Going Organic

[doglady33]

Hi my name is Erin O'Hara and I have wanted to go organic for a while, I have started little by little, but haven't found the best cost effective way to go completely organic. We have recently moved in with another family, and are a blended family of 8. Does anyone have any tips they can share to the best cost effective way to go organic. If you are a small local farmer who is looking to sell any meat, beef, turkey, chicken, or pork, or any vegetables please let me know.
[email protected]

We want to support our local community. Thanks!

[someguy]

I recommend Felton Acres for all your organic and pasture raised meat. Go here: https://www.feltonacres.com/

Also this county has many fine farmers markets. I go to the Santa Rosa farmers market on Saturdays at the veterans memorial building. It is so damn cool! You can get duck eggs, awesome beef from John Ford Ranch, great assortments of fish, Ive even seen goat meat! Yum!!!! Also there is a frequently updated thread here on waccobb about the sebastopol farmers market. Search the terms, "whats new this week at the sebastopol farmers market." You'll probably be able to find it.

Another great resource that our little community has are the many organic CSAs! Of course there is the Laguna farm, First light farm, and Tierra vegetable to name only a few. A quick google search will get you more info on that.

If your really interested in eating the highest quality organic food, then really you should grow your own! Buy some heirloom veggie seeds and trust me, the ones you produce will never be beat by someone else's! A local heirloom seed co. that I work for is having a big sale on grab bags to clear out this years stock. Heres that link: https://www.sustainableseedco.com/onsale.php?display=products

Have fun eating like a king (or Queen) should!

[Suzanne]

To find a CSA close to your home check out www.localharvest.org

Also Valley End Farm in Rohnert Park (near SSU) is certified organic and very cost effective.

Welcome!
Suzanne

[kloux313]

Hi my name is Erin O'Hara and I have wanted to go organic for a while, I have started little by little, but haven't found the best cost effective way to go completely organic. We have recently moved in with another family, and are a blended family of 8. Does anyone have any tips they can share to the best cost effective way to go organic. If you are a small local farmer who is looking to sell any meat, beef, turkey, chicken, or pork, or any vegetables please let me know.
[email protected]

We want to support our local community. Thanks!

I recommend Tara Firma Farms right here in Petaluma www.tarafirmafarms.com (https://www.tarafirmafarms.com). They have sustainably raised, pasture-fed beef, chicken, and pork, and follow all organic practices. They have a CSA where you can get meat, eggs, veggies, and fruit plus other add ons coming soon like, lamb, organic milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and honey. They offer free farm tours every Sunday from 10-3, every hour on the hour. Go check them out and meet the farmers and see for yourself how the animals are raised and what is going on on the farm, the tours are amazing, very informative, and very educational.

[Suzanne]

One more thing: you might want to take a look at our organic food coop...we order once a month.

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showthread.php?71834-Organic-amp-Natural-Food-for-Less-–-Cotati-based-co-op-group&highlight=organic+food+coop

Cheers,
Suzanne

[ian-snazz]

Hello, I think that's great that you are trying to support sustainable products. I think that the best way to do that with food is by supporting local growers- even if not certified organic, but still growing organically. I live and work at a tiny organic veggie farm. We are located in Forestville and we offer beautiful delicious veggies at a reasonable cost. Right now and for at least the next month or two we have:

peppers- many different varieties, esp. hot
tons of tomatoes- roma, cherry, beefsteak, and other heirlooms
Kale
Chard
cucumbers
summer squash- zuccini and others
tomatillos- purple and yellow/green
basil- italian and purple
beets- purple and golden

I don't have the exact prices with me now, but we can promise to be cheaper than at any organic section at the store. For now, you [or anyone] can email me, Ian, for more info. I want to talk to the owner before putting the phone # up here. Good luck!

[Sciguy]

<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/PAULPA%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/PAULPA%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_editdata.mso"><!--> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> This article came from Grist. It sounds to me like the Park Slope Co-op is a made-for-Sebastopol kind of organization. I expect to be told that it already exists and I just don't know about it.

When posting, simple images show as horrible links. I have no idea how they will be rendered in the final posting but I hope for the best.

Paul Palmer

socialist networking
Why I heart the Park Slope Food Co-Op
https://www.grist.org/people/Tom+Philpott (https://www.grist.org/member/1554)

28 Sep 2010 1:43 PM
The Park Slope Food Co-OpPhoto: WallyG (https://www.grist.org/i/assets/2/parkslope.jpg)Brooklyn's Park Slope Food Co-op (https://www.foodcoop.com/) has long struck me as a kind of city in miniature. Like a great metropolis, on some level it [I]shouldn't work. But it does -- spectacularly.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/2433947202/
https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/ImagesforMembers/2010-09-29_1527.png
<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/PAULPA%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/PAULPA%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_editdata.mso"><!--> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style>
What do I mean by that? Let's start with the miraculous functionality of large cities. Walk the chaotic streets of a metropolis -- say, New York or Mexico City -- and contemplate the task of providing millions with basic services like food, water, and transportation. Try pulling a random pedestrian aside and asking her how it all happens. How does Mexico City get water over the mountains that surround it -- and available to 20 million people at the touch of a tap? What force keeps New York's thousands of corner bodegas stocked with flawless fruit and flowers -- and its subways running with remarkable efficiency, considering all the factors that could bollocks these things up?

No one person has all the answers -- only some have any answers at all -- yet cities function more or less smoothly, the sum of the disparate actions and decisions of countless individuals. I am in awe of the process.

The Park Slope Food Co-Op has many of the same attributes. It is a unique institution -- a grocery store in which the shopper/members do the great bulk of the work. They stock the shelves, break down the boxes, cut giant blocks of cheese for the cheese section, work the checkout stands, keep the bathrooms clean during business hours, and more. I was a member when I lived in New York in the early 2000s. I loved its high-functioning city-like chaos. At any given time, the tightly packed store might have a hundred of people shopping and another dozen or two working their monthly 2-hour-and-45-minute shifts. If you had a question about some procedure or policy for a fellow shopper/member, by far the most common answer you got was "I don't know." At times, it seemed that no one knew anything. Yet Park Slope Food Co-op [I]works; it is the best-stocked, best-run, and cheapest health-food/gourmet grocery I've ever seen. It is also by far the most ethnically diverse, with the polyglot grandeur of the surrounding city.

The video below (if you have trouble loading it, go here (https://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/125907/brooklyn-food-co-op-sets-fresh-example)to watch it), from New York City news affiliate NY1, captures some of the co-op's glory. According to NY1, it does $40 million per year in business. Nearly all of its expenditures go to organic products; meat, eggs, and dairy are mainly sourced locally. During the growing season, the produce section has the feel of a top-quality farmers market. There are nearby farms that sell all of their produce to the co-op.
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p>
Because almost all of the grunt work is conducted by members, the co-op generates a few high-skilled, decent-paid jobs instead of (like most grocery stors) many low-skill, low-wage ones. Low labor costs and the lack of the profit motive allow the co-op to have a simple pricing policy: everything gets a 20 percent mark-up, a level dramatically lower than that of chain natural-foods markets like Whole Foods. That adds up to prices so cheap that it becomes painful for longtime members to shop anywhere else. The monthly work shifts also put members into contact with people they'd never otherwise get to know. In a huge and often cold city, few things generate the potential for friendship and hilarity like working together on menial tasks.

In short, Park Slope Food Co-Op bundles its members' food-buying power and uses it in a way that benefits the broader foodshed. I'm glad to hear from NY1 that it not only continues to thrive, but is being replicated throughout the city.

[sweetsu]

Hello!
I hope your transition is going well! We raise organicgrass fed, pasture raised heritage cattle in Cazadero. We have 13 head that run on about 100 acres of their very own. We butcher in the spring and the meat is available to pick up from a local butcher. Customers reserve their section of meat in advance as we are required to pre-sell the animal. If you are interested let us know and we can give you more details.
Cheers,
Sunali 707(477-6075)