Backyard Farmers Progress - How to get started selling at your local farmers' market

So San Diego Food Not Lawns has been operating a produce consignment stand at the City Heights Farmers' Market.  It was great while it lasted but the county is now requiring us to conform with the same rules that farmers have to follow.  Many will cry foul, but I think that's fair.  We're all farmers...albeit rather tiny farmers, so we should have to abide by the same (or at least similar) codes so that if someone gets sick off food, there's a way to trace it back to the source and find out what happened.  So in order to get back in line with this code, everyone who grows food for sale at a farmers' market needs to become a "certified producer."  Sounds fancy, but it's not too hard.  Basically you fill out a form from the San Diego County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures (it's a mouthful ...SDCDAWM).  The form is only two pages.  The first page is the usual name and address stuff, whether you're going to be representing any growers beyond yourself and whether you own or lease the land.  The important thing here is that you do own or lease the land and can prove it.  It also asks for the parcel number.  If you don't know that, don't worry.  The county has ways of looking it up.

The second page is a worksheet for ALL the things you plan to grow.  You will want to include as many things as you can think of.  If you need more pages, just tack them on.  They can be written on blank paper, doesn't need to be official worksheet or anything.  They'll want to know the type of thing you're growing (tomato, for example) the variety (just take a guess...they have this wacky database of varieties, for tomatoes they want to know the color and shape so red and globe covers most of them) the amount and unit of measure (6 and plants), estimated production and unit of measure (10 and lbs.) and harvest season (Aug - Sept).  Just take your best guesses at this stuff.  It's not an exact science.

Now this application process covers you to sell for 1 year from date of issue of you certified producer status.  You can't sell anything at the market that's not on your list, so be as exhaustive as possible.  You also have to have anything on your list planted somewhere in your yard.  It can be a yogurt cup of dirt with a sign on it saying "cucumbers" and that will be enough to count as you growing cucumbers.  Weird, I know.  If it's the middle of summer and you don't plan on putting your broccoli in the ground, just stick a sign in your garden somewhere that says "broccoli."  That's good enough for the inspector.  He's not going to dig up your garden looking for broccoli seeds.  If you don't do this, then you have to bring the inspector back out once your broccoli is planted.

There's a fee associated with this whole process.  It's $35 when you submit your application (they take cash, checks and credit).  You can drop off the application in person at the Kearny Mesa Offices) or you can mail it in.  Then someone will call you to schedule the inspection (I got a call the day after I turned mine in, so this can be a VERY quick turnaround, be prepared for that).  The inspector will walk around and ask to see everything you put on your worksheet to verify you're growing it.  If the plant is dying/dead, that's fine, it just has to exists somewhere.  If it's just a seed and not sprouted, that's fine too.  The inspector charges a sliding scale fee (from $20 for most places in the city to $80 for way out in Jamul) for transportation time and then $60/hr for the actual inspection (anyone with a regular garden can expect to pay for half an hour, which is the minimum, so $30).  So...that's a total of $85.  If this is too rich for your blood, talk to me (Ian) or someone else with Food Not Lawns and we'll happily subsidize you.

Now...there's one more funny rule which puts a damper on our plans: the county says you can only sell on behalf of yourself and up to TWO other certified producers.  I have no idea why two.  I think it's just a small enough number that it makes enforcement easier.  I, for one, would like to see this number increased to about four or five.  So, what we would like to see (and where we will be most interested in subsidizing) is people forming threesomes/triads that can "co-sell."  Each person on their application specifies the other two growers as sellers for them and growers for them.  That way, people in each triad can rotate who goes to the market so there's not too much burden.  Ideally, these triads would be formed around a specific culture and language so that we can better represent both the produce and the languages at the farmers' markets.  So, find a friend or two and commit to coming to the farmers' market (any farmers' market, but ESPECIALLY the City Heights Farmers' Market) at least once a month to represent you and your two other growers.  Once you've formed your triad (let's call it a growing group, since we hope that someday it will be a little larger than just three) contact me (ircone@yahoo.com) or anyone else at Food Not Lawns and we can help you with the paperwork, prep for the inspection and subsidize your application/inspection fees.  We'd like to have little badges for each growing group too so that people can easily identify the program and support the vendors

If you want to look over the paperwork, it's available here as a PDF:

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/reusable_components/images/awm/Docs/cfm_cpc_app_pkt.pdf

Any questions?  Post a comment and I'll respond..

-Ian

Leucadia tree [not] saved by localpower Andrew / Jru + community

http://sdtjdphevents.blogspot.com/2009/02/leucadia-tree-not-saved-by-localpower.html

Fallen Fruit at MCASD (downtown SD) Thu Feb 5 6-10pm + DIY WWOOF SD County

[1] This event showed up at the sdtjdph calendar ( j9k.org/cal ) via
foodcalendar.org but I haven't seen it mentioned yet on any of the
lists. So here it is:

Links to event details:

http://tinyurl.com/bnx7n4 or:
http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=cnUxamlkaTZndHZtb2VldjBpb2R0NXNnc28gbjIxZ283N3Jnc3JvYjJ1ZTAxdTM1czlrY2NAZw&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

The MCASD TNT info:
http://www.mcasd.org/events/lectures.asp#TNT

The following is pasted from the fallen fruit artist statement
http://www.fallenfruit.org/media/FF_statement.pdf on their downloads
page. Also check out their maps http://www.fallenfruit.org/maps.html .

The Principles of Fallen Fruit:
1. Fruit on public property belongs to all of us.
2. Mapping it is a way to share with everyone, learning neighborhoods
by foot, rather than by car.
3. Ask property owners to plant fruit trees for everyone.
4. Functional landscaping: ask cities to plant fruit trees in parks,
parking lots, and on streets.
5. Open dialogue within neighborhoods about public spaces.
6. Think about who has fruit and other resources, and who does not.

FALLENFRUIT is a collaboration of Dave Burns, Matias Viegener and
Austin Young http://www.fallenfruit.org

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Fallen Fruit is a collaborative art project which began as a whimsical
mapping of our neighborhood public fruit: all the fruit trees we could
find that grew on or over public property.
When your neighbor's fruit tree hangs into your yard, that fruit is
considered yours. But whose fruit is that on public property? We
believe that fruit planted on private property which overhangs public
space should be public property and created this project to encourage
people both to harvest and plant public fruit. The project is a
response to accelerating urbanization and the loss of people's
capacity to produce their own foods, as well as issues
around grassroots community activism, social welfare and social responsibility.

From the original printed edition, we expanded into a website which
posts local maps from the handmade to the high-tech, submitted by our
neighbors. We have pictures of fruit and
harvesting, including fruit pin-ups. Our ambition is to map the city,
the whole state, and then the world. We have also begun to propose
public fruit projects. These include further mapping, a campaign to
encourage property owners to plant fruit, petitions to the city to
plant streets and parking lots, and a proposal for a public fruit
park. We think of Fallen Fruit as much as community activism as an art
project. Our neighborhood is full of homeless people and uneaten
fruit: why can't the two be connected? We're not interested in random
theft. Our intention is to promote sharing and community-based
thinking.

We live in a world controlled by multinational corporations, in which
we don't know our neighbors, with a media that manufactures social
realities and ignores poverty and
oppression. Our food arrives processed and pre-wrapped, and few of us
know where it comes from. Our cities are full of wasted spaces and
neglected resources. Fallen Fruit proposes that we be able to make
more food with little effort and find ways to map it and networks for
sharing it. The injunction to share food is as old as the Bible, which
tells us that we should not harvest all our food for ourselves; the
fallen fruit should always be left for those who have nothing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2] DIY (do it yourself) WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms [and
other good places]) SD County:

While I'm emailing everyone,
I'm looking for local wwoof opportunities.
If I can camp or sleep on the floor at or near where I can work
(unpaid) ~4/hrs day, please let me know. I'm happy to do kitchen,
garden, computer and many other kinds of work.

My main goals are:
* to work with others and
* to visit and learn from different people and places in the county.

For more information, please visit:
http://fo-rest.blogspot.com/2009/01/diy-wwoof-in-sd-county-will-work-for.html

Peace & a smile,
Colin

Fwd: NC FNL meeting

Rachel,
could you fill Valerie in about NC FNL? (or, nevermind--see below)

I'd send this to Amanda, but I didn't get her email.

Valerie--it might just be best to attend the next meeting, since everyone is so busy & not reporting on what happened.

It was good though--great energy, and a different feel (in a good way--related to the more rural & ag-connected north) than the one down here. I actually got one of my stereotypes (about who would be interested in FNL) stuffed in my face when three people showed up from vista-based homestead hydroponics --including Garret (4th? generation horse breeder).

There's probably not a lot to write at this moment-- it is all potential, and who shows at the second meeting will begin to establish tone & direction & who's most interested in participating / making something happen.

peace,
Colin


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Valerie Miller
Date: 01-abr-2008 9:30
Subject: NC FNL meeting
To: Colin Leath

Hi Colin:

I'm wondering what happened at the NC FNL meeting. I haven't heard anything about it. I will probably shift to that meeting in the near future. Let me know!

Valerie

---

Re: [sdfoodnotlawns] The food section of The Weekly Share

Paul,
Marc looked up arundo, and here's what he found:
http://sdedibleplants.blogspot.com/search?q=arundo

The rhizome can be eaten raw, cooked or dried and ground into a powder to make bread. The leaves can be eaten cooked cooked. The young shoots can also be eaten.
Brooms are made from the terminal panicles. Plants are grown alongside irrigation canals to check soil erosion. The plant can be grown as a windbreak screen. If cut down, the culms branch and in this form the plants can be used as a hedge. The leaves can be woven into mats etc, whilst the split and flattened stems are used to make screens, walls of houses etc. A yellow dye is obtained from the pollen. The stems of the plant have a multitude of applications. They are used as plant supports for vines and other climbing plants and to make clarinets, bag-pipes etc. They are also used as pipe stems, for roofing, to make screens, walking sticks and in basketry. They are used to make the reeds of clarinets and organ pipes. The stems can be harvested as desired at any time of the year. The fibre from the stems can be used to make a good quality paper. Because of rather high yields from natural stands, the plant has been suggested as a source of biomass for energy production. Many medicinal uses. (Ref: Plants for a Future)

(I haven't yet tried it myself--though once I did chomp down on a juicy shoot before remembering what you said and I spit it out).

(also, a search on arundo & cyanide http://www.google.com/search?q=arundo+cyanide didn't bring up anything like that)

(Bamboo & cyanide, on the other hand, does bring up something:
http://www.google.com/search?q=bamboo+cyanide )

I read (in _Garden of Eating_ - which has sunchoke recipes) that Inulin / FOS
http://www.google.com/search?q=fructo-oligo+saccharide

Can be debilitating to some people (serious stomach cramps & bloating)--which I got on occaision when eating alot of the sunchokes.

Remembering that you cook camas bulbs and agave roots/balls 24 hours in a pit fire, I tried the same for a large mess (1 gal or so) of sunchokes--(in a crockpot), and was able to eat them without problems--I did that twice--other approaches I tried do not seem as surefire safe--sometimes I was ok stir-frying them, sometimes not.

peace,
Colin

2008/3/27, Paul Maschka <paulmaschka@mac.com>:

Hi Colin,

I don't think you can eat Arundo because its' got cyanide  in it. They
tried using it for feed to live stock but its' toxic. Its' best to
build with it.

What problem are you having with sunchokes? I find the best way to cook
them is broiled in an oven.

Peace, Paul


On Mar 27, 2008, at 6:46 PM, Colin Leath wrote:

> http://sdtjdph.blogspot.com/2008/03/weekly-share-2008-03-28.html#food
>
> Paul: you can eat arundo donax (I think) --see marc's plant page!!
> Also, putting sunchokes in a crockpot for 24 hours seems to be the
> only way I can make them safe to eat for me.
>
> peace,
> Colin

The Weekly Share 2008-03-14

View it at sdtjdph.

March 7, 2008 Weekly Food Justice, Security, & Fun Newsletter

View the food section of the whole newsletter.