January 8th Farm Box
My dads old farm in Carpinteria. Currently being farmed now by Alex Frecker. A typical morning of Jason and I harvesting.
Hi friends. Here we are the second week of 2019. How has your year been?! Ours has been incredible, we’re ready for this year! We wanted to take time to introduce ourselves again and re-introduce all of the local farmers that we get our produce from.
I’m Katherine or Katie (you can call me both). I actually will respond to ‘Chandler’s mom, or even ‘Farm Cart.’ That handsome man down there is my husband Jason. And this picture to the left sums up how we got here.
While my father, Tom Shepherd, was farming here in Carpinteria for over five years, Jason and I started The Farm Cart… a super cute little produce stand located in downtown Carp. Everyday we would go to his farm, harvest all of the produce with our own two hands and then take it to our little wagon where we would sell to our friends & family. It was a challenging first few years. We didn’t really have a plan with our business, I didn’t have any sort of business back ground or even a college degree. We just went with the flow. A turn of events led to my dad having to move farms and he found himself downsizing from his 40 acre farm in Carpinteria to a five acre farm up in Gaviota.
This was the almost breaking point in our business. We we’re scrambling to stock The Farm Cart with the best organic produce around so we reached out to some farmers we knew thru farmers market. Initially Jose Alcantar (Alcantar Organics) was our main dude. We harvested at his farm daily and then we discovered Alex Frecker. We we’re introduced to Chuy at Sunrise Organic Farm, John Givens, and Steve Sprinkels. Of coarse we were still getting things from my dad when possible. We made the rounds and picked up daily at their farms to keep ourselves in business and our customers super stoked. I think everyone really enjoyed the new variety we had going.
Since planting our roots with these farmers it’s been almost smooth sailing. We no longer have to harvest our own produce every single day but we still do a ton of the behind the scenes work. We have our own one acre garden at Pacifica Graduate where we like to play with our kids, taste the plants, and enjoy the earth. We work tightly with an organic distributor to source produce from the valley that cannot grow here (sweet potatoes, apples, stone fruit, grapes & more). We have an INCREDIBLE team right now and our family is going to let them run the show for three weeks this summer while we take our first ever vacation with the munchkins. I might even have them look over some of my emails and proof read some of my stuff. Because as most of you know, I send out lots of errors and typos lol!! But hey, I’m human and trying to keep up with this life I got given. So scroll down below to see just a little bit about our favorite farmers and as always browse our recipes.
With lots of love,
Katie, Jason, Chandler and Bodhi
Jose Alcantar of Alcantar Organics. He bought us the mariachi at our wedding and is just an epic dude. He has three different properties he farms; two in Carpinteria and one in Buellton. We helped Jose get certified organic and he’s had our back this entire time. You can find his at Ventura and Los Angeles farmers market and at lots of different restaurants around town.
This is Steve Sprinkels. I’m not exactly sure what his farm name is called but he is the farmer for Farmer and the Cook the famous restaurant in Ojai. Steve is known for having incredibly good looking produce, and healthy soil.
Oh John Givens, where do we even start with you? John Givens has been one the hardest farmers to get to know. Mostly because he’s so busy we don’t see him often when we go to his farm to pick up our orders. But John Givens is actually the man. He’s an incredible farmer and ALWAYS has healthy looking stuff and his quality is insane. He’s also a really great business man and Jason loves to talk to him about technical questions which is always fun to listen to ha. He is in markets all over the place. I actually think he’s probably in every single local market and he sells to Whole Foods.
Alex Frecker is one of the younger up and coming farmers. He is farming my dad’s old property in Carpinteria which has been really awesome to watch. Alex works super super hard day in and day out, from dawn to dusk. He’s genuine and I won’t be surprised if he retires at 40. He’s a hustler! Alex Frecker sells his crops at farmers markets in LA, and just got into the SB farmers market. Alex is our main strawberry grower!
Chuy started his own farm about 5 years ago and was quick to grow super quick. He grew off his five acre farm and is farming over 50 acres in Buellton. Chuy’s father is the foreman to John Givens and he’s been taught only by the best. Chuy sells his produce to big distributors and he’s in LA farmers markets.
Oh Tom, where do we start with you? You helped us get us off our feet and continue to be a huge support. You just finally got certified organic and you keep getting more land to farm. You grow the best summer melons and tomatoes. Tom’s in all of the SB farmers markets, Carp and Goleta.
