TOURING PETALUMA: Tara Firma Farms
In front of the office at Tara Firma farms.
Dear Foodie Fam,
It’s National Agriculture week!
Read on about a sustainable Petaluma farm we recently fell in love with.
PT I: Someday...
Dutch has wanted a farm for a long time. When we started dating, I knew he loved video games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon... but later on, I realized how deeply fascinated he actually was!
Dutch grew up on a pig farm. To this day, the shrieks of the sows that birthed piglets literally a door away from where he slept are burnt into his memory. Maybe that trauma would’ve turned him against farming, but the pivot came when preteen Dutch visited his great grandaunt’s San Luis Obispo farm. Sure, the popular beach in this city is charming. However, the magic of retreating to the peaceful farm with it’s little library and sweet family of animals enchanted him.
I personally visited his heaven on Earth. The property seemed overrun with surprisingly organized smatterings of succulents and patches of sunlight. There’s a humble domain of chickens, a vigilant rooster and a grumpy turkey. They feast on rotting tomatoes sunken into the ash-black soil. Out into the distance, the Cerro San Luis Obispo mountains cut across the bright blue sky and fade into the lush, luminous greenery of the valley below.
Faced with that scene, any wannabe farmer could see just how rewarding having a little farm could be.
The farm’s furry ambassador, Tractor.
PT II: Tara Firma Farms
On a weekender in Petaluma, Dutch and I were stoked to visit Tara Firma Farms. The hazy sky, drizzle and splooshy mud couldn’t dampen our motivation to see -amongst other things- the chickens. Dutch has always been in love with chickens: the animals he once tried to own (until they ate his dad’s watermelons and we’d chase them down the street), the eggs he eats daily and the meat he fries.
Tara Firma has a small market in their office featuring local crops from neighboring farms and their fresh food sources.
However, it wasn’t a chicken that greeted us as we pulled into the small dirt lot. A speckled hound -who we later met as “Tractor” the “three year old hound- loped leisurely slowly along as if to usher us to our parking spot. He then patiently waited to casually host us to the little red front office. From under a Lagunitas brewery hat, member support, events and outreach manager Brandon Connaughton asked Dutch what camera he was shooting with. They got so caught up talking about Creative work that he almost didn’t realize that the rain had made it so that this was now a private tour.
Our procession was lead by Brandon and flanked by Tractor (whose path sometimes weaved away depending on his preferred route through each stage of the tour). Brandon had a lot to say about farming at Tara Firms Farms. It was easier for him to navigate us through the main areas of the 260 acre property and with just us two, he didn’t have many distractions from his stories and our questions.
Being basic.
Tara Firma is a sustainable farm. They raise beef, pork and chicken and provide eggs. They supply organic, pasture raised, antibiotic/hormone free and non-GMO food sources. It’s evident how proud Tara Firma is of it’s attention to detail in agricultural management and the land’s impact on the overall community and future of farming. They’re a small farm with big ambition...
Brandon gave us each animal’s name, diet, role in contributing to the farm and basics about their biology and history.
These goats! They’re so fun!
We first met three goats. Brandon said Spring would usher in more kids. As it was, there were two speckled female goats that seemed almost leopard printed! These beasts are the “lawn mowers” of the farm. They have a pen with ramps to climb up, but as the old adage goes: “if it can’t hold water, it can’t hold a goat”… so the gates around them are quite tall. From their pen, they watch passerbys attentively… because you can feed them by dangling in some greens.
Babydoll sheep are too cute to describe.
Over beside the pen was the fenced off domain of 100s of hens. There’s 15 heritage breeds, here. They’ve got a sizeable coop but they are freewheeling. They’re “stress free” hens moved from pasture to pasture so they can enjoy a variety of nutritious eat (i.e.: different grass and insects) resulting in some good fertilizer and ultimately... a supply of nutritious eggs.
Sharing this pen are two babydoll sheep. They are “lawn mowers” for the farm. They are so ridiculously cute- really appearing like little dolls and waddling much like corgis do.
The token barnyard owl enjoying deep slumber!
We moved on to the barn in which usually you can find the token barnyard owl camped out snuggly in the attic eaves. Along the side of the barn runs the dominion of a local flower farmer who grows pesticide-free slow flowers. Slow flowers are flowers grown locally, seasonally and ethically in the United States. Many of the ones grown at Tara Firms are heirloom or off-varietals grown on commission! What a life to be paid to grow such beauts! I wished I could’ve come in Spring to witness the splendor.
In a drive through barn, you can hear the snorts of six sows nursing their piglets. Each sow has their own pen. We followed soft squealing to one of these pens. We watched as a sow lazily rolled over to feed her troupe of piglets and the squealing shortly dissolved away. Once the piglets are able to carryon on without mom, they’ve got a sprawling area of mud where roam about as they wish and feed only on organic food and vegetable/fruit waste from local markets. This open movement and natural feed make it so the pigs can live without hormones or antibiotics.
On the other end of the drive through barn, you’ll see the one boar. That day, he was lazing in his range of mud, sandwiched by female pigs under a makeshift personal shelter. I shot Dutch a smug look as he said that was “the life.” At some point, these pigs will also move to a new plot as the grass growing in front of their range seeds what is currently mud.
There’s also ducks on the farm! Check out those male ducks tryna hollah- it’s that time!
Cows grazing on jewel-green grass at Tara Firma farms.
Up a particularly muddy hill trail that Tractor does not prefer, you can see the cows. These are Black and Red Angus beef cattle. They’re fenced to ranges where they graze only on grass and organic alfalfa. After the cows have eaten what they want of one plot (leaving a bounty of cow pats) they move on to the next. In this way, the cows give back to the farm by providing manure that increases the presence of nutrients (and ultimately, the overall health) of the farm. They also make more fertile a plot of land that can be used for other things.
Brandon taught us a little about why each animal has several roles on the farm aside from being a source of food. The main reason each animal and each way of farming is managed so succinctly on Tarma Firma farms is because -simply- good soil makes for good food.
It’s believed by many modern day chefs that nutrient-rich food is not just healthier, but tastier. Nutrient-rich food comes from nutrient-rich soil. Tara Firms farmers are proud of maintaining their farm with this in mind. Healthier soil is easier to farm for generations and generations and Tara Firma believes they are giving to farming’s future.
A happy Dutch!
Euro eggs from healthy chickens. These do not go through extensive washing and their intact protective coating allows them to reside at room temperature.
On the tour, we learned a lot about Tara Firms, Petaluma and farming in general. The ability for Brandon to take the time to share his knowledge is provided by Marin’s CSA program (community supported agriculture). Tara Firma happily supplies the public with ways to learn about farming.
We left with a flat of Euro eggs and some food for thought… Brandon had talked about interesting techniques that today’s farmers hope will further the future of agriculture, and I wanted to know more about those techniques…
