Here Comes Winter
by Wes - November 10th, 2011
We’ve been quietly feeling the onset of winter here in the Bay Area. There was a brief moment last month when we got our first rain shower that had everyone in the local farming scene thinking that rain was here to stay, but it seems our Indian Summer had a staying power that has given us more or less clear skies well into November. It’s not an unheard of occurrence, but it was a little unexpected and is welcome nonetheless.
I’ve assumed my full responsibilities as the School Lunch Program Associate with Marin Organic by now. The job became mine in earnest starting back in September, and I’ve been working myself in as best I can since then. Thus far, things seem to be going well. I’ve got most of my pickup and delivery sites down, and I’m learning the faces and names of the farmers, chefs, and teachers I work with regularly. I’m not generally a names and faces person, so this is a big one for me!
I really enjoy my job with Marin Organic. Today I had the opportunity to traverse all of Marin County, running from Point Reyes up to the Straus place for milk, and then over to Nicasio for cheese, and finally to Bolinas for some veggies. I delivered all the goods out to Muir Woods, which is a beautiful drive along the California coast. It’s a little hair raising in a delivery truck, but not that bad if taken slow and easy (which I do!).
Later I had the opportunity to take some donated greens to another local non-profit: The Canal Alliance. Located in San Rafael, they are a group that works closely with residents of the Canal District, and they are always happy to accept any food we have. Today I queried what the Spanish word for chard is (we have a lot of chard on our hands this time of year) and the woman had a great reply for me: “to us, it’s all lechuga.” This made me laugh.
My other job as a farmer at Tara Firma is going well. I really love being outdoors, and being called upon to make decisions regarding the animals and the land-use management strategies is very gratifying. Our turkeys are getting big now, and they will all be processed very soon. Crazy thought considering how many of them there are, and how I’ve seen them through their entire life cycles. Processing is nothing extraordinary at Tara Firma, but I guess the size of the turkeys and their seasonal production adds to their novelty.
As the seasons change, our work has shifted more towards the poultry and less toward the garden duties. I was feeding the pigs the other day, and noticed how big the sows are now. We still have a lot of them on the hillsides, busily munching the remaining acorns. They’ll all be in the barn soon (before the rains come in earnest).
Taken together, my two jobs really compliment each other. On the one hand, I am producing food locally for local consumption, and on the other I am participating in the distribution of that food throughout the community. The one really unique thing that I get to do — which I love — is to distribute the food to local charities as well as paying customers. There’s nothing that compares to the feeling of giving food to a local agency that will make sure it finds it’s way into a hungry belly.
