Good Food from Healthy Farms
Terra Organics Podcast 02: Stop Pasteurizing Me
Sep 2nd
In our second podcast, Elliot and Dan discuss the history as well as the pros and cons of pasteurizing products like milk and fruit juice. Definitely not one to miss.
(WARNING: Due to a glitch in the Matrix, our audio isn’t of the highest quality. It won’t happen again.)
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Local Season, Ahoy!
Aug 27th
Thanks to everyone who came out for the farm tours and potluck at Tahoma Farms last weekend. We are already planning for Harvest Fest, the next event at the farm, which will be October 2nd this year. Stay tuned for more information!
This week we hope to see the first Red Haven Peaches from Cliffside Orchards. If they aren’t able to pick enough this weekend, we will still have peaches and will pick up their peaches the following week.
We do have first of the season local corn! And more beautiful tomatoes, yellow beans, pluots, melons, apples, etc. All WA grown. The next 4 weeks or so mark the height of the local season. Enjoy and thank you for your support!
Member Potluck @ Tahoma Farms THIS SUNDAY!!
Aug 19th
You’re invited to join Terra Organics at Tahoma Farms this Sunday, August 22nd for a very special POTLUCK.
Bring the whole family to the farm for an opportunity to meet the Tahoma Farms family, and other Terra Organics members like you. We’ll set out a veggie tray and have salmon on the bbq. Please bring a dish to share and enjoy a self-guided stroll of the fields, a walk along the Puyallup River, a look at the farm’s operations, and good company.
Guided tours of the farm will be at 2:30pm and 3:30pm, with the potluck dinner starting at 5pm.
Tahoma Farms is located @ 21108 Orville Rd E, Orting, WA, 98360.
Humpty Dumpty
Aug 19th
On one end of the spectrum, you have flocks of two to three hens, kept in your or your neighbor’s backyard, where the one dozen eggs produced each week is enough to feed the family that cares for the chickens.
On the other end of the spectrum is an egg factory in the middle of Iowa, where millions of birds lay millions of eggs per day (32 million egg cartons recalled times 12 eggs per carton divided by 90 days of production equals 4,266,666 eggs per day where the average hen lays one egg per day).
It’s hard to imagine how far and how fast we got away from decentralized and local production of food. The recent recall by Wright County Egg has now reached 17 states (including Washington) and the number of reported cases of salmonella linked to the eggs is over 2,000.
Nationally, only 0.4% of all food purchased by consumers comes direct from the farmer. We’re working with you to grow this number, and as our distribution network grows so does our ability to keep local farmland in production, plant heirloom seeds and raise heritage breeds of animals, keep dollars in our community, and, not least of all, deliver incredibly fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables.
If you are free on Sunday, please take a drive out to Tahoma Farms, at 21108 Orville Rd E, Orting. We will be there from 2 to 6 pm. There will be guided farm tours at 2:30 and 3:30, and a potluck dinner at 5:00. We hope you can join us!
Greenwashing & Other Fine Tales
Aug 6th
We have the first in a new series of podcasts posted on our blog for those interested in hearing an impromptu conversation about McDonalds, Wal-Mart, sustainability and how local food production, and Terra Organics, fits into the mix.
There’s also a graphic that I’ve been holding onto for a while, and it now seems timely to share it.
The subsidy regime pits commodity growers against vegetable and fruit growers, and McDonalds and others buy fillers and subsidized meat, dairy, and grains at an artificially low cost. The foods that should be accessible to the least healthy amongst us have little to no price supports. So long as corn syrup and factory meat and dairy dominate the $60 billion a year farm program in this country, McDonalds will always dominate the way food is produced and consumed in this country, no matter how many new farmers markets are springing up around the country.
But, of course, that doesn’t mean we can give up the fight.
Terra Organics Podcast 01: Buy Local, Buy Walmart?
Jul 30th
In our very first podcast, Elliot and Terra Organics owner Dan Hulse, discuss the industry trend of sustainability and buying local in big businesses like Walmart and McDonalds.
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Terra Organics, Now With More Pacific NW
Jul 29th
It’s safe to say that we look forward to this week more than any other over the course of the year. When we added the Pacific Northwest Box 18 months ago, at the suggestion of one of our longtime customers in Buckley, we weren’t entirely sure that we were up for the challenge. Seasonal eating becomes more difficult the further you live from the equator. So, with some reservations about whether we could pull it off and uncertainty about what sort of reception it would receive, we added the “local only” box as a way to challenge ourselves, and those that wanted to eat with the seasons and as close to home as possible, to see what it would take.
And in the middle of winter – when the only variety that we can offer is to alternate between rutabagas and turnips, apples and pears – we always have one eye to the summer when virtually all of our produce is sourced from local farms. And so this week marks the convergence of the Pacific Northwest box and the Small box, as every item in both boxes is from Washington this week. And this is only the beginning. If last year was a good indication, it will be November before we see the two boxes taking a divergent path again until next summer.
We hope you enjoy the variety and selection of our freshest, most local produce of the year.
Ack! Pump Trouble
Jul 23rd
The call I received from the farm on Monday was the last call you want to receive this time of year when you’re trying to grow food. The pump for our irrigation system was out.
Because our sprinklers run 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and new transplants and seeds were sown in the days before the pump failure, we are working overtime to try to get our well back online. In the mean time, we have a 4″ “trash pump” pulling water at a rate of 250 Gallons Per Minute (GPM) out of the Puyallup River. We are very fortunate to have both ground and surface water rights for our land. If we didn’t, and without any other possible recourse, the crop loss would devastate the farm.
The good news is that once we replace the pump we won’t have to worry about another unbudgeted $8000 expense (at least not the same unbudgeted $8000 expense) for another 15 to 20 years.
Featured Grower: Cliffside Orchard
Jul 21st
Jeanette and Jeff Herman
At Terra Organics, we value the relationship between growers and your kitchen table, which is why every producer we source from is carefully selected and is of the highest quality in produce and management. As part of our Featured Grower series, this month,Terra Organics is pleased to share with you an interview with Jeanette and Jeff Herman of Cliffside Orchard. Thanks to Jeanette and Jeff for taking time to fill us in! More >
