A community supported agriculture box from Eatwell Farm.
As we move forward with our greater vision for our Local Food Movement Initiative, we aim to better connect area farmers to the people of Solano County. Eating locally and supporting our local food growers strengthens our regional food system by building community and keeping dollars in our own local economy.
There is also a significant environmental impact of local food production-distribution networks which provide a shorter distribution distance between the grower and consumer. Generally, farm products are processed directly on the farm itself reducing middle-man packaging and additional refrigerated trucking. With smaller, sustainable family farms, you can count on fresher produce, a greater variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and endless learning opportunities! Many farms offering Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box programs offer tours where you can meet your farmers directly and see how your food is grown.
Supporting local food growers through a direct-to-consumer CSA program allows customers to enjoy highly-nutritious produce, meats, dairy and other farm goods. Members can pick up harvest shares at a communal location or have them delivered directly.
Sustainable Solano has made it easy for you to start eating fresher, better foods by compiling a list of local CSAs that currently deliver directly to Solano County cities. Communal pick-up locations are established when the minimum number of memberships required by each farm is met in each city. The more friends and family sign up, the more convenient pick-up locations are created in your city.
Don’t miss out on these current promotional specials!
Our goal is to include all Solano County food producers on this list so please share with us any we missed so we can add it to our website and start providing our residents more options for healthy, local food!
Big News for Benicia’s CSAs!
Benicia’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs are now all under one roof! Heritage Presbyterian Church at 1400 East 2nd Street has graciously opened their doors to host products from four local sources: Terra Firma Farm (vegetables & fruit), Tara Firma Farm (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, eggs, cheese & produce), Siren Fish Company (fish & seafood) and Real Food Bay Area (raw milk, prepared foods and more)! By consolidating these CSAs, “buying local” is now more convenient; it’s one-stop shopping for delicious, locally-grown food. For more information on the farms/fisheries, and to subscribe, please visit these links:
Food, environment and human health, local economy and resilient communities
By Elena Karoulina
Executive Director of Sustainable Solano
Image from Pixabay
When was the last time you had Solano-grown produce on your dinner table? The most possible answer is ‘never’, unless you grow your own food in your garden or your backyard food forest. It’s a very unusual situation for a Bay Area county that is still largely agrarian, at least in the land use patterns.
Sustainable Solano is embarking on a new project to bring more local food to our communities and to connect our local farmers, chefs, and residents with the gifts of our land and with each other.
At the very end of September we received great news from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): our proposal to further our vision by developing a business plan for Solano Community Food Centers was selected for funding! Annually, USDA funds about 14% of grant applications for local food projects, and we are honored to earn support on a federal level.
What is a Community Food Center? It is a hub for local food activities: CSAs deliveries, cooking classes, community education, and large kitchens where chefs and community members can cook wholesome nutritious meals. Larger Community Food Centers can include a food co-op.
Although Solano County produces close to $354 million worth of agricultural products and exports these products to more than 40 countries, only a fraction of that amount remains in the county due to weak distribution system, lack of sales outlets and somewhat low interest in local food. You can hardly find any Solano-grown products in our farmer markets, stores and restaurants. Small farmers struggle to hold on to their land and to connect with local customers.
Where do we buy local food? People who can afford it obtain their local ag products in the markets outside our county: Napa, Sonoma, Berkeley (thus spending local money outside our local communities). Some cities in Solano are blessed with Community Supported Agriculture, but not many people know about this option and take advantage of it. People with low means have to go without local fresh food at all. Solano is a county of commuters, and unfortunately, the only option available for families on a go is fast-food restaurants and convenience stores (you cannot find local food there!).
We pay dearly for this lack of access to local food with our health: Solano County is among the sickest counties in the nation. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease rates are above national average in our home county.
Food, human health, the environment and local economies are all interconnected; by creating a network of city-based Community Food Centers, there is potential to re-envision and re-construct Solano County’s food system so that it works for everyone in the local food supply chain.
Sustainable Solano has partnered with researchers at UC Davis, Solano County Department of Agriculture and Department of Public Health to conduct a feasibility study, develop an effective business plan, and outline implementation for local food businesses that aggregate, process and distribute locally-produced, healthy food products. Our big vision is the environmentally and economically sustainable, equitable local food systems in Solano County.
We are looking for urban and rural farmers, chefs and local food activists interested to implement this vision. We’d love to hear from you with your comments, suggestions, reflections, and offers to help. Please email directly to me at elena@sustainablesolano.org
Let’s make it happen! I am looking forward to meet all of you at the official launch of the program on Wednesday, October 25, at 7 pm, at Benicia’s Heritage Presbyterian Church (doors open at 6 pm). Please join our Advisory Board members Dr. Feenstra and Dr. Campbell in the conversation about the future of food and why local resilient food system is so important. Come meet the project team and all of us interested to bring this vision to reality.
A sample of produce and seafood available from CSAs that deliver to Solano County.
Nothing compares to biting into a fresh-off-the-vine summer tomato or enjoying a slice of pie made with apples right from the tree. There is no debate that fresh-picked produce is superior in taste compared to the chain supermarket equals that are on display under bright lights, losing flavor by the minute. Fortunately, Solano County is surrounded by agriculturally-rich land and offers many options for getting fresher, more nutritious foods on to your dinner plates.
If you are limited on growing space you can join your local community garden or community orchard and enjoy the fruits of your own labor- literally. Farmers’ markets fill downtown areas every year with foods produced by local growers and are a great way to support and honor the hard work of small-scale farmers.
Not everyone, however, has the capacity or time to invest in growing their food or making it down on market days to shop for the week. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) allows you to conveniently receive farm fresh foods, often harvested within 24 hours, delivered directly to your home or you may pick up your box at a drop location right your own city. When you join a CSA, you commit to buying a share of the seasonal harvest up front and receive a weekly delivery of fresh produce, meats, dairy and other specialty goods throughout the growing season. CSAs help to strengthen the relationship between the farmers that grow your fruits and vegetables and you.
There are many opportunities to support local producers and growers but still only a small number of Americans are buying food directly from local food avenues. We seem to have lost our connection between the people who grow our food and the land that sustains through chain grocery shopping. By supporting local farmers, you keep your dollars closer to your local food system, helping transform the local economy. The reality is that for every food dollar spent, only 20 cents goes directly back to the farmer who grew the food- the remainder going to transportation. When you buy local, you support a more sustainable and environmentally conscious method of food delivery by eliminating the need for farmers to spend on fuel-guzzling transportation, packaging and energy use for transportation.
Here are only a few benefits to joining a local CSA:
CSAs produce a much greater variety of produce than what you find at local supermarkets.
You get exposed to new fruits and vegetables and new ways of cooking. Often included in your box are recipe cards with information for preparing and storing your items as well as nutritional facts.
You are often getting produce picked within 24 hours of arriving to your doorstep so produce is fresh, ripe, and never frozen for best taste.
Many CSAs offer farm tours where you can meet the people who grow your food, learn sustainable agriculture and see how your food is grown.
The money you spend goes right back to the food you eat and into sustaining the operations of the farm you are a member of.
Check out the list of CSA’s that delivery in your area and start receiving nutritious, delicious, farm-fresh foods grow by a local farmer!
Resilience.org is a publication that focuses on creating platforms to stimulate conscious conversations about community building strategies. The Sustainable Solano Communications Committee recently stumbled across an article regarding trade policies that we feel is an eye-opening conversation starter. The article, titled “Why are my Highly Educated Friends so Ignorant About Trade?”, was written by Isabel Marlens and presents a straightforward, stimulating concept that makes the case quite well for local economy. In an interesting way though, Martens does this not by exploring the benefits of localizing, but instead by pointing out the practical drawbacks of international trade partnerships and how they holistically affect resource allocation around the globe.
The title is jarring, though the thought process left me identifying as one of the “ignorant friends” that she refers. She explains reasons for why so many reasonable people fall into this category and even adds ways to lift the veil and shape the ways in which we do business, business that aims to fulfill the primary intention of what trade seeks to offer: mutually beneficial exchanges between well-intentioned parties.
Overall, there might not be anything inherently wrong about large scale trade. It does, however, in its application, open the door to leaving out the little guy. This piece is a wonderful jumping off point for beginning the discussion about why that is and what can be done about it. Upon reading this article, I was left with 2 questions: 1) In what ways can we support the local economy? and 2) In what ways might a local economy improve the way we conduct large scale trade partnerships abroad? Have a look at this short article and let us begin to discuss your answers to these questions and see if we as a community can come up with some uplifting solutions.
Sustainable Solano would like to share a video that a friend, Kristian, made! It certainly highlights the most meaningful moments and makes us reflect on how moving of an experience this was for us.
Join us in co-creating a world that works for everyone. Whether you were with us for the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, or you want to learn more about how you, with your own unique values, skills, and concerns, can commit to creating the change you want to see, a good place to start with with the Game Changer Intensive. Offered by Pachamama Alliance, it is a seven-week online course designed to educate, inspire, and equip you to be a pro-activist leader, a game changer in your community.
Sustainable Solano is partnering with Pachamama Alliance and Solano County libraries to offer, in conjunction with the online session, regular meeting spaces for residents of Solano County to meet, build, and support our communities together. If you are interested in registering, please submit your interest here. Pachamama and Sustainable Solano will contact you with more information according to the respective cities that you live in. For any additional information, please contact info@sustainablesolano.org.
