The rains came twice in early October, disrupting the harvest. Even so, the Frey family is remarkably calm. After thirty years of farming, they know how to adapt to nature’s variables. Last year was the shortest season ever, between early rains and early frost. Now the family and a handful of interns and helpers are working around the clock to bring in the harvest and transform it to sulfite-free organic wine. Here is a photo collage of the process.
The first rains of the autumn season have come to Redwood Valley. It is hard not to rejoice in the moisture. The ground is saturated, a relief from the drought of summer. And yet this is agricultural country and the rains are early. The grapes are on the vine. So the farmers are not happy.
The sound of rain pattering leaves, the mummer of raindrops gently falling on surfaces, then the rising to a crescendo near and far, this is the music of the rainy season. A waterfall gushes from the gutter on the roof. And all the more delightful because sparkling spring-like days will intersperse the cold gray days of the rainy season.
Early one morning, I saw Daniel Frey driving the golf cart he 
uses on the ranch. He was pulling a spray rig. All of a sudden, I realized he was about to spray a BD prep over the grapes! When he got to the end of a row, he stopped a moment and we had time to talk.
He told me how much he loved the whole ritual of making and applying the preparations. He got up before dawn to grind granite into a powd
er finer than flour. Then he put a small amount in a 55-gallon tank of water and stirred it in a special pattern to enhance the vitality. First he stirred and stirred until he created a vortex in the water, then he broke the vortex by stirring in the opposite direction. This procedure went on for an hour. He chants or tones a note going up an octave and then when the vortex is broken, reversing the tone and going down.
The prep had been buried in the ground in a cow’s horn all summer. I asked if it was true that BD Preparations work on the same principle as homeopathic remedies—using an amount so small that it is sub-molecular and works on a vibrational level. He agreed, and said the essence is so fine that the spray need not get on all the grapes, every sixth row was enough to stimulate the whole population of grapes. He then told me that he uses the golf cart because the plant spirits prefer the quiet.
The grapes 
are Sauvignon Blanc and an unknown red table grape. Last night the Frey’s had a wine club gathering and this was left over. I took the bowl outside as the sun was coming over the ridge. The closest vineyard, outside the kitchen door, is Cabernet Sauvignon, and they are ripening too—
look at those grapes.
I’ve been living here for a year now, and so I’m more attuned to the vineyard and am not afraid to seek answers I have about the harvest. Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon are two of the earliest maturing varieties. As the oldest organic winery in the country, Frey winery (pronounced fry) is pioneering the way. I’ll share what I learn along the way.
I read the email this morning. Fernanda said they had harvested quinoa and would start threshing it today. An intern from Ecuador, Fernanda had told me about growing up in Riobamba, in the Andes, where her mother has a restaurant that serves traditional food, including quinoa. Last week I took a picture of her standing beside the quinoa, a variety from the USDA seed bank, a multi-hued one. Fernanda led me to the drying loft of the barn, where bundles of rye, teff, and garlic were hung to dry. I arrived at the garden at lunchtime so, she got me started and went to take a break. I was excited to get started. The last time I cleaned quinoa was when I worked at the Abundant Life Seed Foundation fifteen years ago.
Another Ecology Action intern, Luke,
showed me how they first weigh the whole plant to calculate the dry biomass, an important step in collecting data for their research in determining yields. Then the seeds are gently stripped off the stem to avoid gathering unnecessary bits of stem and debris. One batch I worked on was not completely dry. The colored stems were so heavily ribbed that they reminded me of rainbow chard when it has bolted. Much of the seed stayed wrapped in the dried chaff, yet the grain (pseudograin see archives) looked completely mature. The other batch was much faster to process because the stems were brittle. I rubbed the dried flower heads between my hands and let the seed fall into a bowl. I worked alone for a few minutes and then two volunteers returned to work on amaranth.
Later, Ellen Bartholomew, the garden manager at this site, one of Ecology Action’s research gardens, joined me. She showed me a faster way to process grains. After stripping the dried seed heads, we pushed the quinoa through seed screens. The best arrangement was #5 on top and the fine mesh on bottom. The most mature quinoa fell through by shaking the screen, whereas we needed to rub the remainder through the screen. The stems and coarse material remained on top. The finest chaff sifted through the fine mesh screen, leaving very little debris to remove in the last step.
Winnowing is a skill that reminds me of a chef tossing an omelet. I remember working as a cook in an Italian restaurant and told to practice with a skillet of dry beans. By flipping the wrist I learned how to turn a pan of sautèd veggies without a spatula. Holding a bowl lightly with two hands and standing in front of an electric fan on low, I tossed the quinoa; the chaff sailed through the air, onto the floor. Quinoa is a good one for beginners to learn with because the chaff is so much lighter than the seed, thus it separates easily. To make sure the seed is evenly dry, the quinoa will be kept at the temperature it will later be stored at before being placed in a sealed container. If they are not damp, and don’t stick to each other, unlikely in this dry air, then they will be ready to go into storage containers. Ecology Action does lots of quinoa trials; this mountain valley provides the ideal growing conditions, hot days and cool nights.
The roots of heirloom seed companies can be traced from the mid-1800s when seeds were part of the public trust, to the disappearance of family-owned seed businesses in the 1970s, to the renaissance of heirloom and organic seed companies today.
An article in Acres USA, “Seeds of Sustainability”, by Bill McDorman, author, and founder of two seed companies, and Stephen Thomas, provide not only a historic overview, but also, offer provocative thoughts about where the market is headed.
Over 50 small and family-owned companies were acquired by multinational conglomerates after the Plant Variety Protection Act included seeds as intellectual property that could be privately owned in 1970.
Ten years later, a supreme court ruled that patenting life-forms based on their genetic code could legally be privately owned. Seed company mergers and buyouts followed until there were few regional, independent companies left.
Major seed companies choose to focus on breeding new high-yielding hybrids. The major drawback of hybrid seed is that its progeny are unpredictable, requiring farmers to purchase seed each year. Seed companies dropped countless old fashioned, open-pollinated varieties that could be saved and focused on traits that benefited agribusiness, uniformity maturity, toughness to withstand shipping and long shelf life. These varieties thrived when grown with heavy chemical inputs.
Modern plant breeders call the ancient, holistic approach to selecting and saving seed horizontal resistance. “This technique considered the overall health and quality of a broad population of plants along with its adaptation to regional growing conditions,” explained Mc Dorman. Plant breeders discarded this in favor of vertical resistance, seeking specific genes to confer quantifiable improvements for specific problems. (Whether or not it is possible to isolate individual genes for specific characteristics is a hotly debated subject) Mc Dorman explains, “The problem with vertical resistance is pests can more easily evolve to overcome the resistance conferred by single genes.”
The gap in the marketplace created a niche for the germination of small, independent seed companies and non-profit organizations in the 1980s. Bountiful Gardens had its start at this time, as did, Seed Saver’s Exchange, Johnny’s, Territorial, Garden City Seeds, and many others. These small, independent companies were alike in being started by visionaries with commitment to maintaining seed diversity while they differed in their mission of who they served. The emerging seed businesses branched at this juncture: some focused on preserving a wide array of open-pollinated and heirloom seeds and making them available to as many people as possible.
Some seed companies targeted primarily market gardeners and small-scale farmers. While providing open-pollinated seeds, they also offered hybrids and several of the more savvy entrepreneurs even cultivated trial gardens to introduce new sustainable varieties.
Other companies targeted home gardeners and homesteaders; they kept a low overhead, stayed small and choose not to promote their products through glossy catalogs. Some choose to keep their prices down while others were trendsetters.
ORGANIC SEED
The seed industry’s next growth spurt came in the 1990s, prompted in part by the National Organic Program (NOP) requirement for certified organic growers to buy certified organic seed, when available. Tom Stearns, founder of High Mowing Seed Company, has been written up in “Seeds of Success” by Cheryl Cesario, also in the January 2011 issue of Acres U.S.A. Although a highly informative piece about a leader in the field, it is beyond the scope of this article.
Here is one insight to ponder from Stearns: “ Many of the hybrid varieties on the market today are developed under high input conditions. Even for seeds produced organically, they were most likely developed in chemical agriculture systems. How can these varieties then thrive in organic systems?” Stearns continues, “Even if the hybrid seed crop is grown organically, the genetics just aren’t there. It’s like milking a Black Angus because she is the only cow around. The organic farmers in this country don’t have the right seed genetics to support true organic farming methods.”
Mc Dorman corroborates, “Organic seed is becoming just another industrial market niche. One-size-fits-all hybrid organic seeds, produced by multinational giants are beginning to flood the market.”
While the NOP requirement for organic seed is hailed as an incentive to banish chemicals from organic farming, some growers are concerned that the rush to procure organic seed must not be at the cost of losing more heirloom diversity. The challenges to offering organic seed are as follows, the seed companies face higher production costs, added expense of certification for organic handling, and reluctant farmers. The organic farmers and market gardeners in turn are confronted with inadequate seed supply, greater expense for seed and the risk of growing untested varieties when their livelihood and reputation are at stake.
What many people seem to be acknowledged is that open-pollinated, organic varieties hold a promise for us to adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate. As a culture we can’t expect the farmers and seed companies to take all the risks. Some see the need for the government in the form of the land grant colleges to usher in the transition. Organizations like the Organic Seed Alliance are actively working toward breeding what they call “heirlooms of tomorrow”. Some people suggest that the successful organic foods industry help fund the transition. Finally, it may come down to individuals who step forward to make the commitment to saving and breeding their own seed.
Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Famine
By Gary Paul Nabhan, 2009. GPN is an ethnobiologist, conservationist, farmer and author of eight books.
Most of the crops we depend on for food were domesticated in ancient times, in just six regions on five continents. This is the story of a brilliant Russian plant breeder who devoted his life to food security through exploring those regions to glean seeds and essential agrarian knowledge. Nabhan followed in Vavilov’s footsteps and met with scientists that continue this important seed conservation work. He also talked with traditional farmers in the field on each of those continents. Vavilov is recognized today for three primary contributions:
Establishing a seed bank from the hundreds of thousands of seed he collected.
Mapping the world’s centers of biodiversity for food crops, utilized today by conservation organizations as Biodiversity Hotspots.
Recognizing the importance of, and recording the knowledge of regional farmers about their crop varieties.
My favorite story was about a 90-year-old plant geneticist from Kazakhstan who told Nabhan how Vavilov changed his life. One day the great scientist was coming to his town to look at the forests of wild apple trees in the surrounding hills. At the time, Dr. Aimak Dzangaliev was a sixteen-year-old stable boy who was invited to accompany Vavilov and translate for him. Dzangaliev was so impressed by the genius that he saved money and studied for ten years, until one day his dream came true and he studied under Vavilov; he went on to become Kazakhstan’s expert on wild apple diversity.
An example closer to home is the account of Vavilov collecting wild sunflower seed in Texas. He brought the seed back to his staff of oilseed breeders who worked on crossing the sunflower with the cultivated Helianthus annuus, our common garden sunflower. One plant geneticist, Pustovoit, continued breeding sunflowers for thirty years, using that same wild relative. He developed a strain, a stable hybrid sunflower with unusually high levels of polyunsaturated oils that became an oilseed crop in the Soviet Union. Many years later, farmers from Texas, USA, came to the agricultural research station where Pustovoit’s daughter gave them seed to take back to Texas, where it now grows as a crop.
The food crops indigenous to the US include wild rice, sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, tobaccos, low-bush blueberries and amaranths. Vavilov lectured in the US and spoke of crops unknown to his audience of American scientists, including tepary bean, maypops, maygrass, sumpweeds and chenopods, little barley and Chicksaw plums. To learn more about these crops see another of Nabhan’s books, Renewing America’s Food Traditions.
One insight that Vavilov showed the world was that crops don’t grow in a vacuum where they are randomly attacked by insects and diseases. Vavilov looked at plant pathology from an evolutionary, geographic context. That was part of his fascination with what we now call biodiversity hotspots. Vavilov deduced that “…those centers still held ancient diverse forms of crops that had co-evolved with pests and diseases over many millennia.”
Nabhan relates that to this day whenever there has been major crop failure caused by disease or insect pests, plant specialists have gone in search of the crop’s wild relatives and ancient landraces; somewhere in the world’s centers of diversity they have found the seeds of genetic resistance. Although much diversity has been lost, farmers and scientists around the world are working to preserve food systems. Where Our Food Comes From is an urgent reminder to save traditional farming along with the seeds.
Grain growing is one of the frontiers of home gardening; people start with vegetables and move to fruits; strawberries, cane fruits and home orchards. Perennial vegetables like asparagus and artichokes or culinary herbs often follow. We tend to shy away from growing grains. Grain growing takes so much space; grains are so cheap to buy. But, now more and more gardeners are taking up the challenge to grow their own grains.
I got my wake-up call from an article in the Washington Post on March 13, 2011 by the founder of the World Watch Institute, and Earth Policy Institute, Lester Brown:
The United States has been the world’s breadbasket for more than half a century. Our country has never known food shortages or spiraling food prices. But, like it or not, we will probably have to share our harvest with the Chinese, no matter how much that raises our prices.
A small patch of grain can be broadcast by hand. When I do this, I feel connected with ancient people; there is something almost biblical about this practice. Broadcasting is a meditative dance; the continual moving forward while sweeping the arm to and fro while evenly scattering the seed. If you prefer a more accurate form of seed dispersal, one low-tech option is to use a grass seed broadcaster. Think of sowing a lawn, but one that will grow tall and go to seed. If you have a big sunny backyard, a 30 ft. by 30 ft. patch of winter wheat sown in the fall will produce 50 lbs. of dry wheat berries the following early summer.
The other end of the spectrum is transplanting 
seedlings of grain. Before you throw up your hands in disbelief, consider this. It is possible to produce the same 50 pounds on a mere 300 sq.ft. area. That is enough wheat to make a one-pound loaf of bread every week of the year. If your space is limited, try this Grow Biointensive technique. Mind you, it is part of an entire process described in How to Grow More Vegetables: THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE, ON LESS LAND THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. John Jeavons and the Ecology Action staff have quantified the yields of grain grown by transplanting seedlings. So, I’ll leave you with these seeds of inspiration and in the fall instead of planting cover crops for the winter; consider sowing some amber waves of grain.
Keep an eye out for more about grains–easy choices for the novice; harvesting with an Austrian Scythe; how flailing can be graceful, and more surprises.
Why am I fascinated by olive oil? Maybe it’s my Italian heritage and the fact that I just returned to California after thirty years of living elsewhere. Or, perhaps it is because I am drawn to the 100-mile diet concept and the potential for making cooking oil makes me giddy. Whatever the reason though, I can’t look at the ubiquitous olive tree in a parking lot without breaking into a smile.
Once you start looking, olive trees grow everywhere in California. The Spanish padres brought them when they headed north from Baja California. I remember driving through a region not far from Ensenada, called Santo Tomas that was all olive orchards. In fact, the most common variety of Olive is the Mission. But, I’m going to stick with where I am in northern California.
I’ve had my eye on about sixty trees that flank one of the roads through the vineyard where I live. Maybe I’ll take some photos from the tower. I started researching and writing this last November. Last week I had the opportunity to learn something new about olives that inspired me to rework this and share it with you.
Okay, so this is what I discovered in my eagerness to learn the secrets of successful olive oil making. I was thinking along the lines of local production and self-reliance. I visited the mill where the Frey’s had pressed their olives the week before. I called and wanted to watch olives being pressed into oil.
At the Olivino press in Hopland, I was stunned by the technology and the science involved in creating fine olive oil. I never expected to find a state-of-the-art facility right here in Mendocino County. Yvonne Hall, co-owner and plant manager was obviously a very busy woman. When she realized I was willing to return a few hours later when she had time to talk, Yvonne was really helpful, giving me a tour, answering my many questions, and spelling words out so I could write it all down.
Now, I didn’t realize that the thrust of this olive oil movement was from wine growers who wanted to create an olive oil based on the Lucchese oil from Tuscany, considered by many to be the finest olive oil in the world. Yvonne and her partners went to Italy to find the best equipment. What I was witnessing was a renaissance of olive oil fifteen years into its unfolding. People have gone to Italy and brought back the same varieties that are grown there in Tuscany. I had thought Mendocino was on the far northern edge of this crop and the varieties were selected based on similar climates, but no this is a world-class creation. They are growing and pressing olives in Napa and Sonoma counties also.
The good thing, from my local-foods approach is that Olivino has a community press day or days when small farms can bring whatever amount of olives they grew and throw them in the press. No guarantee that what you take home is from the specific olives raised on your land, but you are getting local oil. So I thought what I would see was so local appropriate technology and was shocked to discover a marvelous highly competitive art from unfolding.
Let me just interrupt right here and tell you something about me. If you are going to follow this blog, you should know that I have an endless curiosity when I explore something new. I have to devour the entire body of knowledge, whether it is building my own house, understanding Fideicomiso–the Mexican laws for buying property, or growing wild mushrooms. So, be forewarned; I might go off on tangents from time-to-time.
I want to write about the bright green oil pouring from the machine and the floral taste of the fresh oil with a final note of pungency at the back of my throat; but if I wait for all that I may never post this! Consider this just the first glimpse of my passion with olives. By the time this blog has a following, I will be posting regularly. The tiny olive flowers are just beginning to bud here at a thousand foot elevation.
Dr. Vandana Shiva, highly articulate ecofeminist, author of numerous books including Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, challenges the false claims of a current advertisement by Monsanto.
9 billion people to feed. A changing climate. Now what? Producing more, conserving more, improving farmers’ lives. That’s sustainable agriculture. and that’s what Monsanto is all about.
You have seen the propaganda printed in countless magazines. Shiva Vandana takes on Goliath, point by point, in “Climate Change and Agriculture: Biodiverse Ecological farming is the Answer, Not Genetic Engineering,” published this February, by Climate StoryTeller.org
A Changing Climate: Industrial globalized agriculture is heavily implicated in climate change by contributing to the three major greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and methane. Vandana Shiva quotes the specific increases from pre-industrial times to now, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Producing more: The claim of higher yields has been proved wrong by a recent study titled, Failure to Yield by Dr. Doug Gurian Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who was former biotech specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and former adviser on GM to the U.S Food and Drug Administration. Sherman states, “Let us be clear. There are no commercialized GM crops that inherently increase yield. Similarly there are no GM crops on the market engineered to resist drought, reduce fertilizer pollution or save soil. Not one.”
Conserving More: Contrary to their claims, the GMO industry is stealing, not conserving genetic information. Navdanya’s recent report titled, “Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops: Gene Giants are Stealing Farmers’ Innovation of Drought Resistant, Flood Resistant and Salt Resistant Varieties,” shows that farmers have long ago bred corps that are resistant to climate extremes. The industry claims of isolating a “drought tolerant” gene are also unfounded.
Vandana counters, “Drought tolerance is a polygenetic trait. It is therefore scientifically flawed to talk of ‘isolating a gene for drought tolerance.’ Genetic engineering tools are so far only able to transfer single gene traits. That is why in twenty years only two single gene traits for herbicide resistance and Bt. toxin have been commercialized through genetic engineering. Furthermore, genetic engineering leads to soil carbon reduction when crops are herbicide resistant. Weeds are sprayed instead of turned under the soil or composted, thus soil carbon is reduced, not conserved.
Improving life for farmers: The painful fact of 200,000 Indian farmers committing suicide in the last decade is linked to debt created by the high cost of GMO cotton seed. Shiva provides statistics and compares prices.
Sustainable Garden Design 