.

July at the Napa Famers Market is the Friends of the Market fundraising campaign during which our non-profit association asks everyone to donate to support the market. Now before you pass to the next article or side-step the donation booth while you are at the market, please hear from a farmer why you should donate to this wonderful cause.

Perhaps the most important thing I will accomplish as a farmer is to feed people. The food I and other farmers grow goes directly into making you healthy and strong. It goes into your children and grandchildren’s bodies to make them not only grow but have a positive and environmentally sustainable relationship to food. It feeds aging grandparents who have a hard time eating and can only enjoy simple, nutritious food. And most importantly, the food farmers grow can be accessible to all.

“Can be” is up to you though. To feed people I can harvest lettuce in freezing cold rain or melons in 105-degree heat, my neighbor can personally and ethically slaughter chickens all day, and all my farmer colleagues can never give up on farming despite its challenges. But we cannot make food accessible to all. It is too much to ask us to bear this burden alone.

Small farmers and their employees often qualify for the food assistance programs that we accept at the farmers markets because we are not a wealthy group. The cost to farm keeps rising, and the margins keep diminishing. We cannot lower our prices and support our own families. But today is not about asking you to pay more for your food than your cell phone bill. Instead, I ask you to help farmers make food accessible for all by donating to the Friends of the Market fundraising campaign. Farmers can grow the food, and you can support organizations that make high-quality and nutritious food affordable for everyone.

It does not matter what you look like, where you live, how much money is in your bank account, and what language you speak for you to deserve healthy food. But unfortunately, the American food system is built around a structure that makes cheap food, less than healthy food. Until we dismantle and rebuild the entire food system, we can turn to non-profit organizations to bridge the gap between those who cannot afford the high price of healthy food and those who can.

The Napa Farmers Market Association is not only a hub for multiple food assistance programs, but it also gives money to low-income families to shop at the market. Meaning every dollar is returned to the farmers at the market. In 2021, the Napa Farmers Market Association matched over $53,000 in CalFresh dollars and served 428 CalFresh households. And this year we anticipate matching over $72,000 this year, but this cannot be accomplished without your donation!

Incredible individuals donate their time to make the Napa Farmers Market Association possible. It is our board of directors that help set up the market early in the morning, who kept the market open and safe during the pandemic, who work with the City of Napa to find the market a permanent home, who fundraise and donate to Market Match, and who write you weekly Napa Valley Register articles for your entertainment and education. It is a wonderful group of people that makes up an essential and beautiful non-profit organization whose main purpose is to bring food to all.

So, on behalf of the famers, please consider donating to the Friends of the Market fundraising campaign to sustain the market, directly support farmers, expand food assistance programs in Napa, and create equitable access to local food. Please help us reach our goal of $35,000 by donating before August 9 at www.napafarmersmarket.org/donate. Thank you!

Pages from a Farmer: An Ode to Summer Squash

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on June 27, 2022

Every farmer has a favorite vegetable of the season. In the summer it could be eggplant, peppers, okra, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. For me, it is summer squash. Now before you gasp in horror that I chose what you may think of as a bland, watery vegetable over something sweet and colorful like a tomato, hear me out.

Summer squash are a joy for California farmers because they come into season in June, right during the Spring to Summer shoulder season. June is when the weather either favors cool-season Spring crops like lettuce and radishes, or it favors hot weather crops that love the heat but are not quite old enough to be productive. Luckily, summer squash are a relatively reliable early-summer crop because they grow quickly and fruit early.

On our farm we transplant our first succession of squash in early April and cover them with row cover to protect them from a late frost and cucumber beetles, and to give them a little extra warmth to speed up their maturity. The row cover is a messy, dusty, pain, but it is worth it when we get summer squash in May.

Over the summer we direct seed into the soil two more successions of summer squash and retire older successions. Organic summer squash plants eventually become overrun by beetles and aphids, and fresh successions help us have healthy and productive plants all season long. Other farmers may grow their summer squash in greenhouses or use Organic or non-Organic sprays to help mitigate pest and weather problems.

Once summer squash plants begin to produce, farmers harvest them 2-4 times a week. This is another benefit to summer squash, and a bane. Namely, you can almost always rely on having summer squash, but you also always have summer squash to harvest. Harvesting itself is a scratchy process that requires gloves to protect your skin from the plant’s trichomes and a small, hooked knife to sneak between the leaves and slice off the fruit (yes, summer squash is actually a fruit because it is the product of a pollinated flower). But in comparison to harvesting smelly tomatoes, dusty eggplant, and heavy melons, I find harvesting summer squash to be very meditative.

These are interesting reasons why a farmer may like summer squash, but why would I say it is my favorite summer vegetable? Because of its incomparable ability to feed you a delicious meal. If your meals are centered around vegetables rather than meat or dairy, then you are no novice to summer squash as an excellent “filler” vegetable. But instead of the bland, over-cooked zucchini you are used to seeing steamed and thrown on the side of steak, summer squash can be the rock-star of your meal.

There are hundreds of different summer squash varieties that come in all different shapes, sizes, textures, and tastes. This diversity alone lends itself to making you an exciting and colorful meal. My personal summer squash favorite is Costata Romanesco, a long squash with light and dark green stripes. It is highly ribbed, dense, snappy in texture, and has a thick skin that adds a bit of crunch and nutty flavor to each bite. The key to enjoying summer squash though is to not overcook them. Searing them on high heat in a not over-crowded pan will yield summer squash with a caramelized exterior and crunchy interior.

When you pick summer squash you always want to chose smaller, firmer squash. The bigger the squash the more seeds, pith, and water you get in ratio to the skin, where most of the nutrients and flavor is stored. If the squash are firm, you know they are fresh. But please forgive the farmer any odd shapes and scratched skin… harvesting the fruit without rubbing the skin on the rough leaves is hard.

The very best summer squash though are a mix of many different shapes and colors. On my farm we grow seven different varieties just so we can grow our “Mini Mélange”, a pint basket of all different mini summer squash that you can almost cook as-is. They are a lot of work to grow, harvest, and prep for market, but the finished product is just as beautiful as a flower bouquet.

So, if you are looking to eat more vegetables, or looking for a culinary change, reconsider one of the most delicious, nutritious, and beautiful vegetables that are currently in abundance at the Napa Farmers Market!

Pages from a Farmer: Behind the Market Stand

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on June 13, 2022.

By the time most shoppers arrive at the farmers market, they are greeted by perfectly organized stands of fruit and vegetables. Pint baskets set out straight in attractive contrasting colors of tomatoes or peppers, mountains of melons, fuzzy peaches in their trays, and all the price labels and shopping bags readily at hand. In the shadowy depths of the EZ-Up canopies behind the tables is the unseen market truck and extra market supplies. And all around the market are signs and seating areas offered by the Napa Farmers Market association.

Because it is what shoppers are used to seeing, they may not think about all the effort and thought that goes into setting up and breaking down a farmers market. I know many of my friends think we toss all our market supplies and produce in the van willy-nilly, throw it up for the customers to buy, and throw it back in the van again at the end of the day. But when a market stand is part of your routine, you create a workflow that is precise down to the way you pack your extra paper bags. Today I am bringing you behind the table and into the average day of preparing and closing-down a farmer’s market stand.

The day before the market along with harvesting for market we pack, weigh, and count every piece of produce we bring to market. Everything is ready to go in crates so all we to do is transfer produce from the cooler to the van. During the summer we wake up as early as 4:30am to transfer 50 lbs crates of potatoes, melons, watermelons, etc.

When Robert and I first started farming we used a truck to transport our produce and market supplies. To be space efficient we needed to pack all our market supplies (tables, baskets, EZ Up tents, etc) before packing and after unloading produce. As a result we were moving the same objects four times per market day. Since then we purchased a tall market van and build storage shelves in the van so we could store all our market supplies between markets. Thus reducing the number of times we moved market supplies to two times per market day. It may seem like nothing, but when you do this daily/weekly any way to spare your time and energy is essential!

When we get to market our valiant assistant market manager Mimi Adams and her crew precisely directs each vendor to their market space, making sure we park in the exact position so all vendors fit. Imagine the fun when someone leaves their car in the parking lot overnight and blocks a vendor’s space!

After parking we pull out our market gear in a very precise order that ensures we only move or grab each piece of equipment once. Tent first, then signs, tables, tablecloths, baskets, produce, price tags, paper bags, scales, money, and on. To make sure that all these market supplies can be set up in this precise order we have an exact arrangement in how we unpack and pack the market supplies in the van. This is why if you ever try to “help” a vendor pack-up at the end of the day you will most likely be politely shooed away. The best advice I can give is to ask a vendor what they need help with but never try to do anything on your own.

After setting up our stand we have four long hours of selling produce, chatting with customers, constantly restocking the table, and finally comes time to break down the stand. Once again, we have a precise order to packing the market van and follow our rule of thumb “Move objects once and put them away”. Finally it is the drive home and a final unpack of our produce crates and any extra produce.

So if you ever see a slightly grumpy or frazzled farmer, vendor, or market staff person during the early hours of the morning setting up the market, or late in the afternoon when they are breaking down, you know why we may be tired and focused on the job at hand. The kindest thing you can do is wait until the market starts before buying produce, do not ask to buy from us after the market ends, and appreciate all the work that goes into setting up our beautiful Napa Farmers Market!

Pages from a Farmer: Meet Henry and Loida of J & M Ibarra Farms

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on April 25, 2022.

If you are a long-time shopper at the Napa Farmers Market, two faces you are familiar with are Henry and Loida De Jesus from J & M Ibarra Farms. With their wide selection of seasonal produce, they are one of the more popular stands at the market where shoppers go to buy their baby greens, bok choy, fresh beans, and more.

Henry and Loida are originally from the Philippines where they farmed rice and vegetables. Farming in the Philippines meant all manual farming while protecting their crops from typhoons and insects.

In 2009 they joined J & M Ibarra Farms, originally located in Gilroy and Reedly. Having fields in the more temperate coastal climate of Gilroy, as well as the hot Central Valley climate of Reedly allowed J & M Ibarra to grow a large variety of produce throughout the year. In Gilroy, they can grow delicate greens outside, and in Reedly they grew crops in protected greenhouses.

In 2018 a tragic car accident on the way back from a farmers market caused the death of one of the farm’s owners. Since then, the farm went through several changes to adapt to the tragedy, as well as challenges regarding drought and land security.

In 2021 J & M Ibarra Farms moved the Reedly branch of the farm to 57 acres in Isleton, on the Sacramento River. The farm now has more reliable access to water, but moving an entire farm is no easy process.

Originally a certified organic farm, J & M Ibarra lost their certification when the farm moved locations. While they still farm with organic practices, they must now restart the process to certify the lan

The move to Iselton also means they must learn what crops grow best in the new climate. Last summer was particularly difficult because they moved their farm in the middle of the summer, meaning their entire summer growing season was disrupted. After the challenges of the pandemic in 2020 and moving their farm in 2021, Henry and Loida hope 2022 will be more stable.

After six years as “market stall neighbors,” I can say that Henry and Loida are some of the smartest, kind, and hardworking farmers I know. Over the years they adapted to different challenges on their farm, while still reliably showing up to every market.

For example, when their market van broke down, they started the grueling schedule of being dropped off in Napa every Saturday at 4 a.m. and picked up at 4 p.m. All this is repeated at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market on Sundays. During the week they plant, harvest, and more.

Despite their crazy work schedule, they never skip a beat: Loida will perfectly calculate your market total in her head, and Henry will always keep the market stand stocked and organized. Their kindness is felt by many, be it Loida holding my baby and singing him songs in Tagalog, or the friends that visit them at the market to talk and buy their produce.

California may be Henry, Loida, and their children’s home now, but one day they plan to retire to the Philippines. When Henry’s mother passed away last year, he told me how hard it was to see his mother work her whole life and never enjoy all she worked for. They look forward to the day they can return to their home country and be with family and friends.

If you cannot imagine Henry and Loida giving up farming, you are right. Loida hopes to have a small farm in the countryside of the Philippines where she can grow fun Brassica crops such as purple daikon and red radishes to sell to her community.

Lucky for us, they still plan to be a part of the Napa Farmers Market community for more years to come.

Pages from a Farmer: And then it never rained

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on March 28, 2022

“Bombtober” some called it, when an incredible atmospheric river drenched the drought-stricken soils and mountains of California. We all danced and rejoiced, and much thought, and may still think, that we made it through the recent stretch of drought. Was it realistic to believe that a few days of heavy rain could undo the harm of months and years of drought? Only if it continued to rain, but it never did.

This winter we experienced the driest January and February in recorded history, which are typically our wettest. And we will not have a “Miracle March”. Staring down the barrel of the coming summer, the entire West Coast should be terrified. California farmers are certainly shaking their usually calm and often-optimistic heads at what is to come.

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Farmers may sound like a broken record always complaining about drought and water. Last season saw many farmers give up on pastures and orchards when water ran out. Many wells ran dry, and watersheds were emptied leaving dry canals and rivers. As an indicator, California rice farmers cut their production by 20%. And this is for a group of farmers who have historically reliable access to water.

In my home community of the Capay Valley, the watersheds feeding Cache Creek shut off in June 2021 and turned the creek bed into puddles. By August the well on our farm diminished its water output by about a third, making the rest of the farming season a nightmare to irrigate.

The Capay Valley has a relatively healthy water table compared to the rest of the state, but for those of us with shallow wells, the options to continue farming are limited. Instead of claiming income, we are taking out loans to pay for new wells in the hopes that they will allow us to farm in the coming years. But the waitlist for new wells can be over a year, meaning many rural residents and farmers will be without water this summer.

For us at Sun Tracker Farm, we decided to not plant any summer crops in 2022. So much financial, physical and emotional investment goes into planning a summer season. We may have enough water to get to July, but we are guaranteed to lose a reliable source of water in the coming months. Instead of fighting tooth and nail to farm this summer, we are taking a step back to recover and become better equipped to face the worsening consequences of climate change. In the coming years, we hope to be a reliable source of food and combatants of a more environmentally sustainable food system.

On a broader note, the last few years of pandemic and drought is finally catching up to the farming community. In my own circle of farmers, I know many people retiring, restructuring their farm,s or selling their farms and moving on. The trauma of drought, fire and the pandemic left its scars, and there is only so much a farmer can give when the financial margins are so small.

You may be tired of hearing it, but now more than ever is when we should take action to reverse climate change. A recent study (Williams, Cook, & Smerdon. Nature Climate Change. 2022) showed that the recent 22-year period in the North American southwest was the driest since 800, and with the added drought of 2022, it is also the longest duration of drought since the1500s.

We are entering unprecedented times in human history. Farmers feel the pain and urgency today, and many of us are taking action to mitigate and fight climate change. When will the rest of society, lawmakers, consumers and businesses do the same?

Pages from a Farmer: A little help here and there...

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on March 14, 2022

Owning a small business, of any kind, is no small feat. In addition to the difficulties of starting the business, there is also the daily and yearly work to make the business successful. How much do we spend? Are we making enough money to support ourselves? How do we manage risks? And perhaps the hardest question, how do we stay happy in our profession?

For all small businesses, the last two years are likely some of the toughest in more than a decade. Restaurants that had been open for 40 years have shut their doors, people are buying online rather than in local shops, employers cannot find enough people to hire, and everything needs to stop if staff comes down with COVID. All these concerns are felt by small businesses, including farms.

Owning and starting a farm is like becoming an accountant, biologist, natural disaster responder, salesperson, government bureaucrat, employee manager, CrossFit athlete, long haul driver, market analyst, and homesteader all in one (and I’m probably missing a few analogies). With the romantic idea of farming, spending time outdoors, cultivating soil, and harvesting the fruits of our labor come all the usual concerns of a small business. Compounded on this is our direct interface with biology and the climate. Farmers have pandemics to negotiate every year, albeit pandemics that affect our crops and animals rather than ourselves.

It is a lot of work for farmers to wear all these hats, and certainly impossible to do everything on time according to others’ deadlines. People often ask us if we know of such-and-such farmer grant, or why we don’t try such-and-such technique. How do we politely respond that we barely have time to sleep, let alone spend hours on a grant application or changing the trajectory of our business?

I write all this because in December our farm finished a three-year program with an incredible non-profit organization, Kitchen Table Advisors, which helps small, regenerative farmers create economically viable businesses.

Looking back on the three years of counseling we received from Kitchen Table Advisors on how to manage cash flow, how to take out a loan when to expand the business, and how to stay afloat and happy in the face of natural disasters and pandemics, I realized how crucial this support system is for us, and for all farmers.

Other organizations and programs exist to help us, but we still do not have the support and representation needed to make real change for our industry. Every year farming will become more difficult, particularly due to climate change and the rising complications of being a small business owner.

We need support systems, societal awareness and government representation that understands what farmers need to succeed. Farmers cannot do all the things all the time; we are busy enough just planning, planting and harvesting the food that keeps the country alive.

Perhaps it is time for real change that allows us to do our job, knowing that we have a support system that cares for our success. After all, if we lose all our farms, what will happen to our country?

While the main way to support a small-farm, local and more sustainable food system is by shopping directly from small farmers, there are other ways to help us succeed and make real changes in the food economy. Namely, create and support organizations that serve and ally with farmers! Be it donating to the Napa Farmers Market (one of my favorite farm allies), Kitchen Table Advisors, or one of the other groups in this space, these organizations are doing the hard work to make farms successful. We also need more government leaders and representatives that understand the realities of farming — real farming — not just at the massive, commodity-crop scale.

I encourage you all to support these organizations, get involved, create new ones, and of course, ask and listen to what help farmers need. That list is long, and the hands to help are few, but I promise we farmers will always be grateful for the help we receive. And, we will not give up easily. After all, one of the most essential qualifications for working as a farmer is being tenacious.

Pages from a Farmer: Introducing Picoso Farms

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on January 24, 2022

The astute Napa Farmers Market shopper may have noticed a few familiar faces offering their produce under a new farm name. The market community is very excited to welcome Picoso Farms to the Napa Farmers Market lineup on Saturdays, and Tuesdays starting this spring.

Picoso Farms offers a variety of greens grown in the idyllic California Central Coast climate, as well as a large selection of seasonal fruits and vegetables including corn, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes and even nopales.

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Many of you will recognize Jose Garía and Maria “Nancy” Nuñez as the stall vendors for Avila Farms. Nancy was also part of last month’s “Pages from a Farmer” column about pregnant women farmers. This young family team is now selling produce they grew on their own 7-acre farm in Gilroy – Picoso Farms – which Jose and Nancy started from scratch in March 2020.

Jose is one of those unique people who found his passion in farming; he thrives troubleshooting all the hurdles of farming and lives for those moments when a successful harvest makes up for all the hard work and failures of the past. His love of farming started at a young age growing up in the Chicago area, and when Jose and Nancy met in 2017, she recognized his unique quality: “Farming is Jose’s happiness,” she says, “and seeing him happy brings happiness to me.”

Nancy’s parents were farmers in Mexico and started teaching her how to farm from a young age. Nancy used to help her mother at mercados in Mexico, and she remembers bringing home exotic fruits or breads as the result of trading produce with other vendors. As her mother said, “The best part about this profession is we will never be hungry – there will always be food from the farm in our home.”

When Nancy’s family moved to California, she began working on the farm her older sister started roughly 25 years ago. It is there that Nancy deepened her knowledge of farming, and where she and Jose decided to start their own business doing what they love.

You will see both Nancy and Jose at the Napa Farmers Market working as a team to sell their produce. (You may not see Nancy for a few months, however, as they are expecting a baby very soon.) At Picoso Farms, Jose’s main role is in planning, directing and doing the physical farm work. Nancy is the head businesswoman who takes care of administrative work, insurance, determining how much to harvest, etc. It is a family endeavor, though, and Nancy and Jose’s children also participate. Together, they make a strong team.

Picoso Farms are in the process of becoming Certified Organic, which is not for the faint of heart. Organic farming requires a skillset of experience that includes, among many other things, knowing how to monitor soil fertility and appropriately manage pests.

Jose learned many organic-appropriate techniques from his experiences farming in Chicago, but he and Nancy are also learning and implementing new skills tailored to their Central Coast property. When I speak with Jose and Nancy, their passion is clear: “Every day is short because we are working on the farm furrowing, sowing, scampering around, picking, etc., but the reality is we enjoy it because we love being farmers.”

Jose remembers selling peanuts with lime and chile at the jaripeos (bull riding events) in Guanajuato Mexico, dreaming of a day when he could have a business in the United States. That dream is now a reality for him and for Nancy. Farming is hard, and owning a farm is even harder, but knowing Picoso Farms is their business, and seeing the literal fruits of their labor and the satisfaction of their clients is priceless for Nancy and Jose.

The Napa Farmers Market is so happy to have this wonderful young family of farmers join our ranks. We wish Nancy and Jose many years of success and support from the Napa community!

Pages from a Farmer: Farming while pregnant

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on December 27, 2021

For most farmers, December is the moment when we stop and rest on the laurels of the year. The year 2021 brought us all the normal victories and challenges of any farming season, but for a few of us it came with a very special “package.”

If you frequent the Napa Farmers Market on Saturdays, you might already know that there are not one, but two pregnant farmers who are finally able to let others take over. Namely, myself – Carine Hines from Sun Tracker Farm – and Maria “Nancy” Nuñez from Arellano Farm.

Being pregnant is no walk in the park, no matter what you do or how physically strong you are. Everyone has their own joys and tribulations on the very, very long journey of creating a baby. I will admit that looking back on my eight months of pregnancy, I vacillate between profound respect for what my body has created while also still working as a farmer and mother, and frustration for feeling weak and limited. Taking a moment to talk with Nancy, though, I was reminded how at its heart pregnancy brings the same hopes and worries for us all, and I am not alone.

Farming in the early stages of pregnancy is perhaps the most challenging because our bodies are still strong and boundless, taunting us into trying to do all the usual physical work required in farming.

For Nancy, she was and is always worried about lifting weight. I promise you, 50% of farming is just picking things up and moving it around, be it thousands of pounds of watermelons ripening all at once during a heatwave or pulling out tables and tents at the market. All that picking up and moving things must happen, and so despite our gnawing anxiety, we pregnant farmers just lift the things and feel guilty about it later. As Nancy says, when there is no one else to do it, you just do it.

When Nancy talked to her doctor about her worries over working through her pregnancy, the doctor recommended she go on disability. How do you ask a small farmer, in fact any small business owner, to go on disability during the peak of their business season? Disability payments could never financially or personally compensate for all that would be lost from stopping work mid-season. Maybe Joe Manchin should come pick kale with Nancy and me before making any decisions on the necessity of paid family leave.

One of my biggest concerns while farming was simply maintaining a safe body temperature. At the beginning of July, California experienced one of its most intense heatwaves, which unhelpfully coincided with our one window of opportunity to harvest this year’s potatoes. So at three months pregnant, I spent 10 hours driving a tractor in 115-degree heat to dig up 20,000 pounds of potatoes. I know all pregnant farmers at one point or another have found themselves in similarly ridiculous situations, and found creative ways to keep safe and comfortable.

It is easy to joke about all the other pregnancy-related snafus that we experienced this year, from throwing up in between the eggplant furrows and having trouble counting back change, to bawling in the back of the market van after a particularly bad interaction with a customer. All these experiences are a bit funny, and par for the course, but they mostly point out the times we needed to slow down and did not. Pregnant women who are small farmers face decisions and experiences that are not always easy, and we must depend even more on our partners and community for help.

What I did experience through this season of pregnant farming was the support of the Napa Farmers Market community. After a particularly exhausting and emotional week, customers brought me hand-knit booties for the baby, and snacks when I was too busy with transactions to stop and take a meal break. The countless supportive cheers that pour forth from kind people seeing pregnant women working hard to achieve their dreams AND make a baby almost make up for the tough parts of pregnancy. What does make up for all the pain, tears, and frustration? Well, the baby of course.

Being a farmer with children means just that: being with our children. For Nancy, it is all worth it to bring her kids to the market, where they learn new skills, take part in their parents’ achievements, and most importantly, spend time with her, the person who loves them most. In a few months you will likely see Nancy and myself setting up piles of veggies or cashing out customers with a little baby strapped on our backs.

As small farmers, our families are part of our business, and our customers part of our support network. So let us be thankful for the Napa Farmers Market community, for giving and sharing support, and of course, for all the happy babies to come.

Pages from a Farmer: And then it Rained

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on November 29, 2021

Oct. 20. was the last time we watered our crops before the atmospheric river on Oct. 23 soaked our fields with about six inches of rain in 24 hours. Before Oct. 23, California was a parched and golden-dry landscape, riddled with failing wells, rocky riverbeds, dry canals, and puddles instead of lakes.

Our own agricultural well fell to 75 % of its productivity in April, and we considered ourselves lucky. One glorious month later, on Nov. 17 we decided our crops finally needed a little bit of irrigation, and we measured our well running at its full potential.

So now that the hills are green with six inches of new growth, the perennial oak trees are glowing with their first good drink in years, and wells are pumping out water, are farmers finally breathing a sigh of relief? Well yes, we are as we would be crazy to not bask in the momentary glory of a whole winter’s worth of rain in one day. But that sigh of relief is bated. The truth is those green hills are just as parched and drought stricken as they were in early October.

The current two-year drought we are experiencing is the worst in California’s 100-year record, surpassing even the 2012-2016 drought. And the scariest part is it only took two years for the present drought to beat all records, in comparison to the greater than three-year droughts experienced in previous events.

While October’s atmospheric river brought Northern California up to average seasonal rainfall, weather models strongly predict a dry winter and spring. This means we are still very much in a drought, and above all climate change is progressing as predicted. Drastic swings of drought, heavy rainfall, flooding, and fire will continue into the foreseeable future.

When I attended a Community Alliance for Family Farmers meeting where farmers could discuss farming challenges and opportunities many issues were brought up. Every increase in price the average American is currently experiencing is ever more present for farmers. Labor is hard to find, the cost to keep an employee is increasing, resources are more expensive, and there is the whiplash we all experienced from a pandemic-era economy. Of all the problems though, drought and climate change are at the forefront of all our concerns.

While agri-businesses are drilling wells in the Central Valley at 850 feet depths (this is dinosaur water irrigating your pistachios, folks), smaller farms are contemplating the expensive and disheartening need to drill deeper wells or call it quits. With another winter of drought in our future not every farm, small or large, will come out unscathed. And as the largest producer of food in the country, the effect of drought on California farmers will be felt locally, nationally, and internationally.

On a more personal perspective, I can tell you that we as farmers do not feel prepared or supported to face the coming years. Yes, we can drill a deeper well, but when will that dry up? Yes, we can install a solar pumping system to run our farm and well when PG & E shuts off the power, but what happens when a fire blocks all the sun with smoke or at worst, burns it all down? Yes, we can plant crops in our fields, but what will we do when an atmospheric river floods it all away? Yes, we can aim to expand our businesses and hire employees, but what happens when we cannot pay our employees? And at the forefront of this all, what and who are our back-up plan?

Without a reliable source of water, farmers cannot farm, not even a little bit. Reliable water to a farmer means something entirely different than it does to most Californians. You all may be able to replant your lawns at the end of this drought, but we will not all be able to restart our farms. To continue farming we need water all year, every day, and in predictable quantities.

Climate change is here, it is going unaddressed, and farmers, who are the most vulnerable to its effects yet the most capable of reversing its course are going unaided and unacknowledged. More on this in a future column though. In the meantime, I ask you to refer to Daniel Swain’s blog at weatherwest.com to understand and hopefully inspire you to act on the consequences of climate change.

Pages from a Farmer: Four-Legged Farmers

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on October 25, 2021There is nothing quite like them. They are cute yet rugged, tender yet fierce, and (mostly) independent yet loyal. I’m talking about farm dogs – the constant companions ambling next to a farmer, getting caught in ankles, trouble and our hearts. Instead of contemplating the uncertain future of farming in California, let us instead take a moment to celebrate the certainty of canine companionship on the farm.

Make no mistake, a farmer may think they own a dog, but in fact, the dog claims and owns the farmer. All dogs have the instinct of pack and family, but a farm dog’s connection to the wild is so direct and primal that “belonging” takes on a whole meaning. Belonging to a farm dog is their job in the literal and figurative sense. They will protect your body, soul, and land from the harms of injury, depression, bobcats and ground squirrels.

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I currently belong to two farm dogs and am the now-grown child of many previous farm dogs. Looking on the other side of the pack hierarchy in the adult “alpha” position, I get to analyze and appreciate how farm dogs treat the “betas” of the pack: children.

Farm dogs claim children like lambs. When visited by a human mother and her newborn, my friend’s sheep guardian dog inspected the baby closely, then proceeded to pee on the mother’s leg to indicate their acceptance into the flock.

One of the German shepherds I grew up with used to follow me and my pack of cousins while we roamed the fields of a dairy farm. On the day my family lost track of my 4-year-old cousin for several hours, we finally found him wandering through the prune orchard with the dog protectively at his side. A farm dog’s tenderness and awareness for children shine even more brightly in the farm setting because they can make a true difference in a child’s safety.

Parallel to a farmer, a farm dog also has a connection to the land. If I take my dogs away from the farm, even on an outdoor adventure, I sense underlying insecurity and loss of self.

Only when I open the car door so they can run out and chase coyotes and smell their favorite haunts and corners again do I realize that my dog is as tied to our land as I am. Perhaps it is this partnership, this shared satisfaction in caring for a bit of this planet, this knowing where the quail hide and the vultures roost, that makes our relationship easier than any other. With their dog, a farmer is not self-conscious about how much they work or why they care so much for their land. The dog gets it and will be by the farmer’s side from dawn to dark.

While farm dogs can be obedient and intelligent, they always have a few triggers that turn them reckless and impossibly annoying. A farm dog can make their farmers sick with worry, frustration, and finally resignation when they insist on chasing tractors back and forth across a field. And when they enter the “hunt” for an animal, you remember how few nucleotide differences exist between a dog and a wolf.

My husband once witnessed from the shower window our two medium-sized dogs trying to take down a deer. What proceeded was a futile attempt to call the dogs back and a chase through the orchard dressed only in flip flops and a towel. The drama ended when I finally caught the dogs in the middle of a creek so the deer could safely escape.

Finally, of course, let us not forget the most common source of ire: a farm dog’s obsession with feces. Whether from cats, calves, a potty-training baby or an isolated rancher miles from a bathroom, you can be sure the dog will find it and turn it into a delicious snack.

In all love stories, there is heartbreak too. Farm dogs’ fates often end tragically and painfully. You can try to shelter your dog from all the dangers of a farm, but a farm is dangerous, and a dog is independent -- and, yes, a bit dumb. Farmers have to accept that while their dogs are important, they are still animals, and the rules of life and death on a farm are much more present and unforgiving.

Farm dogs are dirty, troublesome, heart-breaking, and obnoxious. So why do we keep them? I’ve asked this question of many farmers, and I think it comes down to the reason we all love dogs: namely, their unconditional love and support.

Inevitably, a farmer encounters some days when disaster strikes, they want to give up, and not a single human can provide comfort and hope. That is when their dog comes and sits down next to them, wags its tail in the dirt, and just listens. After a few ear scratches and a smile, the farmer gets back up and keeps going … with their dog at their heels.

Launch of Pages from a Farmer

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register Sep 27, 2021

I see them in all sorts and places, in organized journals, in sketchbooks, in pocket-sized notepads, on a computer or phone, and sometimes in a farmer’s perfect memory that can compete with any academic. The information, the stories, the notes, the things to remember, the things they would like to forget, the ideas for next year, and the failings of this year.

All this knowledge is kept somewhere different from one farmer to the next. Be it a page in a journal, or a “page” made of neural connections, farmers have stories to tell and a wealth of knowledge. It may be interesting to you, or make you sad and upset, but they are stories and anecdotes you likely could not expect.

The more time passes, the more society separates itself from the farming experience. Farming is now big tractors cultivating commodity crops via robots, or hundreds of immigrant workers harvesting lettuce– all of whose reaping results in plastic packages of meat and produce we expect at all moments of our still-present seasons.

If someone feels so inclined, they might know a local farm, follow them on Instagram, or occasionally visit their farmers market to buy a few novelties and pick up the rest at the grocery store. People may even read a book or article and amount that to understanding what it is to be a farmer, and what our food system truly is.

We have become a swarm of locusts, demanding all foods at all times and for pennies. Sending the consequences to the wind, along with our topsoil. It is easy to consume everything we touch if we do not have a connection to land, water, and the heartbreaking love that goes into land stewardship and the making of food. Very few of us, even those with the best intentions, can say they know a farmer, let alone the beautiful moment in a farmer’s life that makes them persevere.  

I am a relatively young farmer, with only six years’ experience running my own farm. Luckily, I am surrounded by a community of farmers, both in my local Capay Valley home and in the Napa Farmers Market, whose stories I cherish and whose lessons I learn.

And I come with my patrimony, which extends back generations to a peasant family tilling the clay soil of southern France with their oxen, imprinted tightly in the chromatin binding my DNA. There are many who could do it better, but instead, you have my friends, neighbors, chromatin, and me to share with you the story of farming. 

At the end of every month, the Napa Farmers Market will present a monthly column called Pages from a Farmer, turning our haphazard “pages” of experiences into a page you can read. This column will be curated by me and told from the eyes of any and all farmers who will share their stories and perspective.

You may read an interview from a local farmer in Napa, a farmer who grows on the coast and drives to your farmers market, or maybe someone with an entirely new perspective and lesson we must hear.

It will not be a story you can forget, and it will not always make you feel good about yourself, but it will make you closer to your food system, and hopefully inspire you to be a part of its healthy and sustainable future.

Raising Animals on a Farm

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on June 7, 2021

Yesterday was our least favorite day of the year. Old hen recycling day. After 2.5 years as productive laying hens, half our flock was culled to make way for the new, more productive generation of chickens. After all, we do live on a farm, and we can’t keep hundreds of pet chickens. So once a year my husband and I stress for a week about this one bad day for our chickens. As farmers whose main focus is on growing plants, we are not as skilled or collected as our animal-focused colleagues at the long and emotional process of turning hens into food. It’s smelly, messy, sad, and a lot of hard work.

By deciding to raise animals on a farm, a farmer takes on the responsibility of that animal’s life. We feed them, grow grass for them, wake up at dawn to move them to fresh pasture, catch them at night when they are “teenagers” who are too confused to know where to find the coop, help them heal if they are injured, and yes, kill them when their time has come. By taking on this great responsibility, and literally returning to our animals all the care we can give them so they live a happy life, we believe we therefore have some claim to their destiny. Certainly more claim than if we never once thought about the animals, eggs, or dairy that we love to eat.

The truth is a farm’s ecology needs animal inputs, and it can’t run sustainably without the give and take of animals and plants living in a dynamic system. Be it compost or manure, plants need animal nutrients to grow, and vice versa, animals need the grass and grain for their nutrition. It’s untenable and impractical to believe that a farm can run completely free of animal inputs. After all, millions of years of evolution were built on the balance between the life and death of plants and animals.

During the industrialization of agriculture, we shifted our food system so that production of meat and animal products became an industry rather than an intimate part of our lives. With each passing decade, agriculture shifted towards animals being raised in dark cages and slaughtered in a factory setting. The output of all this are little plastic packages of meat, cheese, or eggs that look nothing like the original animals they came from.

Industrialized agriculture also made the cost of animal products cheap, and as such, our society believed they needed meat in every one of their meals. Not only is this bad for our health and bad for the animals that suffer in these conditions, it is also one of the biggest harms to our environment. We are now a people afraid of animal death, separated from the food we need, expectant of meat in our diets, and judgmental of those who raise meat humanely.

Just two generations ago, my grandparents never bought meat from a grocery store. Instead they raised and slaughtered every animal they eat. I now know the incredible amount of time and energy that cost them, and understand why my grandmother only served small servings of meat. She knew it was not something to be take for granted.

In another year, my husband and I will slaughter next year’s old hens, but until then, we can occasionally rely on our own hard-work for nutrition. Not all of us, including myself, have the capacity or bravery to raise meat in a humane and sustainable manner. I can turn to my farm for chicken, but whenever I crave a hamburger, I turn to one of the wonderful farmers and ranchers who dedicated their lives to raising meat humanely and sustainably.

As such, I want to introduce some of the wonderful meat vendors at the Napa Farmers’ Market where you can find meat that is worthy of every penny you spend. Sonoma Mountain Beef Co. is a local, woman-owned business where you can buy all your beef. Long Meadow Ranch raises pasture-raised beef, lamb, and eggs. Encina Farm from Lake County raises Iberico pork under the shade of valley oaks. Farmer Joy offers of variety of different meat and eggs. We at Sun Tracker Farm sell pasture-raised eggs and for a short time, our old hens that we sell as stewing hens.

I am also happy to introduce you to Skyelark Ranch, a new meat vendor at the Napa Farmers’ Market. Skyelark Ranch is located near Shasta and is owned by a young couple, Alexis and Gillies, who are committed to good land stewardship, and growing good food. They raise pastured meat chickens, chicken eggs, pork, and lamb. We are excited for a humane and sustainable ranch such as theirs to join our ranks and feed our community.

My grandmother made the best roast chicken in the world, but I know all the flavor came from the care she gave those chickens during their lives. If you want to eat the best roast chicken, buy from a pasture-raised chicken farmer, as nothing from the grocery store can compare. The trick to cooking a chicken that ran around on grass, is to roast them long and slow. Because they spent their lives running and digging, they don’t have the blank tenderness that Americans expect from conventionally-raised chickens.

Simple Roasted Chicken

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients

§  1 pasture-raised whole chicken

§  1 head of garlic, peeled into cloves

§  4 springs of parsley

§  5 tablespoons softened butter

§  1 cup of white wine

§  Salt

§  Pepper

Directions

Pat chicken dry and coat in salt on all sides and within the cavity.

In a small food processor or with an immersion blender, make a paste out of 3 tablespoons of the butter, 4 cloves of garlic, and the parsley.

Heat remaining butter on medium-high in a large Dutch oven pot that will fit the whole chicken, or a large cast iron pan. Add chicken and brown on all sides so that the skin is brown and crispy. About 2 minutes on each side. Use tongs to turn chicken gently so the skin does not rip.

When chicken sides are fully brown, remove from heat and let cool completely. Save the Dutch oven pot with drippings. While cooling, heat oven to 375 degrees.

When chicken is cool to the touch, spread paste on breast and on legs. Put remaining cloves of garlic in the cavity. Return chicken to Dutch oven pot and grind pepper all over the top. Pour ~1/2 cup of the white wine in bottom of pot. Cover with Dutch oven lid, or foil if you used a cast iron pan. If you use foil, tent it so it does not touch the chicken. Place in oven and cook for 40 40 minutes covered.

After 40 minutes, remove lid/foil. If the liquid in the pot is evaporated, add more wine. Return chicken to oven without a cover and increase oven heat to 425 degrees. Cook an additional 20 minutes or so. You will know chicken is cooked if the space between the drumstick and thigh is no longer pink.

When done, remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before carving and serving with drippings and garlic. Excellent if paired with roasted potatoes or a green salad.