Current Events - Dog Island Farm

Sometimes They Break Your Heart

Posted on April 21, 2013 · 7 Comments

Raising livestock can be very rewarding. You get to build this very intimate relationship with the creatures that provide your food. You take a great deal of care in their raising because you want them to be healthy and happy. The healthier and happier they are the better the food they produce for you will be.

But on the other side of the coin, sometimes, no matter how great the care is for them they don’t always make it. For whatever reason, they give up before you do and once they do there really is nothing you can do to save them. Mindy was my biggest heartbreak. I still get teary-eyed when I think about her. For those that are new to reading the blog, 2 years ago we got to help Bella kid Mork and Mindy. It was the first kidding we’d ever had here, or even attended for that matter. When they were born Mork was up and at ‘em immediately. His sister, however, was not. She nursed right away laying down next to Bella, but other than that she was very slow to stand. From then on she was never quite right. The kidding coincided with a huge storm and what ended up being one of the wettest, longest winters I can remember. Very quickly she got coccidiosis, which we treated only for it to come back again soon after. When we finally knocked it down all the way she got in a good week of normalcy. It just so happened that was the week we had a photographer here for a book and there were some amazingly cute photos of her playing. But the healthy week was short lived. She started to show signs of goat polio and off to the vet she went. The vet had us give her vitamin B1 shots for three days but when that was up we didn’t see any improvement and she was now wheezing. Pneumonia is particularly dangerous in goats. The vet put her on some strong antibiotics and at first she seemed to be improving. But then she crashed. Really fast. She was fine in the morning and then that afternoon we came home to find her unable to keep her balance, heavy wheezing and her eyes were bulging. We were sent to UC Davis where they confirmed that she had not only pneumonia but also encephalitis of unknown origin. She wasn’t going to improve so we had to let her go.

It’s amazing how such a small little creature can get into your heart so quickly. Since she was from our very first kidding it made me really nervous. In the back of my mind I had this fear that doelings were just too fragile. Mork and Daisy’s buckling, Mongo, were big, strapping kids that were incredibly healthy. But Mindy, our one and only doeling, couldn’t make it past a few weeks. Bailey proved me wrong and she’s definitely eased my fears, however irrational they may be.

Sometimes, though, they continue to fight and don’t give up. As many of you know, Hank, my tom turkey, is one of my favorites around here. I came home from work one afternoon a couple of months ago to find him stumbling and completely off balance. He also appeared to have lost sight in one of his eyes. I was completely freaked out. We don’t have any poultry vets around here so the first thing I did was email Clare at Curbstone Valley Farm to get some advice. She really helped and I can’t thank her enough. Unfortunately it was unclear what was causing the issue. Looking up various poultry sites it seemed that maybe he had a mineral or vitamin deficiency. Fortunately he was eating and drinking fine (as long as he could stay standing upright) so I was able to give him some extra supplements. But after a few days and no improvement I had to look elsewhere. In the meantime he seemed to be getting worse. His vision in the other eye was questionable and Tom was feeling like it might be time to put Hank down. The photo of him was taken just a couple of days before he fell ill and I was scared that it would be the last one I would have of him. I stood there in the yard, holding him up crying. I just wasn’t ready to let him go yet.

I finally decided to use antibiotics. I’m not one to like to use them on a whim so it took a lot of thought to decide to go this route. Clare gave me some advice on the length of treatment and so I put him on the patio (it seemed to offer him better footing) in his own pen and makeshift coop and started him on antibiotics. Within a few days the improvement was noticeable. After 10 days he gobbled at me. By the end of the round he was strutting and calling for his ladies. He’s now back with everyone and soon to be a dad again. I’m glad we fought for him since he was still willing to fight.

PDF

Filed Under: Farm Diary, Livestock, Urban Farming & Homesteading

The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self Reliance in Uncertain Times

Posted on March 18, 2013 · 4 Comments

You know what they say about judging a book by it’s cover? This one has a fantastic cover so go ahead and judge it. To be honest, the title kind of threw me because it almost seemed like it was aimed at the prepper community. I’m glad I dug into it though because I was pleasantly surprised. Not that there is anything wrong with being a prepper, but Carol Deppe discuss much more realistic day-to-day issues that can derail your self reliance. It’s not exactly a reference book so I took the time to read it cover to cover. Reading anything can take me forever with our schedule so it was a miracle that I was able to finish this book. I’m glad I did take the time though or I would have missed what this book was really about and who it was aimed at (hint: it’s you and me).

This book came at a great time. The economy had tanked and people were taking up gardening as a means of feeding themselves. The author, Carol Deppe, is an experienced “market gardener.” Her book, The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self Reliance in Uncertain Times, focuses on four main crops and one livestock animal for the majority of one’s diet. She is also a plant breeder and sells some of her varieties.

Ms. Deppe had some real life examples of why being resilient is important and not just in the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it type of way. For example, when her mother fell ill and she had to care for her it made it nearly impossible for her to get out and tend to her garden. She relied on creating a resilient garden to get her through that period of her life. She also discusses having a bad back which makes many common garden chores, such as weeding and planting, difficult and painful. She has great advice on how to get around issues such as these to keep your garden going and being as comfortable as possible.

In addition, she also talks about diet and exercise and how that can make you more resilient personally, not just as a gardener. Ms. Deppe suffers from Celiacs, which means she cannot eat foods that contain gluten. For her carbohydrates she grows corn and includes some delicious looking recipes utilizing this grain. She also explains the differences between the different types of corn. I had kind of any idea of the different types – dent, flint, sweet, popcorn, and flour corn – but she gives a great rundown of what makes them different from each other and what their best uses are.

I think the main part that I don’t agree with is the way she waters. She doesn’t like drip irrigation because she says it’s too much work and instead prefers overhead irrigation and hand watering, which I think is way more work than automatic irrigation. Plus it wastes more water than drip irrigation. Otherwise I found this to be an incredibly informative book, including the best tools to use and where to get them and how to keep them in their best condition.

The best part about this book? It’s not your typical gardening book that I feel is a topic that is just over-saturated. It goes over information that most gardening books don’t cover. It’s been a very long time since I’ve learned a lot of new stuff from a book. Fortunately this book met the challenge and succeeded.

PDF

Filed Under: Books, Current Events

Michael Pollan for $12

Posted on March 5, 2013 · 3 Comments

For the last several years I’ve been wanting to see Michael Pollan speak, but usually it’s at a swanky center for way too much money. We did get a chance to sit in on one of his classes at UC Berkeley for free, which was awesome, but that was not a typical setting, obviously.

But now is our chance to see him at a swanky center for an affordable price talking about his new book.

Country Costa County Library announces Michael Pollan as featured author of 2013 Summer Reading Festival, “Reading is So Delicious”

Contra Costa County Library is pleased to announce Michael Pollan, best-selling author and journalist, as the headlining author for the 2013 Summer Reading Festival. The theme for this year’s festival, which takes place from June 8 through August 17, is “Reading is So Delicious.” Mr. Pollan will discuss his new book, “Cooked: a Natural History of Transformation” (to be released in April 2013) at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Thursday, June 20, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. Copies of the book will be on sale at the Walnut Creek Library the day of the event and there will be a book signing following the presentation.

For the past twenty years, Mr. Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs, and architecture. In “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation,” he explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen, where he discovers the enduring power of the four elements – fire, water, air, and earth – to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.

Mr. Pollan is the author of the bestsellers “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,” which was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post, and many other best-selling titles. He has been a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine since 1987 and has his articles have appeared in Harpers, Mother Jones, Gourmet, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Gardens Illustrated, and The Nation. His writing and reporting has received numerous awards, including the California Book Award; the Northern California Book Award; James Beard Awards for best food writing and for best magazine series; the 2000 Reuters-I.U.C.N. Global Award for Environmental journalism, and the 2003 Humane Society of the United States’ Genesis Award. In 2009, he was named one of the top 10 “New Thought Leaders” by Newsweek Magazine and he was chosen by Time Magazine for the 2010 Time 100 in the Thinkers category. Mr. Pollan is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism.

Michael Pollan appears as part of Contra Costa County Library’s Summer Reading Festival at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $12.00 and are available today. For ticket information, please contact the Lesher Center for the Arts at 925.943.SHOW (7469) or http://www.lesherartscenter.org/. Copies of Mr. Pollan’s book will be available for sale on the day of the event at the Walnut Creek Library.

The Summer Reading Festival is an annual event that encourages people of all ages to read throughout the summer months and celebrates the importance and value of reading and literacy for all.

For more information on this event and highlights of the upcoming 2013 Summer Reading Festival, please visit the Summer Reading Festival website. Additional information on Summer Reading Festival programs and events will be announced in the coming months.

PDF

Filed Under: Books, Community, Current Events

The New Normal

Posted on March 4, 2013 · 6 Comments

A great TEDx presentation on using livestock to reverse desertification and climate change.

Except for 4 years while I was away at college, I’ve lived pretty much my entire life in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even when I was in college I still was living near the California coast, albeit more in Southern California. You get pretty used to the climate around here. My birthday is mid June and I always knew that my birthday would be a beautiful sunny day. I also could depend on Halloween being dry. Our climate is warm and dry in the summer starting in May and we have cool, wet winters starting in November. The weather was dependable.

Well, at least it used to be. And everyone I have talked with that has also lived here all their lives seem to agree. Our weather patterns are no longer predictable. Our warm, dry summers are not totally dry. The last few years we’ve had rain in July which used to be unheard of. And our cool, wet winters? Well, we now get one of two extremes. It’s either flood-stage rain for an extended period of time, or it’s like this year where it’s rained maybe two or three days since December. January and February this year were the driest on record. We received just over half of the water we got during the second two driest months on record (in 1991). Half. Seriously. Half of the next driest.

This is serious.

In February we got a stunningly low 0.09″ of rain. The average is 3.9″. In January we only got 0.6″ when we should have been closer to 5.4″. We don’t get a lot of rain to begin with so when the numbers are this low it’s quite alarming.

In the four years we’ve lived here, this is the first time I’ve ever had to water in the winter. We usually disconnect all the irrigation so we can dig freely without hitting lines and also to keep lines from freezing. Unfortunately we’re going to have to hook it back up this weekend because I’ve found that it takes much too long to hand water even the small amount of plants we’ve got in right now.

But this isn’t just about our garden. This is effecting almost the entire country (except for those lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest). One of the biggest victims of unstable climate is agriculture and without agriculture we cease to exist. We cannot live without food but we, as a species, are shortsighted. Our unwillingness to take action now to make changes to our behaviors will end up being our downfall.

PDF

Filed Under: Community, Current Events, Farm Diary

Putting a Value on That

Posted on February 13, 2013 · 4 Comments

Recently I tagged along with my mom to the grocery store. She was in town visiting and she’s a fantastic cook and was planning on making an amazing meal for her best friend who she was staying with.

It wasn’t just any grocery store, though. We were entering the yuppie-hippie grocery store. A full third of the store was just produce so I figured this was a good time to check out prices for the in season, organic produce.

I haven’t updated it in awhile – here it is February and I still haven’t finished 2012′s totals – but on the right hand column we keep track of what we spend and save running our urban farm. I base the prices on the unit costs for a similar item if I was purchasing it elsewhere – whether it was the farmers’ market, the grocery store or a roadside stand. If I see similar items at different prices I take the average.

Since I don’t make it into a grocery store very often, especially one with such a large selection of (organic) produce I figured I’d start jotting down some of the prices of items I normally don’t find at the farmers market (or the normal grocery store, for that matter) but that I grow at home. If the produce came in a bunch or was priced individually I weighed it to figure out the cost per pound.

As I went through row after row of vegetable, weighing and jotting down prices I quickly began to realize that there is no way in hell I would ever spend that much money on produce. Cute little of bunches of arugula that only weighed a 1/4 lb were going for $2.49 or $9.96/lb. Nearly $10 for a green that practically grows wild in my yard with no known pests. For realz? Do people actually spend this much for arugula? Well, now that I think about it, a similar amount sold at my local farmers market goes for $2 a bag or about $8/lb. That can’t be right. The dandelion greens (yes, they even had those) were half the price of the arugula, and in my (not so) humble opinion they are harder to find commercially. They too grow like a weed in my yard, and I can say I wouldn’t pay $5/lb of them either.

There’s a balancing act when you grow food yourself. I grow it because I wouldn’t pay what this yuppie-hippie store charges for the items that cost me just a couple of dollars in seeds for a year’s supply. If I didn’t grow it I probably still wouldn’t buy it so am I really saving money? Probably not. But there are items that I would buy, like apples (they have them for $3.99/lb, but at the farmers’ market they are $1.50/lb for organically grown), I just wouldn’t buy them at that particular grocery store. So which price do I go with? The farmers’ market price, of course.

The other side of the coin is when I think an item is worth more than what they sell it for. Potatoes, corn, onions, garlic and winter squash should be more than the $0.99-$1.99/lb just because they require so much more space, time and skill to grow. But the cost is what it is so in fairness that’s what I use in my spreadsheet. I’ll be honest though, it pains me to enter the low numbers.

As I peruse the farmland listings and calculate how much it would cost us to have a farm I really have to wonder how the hell we would ever make enough money selling vegetables to pay for the farmland it’s grown on? While that $10/lb for arugula sounds like it could do it, it’s important to realize that the farmer that’s growing it is lucky to get $2/lb for it. The remaining $8 goes to transport, distributors and the grocery store. Direct sales would have to be the way to go and lots of high value crops (*cough* heirloom tomatoes *cough*) to make up for the lower value crops.

PDF

Filed Under: Farm Diary, Garden Planning, harvest totals

Where Have I Been?

Posted on February 7, 2013 · 14 Comments

I have to admit, I’ve been missing in action lately and for that I apologize. But I do have some good reasons, I promise!

I may have mentioned before that I was doing a permaculture study course through Homegrown.org. It’s going slowly and there is a lot of reading involved, which is taking up most of my spare time on the weekends. While it’s informative, I’m not sure if this study course is right for me. It’s very philosophical and what I need is something more concrete.

In addition (because apparently I’m crazy), I’m also taking an online course through John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on the U.S. Food System. It’s a good course with a lot of (mostly) thoughtful discussion. What I like about this course is that you can take it at your own leisure (all of the tests are due at the end of the course) and the lectures each week are broken up into 15-20 min sessions so it’s not overwhelming. The required reading is also online, which makes it a lot cheaper than most courses.

My day job is picking up substantially and where I was once working only part time, I’m now working overtime. I’m not complaining though! Some of the past few years have been really rough and I’m glad that they are behind us now. For those of you that don’t know, I work in the construction industry – one of the first industries to collapse in the economy – and it appears that we’re leading the charge into the new economy.

I think the biggest change around here though is my stepson has come to live with us. What was once every weekend has now become all week and 3rd and 5th weekends. He just started high school so we’ve been busy transitioning him during this huge time in his life. Not only is he now living in a new town and going to a new school but he’s now in high school, something completely new. Fortunately he made friends quickly. And what they say about teenage boys having a hollow leg is true. Very true.

Of course we’re still growing and raising food! We definitely haven’t stopped doing that. So here’s what’s going on around here via photo essay (the best picture is at the end, trust me):

The artichoke plants are getting nice and big and should be giving us blooms in no time.

I also started some seedlings from our artichokes which I will have available soon.

I also started pepper, tomato, eggplant, and tomatillo seedlings.

The cauliflower is already the size of a softball.

The fava beans are blooming.

We’re harvesting chard several times a week and we even have it growing wild in our yard now.

We’re trying 4 different varieties for garlic. From left to right: Red Toch, Bogatyr, California Early and Metechi. I think it’s clear which one is doing the best.

We’re getting lots of citrus this year. It’s the first year we’ve gotten fruit off of every citrus tree.

The Arbequina olive tree is LOADED with olives this year. This tree is a biennial producers, meaning it only produces a crop every other year. It’s first year it gave us 15lbs of olives. I’m betting we’ve got over 25lbs this year.

This is probably the last photo that will be taken of the goat barn. No, we’re not getting rid of the goats, but we are moving it this coming weekend and expanding it. Yes, we are ambitious.

Last weekend we took out all the interior walls and back exterior wall which makes for some interesting milking this past week. Part of the new barn will be a much larger milking parlor.

I’m convinced that Bella is a pygora with her crazy thick coat this year. She wasn’t in milk this winter so she turned into a walking gray marshmallow.

Daisy has emotional issues, which is why she’s got that funny thing around her neck. It’s actually a 1 gallon plant pot that keeps her from self sucking – something she started doing when she went into labor with Panda (it’s a comforting behavior for her apparently).

Whiskey and Bailey are all grown up! Whiskey will soon be learning how to be a cart goat for events.

We’ve got some young hens that just started laying finally.

Soon on their heels we’ve got some pullets that should be laying soon.

Behind them we’ve got some more pullets and cockerels that are about a month younger but are growing much faster. These are Light Sussex crosses that we bred and were raised by Speckles (many of them are already larger than their mom).

Here’s the dad, Mr. Jenkins. We’ve been very lucky as he has a wonderful personality for a rooster. He watches over and protects the hens but is not aggressive towards us. He’s a huge bird and it’s a trait he passes on to his offspring making them great dual purpose birds.

Our other awesome boy is, of course, Hank the Tank. He’s been spending a lot of time wooing Tater but she’s still holding out. Duke, however, is already sitting on a clutch of eggs that should start hatching in about 2 weeks.

Last but not least we’ve got the cutest members of our farm right now. Baby rabbits! Yasmine’s (aka Tummy) kits are a few weeks old now and growing fast. They definitely have their mom’s curious, very friendly personality. It’s funny to see the difference in litters’ overall personality. These guys were out of the box the second they could see. Some litters won’t leave the nest unless you force them.

PDF

Filed Under: Farm Diary

Domestic Animals, Dirt and Disease

Posted on January 16, 2013 · 4 Comments

I recently had learned some interesting things about the Native Americans (my favorite college course was Native American History but somehow it missed a lot of the stuff we now know about what happened around the time European settlers came). The first thing I learned was that there was a great plague that wiped out 90% of the Native population right when Europeans started to settle here. It has been suggested that this depopulation was not entirely related to the Europeans diseases we learned about – small pox, measles, typhoid fever – but may have included a particularly virulent mutation of the deadly Hantavirus – similar to the virus that has been found in the Southwest and has shown up in Appalachia. That doesn’t negate the devastation caused by European disease on the Native Americans though.

Why were European diseases so devastating to Native Americans? Of course Native Americans had never been exposed to European diseases so they couldn’t have formed an immunity to any of them. One of the things you have to wonder about is why did Europeans have so many diseases that were dangerous but didn’t wipe out nearly the entire population and Native Americans had so few but when they did strike they were so completely devastating? Domesticated animals – or the lack of them may be the answer.

Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond discusses how dense populations that lived with their livestock in Europe was what gave Europeans the advantage since Native Americans had so few domesticated animals (alpacas, llamas, dogs and some fowl). It could be argued that living with livestock and being exposed to so many more zoonotic diseases was actually a disadvantage because people got sick more often, however, being exposed to more disease can increase the immunity of the population and make them less susceptible to catastrophic outbreaks that could wipe out an entire civilization.

The Europeans had developed the ability to fight off these diseases because of antibodies. They help keep you healthy. You can develop your own antibodies and some are passed to you from your mother as a baby. If the mother had been exposed to a disease and survived she could have possibly passed that immunity onto her child. If you got sick from a disease but survived, many times you would be immune to that disease later in life. Our immune system is amazing at it’s ability to adapt and evolve.

But today we face something different. Our immune systems are getting out of whack. Our obsession with eliminating germs may be making things worse for us. Autoimmune diseases, allergies, asthma, and infections have been found to be more common in children that don’t live with animals. Researchers in Finland found that babies raised with dogs (and to a lesser degree cats) were found to be 44% less likely to develop ear infections and 29% less likely to need antibiotics. Speculation is that the germs a dog brings in with them help a baby’s immune system mature faster.

Other researchers are looking at the rate of allergies among children, which has increased 2 to 5 times in the last 30 years. What they found is that children that grow up on farms, particularly the Amish, have very low rates of allergies. It’s yet to be determined what exactly is responsible for this difference, but livestock are quite possibly part of the equation.

Of course the other side of the coin is our overuse of antibacterial products. The few germs that get through our new indoor environment (children on average now spend less than 8 minutes a day playing outside) are now wiped out with disinfectants and antibacterial soaps. Kids that were found to have parabans and/or triclosan, common antibacterial chemicals found in many household products, in their blood system were twice as likely to develop environmental allergies. Triclosan was found to increase the risk of food allergies, which can be fatal, two fold. The problem though isn’t necessarily the triclosan or parabans, it’s that these chemicals are keeping kids’ immune systems from developing by fighting off germs.

It seems that living with animals, playing outside and not using antibacterial products may have a benefit to kids and the greater population. I guess, in this case what doesn’t kill you actually does make you stronger.

PDF

Filed Under: Current Events

Plans for 2013

Posted on December 28, 2012 · 8 Comments

A new year and a new set of projects. But first I’d like to see where we were last year at this time and see if we got anything done that we wanted to.

More productive in the garden? This year wasn’t nearly as productive in produce. We produced about 300lbs less produce than 2011, which was 600lbs less food than 2010. This was most likely our fault because we didn’t amend the soil as much as we should have.
Black plastic? We did use it and found that it worked well for some crops but was a failure for the rest. Next year we will only use it for melons and watermelons.
Separating livestock feed? We did that for awhile until the turkeys started living with the chickens. The chickens were slackers this year, laying less than 1/2 of what they laid in 2011, and we lost money on them. The turkeys did better than I expected and the goats pretty much broke even. Surprisingly, even though we lost our queen late in the year so we couldn’t replace her, we still ended up with nearly 50lbs of honey. We didn’t breed the rabbits very much this year and we brought in new breeders so we lost money on them as well.
Greenhouse built? Not completed 100% but it is usable now.
Extended goat barn? Didn’t get to that.
Rabbit hutch rebuild? Didn’t get to that either.
Water tower turned into a pantry? Kind of. We are storing some food in there.
Hunting and foraging? Yes! Well, most of 2012 was a bust for mushrooms (though we did get some this past fall) and Tom got several turkeys and a wild hog.

So what is on the horizon for this year? Much of the same probably. We still need to get the greenhouse finished and rebuild the rabbit hutch. We are now planning on not just expanding the goat barn but also moving it to a new location. We want to increase production, this year we’ll be more than generous adding soil amendments. And, of course, add more foraged and hunted foods into our diet.

We MUST reduce our outside obligations. Another year of having every single weekend planned out to the last hour leads to no time to work in the yard. This might have a lot to do with our lack of produce.

We’ve added more younger chickens to our flock. In the spring we’ll reevaluate who is laying and who is not, and cull those that aren’t producing or otherwise offering us a service, such as raising broods for us. Last year we only had 3 new flock members while the rest started to age out of laying. This year we’ll have at least 11 new pullets, possibly more depending on how many of Speckles’ brood are cockerels and how many are pullets (my guess is 3 and 3 but I could be wrong).

Keep the birds out of the garden in the summer! They all but destroyed our brassica seedlings so now we won’t get much of a crop this year.

Guerilla garden a 1/2 acre easement with orchard grass and alfalfa. We’ll see how well that goes.

Remove Turkey Town. Turkey Town has served it’s purpose well, but the turkeys no longer sleep in it as they prefer the chicken coop, so down it will come. We will use some of it to upgrade the chicken coop, in particular the roof, which will be put over the part of Chicken City where the turkeys like to sleep.

Produce more food at home for our dogs and cats. Yep, that means increasing production of meat.

Cart train Whiskey. We’ll be keeping our wether, Whiskey, and I’d like to get him in a harness and teach him how to pull a small cart.

What plans do you have for 2013?

PDF

Filed Under: Current Events, Farm Diary, harvest totals

Knowing Your Food

Posted on December 26, 2012 · 3 Comments

There is something fishy going on.

I love sushi. I mean LOVE sushi. It’s not cheap so I don’t eat it very often so it’s a real treat for me. Imagine my surprise when I read an article earlier this year about how more than half (55%) of the fish sold in Los Angeles was mislabeled, or in other words, you think you’re paying for an expensive type of fish but you’re getting a cheaper fish instead. Besides being downright fraud, this is a dangerous game. Some people are allergic to specific species of fish, while some other species are more prone to have high levels of mercury which can be especially dangerous to pregnant women and children. Some of the fish was being substituted with Escolar, which can make people sick. Escolar is banned in Japan for this very reason but apparently it’s a-OK for us to eat.

Part of me thought that this must be an isolated issue. Deep down I knew it probably wasn’t. Unfortunately the deep down part was right. I recently came across another article doing tests on the east coast. Again, half were mislabeled. White tuna, which is one of my favorites, turned out to be Escolar 100% of the time. This study was what prompted the L.A. study. In the L.A. study, Red Snapper shared the same fate as white tuna, being substituted by either pollock or tilapia. The most appalling number, though, was that 87% of 10 species of fish tested in sushi restaurants across L.A. were mislabeled.

Romanesco cauliflower starting to head at Foggy River Farm.

But what about other food besides fish? We shop at farmers’ markets for the majority of our produce. In California, we have protections in place to keep unscrupulous people from scamming consumers (California is looking to pass a law about correctly labeling fish currently). Certified Farmers’ Markets require that farmers have a producer’s certificate showing that they do indeed grow what they are selling. But even that isn’t foolproof as shown back in 2010 in Los Angeles. Scammers were selling produce they purchased wholesale as local and certified organic when neither was true. Their fields were empty except for weeds and yet here they were selling immaculate produce. I know in other states this is a common practice at farmers’ markets because those states don’t have any protections for the consumer. From what I’ve heard from people in other states, this is actually a huge problem. And not only is it fraud, but it also hurts the real farmers out there that are doing good work. They lose out on sales because they are being undercut by these con artists.

So how do you figure all this out? Unfortunately, I really don’t have a solution on the fish issue other than being really familiar with it. I know one place in my town that for sure doesn’t correctly label their fish so I avoid that place. I just hope the one place I do like to go to is being honest.

But with other food there are some steps you can take that will help you figure out who is legit and who is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Talk to the farmer. Ask them lots of questions including what they spray, where it’s grown, how they avoid pests and most importantly, can you tour their farm. If they say you can tour, do it. Go visit their operation if you can. We try to do this on a regular basis. See what the quality of their produce looks like in the field. Does it coincide with how their produce looks at the farmers’ market? Are they growing everything you’ve seen at their stand that season? If it’s not on that site, ask where that specific produce comes from (many times farms lease land in other locations). If they are not willing to tell you, let alone show you, then don’t purchase their produce. If you can’t tour their farm do some research on them (but ask if you can tour anyways to see if they are amicable to that). Contact their county to make sure they have that producer’s certificate for everything they are selling. Google their address to make sure it exists and to see what their land looks like. It will require some work on your part, but in the end you can feel secure in the fact that you aren’t getting ripped off.

Of course the other option is to grow and raise your own food if you’re lucky enough to have the space to do it.

PDF

Filed Under: Community, Current Events, Farm Diary