Stupice, Black Krim, Orange Taxi, Banana Legs, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine,Peron. This is just a short list of the tomato varieties that are growing. It’s interesting to walk though the tomato house and see how the different varieties grow. The colors, shapes, and sizes are fascinating. Each variety holds it’s own characteristics. A few days ago I was walking through the tomato house to see what was ready for harvest. We pick our tomatoes at the red-ripe stage as opposed to the green stage that most commercial tomatoes are picked at. Picking at red-ripe allows up to offer our CSA members the freshest possible tomatoes. We can do this because once picked, the tomato will only travel 6 miles to get into the hands of the CSA members, rather than the average 1500 miles commercial tomatoes usually travel. Because we grow so many varieties it takes extra time to harvest because each variety looks different when it is ripening.
I was showing another farm intern the difference between a red-ripe Black Krim and a red-ripe Cherokee Purple when a thought popped into my head. “This must be one of the reasons some farmers grow monocrops.” A monocrop is a field or farm that is growing a single crop. Picture driving through Nebraska…corn as far as the eye can see. Sometimes farmers will go one step further and grow a single variety. I can see the appeal of that. It takes time to recognize the differences between varieties. It can be particularly tedious to mentally adjust what you are looking for every 5 or 10 plants.
This appeal also shows up when harvesting carrots. Carrots can be particularly tricky because the desired part of the plant is hidden. Carrots come in several shapes and sizes and colors.
If you are harvesting a row of carrots and and pull out a Scarlet Horn variety expecting a Nantes variety you will likely assume that they aren’t ready yet. Then, if you assume you are waiting for a Nantes variety to mature you will end up with bolting, cracked carrots.
I can see the appeal of a monocrop in the sense that I would simply need to focus on a single crop and variety. I could know that crop inside and out, vegetative and fruiting. But I don’t see any place in the small farm, CSA system for a monocrop production. Do you?
Interesting post. From a purely logistical perspective, less diversity increases efficiencies, simplifying the farmers job (in some ways).
Our industrial food system has become expert in monocultures crops, and not just corn and soybeans. Take the tomato for example. In addition to only growing one variety, they have breed and/or engineered that variety to take on the same shape and size creating a uniform fruit. Why? Because that allows the fruit to be efficiently harvested with mechanical equipment and keeps the customer from wondering if one shaped tomato is better/worse than the other.
From a mechanization and single-bottom-line profit perspective, this makes perfect sense…until you consider that it no longer resembles nature, which is beautiful despite the chaos created through its incredible diversity.
There must be a place in the middle that allows your life as a small farmer to be made easier and more profitable, without sacrificing too much of the goodness you offer nature.
Happy to talk offline about some #ProFood ideas I am working on that I hope will do just that.
Cheers,
Rob Smart
a.k.a., Jambutter on Twitter
http://everytable.wordpress.com
Hi Rob,
Thanks for your thoughts. The tomato is a great example of what happens as varietal monocrop.
A few weeks ago we held a cucumber tasting during the CSA pick up. We grow 9 different varieties and while there were clear favorites there were people who did not like the taste of the more popular cuke. Likewise, there were a few varieties that the majority of people didn’t like, yet it was the favorite of a few. The fact that we have several varieties allow people to take home a cucumber that they prefer the taste of. For me, it again comes back to empowering and educating the eater/buyer that cucumbers grown on a smaller scale (which often means sold locally) will have a very different taste from the bland, bitter cukes sold in most supermarkets.
Would love to hear some of the thoughts you are thinking though in regards to this stuff. Thanks again for the thoughts.
-stephen
Your CSA tasting idea is fantastic, and the results even better. Getting people reacquainted with their taste buds (or at least reacquainted with things that naturally taste great) is almost as important as getting them to cook more in my book.
Shoot me an email so we can discuss other things. My email address is: robert.b.smart (at) gmail (dot) com.
Cheers,
Rob
Monocrops are out of place, not only in small farms but in all farms, no matter how big. We know it depletes the soil, thus making it necessary to use herbicides/chemicals to produce foods that become less and less nutritious with each new crop.
Terrific piece. I love the carrot taxonomy graphic!
I’m not a CSA farmer — I don’t even play one on tv! — but I’ve spoken to a few newbie farmers who talk about the difficulty of filling boxes in the first years of production. Since customers want variety in their CSA boxes, is the 40-item box in one’s first year realistic? (Maybe it is, I’d honestly like to know the answer). But with weather, blights, rabbits, deer (esp re carrots!) and other foes, I wonder if there’s room for a few concentrated, guaranteed crops in CSA production to make sure that the young farmer gets first base covered, and then fill in with produce/milk/meat from other farms? Or maybe offer a few items from a local warehouse?
What’s the best strategy for a newbie CSA farmer?
Senor Dragon,
Thanks for stopping by. The quantity of a CSA share is of huge importance. Too much produce and the members end up composting the veggies because they cant eat it all in a week. Too little produce and they feel like they aren’t getting their money’s worth. When I talk to other CSA farmers it seems that aim for filling a weekly share with 10-13 different types of veggies. There’s often variety within the different vegetables offered, so the might have 4 zucchini within a weekly share and might be growing 3 different varieties of zucchini.
As far as a newbie CSA farmer I would say, start small- small shares and a small amount of shares. Pick a weekly price point like $15 and aim to give that much produce each week based on the market value. If you are starting with a small number of members ask them what they would like in there shares and work on a plan together. There might be no interest in kohlrabi, so why grow it? I’m a newbie myself, so I really don’t speak with any authority, but these are things that I’m seeing that can really make a difference. Blur the lines between farmer and CSA member and keep the lines of communication open.
I like your suggested co-op idea and I think in instances where that is used it has good results. A few farms in my area offer “extra shares” of things like honey, flowers, fruit, milk, or beef grown at other farms. This gives the fruit or honey grower an outlet to sell their goods in a market that is already purchasing artisan foods.
I don’t know if this helps any. I feel like we are all just trying to make the small changes that we can. Rather than trying to fix a whole, broken food system we find a dozen people to feed. I think, at this point, I’m OK with that.
Any thoughts?
The enterprising #profood wholesaler, working in concordance with local CSAs, could provide pack space for farmers and sell product (local cheese? local milk?) to them for their boxes, too. Hrmmm…I wonder if Rob is listening in… 😉
Also, the company that sponsors my blog Fair food Fight [www.fairfoodfight] is Equal Exchange Co-op. They’ve talked, in the past, about providing coffee at low-cost prices to CSA farmers for their packs. They already do this sort of thing through their Interfaith Program, providing low-margin priced Fair Trade coffee to churches for fundraising. Doing the same for CSA farmers would be a cool way for E.E. to demonstrate their commitment to small farmers across the planet.
I wonder if other vendors could be compelled to do something similar, too. But a central drop-point, like a warehouse, would be best for this model to work, I think, in order to keep volume high and overhead low.
I’m here El Dragon! And I like where your thinking is headed re: enterprising #ProFood wholesalers.
Perhaps there are area food co-operatives that might want to get in on this. I know that 17 New England co-ops have formed a separate organization to work on coordinating larger purchases from regional suppliers. That would seem like the type of organization that CSA farms might work with, given your example.
I hadn’t heard about the Equal Exchange program you mentioned, but will be sure to pass that on to my CSA farmer! Maybe you can blog and/or tweet about that program, so more people can take advantage of it.
Finally, I’m formally working with a great Vermont company, Sugarsnap, located in Burlington’s Intervale, and this type of stuff fits into some of the things we are considering. I’ll keep you posted!
Cheers,
Rob Smart
a.k.a., Jambutter on Twitter
http://everytable.wordpress.com
Just to be clear, the EE program I was talking about was for churches. To my knowledge they haven’t actually offered to it to small farmers. But they should! My $.02.
I loved this post and have been fascinated by the further comments. Although I haven’t been part of a CSA or operated one we did produce veg. to supply five families and at times a fishing lodge this year. We’ll need to expand next year to meet demand.
This may be walking a bit far afield but when I consider El Dragons co-op model why can’t it develope in both directions; one moving toward the support of CSA farmers and a second moving to provide produce to conventional markets in the area of the farms? Although I live in one of the most productive states (Calif.) a large amount of our produce in conventional markets is imported from Mexico. If a co-op could also help small farmers reach that market I think could move more of them away from the mono culture model.
Great conversation
Brett Henderson
emptysandwich on Twitter
Brett, El Dragon, and Rob-
Thanks for your thoughts here. It’s all given me much to think about. Here’s my initial thought though: As long as people are buying food as a commodity, growers and sellers will need to co-op into larger groups to have a supply that can compete with larger traditional markets. However, if we can help educate that food is more than something you must consumer 3x a day, I think people will be more likely to purchase real, whole food at a fair price and not a price that has been artificially deflated.
I’m not sure if that makes much sense or not. I’m still working through it. I’d love your thoughts, though.
Oh, and Brett, growing food for 5 families is incredible. That is the direction I think I’m headed in, too. Small, specific micro-farming has a valuable part to play in #ProFood.
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