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Credits: Live Earth Farm thanks –

• Taylor Brady
• Constance Broz
• Elisa Broz
• Tom Broz
• Tana Butler
• Molly Culver
• Ken Eklund
• David Evershed
• Debbie Palmer
• Jessica Ridgeway
• and you!

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The title of the book "Tending the Wild" by M. Kat Anderson caught my attention during a visit to the Bookshop, an almost ritual stop when I have time to go to Santa Cruz. The book describes in great detail the productive and sustainable land management techniques California's native people practiced.  What for many years was dismissed as "primitive" subsistance hunting and gathering practices turned out to be well adapted and managed horticultural techniques, the same used in early and modern agriculture. Pruning to increase fruit production in shrubs and trees, saving and sowing seeds, and many tribes used fire to enhance both yield and quality of important food plants such as grasses, leafy greens, acorns, "Indian potatoes," brambles and berries. 

I'm inspired by the principles shared between native food systems and the emerging local food movement. Most native Californians had a direct relationship with every morsel that filled his or her belly. Since each person was aware of their dependence on nature, they not only knew where their food came from, but also knew what was required to gather, process and store, and how the plant or animal had to be treated or tended to ensure a healthy and continuous supply. Today we have probably reached the other extreme where most of the population now buys their food in the supermarket, much of it processed showing little evidence of its source. The knowledge required to procure food in today's society is no more complicated than knowing the location of a food store and being able to count change. With the emerging organic and local food movement well on its way there is hope that our fast food mentality is starting to crumble and we are again making the conscious link between nutrition of our bodies to the health of the land.

We are at a crossroads where our decisions will determine what kind of landscape our children will inherit and what kind of food they will be able to procure from that landscape.  As CSA members we are pioneering a new vision of our future food landscape. Our concerns are different than of our California ancestors, our necessity is marked by environmental, economic and social realities, but once again food is becoming the catalyst whereby we recognize how much we are marked by similar fates. I probably still prefer potatoes over native lily bulbs or acorn mush, or spinach and chard over minor lettuce and pigweed, carrots and beets over soaproot or rootstocks of cattails. We can find inspiration in the respect and intimate connection native people have for their natural environment, and learn how to tend the land instead of exploiting it.

My dream is that one day monoculture fields which now blanket the countryside will be restored to a tapestry of diverse food sytems with areas of grasslands, covercrops, hedgerows and wooded field margins which transect rowcrops and orchard operations, and where organic farming methods are the norm. These food landscapes will produce enough food to meet the demands of our urban centers. Everyone will be growing food in their gardens and locally produced food will once again be the foundation of a preventive healthcare strategy.  Of coarse, imagining is the easy part. Getting there may require moving mountains. - Tom

How the bread share came to be...

In July 2001 we built a straw and clay domed wood-fired oven here on the farm, and the following season baked a small number of bread shares for our fledgling CSA program. The oven, nicknamed "Toastie," still stands today (2010), and many of you have had a chance to see it in action during our seasonal celebrations. (And we now have a Toastie 2!)

The experience of baking 40 to 50 loaves every week for an entire season, however, convinced me that I couldn't be Farmer and Baker at the same time. But then in 2007, when I met Erin Justus from Companion Bakers [now Companion Bakeshop, once they opened their own bakery in West Santa Cruz, Spring 2011] selling her baked goods at the Santa Cruz farmer's market, the idea of offering our CSA members tasty, rustic loaves of freshly baked bread was rekindled. So for our Winter CSA that year we did a sort of pilot program. Erin baked some wonderful loaves of bread for our winter members and they were a hit, so I am excited about diversifying our shares by offering her bread to our regular season members!

Erin shares very similar values and reasons in her passion for baking as we do for farming, and that is to offer our community food that is tasty, of high quality, and produced locally in a sustainable way. Her breads are truly artisan loaves; each is hand made, from her own sourdough starter. Erin also enjoys inspiring others to bake, by teaching classes, offering workshops and job internships. Currently she is in the process of building her own wood-fired brick oven in what she hopes will develop into a community bakery in Santa Cruz. I am happy to welcome Erin and her wonderful Bakery as a part of Live Earth Farm's CSA and encourage everyone to sign up for one of her bread shares this season.

- Tom

Erin Justus says: "We at Companion Bakers [now Bakeshop] bake with intention and integrity. We seek and use only organic ingredients and source our herbs and seeds from local businesses to support our local community of farmers and our local economy. We strive to use efficient baking methods and simple packaging techniques. We rely on our immediate community to sustain our business; we sell directly at farmers markets here in Santa Cruz, and we offer our bread to Live Earth Farm’s CSA members!

"Our sourdough loaves are rustic, European style, stone baked breads. We use seasonal organic ingredients, hand-mix all of our batches, and hand-shaped our traditional sourdough loaves. We use Giusto’s Organic Flour for all of our products. (To find out more about Giusto’s grains and wheat please visit their website: www.giustos.com.) We are members of SLOW food, CAFF (Community Alliance with Family Farmers) and Friends of the UCSC Farm and Garden.

"In 2006 we created our own 'Santa Cruz' sourdough that we have been cultivating and using in every batch since.  For those of you that may be wondering, this means that we use a sourdough starter instead of commercial yeast in our products. Our bread batches get a 15-24 hour fermentation to allow for the entire process to mature into a "sour" tasting loaf. After hand-shaping our loaves we proof them in baskets, which is a traditional method that gives our bread the round shape. The final stage for this multi-step product is to bake the loaves on hot tiles inside the oven. We use manual steam to create a moist rising environment, and hand rotate the loaves throughout their baking process to ensure a beautiful golden crusted loaf!

"Our dream of a small rustic and traditional style bakery started amongst friends and family and has now grown to a larger group of community members! We love providing people with fresh local products and appreciate the way it brings us all together. We strive to keep it simple! 'Simple bread, baked simply' for our community!"

Pasture Chick Ranch came about in the Spring of 2008 when we made a shift from growing Grass-Fed Natural Beef to Merino Sheep and Cashmere Goats.

A love for Knitting and Spinning brought the Cashmeres and Merinos into my life originally. When Courtney's involvement in the Fresh Cut Produce Industry called him away from the ranch we decided to make some changes that would allow it to continue under the primary care of me and my 5 Border Collies and 11 Guardian Dogs!

In the Spring of 2009 the idea of grazing poultry to improve the quality of the grass for the sheep and goats came to life. Inspired by friends involved in the Slow Food Movement and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, I began looking at heritage chickens and turkeys.

The first chickens to come to our ranch were Delawares. These birds were wonderful layers and produced a flavorful meat bird, but when looking at the sustainable model that the ranch holds to, they did not make a good fit.

The sustainable model for Pasture Chick Ranch looks like this:
<> The Grass
<> The Animal
<> The Consumer's Wallet
<> The Ranch Profits

Each of these is equal in importance. The Grass is the goose laying the golden egg, without it nothing else happens so it must be protected, nourished and cherished. The Animals must live exceptionally, be happy, comfortable and productive. The Consumer must be cared for. Funding for eating well can be a challenge so the animal must produce enough protein to look after the consumers investment. And of course The Ranch must support itself and those who labor there.

Today we raise a blend of heritage chickens for egg production and the Cornish Cross chickens for meat production. We also keep a flock of Oregon Gray Turkeys, a very rare Heritage bird, for meat production in addition to Broad Breasted Bronze and Broad Breasted White turkeys.

Multi-species grazing is what Pasture Chick Ranch is all about. Using portable electric net fencing, movable chicken schooners and a team of talented dogs, its a wonderful life here at Pasture Chick Ranch!

Preserves Option
We are thrilled to announce the addition of a Preserves Option to go with our Winter Share, beginning 2009! This new option will consist of goodies from Live Earth Farm's summer bounties preserved for our winter pleasure by Jordan Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen.

Each week the Preserve Option will receive a couple jars of summer farm bounty, canned and set aside for our enjoyment during the winter. There will betomato preserves (crushed heirlooms, pickled dry-farms with basil, salsa... or catsup!!), fruit preserves (strawberry-blackberry jam, spicy apricot jam, raspberry jam, quince jelly, preserved pears, fruit juices, more), and veggie preserves (kimchi, sauerkraut, cumin green beans [these are fab!], bread-and-butter squash, pickled peppers, more). Think of it as "Summer in a jar", says Jordan. Very exciting - you won't want to miss out on this!

All of Lynn's goats are Nubian, not only a beautiful breed of animal, but also known for the rich butterfat content of their milk. "Their milk is so healthy," Lynn says. "Dairy sensitive babies and lactose intolerant people can drink this milk without problem. The size of the fat molecules in goat's milk is the closest to human mothers' milk of any other milk. People and their children with health problems have been drinking this milk and doing so much better in no time. I am so thankful to hear these people's stories, people getting healed from my (goats') milk. This makes me so happy!"

Here's how it works. Lynn Selness of Summer Meadow's Farm will be offering shares in her milking goats. Lynn and her family milk your goat and deliver the milk raw, or prepare it as fresh, natural kefir, yogurt or cheese. Your goat milk share is then delivered in a cooler to your CSA pick-up location.

Because the goat milk shares are not a part of Live Earth Farm's CSA shares, they are not identified on our checklist at your pick-up site; you need to remember to check the cooler for it. Lynn labels all the milk and cheese with your name so it is very clear.

Lynn says her supply is limited, so orders will be filled first come, first served. Call Lynn at 831.786.8966 to order. – Debbie

All the Morris Grassfed beef cattle are born and raised on the Morris ranch in San Juan Bautista; the Morrises do not purchase calves and then just finish them on grass. The animals are under Joe and Julie's care from birth to the time the meat is delivered to you. As Julie will tell you,

"Our cattle enjoy a completely organic diet of fresh grass, forbs and legumes, clean water, and better views than most of us do! We use neither synthetic hormones nor fed antibiotics: our animals grow only as fast as their genetics and the range will allow. Their range, of course, serves also as watersheds and habitat for us as well as other biological communities. We manage our animals so that they enhance the diversity of life on the range, as well as the quality of the water that falls on the range and flows to the towns and sea. We believe this web of relationships we are stewarding is an integral whole, depending for its health upon all its members: damaging the health of any member of the "whole" community, therefore, damages the rest. Our desire is to produce health with all we do. Only when this is done are we satisfied that Morris Grassfed Beef is all it can be-the best there is for all of us."

Here are a few factoids about eating meat from pastured animals, as gleaned from Michael Pollan's book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma":

A growing body of scientific research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef. Cattle are ruminants, not designed to eat grain (organic or not). It makes them sick. This is why most of the antibiotics sold in America today end up in animal feed.

The research further indicates that pasture substantially changes the nutritional profile of chicken, eggs, beef and milk. [As an aside: this is why we offer TLC Ranch eggs -- Jim's chickens are raised on pasture.]

The large quantities of beta-carotene, vitamin E, and folic acid present in green grass find their way into the flesh of the animals that eat that grass. The fats created in the flesh of grass eaters are the best kind for us to eat. Grass-fed meat, milk, and eggs contain less total fat and less saturated fats than the same foods from grain-fed animals.

Pastured animals also contain conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid that some recent studies indicate may help reduce weight and prevent cancer, and which is absent from feedlot animals.

But perhaps most important, meat, eggs, and milk from pastured animals also contain higher levels of omega 3s, essential fatty acids created in the cells of green plants and algae that play an indispensable role in human health, and especially in the growth and health of neurons – brain cells.

In a nutshell, the species of animal you eat may matter less than what the animal you're eating has itself eaten! - Debbie