Fresh from our Farmers: Spring comes to Tierra Vegetables

Spring, for better and worse, is evident everywhere right now, including at Tierra Vegetables, where the first asparagus has already poked through the soil. Strawberries could start by mid-March or even a little earlier. Pea shoots are just about ready and there will be fresh fava beans in about a month.

The farm’s CSA box for the week of February 12 included kale flowers, leeks, carrots, Brussels sprouts, a choice of puntarella (an Italian relative of chicory) or chard, smoked onion salt and tomato juice.

These items are also available at the farm stand, along with beets, celery root, fresh herbs, kale, onions, parsnips, potatoes, shallots, sunchokes and winter squash.

The farm has been growing puntarella for about 15 years, beginning with seeds a colleague got in Italy; it is a variety of chicory that we have not seen in the United States until recently. Some farmers harvest it young, offering just the spiked leaves that resembled dandelion greens. Others, including Tierra Vegetables, harvest both leaves and mature stalks, which look a bit like celery from outer space or a psychedelic dream. (For puntarella recipes, visit “Eat This Now” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.)

The farm stand also offers an array of farm products, including heirloom popcorn and cornmeal; heirloom hominy; heirloom dry beans; bean flour; dried chiles, including chipotles; hot sauces, chile powders and spice blends; seasoned salts; sauerkraut; pickles; eggs; strawberry puree and syrup; frozen winter squash puree, frozen rhubarb puree and tomato juice from last fall’s harvest.

The farm’s CSA program offers several options, including weekly or every-other-week subscriptions. You can pick up at the farm or at one of the pick-up locations and you can decline a vegetable if you truly dislike it or are allergic to it.

Currently, you won’t see Tierra Vegetables at any local farmers markets. All sales are at the farm itself, by subscription or at San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday.

The farm is not certified organic but, like many small local farms, practices are what can be called beyond organic, without chemical inputs and with composting, crop rotation and the other practices that come under the “sustainable” umbrella. “Organic” has lost much of its meaning since the federal government set up regulations determining what it means, commercially. Many farms are opting out of the extensive paper work required for certification, especially given that scores of chemical inputs are allowed under revised regulations. Asking if a farm is organic is no longer the best way to understand farming practices; the best way is to get to know your farmer, his or her philosophy and, if you can, to visit the farm.

The farm is located on 13 acres owned by the Sonoma County Agriculture Preservation and Open Space District, just east of Highway 101 on Airport Blvd. A kitchen, where value-added products are produced, is a couple of miles north of the farm. The farm store is set up adjacent to the White Barn, an historic structure that was acquired in 2011 and moved to its current location.

Tierra Vegetables, located at 651 Airport Blvd. in Santa Rosa, was founded in the late 1970s by the James family. The farm store currently is open Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, including about the farm’s CSA program, visit tierravegetables.com.