April 2006 Vol. 25. No. 4

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Eating food from the land: Redwood Roots Farm grows fresh organic produce

Plan ahead: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt announces April 22 meeting

Growing our local food: Farmers' markets continue tradition of small farming

Calling all gardeners

Area Agency on Aging Public hearings reveal issues

Fortuna senior activities: Wellness Lecture Series at Senior Dining Room

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June and Bill Thompson at the gate to Redwood Roots Farm.

Redwood Roots Farm lies in a soft curve of Jacoby Creek. It is home to organic produce for 100 members of a food cooperative - a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture farm. The creek there has been restored to its original riparian habitat, and now willows bend over the spring flood waters where gravel driveways once led all the way to the creek and a cattle loading pen.

Janet Czarnecki, who bought the farm in 2004, was part of creating the fifth CSA in the United States in Ann Arbor, Mich. She has been farming since age 19. She said, "I am interested in doing something that has meaning to me."

A dedicated organic farmer, she said, "It doesn't make any sense at all to put poison on food." She said that CSAs are growing rapidly in the country, "People are discontented with the current food system - they're more interested in having clean fresh food and lower transportation costs."

CSA members do not have to work on the farm for their shares of lush produce. They pay a membership share of $400-$500 a year and pick up their produce once a week. During the winter and summer, members can pick from the U-pick crops.

The farm offers volunteer opportunities and internships, Czarnecki said, and it has offered workshops in the past - grafting plants, insects in the garden and a weed class cosponsored by the HSU Natural History Museum.

Czarnecki said there are about 10 memberships open this year and that she would like to have more senior members. "Most of our older members have agricultural backgrounds," she said. "They understand how farming works." To become a member, call her at 826-0261.

The restoration of the creek alongside the farm and the ultimate use of the 10-acre parcel - six acres for wildlife and four for organic agriculture - were the passionate vision of Bill and June Thompson. They bought the site in 1989 and still live on the hillside across from that lush farmland.

They will be quick to say that they were not the only players in creating a farmland vision for the Jacoby Creek Valley. At the time they bought the land, it was slated for the development of 100 houses with 50-foot-wide roads and 100-foot turnarounds. "I grew up on a 40-acre farm of avocados and oranges in San Diego County. I saw the farmland diminish to half-acre parcels. I wanted to be able to preserve this land for farmland," Bill said.

"My belief is that if you start something with a clear vision, the people will come to fill in the parts you don't have," Bill said. T Griffin, now the manager of the local farmers' markets, Stacey Kett and current owner Janet Czarnecki started farming on the site eight years ago. All were committed to organic production.

"We were concerned about pesticides and about genetic engineering of food crops," June Thompson explained. "So we wanted to preserve this as organic farmland." Creating the Jacoby Creek Land Trust and a conservation easement was the answer. Legally the land needed to be placed into a land trust to make a conservation easement.

A long-time peace activist, Bill Thompson heard about conservation easements on the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in 1986.

"This land as a potential home development was on the tax rolls valued at $100,000," he explained. "But when we eliminated the home sites, the value on the books was reduced to $20,000. We created the land trust and put a conservation easement on the land to make sure it would be farmed in perpetuity by any future owners. Creating the conservation easement let us spread a tax benefit over time."

The Thompsons are committed members of Redwood Roots Farm. They appreciate the social interaction with friends and neighbors when they pick up their share. "It's a happy moment," June said. They are committed for another reason as well - they have a goal to purchase local produce and reduce the number of miles that their food travels from the farm to their table.