Citrus Freezes – Location Helps
February 2007
Thaddeus Barsotti
Ever since I can remember my mother used to point out gently sloping hills in the Capay Valley. They were always pretty locations, big golden hills painted with shadows from the sun and oak trees sporadically filling the landscape. The spots she was interested in were hills that had flattened out enough to farm but still remained well above the valley’s floor – spots that cold air would “roll right off of” as she used to put it.
Cold air is much more dense that hot air – farmers pay particular attention to this when selecting a location to invest an orchard that is sensitive to freezing temperatures. We were interested in growing citrus. These trees are tropical plants, and quite frankly, were never intended to survive Northern California’s winters. To a citrus tree our area’s occasional freezing temperatures are death – briskly disguised.
Citrus trees are only in danger during the extreme cold periods of our valley – which creep below the freezing point. This cold, dense air is pulled down by gravity, displacing the warmer air to higher elevations. The result is that the coldest air temperatures are at the lowest elevations, while the higher elevations are surrounded by air several degrees warmer than the rest of the valley – this is called an inversion layer. It may not seem like much, but these few degrees can be the difference between an orchard that is killed and one that creeps by to live another season.
It is no wonder my mother taught her children the value of these few degrees. In the frost of 1988, she lost a young Satsuma Mandarin orchard - while the orchard a few hundred yards up the hill survived. This was an expensive lesson and surely a lesson a parent would not want her children to learn the hard way.
When I drive around our valley today I still recognize those perfect spots - high enough to scare away the cold but tame enough to farm. I can see what the orchard would look like to people driving by – a green patch in the quilted layers of grasses, shadows and trees that make the hills. It crosses my mind that those spots are important for only a few weeks of the twenty or so years a citrus trees is producing; but the importance of those moments are paramount events in the orchard’s life. Those moments are what allow the orchard to continue to work for the farmer who placed them there.
Many orchards and farmers are feeling the effects of the cold snap that just covered the state. It is estimated that 75% of the states citrus crop was lost this year. The percentage of the orchards that were killed will be determined this spring. The orchards and crops that survived were in abnormally warm micro-climates or at elevation that escaped the cold air below.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Soil Matters
Soil Matters
January 2007
Thaddeus Barsotti
Soil, seeds and water are key components to growing any plant. It was no surprise to see my younger brother putting this thought to practice by eating some dirt, swallowing a watermelon seed and washing it down with some water. Pretty clever for a little kid – but the proof we grew up on an organic farm came when he choked down a couple spoonfuls of compost as fertilizer.
My brother is married now and probably would abstain from that act again for various reasons, including the realization that his stomach didn’t have any sunlight and that harvesting watermelon size objects from humans is generally reserved for pregnant women. Never the less, kids who grow up on farms understand the importance of the combination of soil, water, sunlight and seeds.
While sunlight, water and seeds are fairly standardized within a region, soil remains the key component to farms. Entire university degrees revolve around the science of soil, but the crucial point to be understood about soils is that they change drastically within a hundred feet. Soils hold different amounts of water; contain different types of nutrients and microorganisms; foster different root systems or pathogens. The result of the variation in soils drastically affects yields of a given crop and even the ability to grow or not to grow a specific crop.
To a farmer the type of soil drastically changes the value of a given piece of land. I cannot help but realize that farmers may be the only people who take this into consideration when thinking about land. It is obvious that developers and government planning agencies pay little to no attention to soil quality. The short term economic gains created by developing land hides the long term loss of highly productive soil – even a farmer makes more money selling prime soil to developers than by growing food on it.
The real question is what are the long-term effects of permanently taking great soil out of production? It can be argued that we have more food that we know what to do with – which hides the importance of the most highly productive soils in our communities. Perhaps one day the value of producing food will increase so drastically that farmers will be able to make money by buying back subdivisions and returning them to agricultural land.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
January 2007
Thaddeus Barsotti
Soil, seeds and water are key components to growing any plant. It was no surprise to see my younger brother putting this thought to practice by eating some dirt, swallowing a watermelon seed and washing it down with some water. Pretty clever for a little kid – but the proof we grew up on an organic farm came when he choked down a couple spoonfuls of compost as fertilizer.
My brother is married now and probably would abstain from that act again for various reasons, including the realization that his stomach didn’t have any sunlight and that harvesting watermelon size objects from humans is generally reserved for pregnant women. Never the less, kids who grow up on farms understand the importance of the combination of soil, water, sunlight and seeds.
While sunlight, water and seeds are fairly standardized within a region, soil remains the key component to farms. Entire university degrees revolve around the science of soil, but the crucial point to be understood about soils is that they change drastically within a hundred feet. Soils hold different amounts of water; contain different types of nutrients and microorganisms; foster different root systems or pathogens. The result of the variation in soils drastically affects yields of a given crop and even the ability to grow or not to grow a specific crop.
To a farmer the type of soil drastically changes the value of a given piece of land. I cannot help but realize that farmers may be the only people who take this into consideration when thinking about land. It is obvious that developers and government planning agencies pay little to no attention to soil quality. The short term economic gains created by developing land hides the long term loss of highly productive soil – even a farmer makes more money selling prime soil to developers than by growing food on it.
The real question is what are the long-term effects of permanently taking great soil out of production? It can be argued that we have more food that we know what to do with – which hides the importance of the most highly productive soils in our communities. Perhaps one day the value of producing food will increase so drastically that farmers will be able to make money by buying back subdivisions and returning them to agricultural land.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
Organic?
Organic?
November 2006
Thaddeus Barsotti
For thirty years my family has been farming the same land in a manner different from conventional farming methods. In the beginning there was not a term that represented our style of agriculture. Growing crops in a manner that eliminated the need for chemicals while maximizing sustainable use of the land was not normal. Selecting varieties based on their taste and culinary traits opposed to their yield and shelf life was unheard of.
My parent’s generation toiled at getting the public to realize the value of this alternative way of producing food. This movement encompassed much more than simply not using chemicals. It reduced the intensive use of land, promoting natural biodiversity and reduced soil erosion. It put workers in an environment in which they worked with the owners of the farm. It created a marketing network that connected small farms directly to consumers. While all of these changes were taking place one word was used to represent the movement – organic.
Today that detail of not using chemicals in the long process of farming is the only thing that the term organic represents. The certification that defines organic does not verify or even encourage a complete, sustainable farming system. It means nothing of the size, farming procedures, management goals and marketing techniques of a farm. When the organic movement began these details were more important than limiting the amendments a farmer used when cultivating crops.
While my family and many other families still farm in a method consistent with the original movement, we are put in the same category as factory farms that have slightly altered their conventional farming process to meet the legal definition of organic. These farms can be huge corporations who’s management practice of the land is to harvest three to four different crops on the same piece of land in one year – maximizing revenue from that land for the year’s profit. In contrast our farm’s practice is to grown one crop to harvest per year and leave the same land fallow for a season or to grow a cover crop that is incorporated back into the ground before next year’s crop – maximizing the sustainable use of the land for the next generation.
Today the organic certification our farm completes every year does not do our superior farming practices justice. It is a one-dimension standard that extends no further than the list of materials that have been used in our fields. The challenge of my generation is to make consumers realize that the farming method is what is important and to build a produce distribution system that allows consumers to support individual farms and that farm’s practices. Unfortunately today the word organic has shifted to a marketing term that loosely enforces a set of amendments that are considered “organic” in order to earn a premium price for a farm’s product.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
November 2006
Thaddeus Barsotti
For thirty years my family has been farming the same land in a manner different from conventional farming methods. In the beginning there was not a term that represented our style of agriculture. Growing crops in a manner that eliminated the need for chemicals while maximizing sustainable use of the land was not normal. Selecting varieties based on their taste and culinary traits opposed to their yield and shelf life was unheard of.
My parent’s generation toiled at getting the public to realize the value of this alternative way of producing food. This movement encompassed much more than simply not using chemicals. It reduced the intensive use of land, promoting natural biodiversity and reduced soil erosion. It put workers in an environment in which they worked with the owners of the farm. It created a marketing network that connected small farms directly to consumers. While all of these changes were taking place one word was used to represent the movement – organic.
Today that detail of not using chemicals in the long process of farming is the only thing that the term organic represents. The certification that defines organic does not verify or even encourage a complete, sustainable farming system. It means nothing of the size, farming procedures, management goals and marketing techniques of a farm. When the organic movement began these details were more important than limiting the amendments a farmer used when cultivating crops.
While my family and many other families still farm in a method consistent with the original movement, we are put in the same category as factory farms that have slightly altered their conventional farming process to meet the legal definition of organic. These farms can be huge corporations who’s management practice of the land is to harvest three to four different crops on the same piece of land in one year – maximizing revenue from that land for the year’s profit. In contrast our farm’s practice is to grown one crop to harvest per year and leave the same land fallow for a season or to grow a cover crop that is incorporated back into the ground before next year’s crop – maximizing the sustainable use of the land for the next generation.
Today the organic certification our farm completes every year does not do our superior farming practices justice. It is a one-dimension standard that extends no further than the list of materials that have been used in our fields. The challenge of my generation is to make consumers realize that the farming method is what is important and to build a produce distribution system that allows consumers to support individual farms and that farm’s practices. Unfortunately today the word organic has shifted to a marketing term that loosely enforces a set of amendments that are considered “organic” in order to earn a premium price for a farm’s product.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
The Beets Survive
The Beets Survive
November 2006
Thaddeus Barsotti
This fall’s two acres of beet were a huge success, but my point of view is biased seeing how it is my responsibility to seed, water and help keep bugs and weeds from harming all the crops on our 240-acre organic farm. The reality is that the beginning of this crop’s life was quite dramatic.
The population of moths living in the neighbor’s alfalfa field saw the young beets as an ideal location to lay their eggs. I was worried that the sudden infestation of hundreds of thousands of little moth worms would clear cut the entire field before a single beet could mature.
Reaching into our limited arsenal of organic insecticides, we were able to ease the pressure from the worms enough to turn the tides in favor of the beets – victory! The plants are now healthy and ready to make a hearty fall meal, but the remaining bug bite holes in the leaves tell the story of the crop’s early toil.
The harsh reality of our nation’s food distribution system is that the moths may have sentenced my farm’s beet crop to going to seed in the field without ever being given the opportunity to take center stage on your plate. The damage on the leaves left by the worms is purely cosmetic but enough to get the beets rejected from our wholesale buyers. The argument that most people don’t eat the leaves and the part that they do eat is perfect, generally doesn’t work – we have tried it. The other reality is that the organic division of some huge corporate factory farm has a field, larger than my entire farm, filled with beets that are attached to perfect leaves, for cheaper.
A beet in the field does not look like a beet at all. Just the very top of the root shows and the leaves that stretch out from it, like battle flags showing the signs of their fight. The hidden root makes judging the size of the root difficult. Despite the reaction from our wholesale customers and the price of our competitor’s product, our crew will be making their first harvest through the field as they hone their skills at judging the size of the beets before plucking them up from the ground.
Like many small family farms, we have secured a market for our product that bypasses the moody wholesale buyers and sells directly to customers. This is the best way to distribute our handcrafted works of art to customers who care about the quality of food they are eating and the procedure in which that food was grown.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
November 2006
Thaddeus Barsotti
This fall’s two acres of beet were a huge success, but my point of view is biased seeing how it is my responsibility to seed, water and help keep bugs and weeds from harming all the crops on our 240-acre organic farm. The reality is that the beginning of this crop’s life was quite dramatic.
The population of moths living in the neighbor’s alfalfa field saw the young beets as an ideal location to lay their eggs. I was worried that the sudden infestation of hundreds of thousands of little moth worms would clear cut the entire field before a single beet could mature.
Reaching into our limited arsenal of organic insecticides, we were able to ease the pressure from the worms enough to turn the tides in favor of the beets – victory! The plants are now healthy and ready to make a hearty fall meal, but the remaining bug bite holes in the leaves tell the story of the crop’s early toil.
The harsh reality of our nation’s food distribution system is that the moths may have sentenced my farm’s beet crop to going to seed in the field without ever being given the opportunity to take center stage on your plate. The damage on the leaves left by the worms is purely cosmetic but enough to get the beets rejected from our wholesale buyers. The argument that most people don’t eat the leaves and the part that they do eat is perfect, generally doesn’t work – we have tried it. The other reality is that the organic division of some huge corporate factory farm has a field, larger than my entire farm, filled with beets that are attached to perfect leaves, for cheaper.
A beet in the field does not look like a beet at all. Just the very top of the root shows and the leaves that stretch out from it, like battle flags showing the signs of their fight. The hidden root makes judging the size of the root difficult. Despite the reaction from our wholesale customers and the price of our competitor’s product, our crew will be making their first harvest through the field as they hone their skills at judging the size of the beets before plucking them up from the ground.
Like many small family farms, we have secured a market for our product that bypasses the moody wholesale buyers and sells directly to customers. This is the best way to distribute our handcrafted works of art to customers who care about the quality of food they are eating and the procedure in which that food was grown.
Email comments to: thaddeus17@gmail.com
Visit www.capay.blogspot.com for more writing
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