Hi Guys,

So this past week at the Peabody Harvest Festival, when Katie was representing our School Food Box fundraiser program, a long time customer of her father’s asked her a point blank question that needed to be asked. And since it needed to be asked, I think that we need to share it with you.

The customer started off by saying that she was stoked on what we were doing, stoked on the fundraiser, and that she had been getting a farm box for almost a year. She then asked why she was getting fruit in her box that had stickers on it, when there were growers at the farmer’s market that could be included instead. She asked why we didn’t have a particular SLO county farm’s “pesticide free” apples in our boxes, and also about a particular Tulare County farms “we don’t spray” peaches.

This is a super important question. And one that I will answer as delicately and politely as Katie did on the night of the event.

So here it goes: when we first started The Farm Cart, we continued with Shepherd Farm’s (Katie’s dad’s) CSA when he stopped. And at the time we were getting fruits from these guys. They were our friends we had known from farmers market and we developed a personal relationship with them. We accepted their reasoning behind not being certified organic and we believed wholeheartedly that they were farming organically. They told us they couldn’t afford the high price of certification or couldn’t handle the daunting amount of paperwork. But things changed…

In our second year of business, I did the organic certification for Alcantar Organics and discovered how easy the paper work actually was, how helpful the certifiers were, and basically how inexpensive the actual process was. The cost to get about 15 acres of row vegetables was $1,500.00. And there is California rebate you can get for $900 leaving you only out of pocket $600. I thought this was awesome news and that I should reach out and help these fruit growers get their certifications. This is where things went not so well.

It turned out that I was being lied to. And unfortunately, this deception is still continuing aggressively at the farmer’s markets today. These growers did not want to be certified, not because of the cost, and not because of the paperwork, but mostly because of their reliance on chemical herbicides. They wanted to continue using roundup to clean around their trees, and had somehow justified its usage and found a way that they could say they were still basically “Farming Organically.”

Now this pissed me off deeply, and offended me hugely. So, I cut them out of our business, and out of your food supply. Glyphosate is gnarly, it causes cancer, and if they are ok with that. What else are they ok lying about?? I don’t want to find out and this is why you will not see anyone’s produce in your box that is not deeply vetted by me. Either they are Certified Organic or we are in the process of getting them certified (might I add i’ve helped 5 farmers now get cerfiteid organic). Regardless, Organic farming is where their integrity lies.

With all of that said, let me give you a little loving guidance for the Farmer’s Markets. First, shop there whenever possible. These are our people, these are the people making our local food system work. Please support them. Second, don’t trust anyone with a stacked display overflowing with clean beautiful fruit or produce that says they “don’t spray.” They do, I can gaurantee that they spray something, and unfortunately there is no one to monitor them. The only monitoring system in place at all right now is Organic Certification.

So what should you do at the market with all of this deception? Here’s my strategy, I will back the little guys that are throwbacks from the 70’s. You know who they are, their displays are little, their crops are bug bitten, and they genuinely can’t be hassled with paperwork. There are a few of these guys still, that are hardcore organic, anti-governance, and are Organic from the beginning.

So this brings us to the point with the stickers. Things are stickers because it’s usually industry standard. We work with farmers out of Bakersfield, Fresno, Reedley, sometimes Santa Maria and sometimes even further to get you items that we can’t get closer that is certified organic. These farmers are defenilty on the bigger side and they have packing houses on their farm where their fruit is sorted based on size, quality, and variety. Then it’s stickers and put in a standard box. This is just like the story of where we pack our farm boxes here in Carpinteria… It’s an avocado packing house where they take certified organic Avos grown in Carpinteria. They grade them by size, quality and ship them all over. Sometimes you’ll see their avocados in our boxes. They’re stickers even though their from our hometown and are delicious and certified organic. We are proud to tell you exactly where items come from in your weekly emails and although the sticker is a bummer, we think it’s awesome to offer certified organic products that are coming as close away as possible.

This journey has really been really crazy and unexpected to say the least. When we opened our little wagon 7 years ago, we had no idea our boxes would be the bulk of our business. Adjusting is really gnarly and we’re doing our best to bring you the best variety, have a killer value, support rad farmers all while being super integral and completely transparent.. In the next few years our vision is to have a massive farm of our own here where we can bring you the best lettuces, kales, tomatoes and cooler temperature things. And have a bigger farm in Bakersfield where we can grow all the stone fruit, grapes, melons, corn, potatoes and more.

Ok, I hope that was helpful.

Love you guys,

Jason

P..s. We are not stoked on the stone fruit we’ve had this year, and will be doing everything in our power this winter to team up with someone awesome and Organic to make sure we have killer fruit for next year.

p.p.s If you know anyone with an orchard within SLO, SB, or Bakersfield areas that grows organic, needs help getting certified, is looking for an outlet for their fruit, or wants to lease their orchard out, let us know. We are on the hunt for tree ripened stone fruit magic for you guys next season.

Looks like a certain Oxnard farm that used to be across the aisle from us in the Carpinteria Market. The ladies would constantly be yelling “We don’t spray, we don’t use pesticides.” It drove me nuts, but what can you do when the Agricultural Commissioner has nothing to say.

Produce stickers are ugly. They are plastic. You have to peel them off before you eat the fruit. But, they hold farmers accountable to a certifying agency. And the only certifying agency that actually forces restrictions on growers is through the Organic auditing system.

This is the label you will be seeing this week.

This is their Cuyama Valley orchard.

And this is the new high density planting strategy for apples. It’s crazy and beautiful. Notice the grass hedge rows. They keep the soil in place during heavy winter rains. If this field was farmed by someone hooked on Glyphosate, that grass would not be there, there would be no life under the soil, no worms, no insects, and the top soil would rush away to the sea every time it rained more than 3/4” in a day.