Open Farm Tours is Back!

Speaker 1 00:00:08 Good planets, a hot tempera zone. Tro climbs, thriving seas, winds blowing some breathing trees. And strong. So good planets are hard to find. Speaker 2 00:00:35 Yes, good planets are hard to find. And hello Case good listeners. It's every other Sunday again, and you're listening to sustainability now, a biweekly case, Squid Radio Show, focused on environment, sustainability and social justice in the Monterey Bay region, California and the world. And I am your host, Ronnie Lipshitz. Open Farm Tours is back since 2013. Open Farm tours have allowed families and farmers to visit farms across Santa Cruz County and learn about agriculture. The tours were significantly reduced to just a handful of farms in 2020 and 21 due to the pandemic, but now they are back in full swing with 15 participating farms. Open Farms Tour is happening next weekend, October 8th and ninth 15 South County Farms are participating. All are family owned, organic, and sustainable. So what are they up to and what is going on with agriculture at Santa Cruz County today? Speaker 2 00:01:29 My guests on the broadcast today are Penny Ellis, Paul Towers, and David Bloom. Ellis is the founder and coordinator of Open Farm Tours and organizes tours of Santa Cruz County Farms and Artisanal food. Purveyors Towers is executive director of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, which advocates for state and national policies that create more resilient family farms, communities, and ecosystems. And Bloom is CEO of Whiskey Hill Farms. He's been a guest on the show in the past. That's the place where they make alcohol and grow food from it. And so now we're going to start the, uh, show. Speaker 3 00:02:08 Well, Penny, Paul and Dave, welcome to Sustainability now. Speaker 0 00:02:13 Hi, Ro here. Hey, thanks for having us. Speaker 3 00:02:16 So our interview this week will be a little different from the usual format since there are three guests. And, uh, there'll be four segments. We're gonna let each talk about what they do and where they do it, and what they grow and where they grow it, and the guests and I will intervene with questions, it seems appropriate, or to keep things going. But we'll try to remain somewhat orderly and not have a free for all, although that could be fun. Um, so I'm gonna ask Penny to speak first, followed by Paul and then Dave. All right. So Penny, why don't we start with you. Actually, why don't we start with brief introductions from each of you, and then we can go back and do some more detail. All right. So, you know, couple of sentences about, about who you are and what you do. So Penny, why don't you start and then Paul and then Dave. Speaker 4 00:03:05 Okay. Hi, I'm Penny Ellis and, uh, I'm the founder of Open Farm Tours. And, um, we're having, the Farm tours are back this year, and I've been doing the farm tours for the past. Uh, this is our ninth year of doing it. And guess I'll pass it on to Paul. Speaker 5 00:03:26 Great, thanks Penny. And always, so modest, uh, Paul Towers. I'm the Executive Director of Cal Community Alliance with Family Farmers. Uh, we're fast approaching our 45th year as an organization, uh, really helping, uh, small and family farmers thrive all across California, including in the Monterey Bay area. And excited to partner with Open Farm Tours this year to help get more folks onto farms and see what, what amazing folks are, what amazing work folks are doing on their farms. Speaker 3 00:03:53 Okay. And Dave? Speaker 6 00:03:55 Well, hi there. I'm Farmer in chief here at Whiskey Hill Farms, and I've been, uh, regeneratively farming way more than sustainably farming for 45 years. Uh, and I have, uh, worked, worked, learned and consulted all over the world to different, uh, groups and governments on how to, uh, organically farm in ways that, uh, work well for communities. Speaker 3 00:04:23 Great. All right, Penny. So tell us some more about Open Farm Tours. You know, it's, it's history and, and why you're doing it and you know who you work with. Speaker 4 00:04:36 Yeah, sure. So, like I said, this is our ninth year of it. And I started it, uh, initially to just, you know, I was inspired by the open farm, by the, uh, Open Studios, honestly. Um, Speaker 3 00:04:50 Which is also happening, which is also happening. I Speaker 4 00:04:53 Really love It's happening the same weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, so anyways, I was inspired by that and I thought, and I was, uh, you know, getting increasingly more interested in our food systems and in particular the industrial food system. And, you know, just that it was, uh, the problems that people were having with their health and everything and thought, Well, why don't we do it for sustainable farms? There's so many farms in our area, there's over 500, uh, farms in Santa Cruz County. And uh, you know, we just live in a area that's just really rich with family farms and agriculture. And, uh, so I thought, well, why not organize this and get people out to the farms and have them learning about sustainable agriculture and why it's important to the Earth to have that. Speaker 3 00:05:48 How, how did you get the farm Farms to sign up Ally originally? What was the Well, Speaker 4 00:05:53 Originally approach we only had, I think we, when we started, I think we had something like six or seven farms. And basically I just went around to different farms and called 'em up and said, Hey, you wanna participate in this? And um, actually the first year was pretty much a disaster, <laugh>, cuz it was on November 5th and it rained. It was the one day that it just poured rained like a couple Saturdays or Sundays ago when we had that huge downpour, like no rain for I don't know how many weeks or months. And all of a sudden in one day it all comes. It was that kind of a day mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we had to cancel a lot of the music we had planned and that we had to petting Zoo planned, we had to cancel that. But anyways, we had about 80 people come out mm-hmm. Speaker 4 00:06:41 <affirmative> to the tour, and, and they enjoyed it. And then we just kind of kept it up, you know, and build it from there. But then in 2000, uh, 19, we had over a thousand people visiting the farms, and we had 14 farms that year. That was the second largest this year we have 15 mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but, uh, anyways, And so, you know, it just became very popular and we expanded it to two days instead of one, uh, because people wanted to come out and, and go to all the farms. They couldn't do it in one day. So, you know, it's really been kind of a community, uh, built thing that has happened. It's, it's, it's strictly, you know, from the people interest of the people who, uh, wanna visit the farms and everything too. So anyway, it's just making that connection between the, the farmer, you know, that our tagline is kind of, know your farmer, know your food. And so we really feel that that relationship, having people, having a relationship with their farmers and with their food systems in general, uh, is really important. Speaker 3 00:07:46 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, are there any criteria that you have in terms of approaching farms? Uh, to part, Speaker 4 00:07:56 We just put it out there and, you know, I think the criteria is that farms do have to be engaged in sustainable agriculture in some ways. Like, I'm not really, you know, looking to have mono farms on the tours. That's kind of a, a whole different system. Um, so I really, I really feel that, you know, advocating for, uh, sustainability in our practices and how we, um, uh, you know, fit into the earth <laugh>, so to speak, is really important. Speaker 3 00:08:32 And why, why don't you tell something about the participating farms? So, so our listeners, since they're 15, and it will be difficult Yeah. To, uh, to do all of them even in two days, You know, our listeners might, might decide on one or another. Speaker 4 00:08:48 Yeah. So they can go to open farm tours.com and there's, uh, all the list farms are listed there. They all have the biographies on what they're gonna be doing. There is a page of a schedule. Not all the farms are open on both days mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, you know, look at the schedule, figure out what days are open. There's also an activity guide for the farms, like if they have animals, if they don't have animals, um, you know, different, uh, events that are going on. If there's like a workshop, like out at Dosa Gela, uh, uh, they produce olive oil. He's, Roger Wolf is gonna be doing a, um, an olive curing demonstration out there, which is really great. I've started making my own olives, curing my own olives, uh, a couple years ago after he came on the tour. And it's really not hard. It's really easy and it's, and it's very good the results. Speaker 4 00:09:47 So people could learn things like that. There's a u pick, uh, with the Dry Farm tomatoes out at Live Earth Farm. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, uh, Pajaro Pastures, Ryan Abelson. He's actually having a couple farm to table dinners this year, uh, Saturday and Sunday. Um, you know, with local chefs are gonna be cooking food at his farm, uh, using his ingredients with other farm's ingredients. So that's new for this year, so that's kind of exciting. Uh, but yeah, people can just go to the website and I don't know if you have, uh, a place where I can leave links for that, that people could, uh, Speaker 3 00:10:30 I, I can put them, you know, I can put them on the blurb for the show. Uh, Speaker 4 00:10:34 Yeah, that would be great. Speaker 3 00:10:36 As if you send them to me. Yeah, I Speaker 4 00:10:39 Will, I'll send you, Speaker 3 00:10:40 You know, I, I just, just a note about the olive oil. Uh, a number of years ago, we were somewhere in Europe and had pumpkin oil mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I've, I've also thought that given all of the pumpkins that are grown around here, and the, the piles that are left after Halloween, that might be an interesting niche product for someone. Does, does, do any of these farms grow pumpkins as Speaker 4 00:11:03 Far as, Yeah. They do. Yeah. Live Earth Farm grows, pumpkins, uh, Esperanza, uh, farm grows, pumpkins, um, uh, a lot of them grow pump, well, Barita Farm, which is a new farm. So we have four new farms this year. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, there's Marita Farm, there's Pajaro Pasts, uh, Esperanza Farm and Tetra Farm, which is out in Aromas. And they're kind of an art, art farm. Speaker 3 00:11:34 What does that mean? Speaker 4 00:11:36 Uh, they integrate art with farming a lot. They do a lot of programs for kids, Uhhuh, <affirmative>, um, you know, things around like sea growing seeds and uh, uh, oh, just different things that they do, projects that they do out there. They're group of young farmers. And, uh, it's a really interesting farm. Speaker 3 00:12:00 So, one other thing we should note is that, um, you have to sign up beforehand, right? I don't know if you mentioned that. And there, there is an admission fee right? For each of the farms? Or is that Speaker 4 00:12:13 Just There Speaker 3 00:12:13 Is, yeah. And that runs, Yeah, Speaker 4 00:12:16 That's right. Speaker 3 00:12:16 Runs about how much, Speaker 4 00:12:18 Uh, most of the farms are charging $10 mm-hmm. <affirmative> for an admission. A couple of them are $5, and I think stores, wineries doing a $30 tour with a tasting and everything, but they're farm. But I think most of them are $10. But yeah, we, so, you know, like I said, the, the tours were free for seven years. Um, and then in 2019, we had just a ton of people attend. Um, and it kind of got a little chaotic, but we were glad to have a lot of people. But anyways, uh, then when the pandemic came, um, we had, in 2020, we had four farms. And, you know, I felt it was important to really keep it going, to not just not do it, um, but very socially distanced. And so we thought well have people preregister so we can, you know, monitor how many people are in the group. And that, and, uh, and actually it worked out really well. It was really nice. It was nice for the farms to know that who was gonna come at a certain time. It was really great for things like parking when it was open. You know, we'd get all these, there were a lot of issues with traffic getting in Speaker 3 00:13:33 And Oh, I can imagine. Speaker 4 00:13:34 Yeah. Yeah. And it really got kind of chaotic. So, uh, with the pre-registration, we just thought, you know, Wow, this is actually working out better. And also, people, I think, had better tours because, you know, they weren't just showing up at a farm and maybe having to wait for a tour and that, so it was just better way to organize it all around. So we decided to just kind of keep that format. And we're still working on it. Like, we don't really have a group or family package yet, but I think for next year we're gonna work on that. But, um, Speaker 3 00:14:10 It, Speaker 4 00:14:10 Uh, yeah. Speaker 3 00:14:11 Is that admission fee per group, or per individual? Speaker 4 00:14:15 So it's all per individual right Speaker 3 00:14:17 Now. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, um, Speaker 4 00:14:19 Kids are free. Speaker 3 00:14:21 How are, how are signup registrations going? Speaker 4 00:14:24 They're going really well, going really well. I've been, they've really, they're really starting to roll in right now, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Santa Cruz, everyone does everything here at the last, Speaker 3 00:14:35 Right? Yeah, sure, Speaker 4 00:14:36 Sure. Like, I always freak out every year, Oh, nobody's gonna come. And then like, two weeks before, it's just, everybody signs up. So that's kind of where we're at right now. You know, I'm getting like 20 signups a day, uh, of people. So, anyways, it's going very well. Speaker 3 00:14:54 Well, good. I'm glad to hear that. Speaker 4 00:14:56 Yeah. Speaker 3 00:14:57 All right. Let's proceed to our, my next guest, Paul Towers. Paul, tell us a little bit more about, you know, what, what you do and what Calf does and, and the like. Speaker 5 00:15:08 Sure. Happy to Ronnie, and thanks. Yeah. Thanks again for having me. Um, so as a, you know, I mentioned at the outset of the program, uh, Calf Community Alliance with Family Farmers, uh, is approaching our 45th year around. Um, we've had a, uh, at times very deep relationship, I think with the Monterey Bay area in Santa Cruz County, uh, and sometimes a lighter one. Um, really our, our focus for our 45 years has been representing the needs of particularly smaller, more diversified farms in, in California. Um, so if you look at, you know, California, I think many of us know that, you know, we have a huge number of farms in the state. Um, but if you look at the, you know, the real numbers, a vast majority of them, some 75 or 76,000 farms, um, operate on fewer than 180 acres. Most on fewer than 50 and even 20 acres in the state. Speaker 5 00:16:01 Um, you know, this is the majority of farmers farming in the state. Uh, and in growing, you know, fruits, vegetables, nuts as the large, some of the largest crops as well as animal animals. Um, and so this is the, the community of farmers that, uh, at CF is meant to serve. We have a variety of, uh, programs that provide on the ground support for farmers, um, through, uh, ecological farming or farmer services. Things like, uh, food safety requirements or, uh, uh, terms of new technologies. Uh, wild Wildfire Resilience is a new program we launched in the past year, so kind of the urgent needs for farmers on the ground, um, as well as market opportunities. Um, and so helping farmers navigate, um, actually getting the product from the ground, uh, into where you might see it as a consumer, right? Your store shelf, or, um, you know, any place that you might, the CSA or the farmer's market, uh, some of those places that you might see it as a, as a consumer eater of that food. Speaker 5 00:16:58 Um, and then, you know, one of the things we also do, I I say this as a person who lives in Sacramento, um, is that we help make sure the voices of farmers are heard in Sacramento. And, uh, we want to make sure that the policies, the rules, the regulations, um, that affect our community of, of farmers in our local food systems, uh, reflect their needs. And so we spend quite a significant amount of time, um, advocating for the right rules in place, uh, to serve the needs of farmers. Um, so we provide all those services. We have staff, uh, actually a bunch of new staff, uh, in the Santa Cruz area that we're really excited are gonna kind of reinvest in the region. Um, and, uh, yeah, just excited to partner with, uh, Penny and Open Farm Tours this year to solidify that commitment and really uplift the needs of, uh, and expose people to this community of farmers. Speaker 3 00:17:47 Do these kinds of tours exist anywhere else in the state? These sort of open farm, uh, programs? Speaker 5 00:17:54 They do. And they're, you know, it's interesting, Um, Penny and I have been talking about this recently. It may be the, the nature of the pandemic, um, made people really excited to, to get outside again and connect with farms. Um, we're experiencing that a lot where more and more people are contacting us just, you know, everyday folks saying, How do I go visit a farm? Um, and, and I think what we've seen is just a really strong demand. We saw it during the pandemic for people to connect with their food, right? CSAs or community supported Agriculture, uh, saw record numbers of folks enrolling in those programs because they really wanted to know their farmers and know where their food was coming from and feel connected to it. Um, so amidst sort of the chaos, right, of, of the pandemic and I guess other crises we're experiencing, um, it gave people some sense of stability and, uh, and community, right? Speaker 5 00:18:44 Ability to invest in community. Uh, so I think that's, we've seen more and more of that. Um, there are some tours, um, calf actually supports in the San Louis Abispo area. Um, and, but, uh, emergent lots of interest. Actually. The Fresno region is wanting to learn from what's happening, the Santa Cruz region. Um, there have been folks that have been doing some similar projects up in Sonoma, um, of revitalized or new energy in, uh, Placer, the Sierra Foothills region. Um, so I, I think we're seeing, uh, kind of a new wave of energy around, um, farm centered, you know, aures and people wanting to, to really know their farmers and go visit farms and see how that food is produced. Uh, and I think that's really exciting for, at least, at least really exciting for us at calf. But I think should be exciting for all of us that people better understood, understand their food and where it comes from. Speaker 3 00:19:33 You know, I know that there's, there's been a lot of interest in farming, especially amongst, uh, young adults and college students over the last decade or so. Um, and the thing is, of course, is they're, they have very romantic visions about, it's kind of like back in the sixties and seventies going back to the land, and then they discover it's not all it's cracked up to be, but let's just say that I came to you as someone who wanted to do this. What could you do, you know, to help me get started or, you know, someone else? Cuz at at 70, I'm not about to start doing this Speaker 5 00:20:13 <laugh> Yeah, you're welcome to, but I understand that that is, Speaker 3 00:20:17 I'll, I'll let Dave I'll let Dave take care of that. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 5 00:20:20 Well, Dave, let Dave talk about the, the nature of the work and how challenging it is. I think the simple reality is farming is not easy work. I would never tell anyone that it is easy work. Um, and so I think that's, that's where I start from. But you're right, A lot of people want to connect or reconnect to the land. You know, as we have more and more folks living in cities, California is an inc increasingly and very urbanized state. I mean, you look at the population of LA County is bigger than most states in the entire country. Um, so I think it's important to think about that's where people are, are, are living and, and, and living their day to day lives and not understanding or not having necessarily a deep connection to land. And so I think that's, you know, we find a lot of young people coming out of urban centers, coming out of colleges that want to find that place to reconnect. Speaker 5 00:21:08 And, um, there are a lot of actually great programs in California that, uh, can help people, um, step into, you know, careers in agriculture, whether it's, uh, actually at uc, Santa Cruz through the formerly cast fist and and center for, called Center for Agriculture. Now, uh, it's the Center for Land Based Learning up in the Sacramento region, Alba and Salinas for more for farm worker to farmer kind of transition program. Uh, there are a lot of new programs down in the Inland Empire, um, where To Del Via and others. So I think there's a lot of, um, there are a lot of really great entry level programs and even navigator for programs for folks that wanna kind of dip their toe into farming or agriculture or land-based work. Uh, and that's really exciting. Uh, and for, for example, we have, uh, two recent uc, Berkeley, uh, students working with us that have come through something called the Grizzly Core program. Speaker 5 00:22:01 And, uh, this is a program created actually out of the uc, Berkeley Law School of all places, um, but realized there needed to be an AmeriCorps for land based work in this country. And so, uh, three years ago, uh, Ken Alex, who was, uh, the governor's head of planning, uh, launched this program and, uh, is takes young people right outta college, uh, and puts them right into nonprofits, resource conservation districts, government positions, um, but puts them directly into relationship with the land where they're helping, you know, uh, apply compost, helping dig, you know, trenches, helping li literally connect to and help build the kind of next generation and labor force that is connected. And not all those folks will stay in this work, but at least there are pathways, um, to it as we recognize the need to have more folks in those types of positions, uh, as we address the future with, with the climate crisis, with climate change. Um, so I think that's a really, there are lots of really exciting opportunities. Uh, cal steps in, at the point of folks have made some commitment and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they need to be committed to the land. Uh, and then that's where we offer our, our services. And, um, again, whether it's, you know, figuring out what production looks like or navigating regulatory requirements or wanting to change rules and policies, that tends to be where we, you know, exchange hands or arms with farmers to help them through what they need. Speaker 3 00:23:26 I mean, I would imagine the major, the major hoop that a, a student, you know, or aspiring farmer needs to, to jump through is to get land, which, you know, to buy it is, is extortion and to rent it is not cheap. Um, and that's really where I guess the commitment comes. I wanted to ask you, before we go on to, uh, to Dave, I I wanted to ask you about the viability of small farms, because I know that across the United States, there are an enormous number of small farms with revenues of $10,000 or less, right? And, and I mean, people, you know, cancer can't survive on that. And, and lots of farmers have second jobs more or less in the city to support their, their farming. And I mean, what's the situation like in California with respect to that, you know, to, to economic viability as a, as a challenge? Speaker 5 00:24:22 Yeah, I think there, you're right, there are lots of ways to measure viability and, you know, we tend to talk about farming as actually a public benefit, and so we should measure it in different terms. Well, uh, and I think the real, the reality is yes, most farms in California are grossing less than a hundred thousand dollars a year. That's, that's gross, right? Uh, the net, the net is far less, right? So what are folks actually taking home? Most farmers are operating, and, and Dave can speak to this better than I can, is those margins are very, very small. Um, and so yes, navigating, um, finding the right markets to be able to, to actually sell your product, um, is really challenging in California and became really challenging during the pandemic as they all were upended, um, or many of them were upended. Um, so I think that's, yes, that is a significant challenge. Speaker 5 00:25:14 We have, um, we've seen more, uh, public investment in forms of securing land tenure and helping farmers navigate, uh, drought and, and drought resilience, um, helping, uh, incent and benefit farmers for their role in adaptation or mitigation and climate change. Um, so many of those are tools to help farmers. Uh, but the reality is, yeah, most farmers, especially specialty crop, or these fruit nut vegetable farmers, uh, that are operating at a small scale, are operating at, at, you know, very small margins until they can find really the stable markets. So we spend a inordinate amount of our time trying to just make sure that, that farmers have those markets that they can sell to, whether it's, you know, K12 public schools, whether it's restaurants, um, just to make sure that they have that stability to be able to operate. Um, but that is the, the, the forever question for I think most farmers is how can I make this financially tenable? Speaker 5 00:26:10 And, and that's all, all of us are doing that work. I would just add to what Penny said earlier, and I think she's underselling how important tours like this can be for farms. You know, the reason, part of the reason for this model of charging admission is to put more money directly into the hands of the farmers to benefit them. You know, Penny's not taking most of this money, right? It is going straight into the hands of farmers because we need to put more income in their hands so they can keep farming. And so I think just to name that, that's one of the reasons, one of the most significant reasons for why there is admission is to actually put, you know, more money in the hands of farmers to keep farming. Speaker 3 00:26:47 Okay. Well, let's go on to, uh, to Dave. All right, Dave, Well, you've been on, you've been on sustainability now before. Um, yeah, I have. We did a walking tour of the farm a couple of years ago. So, uh, why don't you tell us about Whiskey Hill Farm and what you do there and, and what kind of amazing things you do there. And, um, you know, we can talk about marketing and distribution as well, if you want. Speaker 6 00:27:15 Sure, sure. Well, uh, my background is as a college and bio system just outta college. But, uh, what I've been doing most of my life are things related to alternative energy, uh, in particular, and farming, uh, throughout. So, you know, the original, uh, alternative energy is something that's all around it. It's the sun, and, uh, you know, uh, basically the sun is what makes a farm what it is. In other words, plants grow because of a combination of sun and carbon dioxide and water, carbon dioxide and water make carbohydrate using sun and photosynthesis. So it's the root, so to speak, of everything that we do. And farming is the place, the interface between where we grow things and where we grow soil. And so, uh, the thing that is different about our farm compared to, uh, say, conventional chemical farms, is that what we're doing is, uh, a better job controlling pests, growing crops than any of the chemical farmers we know. So, uh, the idea that you have to do farming, the traditional, what they call traditional method, uh, using pesticides and chemical fertilizer and all that turns out to be, uh, false. And all of the farmers on this farm tour that people will see, uh, for the most part, in fact, Penny, I think it's for all of us, right? They're all organic farmers that are on the farm tour. Speaker 3 00:28:55 Yes, that's Speaker 6 00:28:56 Right. Yeah. So you're gonna see what it looks like when you don't follow, uh, the s d a's guidelines for using chemicals. Now, the U S D A has a definition of farming. Farming is corn, soybeans, and then everything else is specialty crops. Well, that means everything humans eat, people eat vegetables, fruit, et cetera. Those are, ah, throw it away. They're just specialty crops. Because the real thing that the U S D A does is feed cows, and that's what corn is soybeans are for. So all of us here doing specialty crops are clearly doing something different than what farming is considered by the U S D A. Now, when it comes to growing, uh, crops, it's, there are like several things that really matter to people. One is flavor. That's really important because the stuff you buy in the store has very little of it. Speaker 6 00:29:52 If you buy a turn up in Safeway, it's, you gotta realize it. It was taken out of the ground about three weeks earlier, then it went to a broker's, uh, cooler, and then it went from the cooler to the distributor and then to the supermarket. And all that time that turn up, you know, didn't know, uh, it was a, it was dead. In fact, it wasn't, It kept trying to grow. And so by the time you eat it, it's used up the 17% sugar that powers it. It's used at all to try to push up a few little leaves and you eat it, and it tastes like, um, maybe it was good for softball practice. So, you know, the idea that, uh, fresh food is different is very real. Also, when we talk about what we do with soil, uh, by, by growing soil, which means growing the biology in the soil, it really produces flavor. Speaker 6 00:30:54 So, for instance, in olive tree, uh, and olive has 70 different compounds that given its flavor and odor, and none of them are made by the tree. All of them are made by bacteri and fungus in the soil, which the tree absorbs those products and then is able to construct its wonderful fruit that we all love. So, you know, when we get into this kind of agriculture, it's much more interesting and it's, you know, uh, for me, in addictive pastime to continue to learn more and more about how nature works and how the ecology of a farm goes forward. So on our farm, you'll see a lot of things that you won't see in other places, For instance, um, well, we have ecological loops through the whole thing. So for instance, we make alcohol on our farm. We have a distillery, which rather soon we'll be able to start selling liquor from it once we file our last permits. Speaker 6 00:31:52 But the point is, what we do when we make alcohol is we take in a raw material, usually a waste material like apple pulp or something, or we're right now using molasses, which is the waste from the sugar industry. And we ferment it, distill it, and many things happen in the process. First of all, the yeast that make the alcohol, uh, give off carbon dioxide as well as the alcohol. And we can use that in our greenhouses to triple plant growth because, you know, plants breathe in co2, We can take the liquid leftover after we take the alcohol out and use it for fertilizer in our fields instead of buying fertilizer from someone else. And in fact, we grow cattails on our farm for, uh, using the, uh, the liquid leftovers that would otherwise perhaps be pollution. Pollution meaning too many nutrients. And we captured that and then used the cattails in many ways. Speaker 6 00:32:53 So you'll see that we do things a bit differently than just growing rows of carrots. Now, the other thing that we have to address with farming is how do you afford to stay on the farm? Uh, the figure that people were kind of vaguely talking about is that half of the farmers in the United States have to have a second job to support their, their habit of farming, you know, Uh, and so that, that's just wrong. That's, you know, that's not a system that really works. So, uh, not only do I have a full-time job running my farm, but so do my farm workers, because here in the valley where strawberries are king, strawberries are only about six or seven months a year. So the, the strawberry workers have to go ahead and make enough money during the season to carry them for the other six months until strawberry season starts again. Speaker 6 00:33:49 This really makes for poverty amongst farm workers. So, uh, our workers, you know, get year round, um, year round pay, because we grow year round crops. We have a diversity of crops, not a monoculture like strawberries. Now, people come to our farm all the time and are amaz, uh, because they learn things that they've never heard of before or ever seen because, well, they live in town. But when you see what's really going on in farming, it's so fascinating, and we have a little bit of a wrinkle on that. We actually grow a tropical rainforest in one of our greenhouses, which, uh, has over 350 fruiting trees and bushes, which, uh, show people what it's like in another part of the world to farm when you're working with a rainforest, basically. So we do a lot of different things. Um, you know, some of the stuff we grow is, is unusual. Speaker 6 00:34:48 Uh, we grow turmeric, for instance, which is, uh, you know, very popular health food nowadays. And, uh, in fact, we, uh, we are the biggest grower of turmeric in North America, which is like saying we're a big fish in a very small pond, you know? And so, uh, uh, that, you know, because that's about $8 a pound wholesale it sure beach growing carrots, which are about 75 cents a pound wholesale. So, uh, farmers markets, you'll see people, uh, I've had this experience in a farmer's market where someone's walking down the aisle with a $75 bouquet under their arm and looking at my carrots and jerking me around for the price of my carrots. Well, why is that? Well, they didn't need the bouquet. It was, you know, a luxury, something nice. But food people have literally a visceral reaction to the price of food, because we tend to be addicted to food. Speaker 6 00:35:46 And so, you know, price is a big issue with consumers and, uh, and most, most farmers, because people are always looking for the best deal on food. Luckily in Santa Cruz County, we have people who care about quality and are willing to pay, uh, more to local farms that have top quality food. And, you know, that, uh, is something Santa Cruz County is known for as our quality of produce. So that's very important. Now, we do a lot of things on the farm that don't have to do with growing food too. Uh, the, we, we receive grants from the U S D A to do education, uh, about farming and, uh, working with Ronnie above, uh, we, uh, have secured grants to train Hispanic farm workers in regenerative agriculture. Now, what's regenerative mean? It's really different than sustainable, Sustainable. Well, uh, I'll tell you that I, uh, a little story. Speaker 6 00:36:51 I was teaching permaculture up in Montana on the Black Foot Indian Reservation, and, um, the medicine elder who had invited us to teach there asked the class, Hey, I, I've heard of this sustainability then can someone explain to me what it is? And one perky college student stands up and says, Yes, it's so that in, you know, in seven generations, people will have the same amount of resources as they have today. And Wilber Wilber Fish was his name. He thought about that for a second. He said, Well, that sounds pretty good, but when are you white people gonna fix all the stuff? And so, so what sustainability means is let's not make things any worse, but regenerative agriculture means we repair and amplify the characters characteristics of nature. So it's returned and beyond its original, uh, productive capacity. So what does that mean? On my farm, I started off, uh, with only 2%, uh, organic manner. Speaker 6 00:37:55 Now that's generally considered almost dead soil. And over the years, by our diverting community resources like wood chips, et cetera, to make compost, we now have over 15% organic matter. That's as fertile as a temperate rainforest. It's as fertile as you can get. So by regenerating our soil from its damaged state from the previous farmers, we now get eye popping yields. Like we get Napa cabbages as big as basketballs, and we get arugula that the plant is, uh, foot and half across without fertilizer. This is all because the soil biology has become so wonderful, it feeds the plants amazingly. So it, what it shows at our farm is that we don't have to continue to do things stupidly. It's just not a requirement to be stupid. You know, we can do things that, uh, actually, uh, double and triple our yield per square foot of much higher quality food. Speaker 6 00:39:02 And that is a goal that most farmers actually would aspire to, given the opportunity. And our farmers in this valley that you'll see on the tour are generally in agreement with that. And their farms are amazing. Now, the, you know, the thing is, you know, we have problems. Like I once gave a lecture at uc Davis, uh, to a, a freshman class, uh, in agriculture. And I'm watching a lot of confused faces out there when I'm talking about how things work. And I, I said, uh, how many of you guys are farmers who are out there? You know, and, and like, six hands go up outta 1500. And I go, Well, how many of you're planning to be farmers after you get outta uc, Davis here? And about 30 hands went up. And I said, So all you other guys, all you rest you 1500, you are here to learn how to advise farmers on how to farm without ever farming. Speaker 6 00:40:04 I think we have a problem with agriculture here. So, uh, you know, the, uh, the desire for most people to work physically, to have to be problem solvers and small business people, you have to have a lot of skills to be a successful farm. And apping, which a lot of people do now, is a very good idea to find out if you like farming or not, because you can't possibly know what it's like. So, um, I, I wanna say that I love farming. I love problem solving, and I love building new, beautiful things like terraces on our, a farm to stop erosion and, uh, soaking in water. And, you know, things that most farmers on rented land would never do. Now, it's true that buying land is somewhat expensive, but renting land is not so bad in this county. It's about $2,000 an acre for a year, and in the mid, uh, middle of the state, it's like $400 a year to get an acre to farm on. Speaker 6 00:41:09 So, so the actual rent of the land is not the barrier. What it is, is the knowledge, the equipment and the expertise, and then the marketing to uh, you know, learn all of that to be able to be a farmer. So, you know, I like to say that almost all farmers essentially are practical geniuses because they have to have a wide range of skills to be successful. And for people who like learning, farming is a daily exercise in education. So, uh, I think farming is one of the best jobs you could ever have cuz you are never bored, never one day, it's never the same any two days. And so it's, it's the kind of thing where society really needs to support its farmers because, you know, uh, without food you're not getting very far. And around the country we have destroyed so many soils with bad practices that it's time for young people and, and actually adults come to our farm and wanna apprentice and learn how to farm, which we haven't had time for because, uh, we're working and we're grow, you know, we're farming. Speaker 6 00:42:21 But we hope, uh, in the near future to get funding to hire volunteer coordinator and be able to take on apprentices and even agritourism where people come and stay on a weekend and work a couple of hours with real farm workers doing real work, you know, and joining in on a real day of farming and find out what it's like because we think that's the best education we could possibly provide, because people go home from that and say, I just learned so much about farming in two hours by being on Whiskey Hill Farms, you know, So anyway, I'm just gonna do a little plug for myself because this week in the Good Times, I'm on the cover and there's a nice four page story about our farm in there. So you can learn a lot of details about what we do in this week's good times out there. Um, again, we are Whiskey Hill Farms and you can go to that name.com, whiskey hill farms.com, and we will start publishing a schedule of tours after this one. A penny. We haven't been doing much of that at, uh, in the past because, well, we were farming, we were busy, but, um, there's been such demand that, uh, the public needs needs to have that satisfied. So we will be doing, uh, one or two tours a month, uh, that you'll be able to find out about, uh, on our site. Speaker 3 00:43:47 So we have about, oh, I don't know, five or so minutes left in the show. And I thought, you know, this is a good time for a free for all penny. Maybe you can, you know, repeat where people can go to find out more about the, the tours. And, uh, Paul and, and Dave, you can perhaps offer some final thoughts about farming in general. Uh, so Penny, go for it. Speaker 4 00:44:11 Yeah, so, uh, it's open farm tours.com and the, uh, schedule and all the farms, uh, are listed there and everything. And I just wanted to offer kind of a last thought too that I think, you know, in the bigger picture, like how we're able to, uh, humanity with the life support systems of our planet, uh, is really gonna define our future, I think. And so farming and food is something that we just need. And so, you know, agriculture is still really the single biggest way in which humanity touches the planet. So how we, how we proceed with that, how we do that in the future is really, is really gonna be, make a big difference. Paul. Speaker 5 00:45:05 Yeah, I well said Penny. And I think hard to follow Dave. So articulate. I think the, you know, the reality is, um, yes, agriculture has significant impact, um, the role that agriculture can play in both, um, helping mitigate some of the impacts of climate change, um, but also the, the need for adapting to the, the threat <laugh> that climate change poses. I think for those of us, um, that have experienced the last few years here in California of drought, um, that, you know, we're about to start another water year cycle, right? The calendar for the water year starts tomorrow, I believe. And you know, the reality's California's entering our fourth significant drought year, we're in what's called a mega drought. I think at this point. Um, at the same time, you know, the extremes are real. Um, you know, I can't tell you the number of farmers I've talked to this year that dealt with more significant frost than they've ever or they've dealt with in recent history, or, you know, the number of folks that, um, are dealing with more extreme heat on certain days or nights. Speaker 5 00:46:13 Um, lock lack of, um, overnight chill hours, particularly in, in certain valleys in the state. Um, these are the realities of climate change, which we have to recognize is, um, a looming threat to humanity, uh, and a looming threat to our food system if we don't get our act together. And I think what's really powerful, you know, Dave and Penny have said this as well, but the farms that you're seeing in the open farms to are the models for what we need to see in our food system. They're finding the ways to build soil health. They're finding the ways to, uh, adapt to drought and extreme heat. They're finding the ways to, uh, build habitat for pollinators. They're finding the ways to address biodiversity loss. They're finding the ways to do all of these crises that are, that are both looming and in front of us. Speaker 5 00:47:04 Um, and so we need to find ways to both learn from them and find ways to support them. And, um, you know, as, as eaters, we can buy as much food as possible from them. We should all be doing that by fresh, by local, right? We've been saying that for decades now. Um, but also find ways to, to learn about what's happening in these experiments, these learning laboratories on farms as everyday people. And so I just encourage folks to come see that, connect to your farmers, see them, support them, um, and that that's really, that's the only way forward for our food system is if we can make, if we can learn from and invest in it. Speaker 3 00:47:38 Well, thank you Paul. And, and Dave, a few final words. Speaker 6 00:47:42 Well, you know, the average age of farmers in the United States is about 70 now. And, uh, it's pretty clear that somebody's gonna have to do the work after these guys leave. And most farming, uh, families, the kids leave leaving, go to college and do something else. So, you know, there's an imperative right now for people to decide to be the new farmers that are gonna feed everyone. Uh, you know, I, I had a friend Will Allen, who, uh, he said, Yeah, you know, you get really good at farming about two years before you die. You know, because you're always learning all the time. And, uh, and you know, there's not many people who are willing to do a job that is never the same two days in a row. People want a routine. So for those of you who cha at having a routine, you should look into taking over farms because there will be many available over the next 10 years. Speaker 6 00:48:45 The other thing is just like Paul said, you know, people have to vote with their dollars. They have to go and vote for the farms that are doing a good job for the planet by buying their products. And that's the basic way you keep us alive. Believe me, there are almost no grants, benefits breaks given to farmers because as soon as we go, go broke some big corporation buys our land and then sells you cardboard food. So you really need us, if you wanna get the nutrition you need and not look like the average American who's eating revitalized food, you know, we have what you need. We have the entertainment that can keep you interested and you need to connect with farms. In Europe, agri tourism has been a thing for 30 years and people love it. Parents take their kids to learn about farming there. So we hope to add that to our bag of tricks. Uh, you know, and having agritourism, Penny has been pushing us to do that for a long time. And, uh, you Ronnie gotta give you kudos for working with us to bring some funds to bear, to be able to educate new farmers who are not farm workers, but becoming actual farmers of organic food. And, uh, thank you. It's been a pleasure, uh, working with you. Speaker 3 00:50:14 Thank you. Uh, we're out of time. So I want to thank Penny Ellis, Paul Tower, and Dave Bloom for being on sustainability now. Speaker 5 00:50:24 Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 6 00:50:27 Bye Ronnie. Speaker 3 00:50:28 Bye bye Dave. Uh, and I will be putting up all of the relevant links on the, uh, blurb for the show on the k good website. Speaker 6 00:50:37 Great. Thanks. Speaker 3 00:50:39 Thanks. Okay. Speaker 2 00:50:40 And if you'd like to listen to previous sustainability now shows, you can find them at case squid.org/sustainability now and Spotify, Google Podcasts and Pockets among other podcast sites. So thanks for listening and thanks to all the staff and volunteers who make Case Squid your community radio station and keep it going. And so until next, every other Sunday, sustainability now Speaker 1 00:51:14 Good Planet zone tro, thriving sea winds blowing breathing trees, and strong on and safe sun. Good planets are hard to find.