The Cupertino Courier

Cover Story

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Luis, a photo-shy driver for Live Earth Farm, unloads orders for fresh produce grown in Watsonville at a drop-off site in Sunnyvale.

Farm Fresh

Families go to the source to get some just-picked produce

By JOANNE GRIFFITH DOMINGUE

Kathy Sidenblad enjoys Thursdays. That's the day she picks up her carton of fresh, organic, direct-from-the-farm vegetables at a drop-off spot near her home. This Cupertino resident never knows what vegetables will be in her box, but she does know the produce, grown on Live Earth Farm in Watsonville, will be in season, sweet and flavorful. From different kinds of lettuce to red and white-striped beets, she loves the variety, the quality and the freshness. Eating your vegetables is a joy, not a trial, at her house. "We're not fanatic about eating organic," Sidenblad said, "but it's nice to know where your food comes from."

When she needs ideas for fennel or chard, no problem. She uses Google to search for recipes. "I do that a lot. I put in some random combination and see what I get. I call that the Silicon Valley vegetable."

Sidenblad, along with hundreds of others in Silicon Valley, belongs to a Community Supported Agriculture program.

The concept of CSA is to link small farmers with local customers. Of course this is not a new idea, as there have been farmers markets for centuries. But with CSA, the customers buy shares from the farmer in the winter and, in return, receive a portion of the summer production. The farmers sell fresh, organic produce directly to families on a weekly basis.

There are two farms that offer a CSA program in the San Jose area: Live Earth Farm and Two Small Farms, both in Watsonville. Between them, they have 26 drop-off spots in Santa Clara County, half on Wednesdays, half on Thursdays. Most locations are someone's home, on a porch or a side yard. But some drop-offs are at a preschool, and one is at a church in downtown San Jose. The websites for the programs give general locations so customers can choose one most convenient to them. Once signed up, members are given the exact location.

Typically customers prepay for the vegetables. This gives the farmer working capital for seeds and plants and working expenses. The farmer also then has an idea of the size of his market and can plant and harvest accordingly, assuring little will go to waste.

CSAs began in the United States in 1986 with two farms: one in New Hampshire, one in Massachusetts. The working concept was to produce locally what was consumed locally. In the 1970s a group of women in Japan, alarmed by pesticides and the increase in food imports, began a direct growing and purchasing arrangement between their group and local farms. This arrangement--called "teikei" in Japanese--meant "putting the farmers' face on food." American farmers had not heard of the Japanese group when the New England CSA farms began, wrote CSA historian Steven McFadden. Similar concerns were taking root in different parts of the world at the same time.

By 1990, there were some 60 CSA farms in the United States. In 2004 there were about 1,700. CSA farmers work to grow healthy and local food using sustainable farming. They don't use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or genetic engineering. Many, writes McFadden, "regard CSA as homeland security of the most fundamental kind."

CSA farms are concentrated in the Northeast, the West Coast and the North Central States. More than 80 percent are found in 16 mostly northern states. These states have large metropolitan areas and an ample consumer base, according to a 1999 CSA survey. A 2003 UC-Santa Cruz study of the five-county Central Coast region of California found about 4,900 people belong to one of the 14 CSAs in this region.

Here, the season runs about 36 weeks--from mid- to late March until mid-November. A share costs $20 to $30 per week, depending on:

* The size of the share

* If you order extra fruit

* If you choose the flower option

* If you sign up for pastured eggs.

You don't know what will be in your box, just that it will be in season and fresh. Last year an early warm spell meant plentiful strawberries beginning in March. This year, the cold, rainy weather has delayed the strawberries, but the lettuces are flourishing.

A small share ($19 per week) of vegetables from Live Earth Farm for the week of April 3 included a mixed bunch of beets (red and golden), broccolini, chard, fennel, baby leeks, lettuce (butter and red leaf), a bag of mustard greens, rutabagas and spinach. A family share ($25 per week) also had Meyer lemons, red cabbage, kale and carrots. The extra fruit option starts in May. That's worth every penny just for extra strawberries, say shareholders. CSA members agree the berries are the best they've ever tasted.

How it started

This is the 11th season for Live Earth Farm. In its first year with a CSA program, there were 15 members, said Tom Broz, owner of Live Earth and known as Farmer Tom. "It was more like an extended garden with hand-dug beds. We grew whatever we could." Their customers were family and friends from his son's preschool.

Today he has almost 500 subscribers, word-of-mouth growth he finds "amazing."

There's more appreciation for organic, fresh, local and in-season produce, he said, adding, "It's a conscious choice" to join CSA.

Kathy Sidenblad is glad she did. This Cupertino mom just wishes she'd known about CSA when her kids, now 24 and 26, were home. One August when daughter Karen was home from college, she opened the fridge and found it full of veggies. "She wasn't sure what had happened," Sidenblad said, laughing.

CSA membership growth, Broz said, "is more than just an interest in organic produce. It's about the connection to the farmer, the sustainable approach to farming. [CSA farmers] honor the balance; they don't push the soil." Broz talks about rotating crops, allowing fallow periods, planting a wide diversity of crops and improving soil fertility. He uses winter crops, such as legumes, to plow under in the spring, which enrich the earth with nutrients.

Broz (rhymes with "froze") also points out that CSA people like knowing who's growing their food. "They can come to the farm and see how we grow. Their food is not coming from the wholesale market. We pick, and the next day or two, the customer gets the produce." The whole distribution, he said, is different with CSA.

"You're eating with the season, when things are supposed to be ripe," he explained. "You get a richer flavor, higher nutrients. Plus it's more efficient. We use less fuel to get it to you."

Some experts estimate food travels about 1,500 miles from farm to dinner plate. With CSA, it travels from the farm in Watsonville to Silicon Valley.

A novel farmer

Broz, 42, grew up in Ecuador, where he fell in love with the land. "The whole agrarian thing appealed to me," he said. "My dream was always to farm." He came to the United States and earned a bachelor's degree in plant science from Cornell. Then he served in the Peace Corps in the South Pacific. Following that, he worked for the Environmental Protection Agency. "There must be something else," he said. In 1995 he and his wife left San Francisco to begin organic farming in Watsonville.

Julia Wiley, of Two Small Farms, lives on Mariquita Farm in Watsonville with her husband, Andy Griffin. In 2002 their farm joined with High Ground Organics to form a CSA farm. She said 65 percent of their income comes from the CSA operations. They also sell directly to restaurants in San Francisco and have one farmers market. But there is "no wholesale, no middleman involved," she said. That means food goes much more quickly from the farm to the table.

She describes herself as the recipe queen and said Two Small Farms gives lots of recipe support to their customers. Along with the box of produce each week, both farms also include a weekly newsletter listing the contents of the box for the week, notes from the farm and recipes.

Wiley said CSA farms are organic, but packaged store-bought 'organic' produce may not be fresh. "It can get old and disgusting in a store," she cautioned, adding that the label to look for is 'locally grown.' "

CSA is like having your own vegetable garden, she said. "We do a good job. We've never missed a box or a newsletter, and we're proud of that." Two Small Farms has 900 to 950 subscribers. Two Small Farms and Live Earth both offer a four-week trial membership.

Wiley said people love having a connection to the land. "We have you-pick days, kids days, pet-the-goat days at the farm. Even if people don't visit, they like knowing they can."