We are loving life out here on the farm -- even though yesterday we had gale-force winds which demolished one of our "hoop houses." (A hoop house is a type of simple greenhouse which is constructed with semi-circular "hoops" made of PVC pipe covered in plastic) This past week we took part in harvesting a couple days, went to our usual farmers markets and called some restaurants to gather orders. It is a transitional period on the farm right now, with the winter crops on their way out and the spring crops just beginning to come in. We were picking garlic in the farthest field and felt obliged to check on the young strawberry plants. We managed to find a couple dozen of the first ripe strawberries which we figured should be tested for quality control. They passed the test with flying colors :)
I want everyone to learn along with Brian and I about farming. I plan to try and occasionally post some important lessons we have learned here. This week: why organic food costs so much.
On this smaller scale organic farm, EVERYTHING is harvested by hand. What is growing out here you ask? Lettuce, chicories (a bitter Italian green - think Radicchio), onions, garlic, several bitter greens, arugula, several varieties of kale, chard, herbs, several varieties of cress, radishes, beets, turnips, and more. We will have tomatoes and strawberries in the summer (so excited!). This farm sells to several restaurants, restaurant distributors, and at farmers markets. That adds up to a lot of picking. There are laborers on the farm 7 days a week! Some crops are easier than others to pick, but some are very time consuming. Take arugula for example. What we sell is very small ("baby" arugula), with the leaves being no bigger than 1 inch. The arugula does not grow in a head, like lettuce, but grows like grass, in single blades. The arugula will be "mowed" by hand with a pair of scissors; a pound takes us about an hour to pick (the professional laborers take maybe half that time). There are also lots of weeds to sort out since no sprays are used on this organic farm. Now, you take an hour of labor for one pound, add the price of seed, and the price to prepare the ground for seeding (tractor fuel and labor), the cost of irrigation (water and pipes), the cost of the piece of land (this farm is leased), boxes to package it and fuel to take it to market -- that pound of arugula gets pretty costly. This is why I get annoyed at farmers' markets when people complain about paying $8 a pound for the arugula. It costs more than that just to pick it!!! Plus, a full pound goes a long way on the table. Your average green salad may weigh 1/4 pound..
Of course, before I got out here, this was not something I really thought about, which is why I consider it a lesson. I never really thought about how much time goes into that basket of strawberries or that head of lettuce. Now, I have a better idea. Organic farming is much more labor intensive, at least when it comes to picking, than conventional farming.
We have yet to download our yurt pictures, but we will try and get them up this week!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
First week on the farm
We moved in to the yurt last Wednesday, and so far our time on the farm has been great. While small, we are able to accommodate pretty much all of our essentials within the 12-foot diameter living space. Never thought that would be possible. Our 6 x 8 x 10 foot (off-site) storage unit is packed to the gills, however.
In our first week we became familiar with the layout of the fields, and on a 27-acre farm that means a lot of walking! Several days we took part harvesting with the crew, most of whom are from Oaxaca, Mexico, and are all very genuine, kind people. Brian rode along with the delivery truck one morning and made 17 stops to various restaurants and distributors. We sold our goods at several farmers markets and generally began to learn the daily and weekly flow of the farm. We are heading towards the very busiest time of the year, where we will be growing tons of lettuces, strawberries and tomatoes - the most popular items by far. Weekly, the farm will sell at 8 farmers markets in the bay area in addition to the regular sales to restaurants and wholesalers.
There is a huge amount for us to learn but everyone seems to be quite helpful and we are eager to experience as much as we can in the next 10 months. The lifestyle adjustment has been very pleasurable so far but we know that there is much work to be done, particularly once we get in to Summer! Some mornings we are up well before the sun, but the rewards of having zero commute time and the beautiful surroundings are immense.
Pictures coming soon!
In our first week we became familiar with the layout of the fields, and on a 27-acre farm that means a lot of walking! Several days we took part harvesting with the crew, most of whom are from Oaxaca, Mexico, and are all very genuine, kind people. Brian rode along with the delivery truck one morning and made 17 stops to various restaurants and distributors. We sold our goods at several farmers markets and generally began to learn the daily and weekly flow of the farm. We are heading towards the very busiest time of the year, where we will be growing tons of lettuces, strawberries and tomatoes - the most popular items by far. Weekly, the farm will sell at 8 farmers markets in the bay area in addition to the regular sales to restaurants and wholesalers.
There is a huge amount for us to learn but everyone seems to be quite helpful and we are eager to experience as much as we can in the next 10 months. The lifestyle adjustment has been very pleasurable so far but we know that there is much work to be done, particularly once we get in to Summer! Some mornings we are up well before the sun, but the rewards of having zero commute time and the beautiful surroundings are immense.
Pictures coming soon!
Back from Mexico!
See the photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/marybrian2
We made it back from Mexico unscathed! We braved the food, water, insane drivers and managed to not get sick and didn't run in to any troubles on the road (either literally or figuratively speaking). What a grand time we had!
It took us over four full days to drive from Oakland to Manzanillo, where we stayed for 9 days. On the way down we stopped in several coastal towns, including Mazatlan and our favorite, Puerto Vallarta. Our main purpose in Manzanillo was to attend our friends' wedding, and Brian performed the ceremony for them - he's an ordained minister, didn't you know?! They had a beautiful wedding right beside the ocean, and everyone had a great time. Our other activities in the area included fishing, snorkeling, driving ATVs around the beach and hills, riding a zip-line about 1500 feet and just general sightseeing.
From Manzanillo, we headed northward for our return leg and stopped in Guadalajara (Mexico's 2nd largest city) for 3 nights. We stayed just outside the city in an area called Tonala, where the majority of all the great manufactured artisinal goods are produced. There are all kinds of workshops within about a 10 x 10 block area, which produce pottery, glassware, metalwork, textiles and jewelry and all sorts of art. We went in to the Guadalajara city center and spent time in a massive marketplace which spanned about 4 whole city blocks - just about anything you can imagine is for sale there, and shopping is the sole reason why many people travel to Guadalajara. It was a bit overwhelming, particularly because "gringos" aka "gueros" are vigorously targeted by all the shopkeepers since they see light-skinned people as great targets for sales. We were savvy shoppers however and came away with some great bargains, and saw many beautiful areas of the downtown area as well.
Continuing northward, we went through the town of Tequila in Jalisco where mezcal or tequila production began. We toured an amazing old factory which still produces tequila in the traditional method after almost 150 years in production. We stayed in San Blas, where we took a boat ride through mangrove forests and saw many crocodiles and majestic herons, egrits and other waterfowl. We revisited Mazatlan on the way back up and were left less than impressed by that city overall, mainly because of the scale that "Americanization" has occurred. Our final night in Mexico was spent in a "resort" hotel in San Carlos which was falling in to a state of disrepair. We were able to book an oceanfront room for $60USD and were 2 of probably a dozen guests in total who stayed that night -- the once 4-star resort had over 200 rooms but was obviously struggling to bring in business. San Carlos is a beautiful sleepy coastal town and seems to understandably be a popular retirement spot for Americans and Canadians. Unfortunately, our digital camera broke that night so we made use of our 35mm film camera the rest of the way.
After 18 days in Mexico, we crossed back over the heavily fortified border in Nogales, AZ and headed to Death Valley for a couple days of re-acclimitization of sorts. We stayed in Phoenix for a night and found a great little authentic Italian restaurant where we ordered a pizza which was about 6 square feet worth of pizza. We were expecting leftovers when we ordered the "metro" size, but we didnt expect to be eating pizza for 4 meals straight. It was really darn good though, and we felt like we were in college again waking up and eating nothing but leftover pizza for a whole day.
Death Valley is a special place to us and we were fortunate to be passing through during a better-than-average year for wildflowers. During our one whole day there, we drove from -196 feet sea level up to 6800 feet to the Charcoal Kilns which were built around 1870. From there we hiked up past 9000 feet to Wildrose Summit where we had panoramic views of the valley and even Mount Whitney. We were both feeling the effects of the altitude by the time we reached the summit so we made a brief stop and descended. After two nights in the valley we made the long 500 mile drive back to Oakland. Our Subaru was quite happy to have completed the 5200 mile trip, and we were all grateful to have made it back the same shape we left in!
While in Mexico, we ate all kinds of wonderful food, the best of which was generally $10 or less for the two of us to eat a full meal. We most enjoyed all the different types of salsas/moles and the seafood was excellent. The vast majority of people were extremely nice and went out of their way to help us find our way or to supply us with whatever we required. We saw little to no signs of the drug war that we have heard so much about in the press, but we certainly heard plenty on the news about the conflicts going on in the bad areas. We came away from this trip with a much greater appreciation of all the dynamic relationships that "Americans" have with Mexicans, and also an immense desire to learn more about their vast country.
We made it back from Mexico unscathed! We braved the food, water, insane drivers and managed to not get sick and didn't run in to any troubles on the road (either literally or figuratively speaking). What a grand time we had!
It took us over four full days to drive from Oakland to Manzanillo, where we stayed for 9 days. On the way down we stopped in several coastal towns, including Mazatlan and our favorite, Puerto Vallarta. Our main purpose in Manzanillo was to attend our friends' wedding, and Brian performed the ceremony for them - he's an ordained minister, didn't you know?! They had a beautiful wedding right beside the ocean, and everyone had a great time. Our other activities in the area included fishing, snorkeling, driving ATVs around the beach and hills, riding a zip-line about 1500 feet and just general sightseeing.
From Manzanillo, we headed northward for our return leg and stopped in Guadalajara (Mexico's 2nd largest city) for 3 nights. We stayed just outside the city in an area called Tonala, where the majority of all the great manufactured artisinal goods are produced. There are all kinds of workshops within about a 10 x 10 block area, which produce pottery, glassware, metalwork, textiles and jewelry and all sorts of art. We went in to the Guadalajara city center and spent time in a massive marketplace which spanned about 4 whole city blocks - just about anything you can imagine is for sale there, and shopping is the sole reason why many people travel to Guadalajara. It was a bit overwhelming, particularly because "gringos" aka "gueros" are vigorously targeted by all the shopkeepers since they see light-skinned people as great targets for sales. We were savvy shoppers however and came away with some great bargains, and saw many beautiful areas of the downtown area as well.
Continuing northward, we went through the town of Tequila in Jalisco where mezcal or tequila production began. We toured an amazing old factory which still produces tequila in the traditional method after almost 150 years in production. We stayed in San Blas, where we took a boat ride through mangrove forests and saw many crocodiles and majestic herons, egrits and other waterfowl. We revisited Mazatlan on the way back up and were left less than impressed by that city overall, mainly because of the scale that "Americanization" has occurred. Our final night in Mexico was spent in a "resort" hotel in San Carlos which was falling in to a state of disrepair. We were able to book an oceanfront room for $60USD and were 2 of probably a dozen guests in total who stayed that night -- the once 4-star resort had over 200 rooms but was obviously struggling to bring in business. San Carlos is a beautiful sleepy coastal town and seems to understandably be a popular retirement spot for Americans and Canadians. Unfortunately, our digital camera broke that night so we made use of our 35mm film camera the rest of the way.
After 18 days in Mexico, we crossed back over the heavily fortified border in Nogales, AZ and headed to Death Valley for a couple days of re-acclimitization of sorts. We stayed in Phoenix for a night and found a great little authentic Italian restaurant where we ordered a pizza which was about 6 square feet worth of pizza. We were expecting leftovers when we ordered the "metro" size, but we didnt expect to be eating pizza for 4 meals straight. It was really darn good though, and we felt like we were in college again waking up and eating nothing but leftover pizza for a whole day.
Death Valley is a special place to us and we were fortunate to be passing through during a better-than-average year for wildflowers. During our one whole day there, we drove from -196 feet sea level up to 6800 feet to the Charcoal Kilns which were built around 1870. From there we hiked up past 9000 feet to Wildrose Summit where we had panoramic views of the valley and even Mount Whitney. We were both feeling the effects of the altitude by the time we reached the summit so we made a brief stop and descended. After two nights in the valley we made the long 500 mile drive back to Oakland. Our Subaru was quite happy to have completed the 5200 mile trip, and we were all grateful to have made it back the same shape we left in!
While in Mexico, we ate all kinds of wonderful food, the best of which was generally $10 or less for the two of us to eat a full meal. We most enjoyed all the different types of salsas/moles and the seafood was excellent. The vast majority of people were extremely nice and went out of their way to help us find our way or to supply us with whatever we required. We saw little to no signs of the drug war that we have heard so much about in the press, but we certainly heard plenty on the news about the conflicts going on in the bad areas. We came away from this trip with a much greater appreciation of all the dynamic relationships that "Americans" have with Mexicans, and also an immense desire to learn more about their vast country.
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