Hand Crafting the Morning Cup….

Since April I’ve taken up the joy of home roasting beans for my morning cup of Joe. This falls along the lines of the many hand made hobbies I’ve taken comfort in. What makes this one particularly ironic is that I’ve drank maybe three cups of coffee EVER prior to home roasting beans. Like some of my other interests such as home brewing beer and bread baking from scratch, I’m pushing for more control over what I eat and drink not just for health matters but for quality. While quality of food is a state of mind for some, the ability to process foods brings a whole different approach to enjoying it.

Home roasting coffee beans is a relatively inexpensive process. All that is needed is a 1/2 pound of green beans and a roasting device. There are plenty of high grade roasting machines such as the Behmor 1600 or the iroast 2 mini roaster or a simple skillet can do the trick. I use a whirley pop popcorn popper as an inexpensive and efficient way to roast beans.

The process takes about 20 minutes to roast a half pound batch of beans. First, I start by warming the popper on a light flame for 5 minutes. Next, I’ll pour a half pound of beans in the pan, adjust the temp to 4 (on a gas stove) and immediately begin twirling the handle crank at a light pace. I’ll raise the temperature gradually as the beans turn from green to orange and then brown. The last few minutes of roasting are critical in determining whether the roast will come out well or come out like charcoal. Once the beans are done I’ll take them outside and shuffle them between two strainers to cool and remove the chaff. The beans are then kept in a sealed container for 24 hours to degass. After a little practice and a few burned batches, I can now make different roasts..

(Note: Not recommended on a Electric Stove)

The beans are later grinded with a burr grinder. Unlike a blade grinder that chops the beans, burr grinders will crush them to various coarse settings. I prefer mine crushed to a coarseness for french press. A great durable grinder is the Baratza Maestro grinder. With occasional cleaning they’ll last forever.

Three heaping scoops of grinds to a cup of water in a french press for 4 minutes results in a thick, strong, and tasty aromatic brew. No milk and sugar needed. One great green bean mail order distributor who deals beyond fair trade trade standards is Sweet Maria’s. Try their Ethiopia FTO DP Sidamo Shoye Union for it’s fruity notes and light spices. A great brew to wake up to.

What Does it Take to Run a Farm…?

In my small stretch of experience with farming, I’ve continued to ask myself one question “What does it take to run my own farm?” This is what I believe to be the king of all questions simply because it comes with so many answers. I’ve discussed the same topic with several farmers.  Some have told me will, others told me risk, perseverance, patience, even a fat loan.  In a recent video clip, my friend Jim Dunlop and his wife Rebecca Thistlethwaite described their opinions of what it takes to run a farm and how they joined the agrarian culture.

Immigration Reform doesn’t Start Here…

For years, I’ve been confronted with the complications of immigration. Repeatedly, my beliefs for undocumented citizenry fluctuate from supporting their integration to frustratingly rejecting it. Between this dogfight of selfishness and humanitarian ways in my head are a few beliefs I stand firm on, the support for a diverse ethnic country and democracy in and out of the borders. I’m not saying that America should spread the glorious democratic “Horaaa!” to every nation, but in a time of recession we can’t forget that our neighbors south of the border have had a recesión far worse and longer than ours. Here’s an article from UC Davis Law Professor Bill O, Hing discussing how immigration reform doesn’t start here.

An Inspiring Field of Neglect.

Field of Bolting Toscano Kale at ALBA

Last week I took a walk around the ALBA campus to see what farmers were growing. Along the way, I stopped at a half acre of bolting Toscano kale.  It’s clear that the land has been sitting untreated for some time and all that’s left is a spoiled yield. The kale started to take on a different shape from it’s original purpose. Colors of red, and purple appeared on it’s external leaves with small yellow flowers sprouting from the center. This gave me the idea to incorporate their neglected appearance to one of my paintings.

A Neglected Toscano Kale Plant

No matter how much the popularity for organic food grows, small scale farmer’s remain struggling to survive. It’s common for many to break even in their first year of farming and even more common for others to give up. Record years of drought, rising food prices, and extreme changes in climate are becoming too much for farmers to bare but the worst is in the amount of strenuous hours needed to sustain a practice with little financial compensation. The business is tough on the body, mind and sould and at times passion is the only sustainable practice left.

Growing a Row….

The time has come for everyone to put our knowledge to the test. At the start of April the PEPA students’ split in to groups to take charge of their own individual rows to grow and harvest. Each row is 250 feet long and nearly 2 feet wide.

PEPA students working on the rows at ALBA.

Once the beds were shaped we were ready to sow the seeds of our choice. Proudly my groups planted the most diverse row of all ten rows. It will consist of rapini broccoli, white radishes, hybrid carrots, red beets, purple and green tomatillos, cucumber, two different varieties of heirloom lettuce, thyme and oregano. Many of the seeds are just sprouting. Everyone went out to remove the weeds from their assigned rows and find any irrigation problems. Fortunately, our row didn’t need much work since we’ve been weeding periodically. Just as we were going to give up on the section of oregano, it sprouted over the weekend. I really enjoying working on the row; however, all ten rows still wouldn’t amount to an acre of land.  We all need to start taking up more responsibility and from what I’m seeing, everyone is ready.

Weeding is tedious work.

Thinning radishes

Our Row, the clean weedless one.

Working in the Shadows…

I was listening to public radio a few weeks ago about a journalist name Gabriel Thompson who took a year long investigation in to American labor. Yah, yah, so the subject’s been publicized more than Sarah Palin’s left hand, but rather than writing about the live’s of struggling construction workers during a housing crisis or former CEO’s turned grocery baggers, Gabriel exposes working conditions and some of the poorest American citizens as well as those invisible to the legal workforce, immigrants.

Over the period of a year, Gabriel would travel across the counrty in search of employment with jobs common American’s refuse to get. He would work as a lettuce harvestor for Dole near Yuma, Arizona, work in a poultry processing factory in Russelville, Alabama, deliver flowers (and branches) and deliver Mex

ican food via bicycle in Manhattan, New York. His experiences working the jobs and the fellow co-workers he befriends and everything in between are published in his new book Working in the Shadows, released in Febuary.

Gabriel Thompson reads an excerpt from his latest book at the First Christian Church in San Jose

Last Saturday I attended a lecture and book signing hosted at the First Christian Church in San Jose, Ca. I asked Gabriel when the Obama Administration is likely to tackle the issue of exploited workers when problems in health care, employment growth, and immigration still lay ahead. He isn’t happy with the government’s progress of labor reform but emphasized the use of business transparency and union involvement.

We all know someone who refuses to work some jobs. The same observation could be addressed in our own lives. What jobs do we refuse to work? How desperate would we have to be to work them? It’s American to work our way out of unfortunate circumstances so are jobs without promotional opportunities for the NonAmerican? I guess true patriotism can’t stand without a hint of irony.

The PEPA Program-part 1

In early January, I put my passion for farming to the test by enrolling in an organic farming program hosted by the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association. The campus is has two locations, their main hub in the south east of Salinas, Ca. and another location 20 miles northwest in Las Lomas. For six months, I along with 40 others, both novice and advanced in farming, learn fundamental practices to running a small scale organic farm such as business and marketing, seeding and sowing techniques, fertilizing, cultivating, irrigation techniques, integrated pest management, and packaging and crop rotations. We’ve just completed the business and marketing phase and will soon be prepping rows to grow our own crops. The yields in my garden didn’t turn out so well with some crops so I look forward to learning the processes for proper fertilization.

The attendees are quite a diverse group of men and women ranging in different ages and backgrounds. The majority of students are Mexican American with Spanish as their only language. Many have experience working in the local large scale corporate fields harvesting popular crops to the region such as strawberries and lettuce. A few joined the program to run their own business and are tired of inhaling pesticides from the commercial farms they work for. Two of the teaching assistants are natives Peruvians whose experience with farming goes pack several generations. One of the assistants, Karina, has been farming since childhood. She helped run a family farm with her mother growing heirloom potatoes including one of my favorites, the Peruvian purple potato. Obtaining a temporary Visa through the MESA program, an organization designed to link international students with sustainable farms across the country, she moved to the States to experience farming in it’s diverse climate and innovative farming techniques. She believes old agrarian farming practices could drive a new national market. I couldn’t agree more…..

That silly Farmville.

To my surprise technology hasn’t quite changed farming into a couch potatoes sport, at least not yet. At a young age, I’d watch my brother play the classic SimCity where  simulated towns were crafted by the click of a mouse button. Twenty years later, those gaming skills, and IT degree landed him a job working with the city of Houston’s Waste Water Management. Simulation games have been around for decades welcoming people into a new enduring challenge of clicking mouse buttons and staring at moniters. This time they simulate the most iconic American past time of all, labor.

The facebook game Farmville has taken Caucasian America by storm…the dry pixelated kind. With agriculture as one of the most undesired professions in America you wouldn’t think it by the national obsession over this damn game. People ages 12-35 spend hours to days turning their simulated back yards into thousand acre Dole facilties. I’ve never experienced more then 2 minutes over- looking someone playing what appears to be a 10 year old white blond cartoon child erasing corn stalks with a click. With the largest assortment of video games of all time, my mind stands still to why people choose this game to get addicted to.

With only the slightest bit of sarcasm this game absolutely shapes the mold of modern farming. Some video games require historians and other cultural professionals to shape them into semi realistic genres, Farmville…. well doesn’t. Perhaps programsers should add the challenge of chaffing and the illusion of sweat dripping down the players eyelids on a 90 degree summer morning while working them from dawn to dusk seven days a week. In all fairness, the cows  look just as clean and cute as factory livestock in Central California and the perfect shade of white kids in overalls resembles the thousands of migrating farm workers across the country. Detect a tad more sarcasm do you? It’s amazing how such young and aspiring career goers motivate themselves to pursue their dreams after they’ve spent days, weeks, even months…. all heck YEARS creating a finely crafted farming facility on a flat screen. They’ll be proud to switch those calloused hands from the mouse to the hoe, dig in!!!! Ahhh the future of the American workforce. Don’t worry kids you can feed yourselves for dinner.

A wonderful parody below,

The Growing Movement….

It’s abundantly clear that the 30th Ecofarm Conference was out to make any aspiring farmer, organic enthusiast or climate crusader feel waaaaaay late in the game. Over 1600 attendees ranging from climate scientists to veteran organic farmers raising 300+ customer CSAs made me feel less that a pea in a very large pot, more like a cauldron. I should mention the pea is still working to become organically certified. Fortunetly, this was a time for me to observe those with years, even decades nurturing the life form they call soil and why they love it.

The conference kicked off with a pre-conference on business and sustainability to small scale farms last Wednesday. It began with a panel discussion ranging from the fair trade practices for Coffee to successful retail through networking with local small farms. Core principles to organic farming such as sustainability, environmental technology, supporting local distribution, fair wages to workers, and demand for high quality charged each panelists’ speech. Some in the audience found them intriguing, others yawned in boredom. I was a fresh face among a half of experienced farmers rolling eyes to the panelists redundancy and the other half of retailers, entrepreneurs, and aspiring farmers whose eyes blazed in excitement for change in their food system. Ok so I was with the ladder.

The next few days would show me how this growing movement wasn’t your average red hat society gardening club. Americans a calling for change in food infastructure and this was the time and place to do it. Organic principles would repeat itself till we chanted it in our dreams at night, but workshops in ethics over community supported agriculture, immigration outreach, biogas technology, plans from the USDA and NOP, and plenaries on affordable organic food for low income families, sustainable rice farming in California, and pioneers raising organics crops long before it it ever found store shelves.

After four days of intense eco mantra I left Asilomar with a complimentary canvas baggy, a cute organic cotton tee shirt, a hand written bible of farming references and an irresistible urge to landscape my front yard. Also, I learned that the people that work to reform the social food system, trully love food and everything it takes to make it. Most importantly I left with a sense of refinement. Farming is so much more than a craft, it’s a way of life. A utopia for lost souls seeking something intimate, natural, and real.

“Know your farmer, know your food.”-

Eco Farm Conference Expectations….

Thursday kicks off the first of four days of eco loving mayhem known as the Eco Farm Conference in Asilomar, Ca. For over 30 years, folks have gathered together to loath in the delights of sustainability and passion for opposition to the toasted pre grilled patty at Jack in the Box. Chefs, farmers, environmentalists, activists, scientists and the regular eco JOE (and Nancy) discuss progressive practices in agriculture, attention for civil rights to farm workers and fair wage, studies and plans for facing climate change and ways to spread sustainable communities across the nation.

This will be my first time attending the conference and am both curious and excited to learn about what shapes the passion and livelihood of organic farmers and the challenges ahead. Workshops are held from morning to evening with topics ranging from business planning to the future of Medicinal foods. As a potential farmer, I’ll be looking to those focusing on structuring a small-scale farm through diverse markets while ways of incorporating arts would be a plus. There’s so many great subjects to choose from and I’m sure my time spent will help refine my intentions with organic agriculture.

For more info on the Eco Farm Conference click the link below.

http://www.eco-farm.org/programs/efc/