Mateo Granados: Fresh, Local, Fabulous

I hear about Mateo Granados from a few people before I actually get to talk to him myself. David and Ondine mention him when they find out I’m looking for interesting perspectives. And I crosscheck the reference with Julie, my winemaker-foodie friend. She nods her head. Yes. Definitely.

And when I’m talking to Evie at the Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand, she says: “Oh. You HAVE to talk to Mateo.” And she calls him right there and leaves a message with my phone number.

Mateo calls me the next day. I’m driving home and don’t really get a chance to explain myself, but we agree to meet the following Wednesday, at 9:00 am at the Palette Art Café.

I arrive early to sort myself out before he arrives. He rushes in a few minutes late, dripping and sheepish. He’s been at his kitchen making tamales since 6:00 am. He wanted to shower and clean up before he met me. We order coffee and sit down to chat.

He’s animated. He’s not only explaining himself with words. He uses his face, his hands. He gestures. He just starts explaining.

“What I’m doing,” he says, “Is reproducing the food I grew up eating—but with the bounty of Sonoma County growers.” He smiles and nods his head, “Modern Yucatan Cuisine.”

He explains a bit about the Nuevo Latino cuisine movement and states: “But we’re taking it further. We’re making it regional: Flavors of the Yucatan—with Sonoma County flair.”

“I grew up in the breadbasket of Mexico. My father was a butcher and my mother—an artist. This is what I know. This is what I love. This”—he motions to the table in front of us as if there were a grandiose spread right there, “This is just what I do.”

I ask him to explain more of his past. How did he come to Sonoma County? Believe it or not, he came to the US as a professional soccer player. It wasn’t long though, before he injured himself too much to continue to play. “My housemate at the time was Michael Bonaccorsi. We would spend all of our time together tasting. Tasting food. Tasting wine. And expressing ourselves. That is how I learned English: talking about food and wine with Michael Bonaccorsi.”

Michael went on to become one of the first twenty master sommeliers in the United States. Mateo went on to work his way up through some of the Bay Area’s top restaurants and is now a pedigree chef. He’s held positions such as Executive Sous Chef at Masa’s in San Francisco and Executive chef at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen here in Healdsburg.

LOCAL FINE DINING

Now, Mateo’s goal is to start his own fine dining experience. He aims to bring his refined Mayan recipes to the same level as respected French, Italian, and Spanish cuisine.

He started small. In fact, he went back to square one. In 2004 he started selling his handmade tamales in the Farmer’s Markets all over Sonoma County. His philosophy: “Grow local. Know local. Buy local.”

His commitment to his customers is 100% locally grown and produced. He buys his ingredients from over 30 growers in Sonoma County. “If you love what you do, you have to do it right.” He’s a passionate proponent of not only knowing where his food comes from, but knowing the grower and how it was grown. The Local Harvest website defines community supported agriculture as “putting the farmers’ face on food.”

Mateo certainly puts a face on every ingredient he uses. He describes every dish with a list of identities. It wasn’t just queso fresco. It was Bodega Bay Queso Fresco. Black Sheep bacon. Pug’s Leap Goat Cheese. Black Beans from Tierra Vegetables. And so many more. I couldn’t keep track.

“You can’t beat it. The flavors. The smells. The textures. I get vegetables from Tierra—there’s still earth on them. And roots!” He cups his hands as if he’s holding a bulb of garlic or something and brings them towards his face. I can tell he can smell the earth.

The idea of fresh, local produce is to keep it alive until you use it to cook. He tells me: “Enjoy it while you can. Because the fresher it is, the more alive it is on your plate. The more flavor explodes in your mouth.”

Another part of Mateo’s philosophy is: Respect. Respect the land. Respect the food. Respect the growers. Respect the producers. He knows how much energy, time, and labor it takes to grow a tomato, an onion, a carrot, a pig. Because he knows his suppliers, he doesn’t waste. He creates his signature dishes around what’s available in the season and finds a use for everything. Everything. He doesn’t waste anything because he doesn’t want anything to go to waste. He’s very aware of what he’s throwing away.

He tells me all of this and I take notes. Finally, he takes a moment to sip his coffee and looks at me expectantly: “Do you have any questions?”

“Well,” I say thoughtfully, “Is it possible to have an experience?” He looks at me and thinks for a second and says: “Ok. You want an experience? Let’s go to my kitchen.”

FRESH FAST FABULOUS

We drive to the kitchen where he prepares his tamales. As we get out of his car, he points to two big trucks and adds with a grin: “Those. Those are complete mobile kitchens. I am so committed to local ingredients and the idea of fresh. I bring everything to your site and prepare it right there.”

He shows me around the kitchen and introduces me to his workers who are preparing tamales for his Farmer’s Markets. He makes me taste some of his garnishes: olives from Lou Preston, beets and cabbage cured with bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cloves.

I realize what he means by keeping the produce alive until it’s on your plate (or in this case—in my mouth). (A few weeks later as I’m writing this article and thinking about his cured beets and cabbage, I’m still salivating from the memory).

“OK,” he pulls a cast iron fry pan from the cupboard, “Let’s make a quesadilla.” He asks his helper to clean some cactus.

“Come over here,” he motions and makes me smell the olive oil. “Can you beat that?” He pours a dollop to the fry pan and turns up the heat. He adds the cactus pads for a few seconds on each side then removes them to a cutting board. Then, he goes into the other room to get out his knives and comes back sharpening one: “To make good food, you have to have good knives.” He’s cheeky.

He slices some onion and crystallizes it in the pan. Then dices the cactus pads, slices a bit of Pug’s Leap Cambremer goat cheese, and layers it all together on a soft tortilla. All of which, he now puts it back in the fry pan, fast. Both sides. Just enough to grill the tortilla and soften the cheese.

He whisks it out onto a cutting board, quarters the quesadilla and decorates the top with tomatilla salsa and his cured cabbage condiments. He tops it all off with a handful of sliced green onion. All the while, he’s lecturing about not wasting anything in his kitchen.

How can you beat that? 10 minutes or less. Fresh. Fast. Fabulous.

He smiles:“Pair it with a crisp Rose and you have yourself a succulent, fine-dining, regional experience.”

MORE ON MATEO
Flickr photo stream for this article
MateoGranadosCatering.com
Interested in attending a Missing Link diner?

PS: You can taste more than his tamales at the Healdsburg Farmer’s Markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays. You can also find a Mateo Granados menu at the Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and in Sebastopol on Sundays.

Francis Ford Coppola Interns and Fois Gras

My friend Mitch wrote me last year and told me he and an his familial entourage are taking a tour of Napa Valley. He forwarded me their itinerary and asked if I knew anything about the wineries on the list:

• Domaine Carneros
• Tour of Napa, boutique wineries
• Rubicon Estate
• Clos Pegase

So, even though I know nothing about these wineries nor the wines, I wrote him a long and convoluted email back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hhmmm….

Carneros is an appellation that is known for their Chardonays and Pinots. I’m guessing they capitalize on the hot days and cool breezes…but I don’t know if they get the cool breezes from the Bay or from the Petaluma Gap.

…quick google search says from San Pablo Bay.

I know about the Carneros Inn because the lady at PlumpJack Cafe wanted me to send Bush-Field Pinot there. …now a google search indicates that the Carneros Inn is part of the PlumpJack family and probably resides in the Carneros appellation…and has nothing what-so-ever to do with Domaine Carneros except the proximity. So–you’re going to have to let me know what you think. Judging by their website, you’ll be suitably impressed.

Rubicon…that’s the sister winery (or parent winery?) to Rosso & Bianco Winery. Rubicon is the original FFC (Francis Ford Coppola). Cindy (my housemate for a few months last year) was the winery intern at Rosso & Bianco for the harvest season 2007. She toured Rubicon in late August for a day. She says it’s much nicer than Rosso & Bianco .. except Rosso & Bianco is pretty damn nice (see: An Afternoon at Rosso & Bianco Winery).

Oh. Side note—Francis Ford Coppola apparently started a community concert band in St. Helena. He plays the tuba.

Other than that…I know nothing about their wine. I do know, however, that I don’t like the new Rosso & Bianco label….it doesn’t pop. The label is red and sits on a red bottle. It disappears on the shelf.

Here is a picture of the winemakers from Rosso & Bianco Winery in my back yard. We had them over for dinner! One night last summer, Cindy made an evening of French cuisine local to her region in France. She invited her colleagues. That was a funny story.

She’d brought over some homemade preserves. Her family are farmers–so everything is grown and preserved right there on the farm. One thing she’d brought over was her Mum’s foie gras.

Everybody was tasting a bit of this and a bit of that and somebody asked her how she made the foie gras. (Keep in mind, that when she arrived, she spoke in broken English–she now speaks in less broken English–but she has greatly improved).

She said:

“At my parents, we have ducks.”
“In the spring, we start to feed them a lot of mais…What is mais?”
“Corn,” we piped up.
“Ok. So. We feed them corn. A LOT of corn. Maybe three of those bowls a day.” She pointed to a dish on the table.
“Ok,” We said. “So you feed them a lot of corn.”
“Yes,” She continued: “They eat a lot of corn for two or three months then…bup!” She motioned with her hands like she was cutting off their heads. “Bup! We harvest them.”
“What?” We exclaimed. “That’s it? You harvest them?”
“Yes.” She nodded her head. “We harvest them. We kill them and take their liver…and…Voila! Foie gras.”
“Don’t you do something to their livers? You know, before we eat it?” We asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “Harvest the liver. Put it in the jar. Cover it with oil and Voila! Foie Gras.”

Nobody ate the rest of the foie gras. We just let it sit on the table while we ate the gratin and salads and prunes—even though they were harvested in much the same fashion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So. That’s it. That’s the story about how I know nothing about Domaine Carneros and Rubicon Wineries. But, I do know a little bit more about Foie Gras.

A different kind of local food for Healdsburg

Hi there Healdsburg,

I’ve been busy this summer meeting people and talking and building out my plan for this website. This weekend, I finally figured out something I could do relatively quick…

Publish YOUR BLOGS!! Check ‘em out.

I guess this constitutes as local feeds… but really, send me your RSS feeds–for your blogs, for your events, for your websites. You can also just email me: jen@HealdsburgMagazine.com — that should work too.

Let me know what you think.

PS: Just installed some software for the mobile edition. Can anybody see my site on their iPhone? How’s it working for you? I’d love to hear–leave a comment or email me.

Dan the Tomato Man: Soda Rock Farm

After I interviewed Mateo Granados last June, I always stop by his tamale stand at the Farmer’s Market to say hello. He’s always happy and chatty and talking to someone or another. One day, I was just hanging out and Dan Magnuson of Soda Rock Farm comes over to drop off a few boxes of his tomatoes. Mateo immediately says to me: “Here’s one guy you have to talk to. His tomatoes, mmmmuah… ” He kisses his fingers and releases them into the air, in a typical chef-sort-of-way. And he introduces us.

I talk to Dan a bit, and talk to him a few times before we actually make a time to meet. But we meet one morning at the Costeaux Bakery Cafe. He sits down and says: “So. What do you want to talk about?”

I’m prepared: “Tomatoes”, I say.

He smiles: “Well. That’s a pretty big subject.”

I narrow it down: “Your tomatoes? Tell me about your tomatoes.”

That doesn’t do much good. I guess it’s just too big of topic. I ask him some more rhetorical questions.

“When did you start growing tomaotes?” and “Why tomaotes?”

He says he started growing tomatoes about 10 years ago out on his property in Alexander Valley. He’d taken a class at the Santa Rosa Junior college in agriculture. He just liked tomatoes. And I also find out he’s a tennis pro. During the winter months, he teaches tennis athletes at the Charlie Schultz indoor tennis courts.

Tennis and tomatoes. That’s our man. He’s an expert at both.

He started out with an acre out on Alexander Valley and about 3000 plants. He now farms both his property and four to five acres in Dry Creek Valley. Today’s stats are approximately 20,000 tomato plants, 15,000 basil plants, and 1000 lemon cucumber plants.

I ask him how many tomatoes does 20,000 tomato plants produce (I was looking for tonnage or something–I don’t know how you measure tomatoes). He blinked and looked back at me: “A lot.”

He grows between 35 and 40 different varietals, but his mainstay is red beefsteak.

“Do you have any secrets to growing tomatoes.? His eyes are smiling as he tells me — “Trial and error.” He’s been doing it for 10 years, he just figured out what worked and what didn’t. He knows that’s not what I asked and follows up by saying: “Would you give your secrets away?” But he does explain a bit further.

“I grow in Dry Creek Valley. What’s good for the grapes is good for my tomatoes.” Which turns out to be sandy loam soil and sunlight. He also tells me it’s important to plant at the right time, and pick at the right time (which I guess isn’t really anything new.) He plants in April and May (depending on the weather) and the harvest is ready by mid-July through October.

He tells me about staking the plants so they grow up-not out. He tells me about watering them until they’re ripe, then stopping the water before the skins split. He tells me about figuring out how to do things right and making those things repeatable year after year.

He also says that he only grows the tomato varietals he likes. He tried others once, but the fruit could tell he didn’t really like that variety. His customers could tell he didn’t really like that variety–so he just decided he’d never do that again.

I ask him if there is such a thing as a tomato competition. He laughs and said certainly. One year he won awards in five categories from the Kendall Jackson Tomato Festival: aroma, all other colors, orange & yellow, red, and cherry.

He started by selling his tomatoes to high-end restaurants. Bistro Ralph here in Healdsburg was his first. Over the years, Underwood Bar and Bistro and Willow Wood Market Cafe in Gratton sell his tomaotes, Syrah and Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. His latest account is Cyrus Restaurant here in Healdsburg. He also does most Farmer’s Markets in the area. I’ll have to check specifically. His tomatoes are also in some produce markets. I noticed them in Big John’s the other day and out at the JimTown Store. And, he tells me later–the Pacific Market in Santa Rosa.

If you’d like to try his tomatoes in more of a social setting, Bovolo Restaurant featuring his tomatoes in one of their BIG NIGHT dinners on Sunday, 14 September 2008. Here’s the menu:

hand thrown MARGHERITA PIZZAS
black pig bacon BLT PANZANELLA
rosemary rubbed PRIME RIB / tomatoes / white corn / fingerling potatoes / salsa verde,
TOMATO + WATERMELON SORBETTO / candied mint + basil / cornmeal shortbread

Let me know if you go. And let me know what you think about it. Minimally, let Dan know what you think of his tomatoes–leave a comment.

This Week at the Farm: 04 August 08

Another week of fresh food and fun at the farm. This week we have sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, onions and garlic. Freshly dug, absolutely delicious red potatoes, chard, maybe some green beans, lots of carrots (with juicing and other specials), broccoli, cabbage, arugula, parsley, basil including lemon basil, sweet gypsy, italian frying and other sweet peppers, anaheim (my home town), poblano, serrano and many other mild and hot chiles and of course STRAWBERRIES.

I think we’re having a special on STRAWBERRIES as I am being told there are a lot of them today.

We also have a few eggs and the chili jams, honey from the field, chipotles and other dried chiles.

Hope to see you.

EASY RECIPE OF THE WEEK is my baked Ratatouille:

Onion, garlic, eggplant, zummer squash, chile and sweet pepper, basil, and maybe parsley, tomatoes.

Chop everything up and put into a baking dish with some olive oil. Bake at about 375, stirring every so often, until everything is tender and juicy, about an hour or so. I cover it for part of the time and then uncover. Parmesan on top. That’s it! note: sauteing onions first is nice.

Thanks,
Evie Truxaw

TierraVegetables.com
Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand (directions)

This week at the farm: 30 July 08

Another week is here. I am proud to report that Lisa and I checked on our three bee hives today and they are all doing okay !! Our winter surviving hive (which we call SWOH), is doing quite well and the girls seem to like the new frames we just put in as they are making more honey. One of the other hives (Nuc) is doing okay and our swarm (the bees that adopted us in the spring) is a little slow but doing the best that they can. The best news is that they all have working bees and some honey.

As for chickens, the newest mother has taught her babies to roost and now they are on their own. They are pretty small to be roosting with all their big aunties, but they seem to be up to the task.
Meanwhile, we have LOTS of vegetables!!!!

First of the SWEET CORN, cucumbers, and lots of green beans including romano and round, summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, EGGPLANT, and garlic. Onions, holy arugula (Lacy Arugula we’re calling it!), cabbage, tomatillos, chiles, gypsy sweet peppers, and many other varieties, maybe cilantro, and lots of basil varieties. Parsley, TOMATOES, STRAWBERRIES, carrots, beets, chard, green and spring onions, rhubarb–and as usual–I am sure I am forgetting something important.

A few eggs will be available as well as the jams and assorted dried and smoked as well as the newest batch of Sauerkraut.

We are planning on a Ratatouille Contest on Friday AUGUST 02. Anyone interested? Details are that it’s informal and please bring your Ratatouille around 4 in the afternoon on Friday.

Lee and or I will be at the Sonoma County Fair in the sustainability tent on Wednesday so stop on in if you’re at the fair.

That’s it for now. Hope to see you. Bring your walking shoes! It is beautiful in the field right now.
Thanks,
Evie Truxaw

TierraVegetables.com
Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand (directions)

Pug’s Leap Farm

[This article is courtesy of Sasha at Cheese By Hand, a blog dedicated to discovering America one cheese at a time. Originally published 31 July 2008.]

Name: Pug’s Leap
Location: Healdsburg, CA
Owners: Pascal Destandau & Eric Smith
Animals: Milking 24 goats- mixed herd of Alpines, Saanens, and Toggenburgs
Cheeses/Products: Petit Marceau, Pave, Buche

Although the 24 milking goats can browse all the way down to Dry Creek Road, one might never noticed Pug’s Leap because it is nestled back on the hillside among trees and brush so common to the not-quite-coastal valleys of Northern California. Lucky for us- thank you Healdsburg Farmer’s Market- Pug’s Leap was presented to us in broad daylight. We introduced ourselves and thanks to the avid local food supporters of a blog called Fork and Bottle (www.forkandbottle.com) who wrote about us on their slow food convivium’s site, Eric and Pascal had actually heard of us and graciously invited us out to the farm that afternoon.

This invitation was more than gracious considering that Saturdays are their “day off”- meaning that they don’t actually make cheese because they are busy going to market. It doesn’t look like an average person’s day off given that they are still out of bed around 5-ish for the morning milking and then they use the usual cheesemaking time to prepare for market. We descended upon them during their afternoon break- post market and pre afternoon milking.

We started our tour in the “cheese-room-with-a-view” which looks out across Dry Creek Road to the vineyard on the other side. The cheese room is modest and immaculate with a vat/pasteurizer which is in use now and an additional, smaller vat that Pascal hopes to use for making aged, raw milk cheeses someday soon. There are two small aging rooms off the side wall- one used for the delicate drying stage needed for small, mold and ash ripened cheeses and the other with higher humidity and a slightly lower temperature. These rooms are Pascal’s domain- he has always been interested in and good at cooking so this seemed the most logical place for him. As we talked about everything ranging from selecting goat breeds to the grey area around words like artisan and farmstead, Pascal tilted racks of cheeses made the previous day and encouraged the whey and scraps down the drain in the table.

Next we walked out into the milking parlor which is, as Eric described it, “state of the art for the 1930’s”. More important than being fashionable, it is simple and it works for them although it is uphill (a dirt hill) from the area where the does are kept which means that milking can be time consuming… particularly when you have 30 straight days of rain like they did this past winter.

The bucks are kept at the top of the hill and the does are down closer to the road- removing off-season temptations. The goats are eating browse (read: anything that emerges from the ground), hay, and are supplemented with a bit of grain around milking time. Sounds simple and yet, as with so many things on small farms, there are built-in complexities because Pug’s Leap is a small farm without enormous hay storage capacity thus Eric has to drive hours to do a hay collection every other week.

Everything about Pug’s Leap is in response to Eric and Pascal’s mounting discomfort with the state of affairs in farming and food production today; the ultimate example of consumers taking matters into their own hands. They are an interesting breed of new farmers- both stepped into this project with years of professional experience (Eric as an architect and Pascal as an environmental engineer) and little dairying experience. As we walked uphill to the area where the bucks are kept, Eric and Pascal agreed that although this is more tiring than any work they have done before, it is labor that produces tangible and very real results- life and death included- something they can’t imagine giving up.

Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand

I emailed Evie of Tierra Vegetables a few weeks ago to ask if I could write a feature article on their Farm Stand. I wasn’t sure if she’d remember me–because I’d met her through a friend. But of course she remembers and sure I can write an article. She tells me a good time to catch her (or anybody at Tierra Vegetables) is on Tuesdays or Thursday mornings–when they’re packing up the CSA boxes. “It’s pretty hectic and you’d have to be patient but you could get some good pictures and info.” I wonder what the CSA boxes are, but believe I’ll find out soon enough.

I find the Farm Stand off Highway 101 at the Fulton/Airport Boulevard exit and arrive on Tuesday morning around 9h30. Evie’s not there yet so I introduce myself and have a look around to get myself oriented. I offer to help get things ready for the CSA boxes.

Lee sets me up with a few bushels of garlic. She’s very efficient: “I need one hundred bulbs that weigh 3.2 ounces each.” Roxie shows me how to clean them and weigh them.

I start preparing the bulbs of garlic. Roxie is preparing chard and lettuce for the boxes. We start to chat. We talk about what Tierra Vegetables is doing with the Farm Stand and the CSA boxes. She says: “Well, for example, we grow everything that we sell. Or almost everything. If we don’t grow it, we know who does.”

She points to the field behind the Farm Stand: “Those are the strawberries that we’re selling today. We pick what’s ready and sell them as soon as they come in from the field.” Then she motions to the tractor that’s appeared behind me. “Those are the carrots that are going in the CSA boxes.” I grab my camera and take an action shot.

As I’m trying to finish prepping the garlic, a van rolls up and somebody shouts, “It’s the group from Santa Rosa.” Then, there’s hustle and bustle everywhere because the arrival signals the start of everybody else arriving to pick up their boxes.

Tierra Vegetables grows, harvests, and preps the produce. But you actually have to assemble your own box when you come to pick it up. Also, you provide your own “box”. It can be a paper bag, a cloth bag, a basket–whatever you want it to be. As long as you reuse it every week. Two guys get out of the van and start their assembly line.

I wait until it gets organized before I ask a fellow: “Where are you from?”

“Winzler and Kelly,” he replies.

“What’s that?”

“An engineering firm in Santa Rosa.”

“How come you have so many bags?” There seems to be about twenty different bags they need to fill.

“Well,” he explains. “There’s a group of us at work. Every Tuesday, somebody different has pick-up duty. We come out and fill up everybody’s bag and bring it back to the office.”

They’re on a timeline and by now, more and more people are arriving to pick up their CSA boxes. I wander out to the front of the Farm Stand to get out of the way and see what’s going on there. Evie’s chatting to everybody as she rings them up–she knows everybody’s names.

It finally occurs to me to ask: “What does CSA stand for?” As it comes out of my mouth, I remember reading about it on their website: “Community Supported Agriculture”.

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

Evie explains that the idea of CSA is to connect the local community with local farmers. It’s about creating a relationship between the consumers of the food and the farmers growing the food and about knowing about how the food is grown.

I ask Evie, “How long have you been selling these boxes?

She thinks for a minute. “I think our CSA program started in 1992. We started with about 10 families. We’ve grown some every year and last year we topped around 200.”

A customer comes round front from assembly line out behind the Farm Stand. Evie introduces us, “Denise, meet Jennifer. She’s writing an article for a Healdsburg Magazine. Jennifer, why don’t you talk to Denise?”

I start talking to her. She’s been part of the Tierra Vegetables CSA program for over three years. “What do you like about it?” I ask.

“Well,” she ponders. “I really like that it’s fresh. I like that it’s fixed. I mean. I just arrive and my vegetables are already chosen for me.” She pauses, “I guess I like that I don’t really have to think about what I’m going to be eating this week. They’ve done it already.”

What do you mean? “, I prompt her to explain more.

“Not only is the produce grown and picked for me, Evie also emails recipes for what’s in the box that week. It just makes my life easier. And,” she perks up, “I never would have some of the vegetables if they hadn’t been in the box–like cactus!”

I nod my head. I know what she means. Having somebody else think about planning my meals every week would definitely make my life easier.

I ask Evie how to sign up for their CSA program? She tells me there is a waiting list of about 25 or so right now. But all the information is on their website: TierraVegetables.com. Or just email, call, or stop by the Farm Stand. She repeats with a laugh, “You can always just stop by the Farm Stand.”

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES

I talk to Wayne as he finishes preparing the bushels of garlic. He’s set himself up in the shade and he stands with one leg up resting on the bench. I notice he doesn’t wear shoes. And I remember somebody telling me once that he never wears shoes. He’s always barefoot in the fields. I make a mental note to ask him about it.

Now, I ask about his history with farming and with farmer’s markets.

“We’ve been farming most of our lives. In the 70s, I was running a produce farm up in Potter Valley. Farming has been our way of life for over 25 years. CSA is only part of it.”

“Part of what?” I ask.

“Sustainability.” He states the obvious. “Everything we do here is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. It has to be all three.”

I email him later to ask him to elaborate on this explanation. He sends me his own words:

Sustainability is economically, socially, and environmentally friendly practices. To make it work, you have to have all three parts and all three parts must be as equal as possible.

• Economically means that the farm can support not only the farmers and the farmers families but also all the farm workers and their families.
• Socially means that it needs to support the local community and be part of the local community by supporting the local businesses, supporting the local residents (don’t spray, don’t disrupt the farm’s neighbors, etc, paying our workers living wages, and supporting them how we can).
• Environmentally means that we use practices that least impact the environment, from not using plastic for coverings in the beds, to not using pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.

This is the balance we strive to achieve and it means keeping our money in the community. It’s very complex, and we have a long way to go. But every day, we are working towards this definition of sustainability.

FARMER’S MARKET vs FARM STAND

I ask Wayne about selling the produce. Do they only have this Farm Stand? Or do they sell at other Farmer’s Markets?

He sort of sighs and says, “We used to do Farmer’s Markets everyday around the Bay Area. At one point, we were travelling to Farmer’s Markets as far away as Danville.”

“But really, with the cost of everything–time and transport–it was soon not becoming worth it. When this land became available, I knew it was where we needed to set up and start the Farm Stand. “

“Now, our transportation costs consist of bringing the food from the field (he waves his hand behind him)—to the Farm Stand. And, we use those (he motions to the huge wheelbarrows) as transportation.”

Tierra Vegetables leases 17 acres of farmland from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. And a few more acres out by their own home. Everything they sell they grow on the land they farm.

If they don’t sell it, it goes back to their licensed kitchen to become part of their prepared food offerings. If it doesn’t sell or get prepared in the kitchen, it’ll go back into the land or fed to the animals. They have chickens, sheep, and sometimes pigs at home on their farm.

I ask him if he knows how many people buy from Tierra Vegetables and he works out the figures right there.

“We have about 500 families who buy from the Farm Stand in peak season.

“We have about 200 families subscribing to the CSA program.”

“And Lee sells to about 100 different customers on Saturdays in San Fran (because they continue to sell at the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Plaza on Saturdays). So—I guess roughly, that’s about 800 families who we supply from our land.” He looks satisfied as he realizes the numbers.

I say to Wayne: “Roxie said that you built everything here at the Farm Stand from recycled materials.” And I ask him to explain.

He laughs and says: “How do you want me to explain? What do you want me to explain?”

I think. “For example, where did you get the materials to build the stand?”

He shrugs and points to the wood framed boxes that display the produce. “That wood came from the old Frizelle-Enos feed store out in Sebastopol when they tore down the old building.”

He points his shears at the structure where he’s shucking garlic. “This wood is from when the fence out there (and he motions to the field) blew down and we had to replace it.”

“Those pipes (that hold the shade tarp over the actual stand itself), those pipes are from our old well out on the farm.”

“The shade tarp is actually an old billboard that you see out on the highway.” He smiles, “One of my friends got it for me.”

“And that’s an old shipping container.”

I get the idea. Everything. Everything to do with Tierra Vegetables –quite literally from soup to nuts—is either grown from seed, recycled, or re-used. They support their family, their worker’s families, and (in peak season) up to 800 other families.

And how can you not support that?

MORE INFORMATION

Before you go somewhere else, have a look at the photo album of this day on Flickr.
Visit the Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand (directions)
Open 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday (Wednesday when tomato season starts)

Tierra Vegetables CSA program
Tierra Vegetables website
Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
More on CSA in general

Saturdays at the Healdsburg Farmer’s Market

I hadn’t talked to Julie all week so I didn’t know if we still had plans. I phone her at eight o’clock in the morning: “Are we walking to the Farmer’s Market today?”

“Sure,” she says. “Give me a moment to get ready.” She sounds a bit groggy. I’ve called and she’s still in bed. Half an hour later, I show up on her front porch, pick an apricot, and few minutes later, we set off down the street.

The Healdsburg Farmer’s Market starts at 9 o’clock in the morning on Saturday right behind Hotel Healdsburg. If you’re serious about fresh produce, I think it’s better to get there early. We are lucky that we live close enough to be able to walk and it’s a good start to the weekend.

I wasn’t sure what to expect so we just wander. I want to know what’s available. I end up thinking that there seems to be a good balance: produce, plants, crafts, community. We continue to browse the stalls.

I am surprised that there were things ready to harvest. I ask a vendor when he planted his carrots and he tells me he’d planted them in February. Other produce available include onions and garlic (of all kinds), pitted fruits (peaches, apricots, cherries), root vegetables (carrots, beets, kolorabi), and leafy greens (lettuce, collards, and various herbs).

Julie buys two types of cherries: Rainer (yellow tinged red) and California Bing. I continue just to wander and browse. After the first go around, we stop and listen to the music.

I still haven’t bought anything. I’m a bit overwhelmed and don’t really know where to start. I ask the lady standing next to me what she’s bought and we look in her basket. Her son has devoured the cherries while we’re listening to music and her daughter is munching on a carrot. She’s also bought fresh collards and avocados. She tells me: “You have to buy an avocado from that guy over there,” and motions in a general direction. “They’re perfect right now–like a peach. Just peel ‘em and pit ‘em.”

I wander over to the Avocado guy and say: “Somebody just told me I have to buy an avocado. Apparently, they’re perfect.” He smiles and says: “Definitely. More perfect in a day or two. Take one home a put it in a paper bag so that it ripens just so. ” He demonstrates a gentle squeeze with an avocado in his hand.

I tell him I’ll let him know how it goes.

Fresh Apricots

Listen to this article: FreshApricots.mp3

I arrived at my friend Julie’s house last Saturday morning at 8h45. We’d planned on walking to downtown for breakfast and meeting her friend at the Farmer’s Market. The first thing she said when I walked through her front door was: You have to turn around and go back out. She laughed at my confused look and repeated: Turn around, go back out on the porch, and pick an apricot.

I turned around and walked back out onto her front porch. Sure enough, she has a huge apricot tree in her front yard that is just bursting with fruit. I searched the foliage for an accessible apricot, reached up to lower a branch, and just plucked one.

That’s it. I just reached up and picked an apricot from her apricot tree. That’s one of the best things about living in California I think. Fresh food. Fresh fruit. Fresh vegetables. I grew up in Northern Canada but I’ve been living here since 2001. It is such a novelty to realize that fruit actually grows on trees (and not in the displays and bins of the supermarket). It’s even more of a novelty to reach up and pick a fruit from the tree and just eat it right there and then.

Which is exactly what I did. She said to pry the apricot in half. The flesh was just tender enough all I had to do was to hold the fruit in both hands and use my thumbs to open it up. I picked out the pit and bit into one half.

I offered the other half to Julie, but she said she’d already had some for breakfast. I asked her how did she get her tree to produce so much fruit. She said the guy who worked on her trees asked her: Do you want it to look pretty? Or do you want it to produce fruit?

She said she wanted it to produce fruit.

I think the fruit looks just gorgeous. And it tasted unbelievable.

PS: Check the comments. We eventually found out the guy who works on her tree is Mike Mahoney of Healdsburg Tree Service.