Tomato and Strawberry Tour in Florida

Tomato Field Tour

The almost endless rows of newly planted tomato
plants. This farm does Roma's and Beefsteak tomatoes

After my tour of the tomato fields in Florida, it reinforced my decision to only purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from the U.S. as I saw firsthand the safety and care put into growing this crop.

The field boss, Marco on the right talking to one of the
farmers on the bus tour

Imagine 2 tour buses full of farmers descending on the McClure Tomato Farm all interested in row crops as this was a “tomato field 101 lesson” to us.

The view from the back where the 6 workers
 would sit and plant tomatoes.

The field boss, Marco, explained the process, first seedling plants arrive from a nursery and are hand-planted by 6 workers as pictured above. Another 3 or 4 men follow on foot behind the tractor to ensure the plants get fully planted or plant another seeding if by chance the worker misses getting a plant within the target area. They plant the tomato plants in a continuous stage (staggered growing) and the first planting begins towards the end of January. Rather a foreign thought for most of us as we were all coming from the lands of snow and cold.

This tractor is used to spray for weeds between the rows
of tomatoes and notice the  boxed in covers that
shield the plants from the spray being used to keep weeds down

Another view of the endless rows of plants

Close up of the tomato plant in the plastic. Plastic helps keep weeds
away from the plant, plus it keep the plant healthier by not
having the dirt splash up on the plant that can cause blight

The plants are flood irrigated and grass is planted around the edges of the field as a ground cover so the sandy soil doesn’t blow and damage the delicate plants. Once the plants get big enough, they will be secured to the stakes. The crew can plant 35 rows of plants in one day. Plants are ready to be harvested in 90 days and are picked once a week by hand. Everything is documented to the hilt from the nursery stage to what is used on the plant, temperatures, treatments, etc. In this climate, the farmer gets 2 crops of tomatoes per season. After the season is over, the plastic and stakes are removed, then the ground is tilled and sorghum is planted. Once the sorghum gets to a certain stage, it will be cut and worked into the ground for organic matter for the next planting season of tomatoes. Cost of production to raise tomatoes is $10-$12,000 per acre and for that reason, many growers moved their production to Mexico as the labor is cheaper and there are not the same restrictions on what kinds of treatments can be used on the tomato. This is why I choose to only buy produce from within the USA as our farmers can only use highly regulated treatment/products that are extensively tested for safety, plus farmers using these products must complete training to ensure proper application.

The production manager at the processing plant

Next we drove about 20 min to the processing plant and were greeted by the plant manager. He explained that due to the recent frost, they had lost their entire crop so the processing plant was empty until the next crop was ready to be harvested. The manager pointed out the bins that the tomatoes are brought in and explained that they all get a chlorine solution bath as another measure of safety to ensure there is no e-coli contamination. Next the tomatoes are hand sorted as shown here:

One of the many stools a worker sits on and sorts tomatoes

After the tomato has gone through the sorting process,
they get boxed for delivery

Just to give you an idea of how big this processing plant was.
It was so clean, you could have eaten off of the floor!

As the tomatoes make their way through the processing plant they are photographed 6 times among their journey and sorted by grade and color. Also in the process a number sticker gets placed on the tomatoes that can be traced to the exact row in which the tomatoes were grown. The record keeping is onerous at best and everything is documented. The Food and Drug Administration regularly pops in for inspection and the manager noted they are pure business and intense. I got the impression that these FDA inspections are about as pleasant as a root canal.

Strawberry Field Tour:

Next we boarded the bus for a tour of the strawberry fields. We were met by the matriarch of the Parke Strawberry farm.

Mrs. Parke, even her handbag had a strawberry pattern and
she drove a red car.

Unfortunately, we were not let out into the sorting area nor were we allowed in the processing plant, which was a little disappointing. However, we did get to see their hydroponic strawberry farm. Two sons now run the farms, one does the conventionally grown strawberry and the other does organic hydroponic. This farm has 250 acres of conventionally grown strawberries and ½ acre of hydroponic grown strawberries. It was explained that the hydroponic field can grown 57,000 plants on a ½ acre compared to the 9,000 plants done conventionally on the same amount of ground.

A view of the hydroponic plants in their heavy gauge
styrofoam containers

This was Mark, the son that runs this operation

A close up of the plants and containers

Next we were treated to huge strawberry shortcakes and the line was like being in a theme park, there had to be at least 100 people ahead of us all waiting for this tasty all American treat.

All I can say was, yummmm

To sum it up, tomato and strawberries are an extremely labor intensive crops and it gave me a whole new appreciation for fruit and vegetable farmers. So there you have it, now when you go to the grocery store and see the little stickers on the tomato plants or on a container of strawberries, that are grown in the USA, you will know you have the best and safest fruit or vegetable for you and your family.  I know I feel better. So buy American my friend. 

As always, glad you stopped by and hope you enjoyed the tour via this website.  Email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have any questions.  Best Regards, Gayle

Food, Farmers, Trust and the Consumer



A growing force of farm-wives stepping into the spotlight
to tell our story and promote trust with the consumer

 Growing consumer trust in food and farming, was the main focus on the session that I attended on Friday.  The workshop was called Common Ground that was started up within the mid-west and it is governed by farm-wives just like me.  They are doing many of the exact same things that I am doing, using social media and talking to people about food and farming.  It was reassuring to know that I am on the right track.

The panel of Common Ground farm-wives leading the session

Earlier that morning we had the opportunity to listen to Secretary of Ag, Tom Vilsack and House Ag Committee Chairman, Frank Lucas.  It was encouraging to hear what they had to say and know they are looking out for the agriculture industry.  Their goals are clear, they want to increase exports with some specific countries and they want to help ease the unnecessary burdensome regulations farmers are trying to be saddled with.  To give you an example, the EPA is proposing a new rule to regulate dust that a farmer creates when we are out in the field.   Dust! And I am not kidding on this.  When a tractor is in the field putting in seed for a crop, yes dust is caused, but nature also causes dust when it is windy.  It was learned that the EPA director had never been to a farm before, yet her agency was setting rules and regulations that we must try to comply with.  Is that crazy or what?  So it is heartening to know our leaders understand our plight and are willing to help us, which helps the American consumer.

Today, which is Saturday, I am off to tour a tomato and strawberry processing farm.  As we don’t grow vegetables on our farm, it will be interesting to see what farmers in sunny Florida do. 

Talk to you soon, and hope you are enjoying the blog.  As always, email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have any questions, concerns or to just say hi. 

Best Regards, Gayle

Day 2 of the Florida Commodity Classic

The best part of the conference are the people you meet, whether reconnecting with old friends or making new friends. We are all like mind farmers here at the conference and you get the chance to meet amazing people. On Thursday my day started off by attending one of the best farm advocate sessions featuring Troy and Stacy Hadrick, fifth generation cattle ranchers in South Dakota. You must visit their website at www.advocatesforag.com . Their message was simple and clear, be yourself and tell your farming story as people out there are interested in what we do.  I could go on and on about them, but let say they are warm, funny and down to earth farmers, despite their super-star status within the Ag community.


The other great event of my day was getting interviewed by Pam Fretwell, Director of Industry Relations with Farm Journal. Pam had interviewed me by phone several months ago for her talk radio show and when learning that I was coming to the conference, we agreed to meet in person. We hit it off and seemed like old pals rather than new acquaintances. Pam also got to interview the Hadricks, as pictured below.

The Hadricks being interviewed by Pam Fretwell

One of my favorite booths is the Monsanto booth as they have the best photos of real life people in the rural farming sector.  Here are some of my favorites.


So typical of a rural road and a school bus



Rural mainstreet anywhere in USA

As with farming and life, Moms are the
glue that holds everything together

Well off to another round of sessions, meetings and reuniting with more great folks. I'll post more later on.  As alwys, thanks for stoping by and reading the blog.  All my best, Gayle

Non vegetarian potatoes and the Farm Conference



A banner at the conference

Non-vegetarian potatoes? What does this have to do with the Tampa Commodity Classic Farm Conference? Well nothing, other than the need for farmers to get out and educate people about  what we do.  But this is the story that the Farmer (Joe) and I learned of from our farmer friend Eric who met us at the hotel shortly after we checked in.


So let me tell you about my day on Wednesday. First let me explain about the farm conferences. Besides the lure of sun and warmth (after leaving amidst a snow storm that had dumped 12” of snow before we left) this is like “continuing education” for us, plus farmers like the eye candy with all the biggest and best farm equipment on display. If it’s one thing I have found out about being a farm-wife, farmers love equipment.

The Farmer by one of his favorite pieces of equipment

This conference caters to the many kinds of farmers, as the region in where your farm is located dictates what kinds of crops are best suited to grow on your farm. So along with us, the farmers who grow the grains, legumes, corn, soybeans, and sorghum are here.

As the farmers were descending upon the unsuspecting Floridians, our friend Eric had a great story to tell about his taxi driver. The driver after learning Eric was a real farmer, asked if it was true about farmers genetically trying to infuse chicken genes into potatoes. Yikes, this got me to thinking and two troubling thoughts came to mind, first that crazy mis-information can be spread so easily and secondly that the taxi driver believed this to be true. Eric reassured the driver that no, this was not something that was being done, and went onto explain the GMOs (genetically modified organisms) were not evil and bad as many would like you to believe. The intent of genetically engineered plants is to help the plant defend itself from insects that harm the plant, sort of like inoculating your child against diseases. Nature has been modifying plants for thousands of years and with today’s technology scientists are helping to boost the plant's ability to ward off harmful insects.  Thus, the need for insecticides can be reduced or perhaps eliminated, so it is a win for all. I would like to think that educating the consumer about GMOs will help ease their concerns and to not believe all the hype that is being disseminated. I wanted to share an interesting article about organic farmers and their reluctance on using genetically engineered plants. Here is an excerpt from that article, “Pamela Ronald, a plant biologist at the University of California, Davis, says those consumers are losing track of what's most important. Ronald has a foot on each side of the biotech wars — she works with genetically engineered plants in the laboratory, and she's married to a longtime organic farmer. She and her husband together wrote the book Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. What really is important is, can we reduce the use of insecticides? Can we foster soil fertility? Can we feed the poor and malnourished?" she says. Those should be the goals of organic farming, she says, and they should be the goals of non-organic farming, too. According to Ronald, they're much more significant than avoiding laboratory-spliced genes.” So there you have it, consumers, organic and non-organic farmers can and should be comfortable about the use of genetically engineered plants whether in your food or the food that an animal consumes, and if you want to read the article for yourself, here is the link: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134162035/a-growing-debate-how-to-define-organic-food?ft=1&f=1053 . Remember we, who grow the food, also eat what you eat and as a mom and wife, I do not have concerns about GMO modified crops - it’s just in a new packaging, sort of the “new and improved” version. Feel better? I hope so, but then again, the chicken and potato cross got me to thinking…. Now if you could infuse flour, butter, maybe incorporate some vegetables genes…. Hmmm a natural chicken pot pie – what do you think???

Yup, that's me by a cool display

As always, hope you enjoyed the blog and it you have any questions, please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com and I will do my best to answer you. Best Regards, Gayle

Food Prices and You, The Consumer

Our combine harvesting wheat, August 2010

If you are like I am, when I shop for groceries, price matters. I want to buy what I want, but at affordable prices. And when buying produce, I try to only buy items grown in the USA. My reasoning? First, I try to buy local and when I say local, I mean food grown within the USA boundaries; secondly, foreign countries have different standards on what treatments can be used on their crops, so as a safety measure, I choose USA grown food.

Grand-angel, Natalie on the farm, who enjoys the good food her
grandpa grows.  Remember farmers live on their land,
we raise our famiilies here and we grow crops in the safest
and most economically manner possible.  Farmers are here for you!

 Today I heard that Wal-Mart will no longer be stocking “organic foods” as it appears their customers do not want to pay the higher price associated with products grown organically. It’s pretty simple, it comes down to what do you want to pay for? I do think it’s important that the consumer have the choice of conventionally grown food vs. organic, either way, let the consumer pay for what they want. Today’s conventional farmer is geared to producing food or livestock that affords the consumer the best quality at the most reasonable price. This is not a bad thing either as Americans spend just 9.8% of their income on food—less than consumers in any other country. We truly are fortunate to be living in this country and to be able to have those choices.

Today’s farmer not only tries to get their crop to your dinner table in an economical fashion, but we have several factors that play a role in the price of food that you pay. One is nature; we cannot control that one and do the best with what we are dealt. The other factor is environmentalists (or environmental groups) that think only organic is the way to go and then try to garner the public’s support to implement laws about how much space a chicken needs or some other kind of regulation imposed on the farmer who is trying to feed you and your family. So the next time you have the option to vote on animal welfare or some kind of conservational issue that affects the farmer, ask yourself, are you willing to pay the extra price? Need an example? Next time you go to the grocery store, take a look at “organically grown, free range chicken eggs” vs a conventional method of producing eggs and you will most likely find the prices to be $5.49 for organic vs $1.49 per dozen. As I said before, it is your choice. I have a farm blog that is worth re-reading http://www.idahofarmwife.net/2010/01/farmer-perspective-part-ii.html .

Next week the people that feed America will be meeting in Florida for a national conference. From there I will be blogging (hopefully daily) about what we are doing to help you, the consumer, enjoy the high quality of foods that we have all come to expect. So as always, hope you enjoyed this blog and feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com.

Social Media, Farm Blogs and the Food Network

Evening sky from the cab of the tractor

This past week I was contacted by Jen O’Donnell from Intuitive Entertainment regarding a segment she was doing for The Food Network about adventurous and dangerous jobs in the food business. This will air on TV as a one hour special, divided into three segments and each segment will feature someone as they talk about their life, their work, and the audience will see their daily adventures in the food and farming industry.

The Farmer (Joe) checking the
wheat the day before harvest  is set to begin

For added interest, here are some of my favorite photos sprinkled throughout this blog.


The farmer's big boy toys, it takes a lot of equipment
to feed America

Jen said they had never done this kind of a feature before and felt it would be of great interest to their viewers. They were looking for farmers who burn their wheat stubble and Jen told me that she googled Idaho Farms and up came my farm blog! So after reading my blog, she called me. It truly was an honor for me to get to talk to Jen and it re-affirmed my thoughts that social media is an important tool for every farmer to tell our side of story. With the average American so far removed from the farm, people are interested in what we do. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, those of us that do this full time, are kind of a novelty to the rest of mainstream America. I explained to Jen that we do not burn our stubble and it was not a common practice anymore in this area, but we would contact her if we thought of someone who did. We said we used to burn wheat straw on some acreage in the early years of adopting no-till or direct-seed farming methods, but for us, it was a short term fix while finding the best methods to manage crop residue.

Spring work in 2010, getting ready to seed wheat

I went on to tell Jen about our Dinner on the Farm series and invited her and her production crew to come out during one of our dinners or really anytime for that matter. So Jen if you are reading this, you have an open invitation to our farm and our life on the farm. =)   The Food Network is on the right track with their 3 part segment and I can't wait to see it.

Dinner menu for Dinner on the Farm

The Farmer (Joe to the left) and guests in our garbanzo field   

Guests looking over some of
the equipment that farmers need

A day or two before my call with The Food Network, I was reading Country Living magazine that had a whole section about “haycations” and the fact that families will spend big bucks to spend a weekend on the farm learning where food comes from. I also read with interest in Sunset magazine about people taking “veggie vacations” where one herb-farm has guests work in the kitchen garden and on the farm, then it ends with a nine course meal. The rest of the article talked about how a new generation of people are getting into making their own jams/jellies and having chicken coops in their backyards.

The Farmer and I think this is wonderful and are excited to see more people start their own urban gardens and have chicken coops in their backyards, as it gives them a glimpse of what full time farmers do only on a larger scale.  They will get to experience first hand the ups and downs of raising crops and animals. So hats off to the segment of people who are striving to get back to their agriculture roots by either taking farm vacations and learning about where their food comes from, or by raising poultry and/or urban gardens.

As always, hope you enjoyed the blog and feel free to email me at idahofarmwife.@gmail.com

Farmers Love their Land & Community

 

Joe in front of the fire hall just before we head up to work

Farmers not only have a strong bond to the land, but also with their community. Because the land is our livelihood, we are tied to the region and great bonds are developed with those who live in our small, rural farming community. Joe is a fourth generation farmer with deep ties to the fine folks of Genesee and having married a hometown boy, I too have developed a deep love of our community. So today, we are volunteering our time at the annual Genesee Fireman’s Crab Feed. Joe was a volunteer EMT for 18 years and we worked every year at this fundraiser. After Joe retired from the fire department, we attended as guests, but this year we thought it would be nice to once again lend our time to a worthy organization.

The crowd going through the food line

The take out dinners ready to go

 People get the option of eating within the fire hall or getting a take out and at times 500+ dinners would go out the back door.



Joe was manning the beer stand, this is a popular spot to be



The early diners enjoying their dinner

Cody, our hired man is a volunteer firemen and
next to him is friend Don, a retired fireman at the takeout station

To give you a little history of our lives, let me begin by saying, from what I’ve observed, either the farm kids either love the farm and do whatever they can to have the opportunity to farm or they move away, never to return. Joe grew up on the farm and always knew this was his choice of occupation, but the farm was not big enough to support 2 families. So after Joe graduated from the University of Idaho, he took a job as a chemical rep for Elanco, in the agriculture division and lived in Montana. After working away from the farm for about 2 years, Joe came back to Genesee to farm along with his dad. As the farm was still small, Joe also took a part-time job driving school bus for the morning route. He and his dad also did custom harvesting before their own harvest began. Custom harvesting is when a farmer hires someone to come in with their own combine and harvest that farmer’s crop. This usually occurs when either the farmer chooses to not own a combine or needs extra help in getting in their crop. So with off farm income and doing the custom harvesting, it brought in extra working capital and helped Joe work into the farming operation.

The church looks exactly the same as the
day we got married over 25 years ago

A couple of months after Joe arrived back in Genesee, we met as he used to sit behind me at the church he had grown up in and one that I had just started attending while he was in Montana. I was a divorced single mom of a 2 year old and lived in a nearby city, but always liked the Genesee community so I started attending the Lutheran church there.  Anyway fast forward a couple of years, we got married in that same church and Jennifer, my daughter was the flower girl. To give you a laugh, I’ll share that while Joe and I were taking our vows, Jen was going up and down the aisles talking with people, showing them her purple tights and excitedly telling them once we got married that she was going to get a kitty, a swing-set and that we would be getting a baby too! (Yikes, no I was not pregnant) but when preparing her for moving to Genesee after we married, I had told her  that she could now have pets, a yard and a swing set, and I must have mentioned that later on she would have brother or sister later on.  But somewhere in the 4 year’s brain, she thought they all arrived at the same time.) So of course, I found out a few weeks later about her announcement at the wedding and was a tad bit  mortified. Oh well, 3 years later we had a new daughter, Kaitlyn.

As we continued to build working capital and buy equipment, I worked full time, Joe still worked part time driving bus and doing custom harvesting until we had the opportunity to rent more ground. Then Joe’s brother Jay, who also moved away and was working as an electrician, was also able to come back and work on the farm too. Jay’s wife, Lisa, also worked off the farm until the arrival of their son, Zack 9 years ago.   So through a combined effort of working well, smart and very hard, we have been able to increase the size of the farm and enjoy a challenging, but worthwhile livelihood and life.  So there you have it in a nutshell how my farm life began.  As always, thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy the blog.  All my best, Gayle

The Making of Hummus

Once the crop leaves our field and goes to the warehouse, farmers usually don’t get a chance to see how their crop is used to make the actual end product. We know who buys our crops and that wheat will end up as flour or in bread, crackers, cookies, noodles, etc and that one of the uses for garbanzos (chickpeas) is to make it into hummus. So I am excited to show you how a new local company uses locally grown garbanzos (of which some are from the Anderson Farm) to produce fresh hummus with no preservatives.

I met Bronzestone Hummus owners, Tish and Heath at their manufacturing site, and their facility is located in a nearby town just 16 miles away from the Anderson Farm. Even though Tish and Heath had just gotten in from a successful marketing trip in Seattle, they were hard at work but took the time to show me around and answer questions.

The refrigerated truck to transport the hummus

Tish was excited to announce they had just signed on to provide their specialty hummus with Metropolitan Foods in Seattle, WA.  I'll list the other stores that also carry their product at the end of the blog.  She and Heath have working on this deal since July and the excitement was evident about their newest success.  Tish explained they were slowly moving into smaller grocery store chains to give their business a chance to accommodate the increased demand. 


A view of the commercial kitchen

 

Another view of the kitchen site

Their kitchen site was spotless and Heath was in the process of making a batch of hummus when I arrived.

The garbs had already been cooked and the garb cooker was in the cleaning mode.


Heath adding the onions into the caramelizing machine

 Heath had just started adding the onions in the caramelizing machine and even though it was only 9:30am, it smelled delicious and made me think I was hungry.
  

The onions just before the lid was closed to
begin the caramelizing process



Next I peeked into their cooler to have a look at the garbs that had been cooked and were being cooled prior to be processed.



The freshly cooked garbanzos that were cooling in the refrigerated cooler



 In one of the other tubs was a batch of sun dried tomato hummus waiting to be packaged.

Hummus that is ready for packaging
(this flavor is their sun dried tomato hummus)

A view of the tubs from within the cooler that contain
either cooked garbs or the finished product before packaging

Heath sealing the tubs of hummus

Tish explained they had just purchased this new sealing machine that Heath was using to provide a better seal for their product which means a better shelf life.  Tish advised that even though customers like having a product that contains no additives, they still expect a long shelf life.  I told her that when we buy their product it usually doesn't last more than a week around our house and that made her smile, but said that was not always the case with others.



The final product, yummmmm



As promised here is the list of stores that carry their gourmet hummus: Rosauers, Yokes, Huckleberries, Moscow Food Co-op, and now Met Foods in Seattle. 

To see an excellent video clip that shows more on how their hummus is made:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trJ3xOpIjK0

As always, thanks for stopping in and I hope you enjoyed the read. 

All my best, Gayle.