Agua Linda Farm Journal
May 1, 2008
Last month, we shifted into high gear here at the farm. We have over 100 CSA members (Community Supported Agriculture) who are receiving a weekly portion of the harvest. That’s up from only 35 last year! Since we are also participating in farmer’s markets and supplying stores and restaurants, we have been putting in some very long days. Wednesday is our busiest day. Last Wednesday we harvested, washed and bagged 130 pounds of spring mix, 100 bunches of radishes, 60 pounds of braising greens, 100 bunches of cilantro, 120 heads of Asian cabbage, 200 heads of lettuce, 60 pounds of spinach, 40 pounds of arugula and 160 garlic tops! Stewart and I started at 7:30. Adam joined us at 11 AM, then, two FFA (Future Farmers of America) students from the high school arrived with my own kids on the school bus to help out. We worked in the packing shed until 9:45 that night! We have been looking for more help.
We have a couple of great guys working for us and are hoping that this summer we will get a few more interns. Last summer we had “The Dream Team” in the form of four young graduate students, all girls, who could sweat in the garden all day, buck hay bales in the afternoon and still look great in a dress in the evening! (Stewart and Jesse were thrilled!) The guys we have now wouldn’t look so good in a dress, but they are equally passionate about working here. In fact, we seem to attract young folks who are really conscious of the food they are eating and have a strong desire to be a part of it’s production. Some are vegetarians or vegans, and all are eating fresh, local and organic. We are learning a lot from them.
Actually, growing my own food was never on my list of childhood dreams. In fact, I somehow got the message as a child that farmers were always broke and overworked and losing their land, etc. The whole farming thing was my husband, Stewart’s, idea. I, however, am the one with farming in my blood. My grandfather was a potato farmer in Maine. (Stewart comes from Hollywood movie moguls and was raised at Agua Linda, which was a “Gentleman’s Ranch.”) When my grandfather was ready to retire, he approached my parents and asked them if they wanted to take over the business. My mother put her foot down. She didn’t want to be a farmer’s wife. I can just imagine the conversation. It was in the early ‘70’s and women were being encouraged to have careers and to be independent. She knew the sacrifices she would have to make to run a farm. Instead my mother finished college, joined the United States customs and got our family transferred to Arizona. Far, far away from potato farms of Maine. Now, here I am, a farmer’s wife.
My childhood dreams were pretty simple. I went to college, choosing education as a major more for the vacation time than for the love of children. All I desired was a family and a place to have horses. Stewart found his career path later than me. He followed the Grateful Dead for a while and dabbled in sound engineering in Tucson and New York for before deciding that he never wanted to leave the farm. His dream, he realized, was to return the fields of his childhood to their former glory. He wanted to be a farmer!
I didn’t think this sounded very promising, but I had my career all set and two horses in the pasture, what did it matter what he did? (Boy, I should have talked a little more about it with my mother!)
So, as it turns out, our motivations for farming had very little to do with food. I wanted open space, Stewart loved his land, and we both wanted our kids to know animals, mud and satisfying work. Food from our own gardens was just a bonus.
Stewart began by growing lettuce years ago in small raised beds behind the house. At that time, the only lettuce I, (like most Americans) was familiar with was ice-berg and romaine. I was definitely converted! When the spring mix bags started showing up in grocery stores, we knew the trend had caught on, but we also knew ours tasted better. It was the beginning of an awareness that now has me uncomfortable in the grocery store. Tomatoes were the first vegetable I stopped buying. What a difference in taste! I started canning what I could and otherwise, if we didn’t have them, I went without. Recently, beef has joined that list. We started raising our own Brangus cattle a few years ago. Our first steer, Chuck (never name your food) was slaughtered here for a big family bar-b-que. I couldn’t eat a bite. Now, not only have I moved passed that, but I love eating the beef that we have raised, free of hormones and antibiotics. In fact I am a little disgusted by the corn-fattened beef available in most grocery stores and I have begun to question all my eating/shopping habits.
When I was teaching at San Cayetano Elementary in Rio Rico, we received a very rigorous training that was both inspiring and challenging. The trainer helped me through the discomfort of implementing a new program by explaining that there are four levels of competency. First, you are “unconsciously incompetent”, meaning you are happily doing it all wrong without being aware of a problem. Then, as you learn more, you are in the uncomfortable position of being “consciously incompetent” – you know you’re not succeeding but don’t really know what to do about it. After learning more, you become “consciously competent”. This is when you know what needs to be done, and it is hard work to do it. Finally, after practice and repetition, you are on autopilot – you are “unconsciously competent.”
I have been likening my food awakening to these stages of competency. I have been “unconsciously incompetent” as I blissfully shopped and ate without reading labels or considering where my food came from, how much extra junk was in it, what kind of energy was wasted to ship it to me or what impact on the environment this food had in it’s production. As I began learning more from books and interns, I started to feel uncomfortable, (consciously incompetent). Now I am in a bit of a pickle (no pun intended). All my life I happily bought whatever was on the shelves. Now I wander through the grocery store overwhelmed and confused. I pass the beef section even though we won’t have more of our own until late summer. I am turning over the jug of “100% juice” to try to read the list of ingredients – what is all that stuff?
As I learn more, I am glad we are in the business we are in. I hope to become more “unconsciously competent” in my choices. I hardly have time to ride my horses, but the bonus of eating fresh foods that we have grown now has real value to me. I continue to be perplexed in the grocery store and I am relieved that the warmer weather means more variety from the garden!
Come to the farm June 20th and 21st for our first onion and garlic festival! 5PM – 9 PM. No admission charge. We will have concessions, music, hayrides, onion eating contest! (no outside food, no pets)
Fabulous Fava Beans! Known as avas in Mexico, Fava beans are an ancient bean from Europe. They are a real treat in Italy in the spring when families flock to farms with pecorino cheese and a bottle of white wine. In fact Elio, (chef and owner of Melio’s Tratoria in Tubac) gets very excited when we tell him the favas are ready. He prefers them raw and snacks on them with the cheese and wine while they remain in season. Agua Linda Farm is a 63 acre family run farm in Amado Arizona. Go to www.AguaLindaFarm.net for more information or contact Stewart and Laurel Loew at 398-3218 or email stewart@AguaLindaFarm.net The farm is open to the public Saturdays 9 AM – 3PM and Sundays noon to 3 PM.
Copyright 2007 Laurel Loew
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