Winter is the season for leafy greens, brassicas, and root vegetables. It’s also the time of year for farmer conferences, seminars, meetings, and other opportunities to meet and gather for educational and social purposes.
This was on display last week:
On Tuesday, Andrew attended the annual meeting for the Irrigated Lands Program, a state-wide, locally administered program to control runoff from farms. While not particularly interesting and inspiring, it’s a requirement, and sometimes there are important updates about program details.
Then midday on Tuesday was the second installment of the Organic Agriculture Seminar Series for Growers, administered by our local UC Cooperative Extension specialists. Winter is when UC Extension, and other ag support organizations, hold classes and trainings, usually targeted at specific sectors. So far I’ve been able to watch the two seminars, covering soil macrofauna (like worms) and pest management, and I’ve really enjoyed them (including the “bioturbation” videos, like this one).
Then Wednesday through Saturday, a contingent of folks headed to the EcoFarm conference – Dru, Paul, Judith, and Hannah presented, we had a booth at the expo tent, and we attended sessions and keynotes covering a wide range of subjects, from no-till farming and selling to school districts, to the farm bill and decolonizing agriculture. Plus it was an opportunity to catch up with others in the community, including several recent and not-so-recent Full Belly interns, and to meet new people. It’s inspirational and rejuvenating to hear all the exciting work that so many people are doing, and to ponder the many questions that we’re all thinking over, from the scientific to questions about social justice in the food system and farming community.
These slower, darker, and colder times of the year are important for farms and for their farmers. Just as fruit trees need a certain number of chilling hours to break from dormancy and produce flowers that will bear a crop, we need time to slow down and rest, as we did during our winter break, and to absorb new ideas and get excited. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day of farming, so these opportunities to gather and meet are so important. And the season isn’t done yet! CAFF has their Small Farm Conference and regional gatherings coming up in about a month.
We don’t just like gathering with other farmers though, we get energy from being with our wider community too. Winter is a time for the farm to rest from visitors and to get ready for a year filled with farm dinners, pizza nights, and more! We’ll be announcing our schedule for spring, summer, and fall events soon!
If you’re looking for a chance to enjoy the Capay Valley this winter, we encourage you to visit us at the annual Almond Festival on Sunday, February 23 for a day of good local food, music, a silent auction and farmers market. We’ll be at the northernmost part of the Valley in Rumsey. Come join us!
You can always see us at our weekly farmers markets in Berkeley (Tuesday), San Rafael (Thursday), and Palo Alto (Saturday). It’s still the only place you can access our full variety of fresh and value added products and special highly-seasonal goodies. Beyond that, our markets serve as important spots to talk with our customers about who we are, what we do, and why. Several sessions at EcoFarm emphasized the need for more communication and education about organic farming methods to customers. We understand this and continue to show up at markets because we believe in the difference that in-person interactions make in our quest to build a sustainable local food system. If you’re close to one of our farmers markets but haven’t been yet, or not in a while, we encourage you to make it a goal to stop by this year!
Elaine Swiedler, CSA Manager
