BOUNTY UNBOUND

Published on September 14, 2003

© 2003- The Press Democrat

BYLINE:    DIANE PETERSON

PAGE: 83

Anyone who shops at local farmers markets knows there's a price to pay for knowing where your vegetables come from, how they're grown, and that they're fresh. A few tomatoes and peaches here, some arugula there, a bunch of flowers and a carton of eggs, and there goes that $20 bill in your pocket. All so you can trust what you eat, right back to its roots.

Now comes the revolution. Foodies are discovering they can put down roots of their own, in a manner of speaking. By subscribing to what are known as Community Supported Agriculture programs, chefs and gourmands can forge a very real connection to their food supply and guarantee a box of fresh-picked cooking, every week.

"Farm markets are like a one-night stand compared to this," says Scott Matthieson, owner of Laguna Farm in Santa Rosa, who sold produce at farmers markets for 18 years before initiating a CSA program nine years ago. "This is the ultimate commitment."

Located along two tributaries and a main branch of the Laguna de Santa Rosa south of Sebastopol, Laguna Farm grows a wide range of produce including heirloom tomatoes, basil, eggplant, summer squash, peppers and corn, but it is best known for its high quality greens and root crops, which do especially well in the cool coastal climate.

Supporting the farms

A subscription box costs $15 a week and includes seven to 10 different vegetables. You can order Bennett Valley Bakery bread - made in a wood oven with stone-ground flour - and other "value added" options for an additional charge. Laguna Farm charges $5 extra for the addition of fruit, sourced from around the county and the state. It's almost like having a personal shopper picking out the best of what's fresh.

"We get blueberries from the west county and peaches from Dry Creek Peach & Produce in Healdsburg," says Matthieson. "In the winter, I get citrus - mandarin and navel oranges - from the foothills."

As the flagship CSA for Sonoma County, Laguna Farm now boxes up veggies year-round to more than 350 subscribers, who can either pick up the boxes at the farm for free, or pay a small fee to have them delivered to a drop-off site or to home.

"The point of coming to the farm is that you can trade things and get extra things," said Heidi Hermann, CSA manager for Laguna Farm. "We buy produce from other farms, so we're supporting other farms as well."

The best thing about a CSA subscription? It sparks new inspiration in the kitchen. Folks who hated cauliflower before subscribing now buy it regularly, having discovered that the bland-looking vegetable exudes a delicious, nutty flavor when pureed into a soup or sauce.

Produce that comes straight off the farm bursts with flavor and texture. The taste is far beyond that of supermarket produce, which is picked early, shipped in refrigerator trucks and shelved for who-knows-how-many days.

A surprise every time

Since the CSA produce is all fresh picked, the boxes offer sugar snap peas that still snap, carrots and onions that still crunch and heirloom tomatoes that are tender, sweet and juicy. And you don't have to weed, feed and water all summer to get them on your table.

During the fall, Laguna Farm boxes are filled with the cornucopia of the harvest from cucumbers, scallions and purple peppers to summer squash, radishes, basil, spinach and heirloom tomatoes like Brandywine and Purple Cherokee. Pumpkins, hard squash, apples and pears, salad mix, eggplant, corn, beans, carrots and onions round out the selection.

Concept started in Japan

The roots of CSA reach back 30 years to Japan, where a group of women first established this kind of direct relationship with local farms. They called it teikei, or "putting the farmer's face on food." The concept migrated to Europe and was later adapted in this country, where a farm in Massachusetts first called it "Community Supported Agriculture" in 1985. As of 1999, there were more than 1,000 CSA farms in operation across the country and in Canada.

Today, CSA subscriptions provide small family farms with a dependable source of revenue to help them buy seeds, fertilizer, water and equipment and to ride out natural disasters and corporate assaults. In return, subscribers get a steady supply of farm-fresh ingredients grown in a sustainable, eco-friendly manner and packaged with cooking tips, recipe ideas and news about what's happening on the farm that grew them.

You can find out why the tomatoes are late, how to pickle a cucumber and what to do with that funny-looking fennel bulb (braise it). And, you know exactly where your food is coming from.

"With the recipes and the newsletter, it's the ultimate connection between the farm and the consumer," says Matthieson.

Tierra's steady growth

At Tierra Vegetables in Windsor, brother-and-sister team Wayne and Lee James have been farming the land for more than 20 years and selling boxes of vegetables since 1989 - even before they had heard of the CSA program.

"We started out really slow with 10 people," said Evie Truxaw, the Jameses' sister-in-law who helps with the CSA newsletter and subscriptions. "It was mostly just friends and neighbors at first."

Although Wayne went to viticulture school in the 1970s, he switched to fruits and vegetables while helping one of his grandfather's business associates, Clarence Garrick, farm 46 acres in Mendocino County's Potter Valley.

"I worked the vineyards, but Clarence told me I should grow food, not wine," he said.

Unlike many North Coast farmers, who were forced to plant vines in the past 20 years in order to survive, Wayne has dug in his heels and stayed with melons, corn, tomatoes, eggplants and beans.

In 1980, Wayne and Lee began farming on their Chalk Hill Road property, where they live in a 100-year-old house. They still propagate their vegetables in a greenhouse on the property, but they now farm four acres in Windsor and another 17 acres they lease north of Santa Rosa from the county's Open Space District.

The partnership allows Tierra to diversify and expand the crops it grows for both farm markets and the CSA program. In early summer, about six acres were already planted in lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, celeriac, basil, spinach, kale, Jerusalem artichokes, corn and tomatoes, among other crops.

Marrow beans, black beans and flageolet beans sprouted alongside rows of yarrow - that would be sold at farm markets and Tierra's new farm stand, set up adjacent to the field on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Chilies steal the show

What really built Tierra Vegetables' reputation, though, are the 50 varieties of chilies they grow. They sell the smoked, dried and fresh chilies to restaurants like Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Rose Pistola in San Francisco, Bistro Ralph in Healdsburg and Santi in Geyserville. Their smoked chipotles are particularly prized by local chefs like John Ash, who calls them "the best chipotles in the world."

Tierra harvests some 20,000 pounds of chilies each fall, which provides the farm with 50 percent of its income. Lee and Wayne also smoke their own tomatoes and onions and package their own kits for making mole, enchilada and barbecue sauces. For the past five years, Tierra has also made several chipotle jams in partnership with Ellen Adamson of Happy Haven Farms in Sonoma. The popular jams, blended from sweet peppers like the Anaheim chilies served with cream cheese or brushed over grilled meats.

"Sustainable agriculture is what we want, so we take into account everything, from the soil to the neighbors," Wayne said. "We look at the environmental, social and economic impact - it's got to make money for us."

A typical harvest season box might include winter squash, greens, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, root vegetables, fresh shell and dried beans, plus summer vegetables still in production, such as sweet corn, sweet peppers, chili peppers, eggplant, basils, potatoes, melons, and green beans.

"We have stuff to sell year round now," Wayne said. "This is some of the best soil in the state."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -

CSA Farms in the North Bay

Laguna Farms, 1764 Cooper Rd, Sebastopol, 707-823-0823, www.lagunafarm.com

Vegetable box is $15 a week, feeds 1 to 3 people. Free farm pick-up on Tuesdays or Thursdays after 3 p.m. Home delivery $5 a week, drop-site delivery $2 a week. Fruit is $5 per week. Bread from Bennett Valley Bakery is $3.50 per week.

Tierra Vegetables, 220 Pleasant Ave., Windsor, 707-837-8366, www.tierravegetables.com

Full box is $24 a week; small box is $16 a week and feeds 1 to 3 people. Farm pick-up or drop-off sites are free. Home delivery priced from $3 upward per week, depending on area.

Other farms offering CSAs:

Canvas Ranch, 755 Tomales Rd., Petaluma, 707-766-7171, www.canvasranch.com

Orchard Farms, 10951 Barnett Valley Rd., Sebastopol, 707-823-6528, www.orchard-farms.com

Oz Farm, P.O. Box 244, Point Arena, 707-882-3046, www.oz-farm.com

Star Route Farms, 25B Pelican Way, San Rafael, 415-868-1658

PHOTO: 2 by Clay McLachlan / The Press Democrat
DRAWING: 1 by Melanie Van Dyke / Press Democrat

1. The bounty at Tierra Vegetables
2. Petals from sunflowers are added to the fresh salad mix at Laguna Farms.

Keywords: FOOD AGRICULTURE

---

Continue searching:
Visit the main Press Democrat search page
Search the archive again: