29 Apr 2012

Pescadero Grown! Farmers’ Markets debut in May

Pescadero Grown market opens May 3 in Pescadero, May 8 in La Honda

Fly Girl Farm & the Duartes

Since the hugely successful launch of Pescadero Grown! Farmers’ Markets in Pescadero and La Honda last year, South Coast shoppers have come to expect certain special qualities from their meat and produce. Fresh? Picked today. Local? The farms and ranches are within striking distance of Pescadero and La Honda, from Tunitas Creek Road to the San Mateo County line and over to Skyline Drive.

Affordable? Well. That’s where Puente comes in.

To help fill the gap and get more farm-direct produce into the hands of low-income neighbors, last year Puente and its many community partners created Friends of Pescadero Grown! a wooden token-based matching program for recipients of CalFresh and WIC, as well as other low-income participants living in Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar, and San Gregorio.

For the first time this year, low-income shoppers will not only be able to redeem their CalFresh and WIC Program benefits at the Pescadero and La Honda markets, they will also be able to enroll in the CalFresh (food stamps) program while shopping, thanks to support from the San Mateo County Human Services Agency. The CalFresh enrollment program will also be extended to the Coastside Farmers’ Markets in Half Moon Bay and Pacifica.

A separate program, funded through the California Farmer’s Market Consortium, will match CalFresh and WIC purchases up to $10 at each market. These funds can be spent on California-grown produce: fruits, vegetables, or nuts.

“A lot of people who work on the South Coast live on the Midcoast, and it’s crazy for certain benefits to only be available here,” says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel. “We’re happy to partner with Coastside Farmers Markets to create more support for farmers, as well as bring more healthy foods to farm workers and other low income residents.”

It’s not just farm workers who, ironically, have trouble affording produce they themselves may be growing, says Erin Tormey, founder of both Coastside Farmer’s Markets in Half Moon Bay and Pacifica. “A lot of times, even the farm owners are living on a wing and a prayer, especially the start-up farmer. Many of these small farmers would tell you that if they had to go shopping for their own produce, they couldn’t afford it.”

With margins that small, farmers are delighted to be able to sell their freshest produce to their neighbors each week. “We’re trying to be a community farm and serve just the very local community if possible. The idea is to avoid going ‘over the hill’ for resources,” says Kate Haas, who co-owns Echo Valley Farm in Loma Mar with her husband Jeff, and sells at the Pescadero Grown markets in La Honda and Pescadero.

Echo Valley Farm

Echo Valley Farm grows carrots, beets, cauliflower, snap peas, fresh flowers and other delights on their 10-acre meadow, in the company of chickens, sheep, goats and pigs. This summer the farm will offer a CSA (community-supported agriculture) box of homegrown eggs, fruits and vegetables.

 

This year’s farmers markets will feature vendors in Pescadero and in La Honda, with an abundance of leafy vegetables, beans, meat, chicken, cheese, and fish, as well as cupcakes and fudge. As summer blooms, so too will the seasonal fruit selection.As summer blooms, so too will the seasonal fruit selection. “I like to say these vegetables sing. They’re all pretty and luscious – they’d make a believer out of anyone,” exclaims Lobel.

Both farmers’ markets will open much earlier this year – in early May rather than July, like last year – to optimize the season and give growers plenty of time to form a rapport with customers.

Puente is introducing changes in time and location as well. Both markets will run from 3 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays, to make it more convenient for local shoppers to drop by.

Finally, the Pescadero market will move across the street to 251 Stage Road, next to the Pescadero Country Store – where its bright displays and happy shoppers will be hard to miss.

For details about Pescadero Grown!, visit http://pescaderogrown.org/

28 Apr 2012

Why we give to Puente: Brenda Christensen and Tom Barry

Brenda Christensen and Tom Barry

Two years ago, as a gesture for a friend’s 70th birthday party, Brenda Christensen wanted to spend a day of service volunteering with a nonprofit on the coast. Longtime volunteer Logan Payne suggested Puente. What happened next was a surprise.

When Christensen showed up at Puente with an armload of Spanish-English children’s books, she thought she might have to persuade some of the schoolchildren to read them.

“These children were ravenous for these books, even though there was a children’s computer nearby,” Christensen recalls. “Kerry Lobel, Executive Director of Puente, told me these are kids who live in a rural area, but in very high-density housing. The fact that they get to stretch out and read a book on the floor is a big deal for them.”

Christensen was impressed. “That was one of my first ‘aha’ moments. Puente is organized around the joy of learning, whether or not you speak English.”

Christensen and her husband, Tom Barry, returned soon after that first memorable day with bags she sewed to hold supplies for farm workers, and again to help with food distribution to families in Pescadero and La Honda.

Now the Woodside couple donates to Puente on a quarterly basis, as members of Puente Partners for Sustainability.

“I want people to know that’s important to do. If you think an organization’s well-run, you have to give not once a year, but consistently,” says Christensen, who “fell in love” with Puente’s vision, and Lobel’s style of leadership in particular.

“There are a million organizations out there, and a lot of them have one charismatic leader. But a great leader leaves leaders behind, and that’s what Kerry is like. You can see it on people’s faces, when the volunteers and staff feel they own the organization.”

Christensen would know. She grew up in modest rural surroundings not unlike Pescadero, and saw the world after joining the Girl Scouts. Later in life she was president of Girl Scouts of Silicon Valley, helping run an organization much bigger than Puente.

Puente’s commitment to giving boys and girls a leg up on their education and career training has always impressed Christensen. “They seem to thrive under that structure,” she says.

Adds Barry: “One always underestimates the generous benefits that come back to you when you get involved at Puente. Then you realize what you get back.”

To join Puente Partners for Sustainability, a group of monthly and quarterly donors, click here. To learn about volunteer opportunities at Puente, call (650) 879-1691 ext 102 or rmancera@mypuente.org.

28 Apr 2012

New water quality rules affect Pescadero farmers

pescadero farm

Four South Coast farms – Ano Nuevo Flower Growers, Muzzi Ranch, Marchi’s Central Farm and Cascade Ranch – will have to monitor their fertilizer use and report nitrate levels in groundwater to state officials under an agriculture order adopted by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in March.

The new rules mark the first time a California water quality agency has required farmers to prevent nitrate contamination of groundwater and surrounding creeks and rivers, based on the fertilizer they use to grow crops. The Central Coast region, which stretches from the southern tip of San Mateo County down to Santa Barbara, has some of the most nitrate-polluted groundwater in the state. And two rivers, the Salinas and the Santa Maria, are severely toxic to fish and other wildlife because they are used as pesticide drains.

A major report from UC Davis recently found that over 10 percent, or more than 250,000 people, living in California’s richest farming regions are at risk of getting sick from drinking well water contaminated with nitrates. The main culprits are fertilizer and cow manure, sources of nitrogen that break down into nitrates and enter the groundwater. Nitrate poisoning can lead to blue baby syndrome and has been linked to some cancers.

“We have been putting nitrates into groundwater for over 50 years at an increasing rate and if we removed all the sources tomorrow, the nitrate that’s already in groundwater will affect drinking water wells for decades,” report co-author Thomas Harter told KQED.

Pescadero got a taste of the statewide nitrate crisis in 2010 when San Mateo County Environmental Health officials discovered that families living in two farm worker housing camps were drinking dangerously high levels of nitrates.

“Every time I raise the nitrates issue people say, ‘Is it still a problem?’ People are ignorant of what’s happened around here with pesticides and nitrates,” says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel.

Now four local farms will be governed by the new rules from the Central Coast Water Board. (The rest of the land in San Mateo County is under the jurisdiction of the Bay Area Regional Water Board, which has no groundwater protection rules.) Of the four farms, three are newly classified as “moderate risk” for nitrates and pesticide problems. Cascade Ranch is classified as “low risk.”

The “moderate risk” farms will start testing their groundwater and sending the results to water officials, explains Angela Schroeter, Program Manager for the Agricultural Regulatory Program within the Central Coast Regional Water Board. “If the farmer is in higher-risk area for nitrate contamination, they are going to have to tell us which practices they are doing [to reduce the problem], like cover crops,” Schroeter explains. “The Water Board will be able to say, ‘Are they sufficient?’ The second question is, do we know whether they’re effective?”

To answer that question, farmers will now be required to report which crops they’re growing and how much fertilizer they’re using to grow them. Certain crops typically add more nitrogen to groundwater, especially if they’re being over-fertilized.

Joe Muzzi says his farm, Muzzi Ranch, has been testing fields for years to make sure they’re getting just enough fertilizer, phosphorous and other ingredients.

“We’re not fertilizing as much as they do in the Salinas valley, or spraying as much as they do,” he says. “We have a good crop rotation program and that’s a solution.”

Muzzi Ranch grows Brussels sprouts, leaks and fava beans. Muzzi does not typically report his crops and fertilizer usage to the state, but may have to do so now. Muzzi also provides labor housing to his employees, and the county tests their drinking water once a year for nitrate and other pollutants. Now he may have to do some additional testing himself.

Getting your water tested

Living in a rural area like the South Coast means that any household on a private well may be consuming nitrate-contaminated water without knowing it. Nitrates are colorless and odorless, and cannot be removed by boiling the water. State water officials encourage all domestic well owners to test their water each year; details are here. A nitrate test can cost as little as $15 per sample.

To learn more about the Central Coast 2012 Agricultural Order, visit http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/.