Hi friends. Here we are blazing into Spring with hundreds and hundreds of new customers, and a whole set of new challenges. We wanted to take time to introduce ourselves again to those of you who are just joining us.
I’m Katherine or Katie (you can call me both). That handsome man down there is my husband Jason, and our two beautiful children Chandler and Bodhi. And the photo below 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 background 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 were scrambling to stock The Farm Cart with the best organic produce around so we reached out to some farmers we knew through farmers market. Initially Jose Alcantar (Alcantar Organics) was our main dude. We harvested at his farm daily and then we discovered Alex Frecker. We were 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 small farm in Carpinteria 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 the most INCREDIBLE team right now and none of this would be possible without them. We have grown from a small farm cart, to a large scale non-stop operation. It is mind blowing, and we are super thankful in a time like this. We are so blessed to provide our community with fresh organic food.
My kids are much bigger now than when these photos were taken, but they are too good not to re-share. Thanks for being here, we hope you are safe and well!
(photos taken by Mikaela Hamilton mikaelahamilton.com)
Cheers,
Katherine
Here are some things we practice and care deeply about at the Farm Cart
ORGANIC CERTIFIED ONLY
First, the Farm Cart is hardcore organic. We are deeply offended by the farmers selling produce at the Farmer’s markets, claiming they “do not spray,” when, they’re actually spraying chemicals on their food. The agriculture commissioner has told farmers that they can say they "do not spray" and they will not be prosecuted if they do spray. Some farmers also tell their customers they’re not certified organic because it is "too expensive." This is an absolute lie. Organic certification is cheap. There are yearly rebates that pay up to half of the cost. These deceitful practices make me angry because many farmers, (all the big-name ones, with large booths at the market), do something in their practices that is not organic. It’s disheartening that they are not willing to change their practices to meet the strict demands of organics.
NO MEXICAN IMPORTS
Secondly, we do not support Mexico Organics and you will never find them at the cart. Why? Because we believe in fair living wages and do not believe in the exploitation of workers. Mexican farms pay their workers less than $100 for 50 hours of work per week. This is not enough money to live and eat on and it’s crazy just how desperate the situation is for them. The truly offensive thing about it, is that the large agriculture companies, (like Driscoll), then ship their products to the U.S. and charge the highest prices that the market can bear. Right now, I hear that Driscoll is earning 70% of their profit from Mexican farming which accounts for 30% of their acreage. To make matters worse, some of our Mexican friends have said that many of the farming operations in Mexico are now controlled by the drug cartels.
LOCAL FARMERS WE ARE TIGHT WITH
With that said, most of the foods you find at the Farm Cart come from 8 local names that you will see each and every week. John Givens, Alex Frecker, Chuy Salas, Jose Alcantar, Tom Shepherd, BD Dautsch, and Steve Sprinkles. We know these guys deeply, and we know the commitments they have made to farming correctly. We visit their fields regularly, we call them for farming advice all the time, and most importantly we respect what they do. We trust them to provide produce to the Farm Cart, because their food is the best food. It is the most nutritious, it is the freshest, and it is grown right here in our backyard.
WEST COAST FARMERS
While the 8 farmers we’ve shared about before will grow nearly all the vegetables you find at the cart, they won't be able to provide us with the variety of fruits that we all want to eat. Purely because of our climate. While it is awesome for consistency in vegetables, it does not have the summer heat and winter frost that a wide variety of fruits appreciate. This is why we will sometimes have Bakersfield watermelons, Delano grapes, Cuyama Apples, and Merced peaches. We know personally a few of these farmers and are getting to know more every year while we really figure out who is growing the best certified organic fruits.
AGRICULTURE WASTE
This is a tough topic. Agriculture is rife with waste. By some accounts the waste is nearly 40% of all crops grown. We have waste. Things go bad at our produce stand and sometimes orders get delivered bad. We do everything we can to salvage the produce. However, if the food is too spoiled, it is stripped down, separated for trash, and taken in a load twice a week to feed our chickens. It's nice that our chickens eat well, but it's much better when we can all remember to do our part in reducing food waste.
PACKAGING AND PLASTIC WASTE
I love Trader Joes, but the amount of plastic used in their produce department blows my mind. Their produce is packaged so they can sell foods per piece. While I'm sure this cuts down on agriculture waste (above) and saves them a ton of money, it also adds to the insane amount of plastic trash sent to the landfill because of agriculture every year. To visualize the scale of this, drive to Oxnard tomorrow and notice the 1000 acres of new strawberries being planted into white plastic mulch. Then realize, that this is done 2-3 times per year, per field, and that all the drip tape and mulch is thrown away each time. Then imagine that being done all over the world throughout the year and you will understand why we hate plastic packaging.
Thanks for reading & thanks for being with us!
