Old Farm, New Farm
Coastal Roots Farm is a nonprofit Jewish community farm in Encinitas. The farm’s ethos is a meeting between ancient Jewish agricultural practices and a new age sensibility (the green, eco-friendly, farm-to-table, sustainable movement).
When they offered me an opportunity to visit the farm in person, I jumped at the chance. It’s exactly what you hope a farm will be like: warm air, the sounds of birds, big wooden buildings.
I arrived in the cool of the morning during one of their volunteer hours. They sat at picnic benches gently prying pepper seedlings from their segmented plug trays and replanted them into bigger containers. They joked about the passions of pepper people, asked for advice for their own gardens and talked about daily life.
Damian Valdez, the Assistant Operations Manager, was leading the volunteer group and chatted with me while weeding. The weeds, he told the volunteers, were to be gathered and taken to the chickens. “It is one way that we keep a closed loop cycle here on the farm. It is not their only source of food, but it helps supplement the food that they do get,” he explained. The closed loop cycle is just one example of both a modern and traditional practice; following the tradition of kayamut (ecological sustainability) that has been brought back into modern eco-friendly ideas.Read
Chances and Surprise
“The flora was one of the things that initially made me fall in love with San Diego. I think I was worried California would be the desert color palette of Arizona and I would miss the green of new leaves. My first time visiting here was after a big rain that broke a long drought and everything looked lush, happy and vibrant. Walking around, you could almost feel joy radiating from the palms in the fresh air. ” Read
Coastal Roots Farm Rises to the Coronavirus Challenge
Coronavirus has meant a slow down or shut down for many industries, but for those in the food system like Coastal Roots Farm, it means ramping up to meet the need.
They’ve had to adapt to new regulations and protocols; the first change was the farm stand.
“In terms of our food production and distribution, we are busier than ever. We are 100% committed to fulfilling our food distribution commitments. And during a time when the need is higher than ever before, maybe you know one of the ways you can access food is through our pay-what-you-can farm stand,” Kesha Spoor, the Philanthropy and Communications Manager at Coastal Roots Farm, said.
The pay-what-you-can farmstand is still open on Thursdays (12-3) and Sundays (10-3) and seeing about double or triple the customers it normally does.Read