The following article
appeared this week in a local paper called the Willits Nickel and Dime. The paper is free to readers and financed
through ads. The author, Mary Zellachild,
has been writing something about local food every week for six months now under
the column heading "A Local Food Web."

A Local
Food Web

Mary Zellachild

Year-Round Produce-In Willits?

Brookside Farm's CSA is year-round.

So what does that mean? It means anyone who's a
subscriber to the Farm's Community Supported Agriculture program receives a
basket of fresh produce year round-January through December. This is different
from most CSAs, which just deliver food May through October, or sometimes into
November.

When I asked Brookside's
farmer, Jason Bradford, how the Farm can continue to deliver fresh food even
during the winter he explained that a high proportion of what's grown the
second half of the year are storage crops: potatoes, onions and winter squash.
There is other produce growing now, although its growth is much slower than the
rest of the year. These crops can tolerate temperatures that get down in the
20s. Baskets from December through March may contain potatoes, onions, winter
squash, carrots, beets, spinach, tree collards, chard and winter greens. Spring
produce starts in April.

In 2007 the CSA was serving nine shareholders. In 2008
they plan on serving twelve. Jason and his partner Chris Hansen will also be
saving space at the Farm to grow produce for the school, in case it works out
financially and logistically to have this food on the school lunch menu. Jason
and Chris have half of the subscribers they need for 2008. A year's worth of
fresh food costs $1,000. It's possible to break that amount into three payments
during the year of $350 each. Although it sounds like a lot of money it's
actually just $84 a month, and will feed from 2 to 4 people. (In 2006 the USDA
reported the average US
expenditure for food per person per year was $3,616.) Jason points out this is
the healthiest and freshest food a person can buy, grown in really good,
pollution-free soil. Since a subscriber appreciates the food and feels
compelled to eat it all, he or she will have improved eating habits.
Subscribers can also come to the Farm to spend time, help out, get fresh air
and exercise, and have good conversations with other people in a beautiful
setting.

Most CSA baskets start out with a small amount of food at
the beginning of the growing season and have a daunting amount mid-season.
Jason states that to avoid having everything coming in at once, he's trying to
become adept at successional planting. Also, because of growing crops for
winter storage, he's experimenting with varieties that mature at the end of the
summer and are eaten months later. The Farm also sends a newsletter with each basket
that gives tips on using the food or, if there's a large amount of something,
suggests food preservation techniques. The Farm will be building two solar food
dehydrators onsite and eventually may be delivering dried food during the
winter such as tomatoes, basil, apples and pears.

Knowing that Jason most recently came from an academic
setting and has a PhD in Biology, I asked him how it seemed to be working in
such a different way. His answer (greatly summarized here) should be
enlightening to anyone who looks on farming as necessary but mind-dulling
drudgery:

The amount of variables you need to juggle would swamp a
group of computers. You have to look ahead, figure the amount of food you're
going to need to satisfy the diet needs of people in a holistic way without
growing too much or too little. We're growing 30 different species of crops
plus different varieties. So you're dealing with the timing of planting, the
area needed. You have to adjust for the unknowns like weather and problems with
pests. You also have to build compost piles to have enough six months later. It
takes five tons of compost an acre for intensive vegetable planting. Every day
is a challenge.

At the end of the interview, Jason asked if I wanted to
see the cabbages that were stored. He dug into a huge pile that I thought was
compost but he said was from the sod they dug off the soil when they first
started the Farm. He proudly lifted out a cabbage and showed me how firm and
healthy it is below a covering of yellowed leaves.

If you are interested in becoming a 2008 member of
Brookside Farm, call Jason at 456-0760.