Theme: Judith Redmond

News From the Farm | January 22, 2018

January 22, 2018

Full Belly has been investing in solar power for a couple of decades by installing roof-top solar panels on several of our big barns. The solar power that the panels generate is hooked into the vast electrical grid and is used to pump water for irrigation and to cool our fruits and vegetables.  Harvesting the huge amount of light that arrives from the sun every day isn’t an activity confined to the plants and crops that we are cultivating!

Last week, we completed another step in generating electricity from solar power, and this time it is off the grid and not on a rooftop.  Amon and Jenna (two Full Belly owners) recently acquired a parcel of land  on the west side of the Valley, just across the highway from the main farm, that had no power drop.  With the help of Sustainable Technologies, a company based in Alameda, we designed and installed a stand-alone system that will be able to power a pump and irrigation system on the property. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | January 15, 2018

January 15, 2018

The first week back from the Full Belly break brought more than it’s share of CSA mix-ups, culminating when one of our drivers delivered CSA boxes to the wrong site!  By the time our office staff found out, the driver (who was filling in for the regular staff) was long gone and members were wondering where their veggies were.  Luckily, one of our kind and generous members volunteered to ferry the boxes back to their correct location, while in the background the host (who was out of town) offered support and encouragement. So we got it all straightened out, but the adventure really brought home to us the way that this CSA program relies on the contributions of so many people — the wonderful hosts who allow our members to pick up veggies at their homes or businesses, and our members who have patience learning how it works and who cooperate and collaborate to make it a success.

Thank you to all of you, and a special thank you to the heroes of our first week in 2018, member Jenny Postich who drove our CSA boxes to their correct location, and Danville Host Kerri Heusler who was able to provide up-to-date intelligence using her porch camera, from her remote site out of town. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | January 8, 2018

January 8, 2018

With short days over the winter break, many of us were able to enjoy sunrise, sunset, and incredible clear starry skies in between, reminding us of the mysteries of our planet, as well as of human nature.  Here’s hopes for a peaceful and healthy year in 2018.  We will do our best to spread that spirit.

During the last few weeks of 2017, a few things happened on the organic policy front that are worth noting. We will discuss one of those things in this article, having to do with the welfare of organically raised livestock. Full Belly is home to a flock of sheep, several pigs and as of 12/10/17 a delightful group of 8 healthy piglets!  While many of our CSA members and farmers market customers have let us know that they would rather we not include farm animals in our production system, we have decided that the animals are an important element of our healthy farm, and we treat the farm animals with care and respect.  One of the most active responsibilities during the break, was the pressing daily need to care for the chickens, sheep, pigs, cows, goats, cats and dogs that make the farm their home. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | December 4, 2017

December 4, 2017

Your CSA box this week is the last for 2017.  Our CSA deliveries will start again in the week of January 8th. Frankly, we hope that you really miss us — We are YOUR family farmers and your source of fresh, local, organic veggies.  We try to create a surprise, a challenge and an inspiration each week. Should we put leeks in the box?  Or maybe our members would rather see something different and unusual, like the tat soi… Should we put broccoli in again?  It’s a staple kind of crop — people know what to do with it, maybe they would like another week of broccoli?  We want to be the muse that inspires your daily meals!  These vegetables that we send you didn’t come from a faceless, nameless wholesale supplier, they didn’t come from a factory, they came direct from our fields, harvested by hand, by people that care, that show up at dawn every morning motivated by the challenge of keeping the crops healthy and by the beauty of stewarding the few acres of land that we are so lucky to call home.

During the next few weeks, there may be some deep cleaning in barns and offices, and there may be some crops that require harvest.  Certainly the pigs, cows, sheep and hens will get all the care that they need. There may be some meetings, planning and analysis of the year 2017. But the rhythm of marketing, harvest, packing and delivery is going to be on hold for a few weeks. Only a small crew will be on hand and with the cold short nights, the growth of most of the crops in the field will slow to a winter pace.   [Read more…]

News From the Farm | November 13, 2017

November 13, 2017

Getting Dinner on the Table

Years ago at a Farmers Market, one of our CSA members opened his CSA box and said to me, sounding a bit exasperated, “I just need to get dinner on the table after work so the kids can go to bed on time.”   I don’t remember what it was about the box that he was responding to, but his comment worried me.  We hear similar expressions of frustration whenever we put too many pomegranates in the box — “So much time, so little return” –– or when there is 1/2 pound of spinach and the cook needs a whole pound to complete a chosen recipe.  

I have come to realize that we are in our own private produce reality at Full Belly, cracking open watermelons in the heat of the summer and devouring them whole, or crunching our way through an entire bunch of carrots from our ‘quality control’ CSA box before the rest of the vegetables have even been noticed.  You can find snacking-bowls full of pomegranate seeds in most of the kitchens around the farm these days, and huge oversized cabbages greeted with comments like, “I LOVE cabbage!” Full Belly interns often arrive at the farm with very little experience of beets, chard, rutabaga or daikon — but each of them is assigned to cook lunch for several dozen farm hands once a week.  Of course the results are varied, but I do think that those that arrive saying they can’t cook and don’t want to, leave the farm with more kitchen-confidence. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | November 6, 2017

November 6, 2017

On November 1st, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) issued a recommendation that crops grown in water rather than in soil (hydroponically), should be eligible for certification as organically grown as long as they followed the other elements of the organic rule — no use of chemical pesticides for example.

Many organic farmers are deeply concerned that Organic Certification is getting watered down(!) because of the increasing power of agribusiness in the organic industry. Note that this struggle for the heart and soul of Organic Agriculture didn’t just start with the hubbub about hydroponics. Some of our readers may remember that when the first draft of the national rule was proposed in 1997, the USDA and DC lobbyists had incorporated GMOs, irradiation and sewage sludge. This issue generated the most comments the USDA had ever received as people nationwide protested the inclusion of the “Big Three,” resulting in their elimination in the Final Rule of 2002. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | October 30, 2017

October 30, 2017

After a decade of dedicated planning, community organizing and fundraising, the Capay Valley is looking forward to construction of a Park and Aquatic Center in Esparto, the small town at the mouth of the Valley. A multitude of individuals and organizations donated countless hours to secure funding from various agencies so that the Capay Valley will soon be home to a swimming pool, soccer field and baseball/softball field. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | July 31, 2017

July 31, 2017

At this time of year fruit, flowers and vegetables are brought in from our fields in wave upon wave, 6 days of the week, all day long. Bin trailers unload melons and sunflowers, four bins at a time. Harvest tractors, stacked high with boxes of eggplant are unloaded onto pallets destined for the ice water in the packing shed where they will be sorted, culled, boxed and stored in the cooler. Pick-up trucks pull in to unload cherry tomatoes stack by stack.  The crews come in from picking, their clothes soaked through with sweat. At the end of the day, weary and ready to put their feet up, the crew leaders write down a long list of numbers so that we know how much they will pick and we should try to sell for the next day.  

This week, it’s the melons that are peaking: Hercules, Galia, Goddess, Charantais, Piel de Sapo, Sharlynn, Canary, Honeydew, Honeyloup, Snow Leopard, Haogan, San Juan… That last one, the San Juan, is a large melon with a luscious smooth texture and orange flesh.  The other day, when I went to pick out my morning melon, Rye handed me a heirloom variety of Crenshaw, another large melon with orange flesh.  I generally make my morning melons into smoothies, but this one had such a wonderful texture and delicious flavor that I just had to eat it straight. I wondered to myself how many other people in the whole wide world had experienced the pleasure of such a fabulous melon as that one.  The ancient varieties of melon were large compared to the ones that we sell today.  But now, people don’t want to buy really large melons, even though their flavors are sublime.  Last year we did some trials of melons from Afghanistan (home to the wild ancestors of todays melons) and all of them were large.  Those in the know will tell you that the finest melons of all in modern times still come from Afghanistan and Iran. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | June 19, 2017

June 19, 2017

Over the coming months, federal legislators will be working on a budget for fiscal year 2018 as well as a rework of the Farm Bill (which establishes food and agriculture programs for several years).  Both of these efforts could have big impacts on the health of rural communities, the ability of poor families to afford food, and the level of agricultural research investments around the country.

The budget request from the administration proposes deep cuts ($230 billion, or 21%) to rural community and food assistance programs. Some of the proposed cuts of particular concern would gut the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program and require severe funding reductions for programs that provide loans to family farmers and ranchers.  Several programs were zeroed out in the President’s proposal: value-added producer grants, appropriate technology transfer for rural areas, and rural cooperative development grants, among others. Conservation and stewardship programs that have built partnerships between the federal government, farmers, ranchers and community food advocates were also slated for elimination. The proposed budget would reduce funding for the Agricultural Research Service by $360 million (26%), possibly requiring the shuttering of 17 research centers. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | June 5, 2017

June 5, 2017

There are times that we look at each other in despair, saying, “there’s just too much going on around here” —!  With everyone going in a lot of different directions life can be pretty overwhelming. Carefully planned days can easily derail into a race chasing down one unexpected loose end after another. Happily, every once in awhile we do get a hint that our efforts may be circling around an internal logic, not actually about to spiral out of control.

One of the biggest themes of the week continued to be to complete the spring transplanting.  Last Monday we transplanted our third planting of tomatoes, this time 60,000 seedlings, all in one day, into a 6-acre field. The field has been growing hay for decades, so the soil is well prepared to grow some delicious fruit.  Later in the week it was flowers, celeriac and direct seeding of dent corn, melons, beans, squash and cucumbers.

Above the crew is transplanting tomatoes  [Read more…]

News From the Farm | May 29, 2017

May 29, 2017

I spent the last week in New York state’s capital, Albany, at a conference of practitioners dedicated to strengthening regional food systems — farm businesses, food processing capacity for local farm products, distribution hubs and independent grocery stores.  These are the businesses that provide food to local communities and can serve as a locally controlled economic development powerhouse.

The people at the conference provide services to small-scale farmers.  They help them gain access to new markets; figure out how they can get loans if needed; provide legal services; run farmers markets and food hubs; and teach about new food safety and immigration rules.  Organizations that train new farmers as well as immigrant and refugee farmers were also there. Plenty of discussion ensued about business planning and financial record-keeping, all to promote viable farms that are economically profitable, with secure access to land and markets, using environmentally sound production practices. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | May 15, 2017

May 15, 2017

Making your way from Sacramento or Berkeley, all the way up the Capay Valley to Full Belly Farm can seem like a long way.  After getting off the interstate, you follow a two-lane state highway and suddenly come upon Cache Creek Casino, which seems huge — a glittering, sprawling building complete with mini-mart and plenty of parking. Once past the Casino, the traffic thins out and to some, the setting feels downright remote.  Urban visitors, leaving behind the sidewalks and crowds of the city wonder how it would feel to live in a place where the nearest restaurant is a significant drive and there are no malls, museums or nightclubs.  

Museums and nightclubs are great when it comes to building cultural connections, but you should never underestimate the power of getting together to share good food!  I first got an inkling of this going to farmers markets — it wasn’t really something that I learned growing up.  When some of our farmers market customers talk about the food that they grew up with and describe the food customs they learned, their descriptions come from deep within their identity. Sharing seeds from home, or a sprig of treasured Persian mint to grow in the garden is how some of my farmers market customers tried to connect with me as a farmer.  Once the Persian mint was established, they yearned to see it back at the market so that they could taste it in their meals and share it with their friends. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | May 8, 2017

May 8, 2017

Full Belly is busy! Crews are mowing down cover crops, bedding up fields, spreading compost, burying drip tape and transplanting seedlings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite all the hustle and bustle, Amon and Jenna made time to start a kids garden. In the photo above are several bins containing soil and compost. The kids planted a few melon and tomato seedlings, as well as seeds of cucumbers, eggplants, okra and other summer vegetables. In a few days, the bins will be moved to Guinda, just outside of the Corner Store. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | April 17, 2017

April 17, 2017

Today I was part of a discussion about “healthy soil,” which in agriculture might be approximated to refer to soil that does a good job of growing crops.  But with climate change upon us, soil health is increasingly discussed in the context of soil that keeps carbon underground rather than in the atmosphere, and there are discussions taking place all over the planet about which farming practices encourage reduction of greenhouse gases in agriculture. Agriculture is reportedly responsible for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Soil and its health might not be something that comes up in our everyday conversations, but I remember when I read The Grapes of Wrath, and then later, several other books that described the American dust bowl and desperate attempts by farmers to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure and other catastrophes. The Dust Bowl came after a period of drought coupled with an insufficient understanding of the ecology of the Great Plains.  As farmers converted grassland to cropland, the deep network of grassy roots was destroyed and the unanchored soil turned to huge clouds of dust that choked people, buried farm equipment and blackened the sky, even reaching as far as the east coast. Tens of thousands of families abandoned their farms, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Soil Conservation Service (now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service). [Read more…]

News From the Farm | April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017

Every spring there is a Full Belly scramble to get spring and summer crops planted and growing in our fields.  Frosty weather, wet weather and windy weather can all interrupt our human-oriented timeline. During the last month we have been waiting hopefully, through one rainstorm after another, until our fields were dry enough for us to get to work.  Our greenhouses are full of young plants waiting to go out into the fields: spring lettuce, onions, and flowers, and the first of summer basil, melons, peppers and tomatoes.  If we don’t get the plants out of the greenhouse as soon as possible, they will get leggy and hungry in their little plugs of soil.  Besides the fact that the plants want to be outside, we feel the pressure of our CSA members, thinking about their next big veggie-feast! 

Unlike farms that go through the winter with bare ground, Full Belly fields grow cover crops all winter long.  With this winter’s wonderful rainy winter, the biomass in our fields right now is really impressive, representing captured solar energy and nutrients that need to get turned into the soil to be digested. We have several approaches to getting these fields ready for planting – sometimes our herd of sheep grazes the cover crop and it is returned to the soil in supercharged form, other times we use tractor power, chopping up the cover crop and then incorporating it.

[Read more…]

News From the Farm | March 27, 2017

March 27, 2017

Our annual Open Farm day was on Saturday March 25th.  In the past, these days have been primarily for CSA members to visit the farm and get to know their farmers and the place where their food is grown.  In contrast, last year, and this year, we have hosted an almost overwhelmingly large number of visitors, mostly drawn to the farm through social media.  Many of the visitors in these last couple of years had never been to Full Belly or any other farm in the past and were not CSA members. There were lots of young kids and toddlers, and a wonderfully diverse crowd, from babies to great-grandmas, and a babel of languages and ethnicities.

The day brought fabulously beautiful spring weather between rainstorms. Just the day before we had almost an inch of rain.  Figuring out parking options was tricky, but Pancho and Paul spent the entire morning grading and leveling roads, trying hard to eliminate puddles and rope off safe parking so that no one would get stuck in the mud (and no one did!)  One visitor got out of his car asking why we didn’t have a “real” parking lot (!), but everyone else was game and even excited to take the short walk to our big grassy lawn and kitchen where our all-from-the-farm pizza crew was hard at work putting together wood-oven fired pizzas and salad for lunch. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | March 20, 2017

March 20, 2017

March Birthdays

My Grandpa Bond was born well over a hundred years ago, on March 20 1902, a Spring baby.  I often think of him as one of the people who introduced me to growing vegetables.  He became an avid gardener during World War II because he lived in the industrial town of Birmingham England, and the war had disrupted the supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables.  To address the shortage, my grandfather threw himself into his vegetable garden — he had access to an allotment (the English term for a plot of land rented out for growing gardens). In fact, my grandfather eventually took over several allotments with his fruit trees and vegetables and never gave them up, even when the bombs stopped falling.  When he visited us in California, he and I worked together in a small garden in rocky soil, that while not producing a great harvest of vegetables, resulted in my life-long gratitude and fond memories of precious times together.

There have been many other happy birthdays to enjoy in March —  the popping up of flowers, both horticultural and wild all around us, and of course the Spring Equinox which we will observe on Monday March 20th.  Neighbors, friends and relatives, so many seem to have been born in March!  One very special, ‘round’ birthday, the 60th, should be mentioned, that of our beloved Dru Rivers, one of Full Belly’s founders and owners, who generously shared her March birthday with her daughter Hallie, 31 years ago.  This year, our goat Sweet Pea, was even inspired by the birthday energy.  Our lunch on March 15th was interrupted with the momentous news that Sweet Pea had just given birth to quadruplets.  Within minutes they were trying to get up onto their long legs, sniffing around their mom for milk.

–Judith Redmond

News From the Farm | February 27, 2017

February 27, 2017

We recently surveyed members who had had stopped getting their CSA box, asking them why they didn’t renew.  We were glad to find out that 87% of the 260 people who responded were happy with the box, and 76% said that they would consider renewing their membership.

Some members reported an overload of squash and potatoes in the winter, or too many tomatoes and peppers in the summer.  We understand this well, since we sometimes find ourselves wishing that we could make the CSA boxes more diverse at certain times of year.  We can imagine that this winter season for example, many members might be feeling like they are getting too much cabbage and squash.  Full Belly tries to grow as many different fruits and vegetables as we possibly can, but there are windows each year, when there are only a dozen-plus different things to choose from, so we alternate between them one week after the next. Understanding how weather, farming skill, and luck act together to influence the food that can be grown locally and sustainably is a constantly fascinating journey. We are committed to offering a CSA that is sourced just from Full Belly, and we understand that this can sometimes stretch the tolerance of our patient CSA members. [Read more…]

News From the Farm | February 13, 2017

February 13, 2017

After years of eating out of the Full Belly Farm CSA box, I tend not to follow recipes carefully.  I use recipes and cook books all the time, getting inspiration and ideas that way, but with an allium, some herbs, some greens, and some roots at this time of year, a satisfying number of combinations seem to manifest, so around my dinner table, we are at ease making substitutions and carrying out kitchen experiments . 

If you got a box every week last year, or on the other hand, if you are a new CSA member, I hope that you are becoming comfortable with this experimental approach.  Full Belly offers a tremendous diversity of vegetable and fruit options — You are probably eating a much more diverse sample of vegetables than if you were shopping in a grocery store. For example, you might have thought you didn’t like broccoli, but when you start experimenting with it, you are likely to find recipes that work well for your palate (at least, that is my hope – there were almost 15 broccoli weeks last year.) [Read more…]

News From the Farm | January 30, 2017

January 30, 2017

During the rainy season, in those years when there IS rain, there is a constant conversation about soil conditions at Full Belly as the tractor-driving farmers hope for a window, even if only for a day or two, when the soil has dried out enough to plant spring crops. This week, Monday and Tuesday promise to be those days, although the soil is still quite wet if you check a few inches down.  While we may not be able to cultivate out our weeds and lift new beds, we do have lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, kale and fennel transplants that are well-overdue for planting.  We also have beds that are still covered with plastic mulch.  Our plan is to hand-plant into the plastic mulch.  If we are able to get some light machinery into the fields we may try to deal with the weeds and do some additional planting.

Several of us went to the annual Ecological Farming Conference last week, for both education and inspiration — a wonderful gathering of practitioners from many fields.  Co-Owner Paul and a dedicated crew of shepherds stayed home to keep an eye on our herd of mama sheep giving birth to lambs earlier than expected.  As of today we already have 50 baby lambs. [Read more…]

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