Seabreeze Organic Farm
21 Jul 2010 5 Comments
in Flowers, Garden Design, Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, Photography, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: buy local, Community Supported Agriculture, nadia's san diego garden blog, Seabreeze Organic Farm, Slow Food San Diego
Another garden road trip this last weekend took me to Seabreeze Organic Farm located in San Diego, CA about a mile East of the 5 Freeway in Del Mar. The property was purchased in 1978 back when the land was mostly eucalyptus trees and rolling hills and has been producing crops for the past 21 years. Owners Stephenie Caughlin and Kendall Cook had a dream to create an organic farm while at the same time fostering community awareness about where our food comes. Seabreeze Organic Farm is a CSA Farm: Community Supported Agriculture which connects local growers directly with the community that is consuming their food. In order for a CSA farm to be productive it must have a commitment from its supporters with a recurring monthly fee since the economic future of the farms depends on the ability to produce and deliver goods in a continuous relationship with them. Some of the challenges of a small farm are its ability to produce a diversity of produce while at the same time getting paid a fair market value for what is grown.
I was surprised to learn about the increasing economic and political challenges that the owners face on a weekly basis to keep their farm prosperous. In order to keep up with the financial strains they have opened up their farm as a sanctuary for tours, fundraisers, private events and nature walks to name a few. Deliveries go out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to 27 cities in San Diego county including gift bag options, mixed edible flower bags and fruit deliveries to businesses. Online shopping is also available on the Seabreeze web site for a diverse selection of items like raw honey, coffee, edible flowers, eggs, oils, herbs, earthworms, etc. Emphasis on the ETC. there is much more available on the web site.
The Tour on Saturday was hosted by members of Slow Food San Diego with about 25 people in attendance and a cost of $35.00 a head. The tour included meeting the owners, an amazing sit down vegetarian lunch and plenty of time to ask all the questions we wanted. Owner Stephenie Caughlin was wonderful about allowing us to meander freely around the farm and was available to educate us every step of the way. The photos below show how lovely this farm truly is and hopefully conveys how vitally important it is for a community to know and support its local growers. Buy Local! Link to: Seabreeze Organic Farm Link to: Slow Food Urban San Diego 
Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com ♥ A place to grow ♥
Ocean View Vista from Seabreeze Farm
Made with hay -building on property
FLOWERS
Chicken Coop
Every area of the property has something growing in it. The farm produces an abundance for its size.
Squash growing on fences
Vertical Garden area of Bok Choy
Lemon Verbena and Lavender Tea served at lunch. Herbs were brewed in the sun just like sun tea. It was yummy!
Lavender Drying and Hanging in bunches
BUY LOCAL- BUY FRESH
04 Jan 2010 15 Comments
in Books, Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: Barbara Kingsolver, buy fresh, buy in season produce, buy local, farmer's market, organic gardening, seasonal fruit
Eating In Season Fruits
BUY LOCAL – BUY FRESH – BUY LOCAL – BUY FRESH
Buying fresh, local and in-season fruits and vegetables has become one of my more recent goals. Last month I read Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Good Life, which described aspects of farming in America and how produce is transported from the fields, then to the grocer, and finally to our dinner tables. This book along with other sources inspired me to make buying local one of my New Year’s Resolutions. Although some book reviews described Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as sounding “preachy”, it seemed to me that it was more of a goldmine of information on a subject that is not often on the evening news or the cover of magazines.
These reprinted excerpts from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are specific quotes on this issue of “why buy local?”. Read the entire book for more and other very in-depth information on organic gardening, sustainable gardens, recipes from the garden, commercial poultry factories, etc., etc. You will most likely learn more than you wanted to know, or as it was in my case, I was quite surprised at how much I knew nothing about.
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Good Life : “Quotes” by Barbara Kingsolver
- “Eating home-cooked meals from whole, in-season ingredients obtained from the most local source available is eating well, in every sense. Good for the habitat, good for the body.”
- “Waiting for foods to come into season means tasting them when they’re good, but waiting is also part of most value equations.”
- “Find your nearest farmer’s markets and local producers on the USDA Web site:
www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets
www.csacenter.org.”
- “Most standard vegetable varieties sold in stores have been bred for uniform appearance, mechanized harvest, convenience of packaging and tolerance for hard travel. None of these can be mistaken, in practice, for actual flavor.”
- “Transporting fragile produce dates back to the early twentieth century when a few entrepreneurs tried shipping lettuce and artichokes, iced down in boxcars, from California eastward over the mountains as a midwinter novelty….in just a few decades the out-of-season vegetable moved from the novelty status to such an ordinary item, most North Americans now don’t know what Out-Of-Season means.”
- “Concentrating on local foods means thinking of fruit invariably as the product of an orchard, and a winter squash as a fruit of an early winter farm. It’s a strategy that will keep grocery money in the neighborhood, where it gets recycled into your own school system and local businesses… it’s a win-win strategy for anyone with taste buds. “
- “Organic gardening nurtures and sustains the soil vs. depleting it with pesticides and herbicides.”
- “Locally grown is a denomination whose meaning is incorruptible. Sparing the transportation fuel, packaging, and unhealthy additives is a compelling part of the story.”
- “The increased availability of local food in any area is a direct function of the demand from local consumers… First: in grocery stores, when the cashier asks if you found everything you were looking for, you could say, “Not really, I was looking for local produce.” The smaller the store, the more open a grocer may be to your request.”
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On December 22nd I went to my local grocer and in the produce section picked up a cellophane “microwave-able” bag of green beans from (how many states away?) Ohio. I asked the produce manager standing nearby if he had any “local” green beans available. He advised me to come back on the 24th for a new shipment of fresh green beans saying: “green beans need to be fresh for the holidays and you don’t want them to be more than a few days old”. I asked him why they had this substandard microwave-able brand from Ohio if they could also provide local and fresh green beans? He replied, “people just want it fast and easy.”
I waited and bought the local fresh beans a few days later and they were worth it.
* Link to another garden blog I just discovered: 1greengeneration that supports local community building and organic gardening.
Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com Creating-Growing-Learning
