By Heidi Lewis

The USDA classifies family farms as “any farm organized as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or family corporation.” But a cold definition is never the whole story, is it? Mick Klug grew up on his family’s farm. His parents established their 40-acre farm in the 1930s. The reason you often hear of farms being in parcels of 40 acres is because of the way surveyors used to map large swaths of American land. According to the Public Land Survey System, “In 1832, the smallest area of land that could be acquired was reduced to the 40-acre, quarter-quarter section, and this size parcel became entrenched in American mythology.”

Mick took ownership of the farm in 1974 and has since grown it to 120 acres. He farms it with his wife, Cindy, and daughters, Amy and Abby—and their golden retriever, Lily. Most people would agree that land farmed for three generation defines “family farm.” And a man who says, “working with the earth and my hands is my favorite part of farming” defines “farmer.”

Parts of the farm nap under a blanket of rye cover crop in winter. But winter means catch-up time for the Klug family. “We catch up on paperwork and get organized for the next growing season. We also prune grapes and tree fruit, and work on equipment. We plan what is going to be planted in the spring, how much of it, and where. We also attend trade shows and educational conferences. And take a few naps,” says Abby. “Depending on how well we do during the summer, we are sometimes able to take a vacation sometime between November and March.” They deserve a vacation. A farmer’s work is from pre-dawn until dusk, “We get up at 2:30 [a.m.] on market days and around 4:00 a.m. on others,” she adds.

Klug farm is known for its luscious asparagus (purple and green), varieties of annual vegetable crops, tree fruit, and berries. Managing a diversity of crops—from asparagus, green beans, carrots, cucumbers, peas, rhubarb, tomatoes, apples, apricots, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, and pears—you would expect fancy machinery. “Our tools are our brains and our hands!” says Mick. Add to that pruning shears, tractors, and trailers.

The quality and variety of Klug’s produce has earned the farm a good reputation from Chicago chefs and regulars of the Green City Market. TimeOut Chicago online said about Mick: “[He’s] kind of the Thomas Edison of farming.…he’s a serial experimenter—he’ll grow 15 different varieties of peaches…just to see which tastes best.” The Klugs also put in a huge freezer so they are able to save summer’s plenty of fruit for leaner times in winter. Famed chef Rick Bayless, who has purchased from Mick Klug Farm for 25 years, relies on their winter supply of frozen fruit, which allows him to feature winter fruit crisps and an upcoming line of local-fruit smoothies for his Frontera restaurants.

Farming with family, growing a diverse crop, and supplying Chicago with wholesome food aren’t the whole story either. Mick employs organic practices with some of his crops and sustainable principles on the farm, which recently received certification from the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP). MAEAP certification means they are “environmentally verified.” The program is voluntary, with the aim of assuring effective land stewardship practices. Since 2000, a thousand Michigan farms have qualified.

For Mick, there’s a statistic about farming he learned at an agriculture conference a while back that has always stuck with him: “the average U.S. farmer feeds 155 people.” Using land stewardship principles, small family farms like the Klugs are reaching many more generations than just one.

Courtesy of Capay Valley Farm Shop

I’m trying to make sense of time. It is after all, the end of another farm year. If we agree that “time flies” we must concur that time really is all relative. Did every day or week or month clock out at the same pace? Was it a straight line or sine wave? Recently one of our farm interns casually called me middle aged. She said it so matter-of-factly, so definitively, “duh, you’re old.” And then there’s the constant reminder from my kids. As is so often the case, my teen and tween kids often can’t quite differentiate my timeline and experiences from those of the dinosaurs, but that’s another issue entirely. As I turn 46 this week, forgive my indulgence as I try to take stock of and celebrate just how relative time is.

I don’t have clue if 46 is middle aged or not. I really don’t! On one hand I think I’m basically the same physical and mental guy I’ve been my whole adult life, while on the other hand, I know that I hear myself sounding like a broken record (I think I’m dating myself here) trying to solicit sympathy from my wife about chronic aches and pains. I sure hope that’s not the definition of middle age. Most days though I’d like to believe I can still work circles around the younger folks at the farm. Lord knows I’ve had a lot more practice. On other days though, I think more about working smarter, not necessarily harder.

Coincidently, 46 marks my 25th year in farming, nearly 20 of which have been as part of Full Belly Farm. Now doesn’t that sound weird! (There’s that relativity bit again.) I hope that I’m not even at my halfway point in my working life, and yet 25 years of farming feels simultaneously like a flash in the pan and like I’ve been nursing that same tasty beer for a while. It feels like it’s just a few years back that I was that 21-year old fellow cultivating carrots for the first time on an ancient Allis Chalmers tractor, deep in the cool green summer of a Vermont truck farm. How long ago was it when I first spent season after greenhouse season learning the near snake charming tricks of teasing tomatoes from cool earth, draping and winding twine, tomatoes reaching for the sun, finally bearing fruit after miraculous fruit? Have I ever really stopped marveling at the way the radical of a germinating seed thrusts toward the center of the earth as voraciously as the cotyledons blaze with solar energy?

Twenty-five years of farming keeps these and an accumulation of experiences close at hand, because we revisit them repeatedly on an annual basis. My biological clock is an annual one, repeating so many of the same ticks and tocks of season. Farming has shaped as real a cyclical calendar as I can come to understand. Therefore, I’d expect time to be methodical and even predictable. It’s curious that this is not how time has played out.

The miracle of seed to sustenance feels as new to me as it did the first time I planted sugar snap peas in recently thawed early spring ground or pulled jungles out of weedy broccoli wondering if they would persevere, or thrilled at splitting a sun soaked watermelon, to grab at its sticky, warm heart. Those experiences, like so many others have become common threads in fabric with which I cloak myself. It’s kind of like putting on the same baseball cap every morning as you walk out into the day’s light. Over time, these life experiences only seem to become richer unlike my threadbare hat.

But I think I’ve lost track of time. The greatest part of knowing your life’s work, and perhaps the luckiest, is coming to that place where there really isn’t any distinction between “work” and “just what one does.” Time slips away. With any engaging venture, the more you learn, the more you realize how much more there is to learn. As is so often the case when we are swept away in our pursuits, farming has made time morph into something so much grander than just marks on a line.

From all of us here at the farm, thank you all for your enthusiasm and patronage, allowing us to do so very much more than just mark time on this farm and fertile piece of earth.

In the nick of time, yours truly,

Andrew Brait of Full Belly Farm

Amy Courtney started the farm eight years ago with one other farmer on one little acre. They started delivering their veggies to members by bike because they didn’t have a car. They were already bike people so it was a natural choice to continue using pedal power even when they expanded their operation. Amy now works the farm with partners Darryl Wong and Kristin Yogg. The farm has expanded to nine acres and some 75 members and all three pedal produce-laden trailers to drop off sites in Santa Cruz where customers pick up the goodies. It is a 14-mile round trip back to the farm and, yes, they do get some flats. On Fridays they even make a zigzag tour through a few neighborhoods to make home deliveries. “When we do ride together we tend to ride single file… I personally find that I whistle best when on my bike, I think it has something to do with the additional wind,” says Amy. “Sometimes I sing. Most of the time I am grateful for a quiet moment with the wind and my breath, nothing to do but keep pedaling. It can be really relaxing in that way.”

Are they fit from all the biking and good organic food? “We’re no slouches.”

The freewheelers produce enough veggies for their members, a few restaurants, and, of course, The FruitGuys. Their land is in the cooler part of Santa Cruz where carrots, broccoli, chard, kale, and other greens thrive so to add to their offering veggies who prefer a warmer climate, such as cucumbers, eggplant, and peppers, they partnered with Yellow Wall Farm, located in Santa Cruz’s sun belt. Yellow Wall also helps out by delivering via car to the FruitGuys, but has also caught the bike bug and pedals their produce to local drop sites.

If you can’t bike for your work, you could still bike to your workplace. Biking to work is getting easier all the time. Every major city across the nation has bike coalitions, such as: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, with many offering workshops such as street riding with confidence, basic bike repair, and how to rally a BUG (Bike Users Group) at your workplace. Some companies provide bikes to get across expansive campuses or traverse warehouses. In New York City, 7th Commuter Challenge proved once again the bike beats car and subway. There are websites that rank the most bike-friendly workplaces in their cities and others that provide tips on how to make your office one of them. At The FruitGuys South Francisco warehouse, we have bike racks and several bike commuters.

Even if you don’t bike to work yet, sending back your cases for re-use is a good first step towards a more sustainable lifestyle. FruitGuys TakeHome cases are available nationwide, box return is available in some areas.

- Heidi Lewis

On the west coast, we spoke with Torrey Olson of Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA [N 38 ° & W 122 °] who supplies us with a wide assortment of Asian Pear varieties, Fuji Apples, and Fuyu Persimmons.

In the east, Ken Kauffmann of Kauffman’s Fruit Farm in lovely Bird-in-Hand, PA [N 40 ° W 76 °] presides over 110 acres of apple and stone fruit trees with several generations of Kauffmans.

FG: Do you track the weather?
Torrey: I have a weather station. In spring I watch the satellite for frost and wind.
Ken: I check Skybit (an online agricultural weather service).

FG: Are there any weather proverbs you like?
Torrey: You mean, if the sunflowers are pointing east? No, I use google weather.
Ken: Weather proverbs have fallen by the wayside since electronic systems. When I was a kid we would have a contest to see who could predict the weather using signs like a halo around the moon or sundogs.

FG: What are your winter chores?
Torrey: Pruning, except in the heavy rain. It’s hard to look up in the rain.
Ken: Pruning apples now, and peaches in March. Our fellows work outside down to 10°. We also do equipment maintenance, repair the fruit ladders and bins.

FG: A lot of farm conferences are in January. Do you go to any?
Torrey: The California Small Farm Conference is a good one.
Ken: I enjoy the Tri-State Horticulture Conference in Hershey, PA.

FG: Complete this sentence: “Winter is a good time to…”
Torrey: Catch up. Winter weather is what lets the farmer get a break.
Ken: A time to reflect. Visit with friends and family.

- Heidi Lewis

John Koman at White Dove Farm grows his one and a-half acres of passion fruit vines across an old lemon orchard. The trees act as a natural trellis. His fruits are always beautiful in their purple way. If you haven’t seen them, they are a bit odd-looking – you might even wonder if they are tiny versions of the pods in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” but don’t fear – they are just fruits and wonderful ones at that.

Passion Fruit is a fragrant fruit and is best eaten when cut open and scooped out. They are ripe when the skin looks a bit shriveled. Passion fruits are rich in Vitamins A and C and are a good source of potassium and iron. The seeds are high in fiber as well. (Although to be super honest, I’m fond of the juice in the fruit but not really the seeds themselves, though they are edible.)

Check out our 3 minute video profile of John’s passion fruit farm.

Our fruit mixes change by region as we work with local growers in different areas of the United States. Most of our crates now have lots of pears and apple varieties as we go forward into fall. There are multiple varieties of Asian Pears that we include right now and they all taste different. We work with local growers in different areas of the United States, our fruit mixes change by region each week.

Next week, there will be passion fruits in our crates, along with multiple varieties of Asian Pears that all taste different. Go to our mix page and select your delivery region and box variety.

Enjoy and be fruitful! chris@fruitguys.com

Asian pears have long had a toehold in California where a large Asian immigrant population enjoys them. But it is impressive that Subarashii farm is able to turn heads in the traditional apple and European pear territory of the Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Using wine tastings as a model, marketing dynamo Holly Harter holds events that offer up Asian pears with fabulous local cheeses and feature the cuisine styling of up-and-coming chefs. The PA nonprofit Buy Fresh Buy Local helps publicize events. Recently, Subarashii gave 5,000 attendees at the Allentown ballpark samples of their gourmet Asian pears. The first 1,000 kids also got Japanese-style headbands as well. Because of their fun events, enthusiasm, and evangelism, Asian pears are finally making inroads into eastern metropolitan markets.

Subarashii was founded 30 years ago when Joel Spira, a physicist and inventor (he invented the dimmer switch) was first introduced to Asian pears on a trip to Japan. He loved their crunchiness and taste but couldn’t find them back in the U.S.. So he decided to grow them in Pennsylvania, where he had founded his first company, Lutron Electronics. Using scientific methods, he and his botanist wife Ruth set about breeding and growing the best trees for their area. All of their showcase fruit are named after family members with an honorific ending “san,” such as “Lilysan” and “Elisan.”

Meanwhile out west…

When Torrey and Lucy Olson acquired Gabriel Farm it was already Asian themed, growing Asian pears, Fuji apples, and persimmons. They’ve expanded this hobby farm and turned it into a great example of sustainable and organic farming practices. Their excellent fruit is known throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. They reach newcomers and make converts through their personable conversation and samples at the major farmers markets. Gabriel Farms is also the go-to spot for pick your own experience in Sonoma County which is where customers learn about the variations and quality of Gabriel Farm’s Asian pears—or get a reminder. “This is our 10th year doing You-Pick. In the earlier years people would be surprised when they tried a good Asian pear,” said Torrey.  “And now it seems as though people have forgotten from last season, but know that they are really good.”

Fall is Asian pear season, and if you haven’t tried one yet, it’s the perfect time for an introduction. These pears are crunchy yet juicy, with an array of subtle flavors. The kids call them “crunch apples.” Though it might taste like a cross between a pear and an apple, the Asian pear is actually its own pome fruit. Their growing season runs through a poetic parade of varieties: Chojuro, Shinseki, 20th Century, Niitaka, Shinko, Olympic, and then the Ya Li.  But Torrey asks that people don’t get stuck on one variety, “Don’t just pick one kind, don’t restrict yourself – they are all good,” he says.

Asian pears can be eaten out of hand, just rinse in cold water. Some people like them cold from the fridge. They are also great chopped into salads or paired with cheese. For something different, try Torrey’s Asian Pear Pizza.

- Heidi Lewis

But we have seed savers close to home too. Farmers like Fred Hempel and his team at Baia Nicchia Farm and Nursery in Sunol, CA (Alameda County) are preserving heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and squash. And they don’t just save the seeds, but plant them too, and grow unique and outstanding heirloom vegetables.

Why do we even need seed savers? Biodiversity activist Cary Fowler says it’s the only way to protect the future of food. For millennium, it has been a farmer’s job to save seed for the next year’s crop. The techniques include letting some plants go past harvest and “to seed,” then threshing and sieving the seeds, and cataloging and storing them. This process is at the heart of farming which is to make selections for improving the plants. Save the seeds of the best plants and plant those next year. But very few farmers save seeds anymore. And many plants have been patented so you can’t use their seeds, if they even have any.

Why did we stop saving seeds? In the modern agricultural era, what was neighbor-to-neighbor seed exchange became the business of seed catalogs and then larger seed companies. Mechanized cultivations of vast amber waves of grain and the changing American appetite precipitated a demanded for uniformity of crops. The 1930 Plant Patent Act allowed for the patent of asexual, hybrid, or sports (mutants) after the work of master botanist Luther Burbank. This paved the way for a commercial bonanza for some companies, as farmers had to buy seed each year since hybrid plants are often sterile.

Heirloom seeds are seeds with stories, often favorite varieties brought to the U.S. by immigrants, and special features of taste or color. Baia Nicchia grows many heirloom varieties such as the Bianco di Palermo, a white zucchini that, contrary to green zukes, is best at 10”-14″ long. Their Potimarron Squash, originally from France, is a bright vermillion winter squash that Fred Hempel harvested in summer and found it to have a delightful chestnut flavor. Part historians, part librarians, part chefs, and part scientists, Fred and his team exemplify the current small farm movement. Fred has a PhD in plant biology, his partner Jill Shepard is a gardener and chef, and farmers Caroline Geubels and Dan Swansey are soil scientists. They farm at the Sunol Water Temple AgPark, which is managed by the non-profit SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education). They select their vegetables to grow based on taste, Fred says,  ”We don’t work on a project unless it has top end flavor.”

On the nursery side, Baia Nicchia (which means  “Bay Niche” in Italian) fills the niche for rare tomato and pepper seedling varieties for Bay Area gardeners. They have been recognized by seed organizations such as Seed Savers Exchange for their impeccable growing methodology. The seeds from their exquisite Maglia Rosa tomatoes are now being sold nationally by Seeds of Change, a seed catalog dedicated to organic and sustainably grown heirloom seeds.

Since the tomato season is a little late this year, you still have time to attend Baia Nichia’s  workshop and tomato tasting, “Seed saving, variety selection and backyard breeding,” on September 18th.

- Heidi Lewis

Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have the opportunity to work the land, whether for therapy or to start up their own farms, aided by organizations working on veterans’ behalf that have paired up with organic farms in California and beyond. The Davis, CA-based Farmer-Veteran Coalition (FVC) holds farming retreats, job training, and career fairs and offers support for vets seeking a future in agriculture. Larry Jacob of Jacob’s Farm Organic in Pescadero, CA (who supplies The FruitGuys with delectable herbs for the TakeHome cases) is a founding member of FVC. “Plants are healing to be around and provide an honest day’s pay…” Larry told The Almanac. “So many young men and women return from the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without direction and needing a space to adjust. We need young, creative people growing food while the average farmer age is over 55.”

A resource for vets seeking land is California Farm Link, a group that hooks up aspiring farmers with retiring farmers. Also present at FVC events is The San Francisco vet advocacy organization Swords to Ploughshares, their name refers to the biblical phrase, “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Farms Not Arms has offices in California and Tennessee to help veterans get into farming.

Michael Porter, Director of Career Development for FVC, said, “It’s a reverse pyramid. Vets can see if the idea of farming appeals to them, maybe get an internship – which might lead to more learning. And then, from there perhaps it’s on to a self-standing farm.” The farmers who support veterans realize that it will be a slow process. “We’re building a sub-structure now, and in the coming years it could be very important. I think FVC understands it’s complicated, and principally not political,” added Dr. Bliss.

For more information on upcoming Food and Farming Veteran Career Fairs or to host a table at a veterans event near you contact FVC at info@farmvetco.org or (530)756-1395.

- Heidi Lewis

“Go native.” That was the position taken at a recent Bee Symposium in Sebastopol, CA hosted by BeeKind and The Partners for Sustainable Pollination. The symposium hall was filled to capacity with beekeepers and wanna-bees. Lectures by apiary luminaries Dr. Robbin Thorp, Randy Oliver, Serge Labesque, and Kathy Kellison covered current scientific and anecdotal info on honeybee health and management and the importance of bee habitat.

Dr. Thorp from UC Davis gave an extensive survey of the native bees in our midst. The U.S. is home to some 4,000 species nationwide, but the numbers vary by region. New York is home to about 400 species while California’s diversified climate hosts some 1,600. Of course the non-native European Honeybees are our favorite pollinators – they give us wonderful honey, and they are so, well, organized. Honeybees pollinate 70 percent of our food crops but disease has threatened their numbers so greater attention is now being given to native, non-domesticated bees such as the Bumblebee, Carpenter, Sweat, and Mason Bee, which are also important pollinators. Native bees are primarily solitary; only about 10 percent gather in hives. Some are cuckoos (stealing other insects’ nests) but most nest in old wood or in the ground.

The dark specter of Colony Collapse Disorder still hovers. The exact cause of the mysterious deaths of huge numbers of hives in the last five years has yet to be divined, but many beekeepers, including Randy Oliver of Grass Valley, CA, who has pioneered non-chemical treatment of bee diseases, agree that, along with toxic and viral loads on their immune system, a loss of forage is contributing to bees’ decline. Forage is food: the pollen and nectar bees find in fields, gardens, forests, and wild areas. Bees turn pollen into protein they eat; nectar into honey. The loss of forage is due to a combination of human development that removes natural habitat, landscaping devoid of diverse flowering plants, and the use of broad-based herbicides that kill all weeds.

Gardeners can encourage forage and habitat for honey and native bees this spring:

Plant native plants. Visit your local native plant nursery or check the Pollinator Partnership’s guide for a regional selection of suggested plants.

To encourage wildlife and a variety of pollinators, leave out some old wood or install a Mason Bee nesting box.

Leave open ground. Gardeners know the importance of mulching plants to conserve water and suppress weeds; it also benefits native bees to leave some open ground.

If you are not a gardener, you can still help bees by doing the following:

Save swarms: don’t call an exterminator, call a beekeeper.

Support organic farming and agriculture that doesn’t use herbicides.

Support local beekeepers by buying local honey and hive products.

Observe nature. Appreciate. Repeat.

- Heidi Lewis

The first time I went to a Scion Exchange I didn’t know what to expect—was it a science fiction convention? As I drew nearer I saw people entering the building with little sticks under their arms—was it some sect of Wicca? The Wicker Wiccan maybe? But no, a Scion Exchange is where farmers and home gardeners bring twig cuttings from their best fruit and nut trees to swap so others may grow heirloom varieties. The requirements are simple: bring some, take some, and make notes.

The Exchanges take place in winter, when trees are dormant and the gardeners and farmers are restless with spring planning. I went to an exchange in Sebastopol, CA (Sonoma county). They can be found through your local chapter of the Rare Fruit Growers Association or Farm Extension Service. Inside a Scion Exchange you’ll find long tables with heaps of branch cuttings in labeled plastic bags and marking tape. They are laid out under their genus headings for Pears, Stone Fruit, Cane Berries, and Apples. Bags with intriguing names like “Sweet Victoria,” “Fiesta,” “Sunrise,” and “Api Etoile.” Some names allude to previous growers: “Tydeman’s Late Orange Apple,” “Hudson’s Golden Gem,” and “Jeffers.”

The hall, often a grange or school cafeteria depending on the town, is abuzz with gossip—what pests are around, water issues, the dirt on soil, and, of course, the weather. The Scion Exchange is where you can learn the fine art of grafting fruit trees. Grafting is the art of inserting a cutting from one fruit tree into another to propagate a plant. Orchardists wait patiently for a turn with a Master Grafter, who will demonstrate by grafting the special scion wood onto an appropriate rootstock – which you then plant. With grafting know-how and some luck you could successfully graft one variety, of say a Waltana Apple, onto an existing Gravenstein Apple tree. Grafting various varieties onto one tree is a way for orchardists to maximize their harvest and space. Grafting is cloning, but not GMO – it is an ancient technique dating back to Mesopotamia. Growing trees from seeds is not a realistic option on our human time scale.

When I asked one orchardist what she was looking for at the Scion Exchange she replied “Disease resistance. I don’t want to have to spray.” Growing organically is by far the prevailing sentiment among orchardists. The exchange of these varieties not only builds community among gardeners, but diversity in the fruit varieties available. It is a way for outstanding varieties to get known. This is just the bare tree part of the story. The fruit tasting is in September.

- Heidi Lewis