Anorthwest-side farm is making a big name for itself—in only
its first year of business.
Sleeping Frog Farms snuck up on Tucson, quietly breaking ground last
fall in an old horse pasture at 1801 W. Overton Road. Since then, the
organic outfit’s vegetables have sold out at farmers’ markets and the
Food Conspiracy Co-op, when they’re not gracing plates at some of the
finest restaurants in town.
“I use them because they’re terrific, and their produce is great,”
said Janos Wilder, the James Beard Award-winning owner of Janos and
J-BAR at the Westin La Paloma. “They’re well-versed in what they do,
and their practices are wonderful.”
I arrived at the farm to find an edible forest inhabited by goats,
dragonflies and adorable kittens. In their midst stood a man heaped in
dreadlocks, and a guy smoking a hand-rolled cigarette.
Meet Adam Valdivia and C.J. Marks, Tucson’s newest veggie gurus.
“This is okra,” Valdivia said, pointing to a stalk with a calloused
finger. “Its blossoms are beautiful.”
Valdivia, 27, and Marks, 32, definitely know how to sweet-talk
vegetables, and their harvesting is equally affectionate. The eggplants
were treated like Faberge eggs. Same goes for the radishes and melons.
Peppers were pampered; basil was caressed.
“We see the beauty in it, and we know how good it looks on the
vine,” Valdivia said. “This stuff is pretty, and we want to share our
excitement about that.”
The look of the produce causes candy shops and Christmas lights to
come to mind. Five eggplant varieties ranged in color from egg white to
royal purple. Tiny crimson peppers dangled near a row of pink radishes.
Color peeked from every corner, juxtaposed against the green
foliage.
Sleeping Frog Farms is about as independent as they come, but its
existence is in line with several growing trends. Local foods are
hotter than habañeros these days, and organic farming is on the
rise, with the acreage devoted to it in Arizona nearly tripling from
2000 to 2007, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture
statistics.
Hip stuff, for sure, but it takes hard work to pull it all off.
Some work weeks exceed 90 hours, Valdivia said, and they pay
themselves a mere $400 each per month. The rest of the farm’s income is
reinvested. Valdivia’s girlfriend, Debbie Weingarten, an employee at
the Tucson Community Food Bank’s Marana Heritage Farm, helps out, as do
a number of volunteers.
“It’s a labor of love; it’s as simple as that,” said Valdivia.
Variety is key, says Marks, so more than 20 veggie varieties are
planted in a way that makes the fields look like an impassable,
bio-intensive Twister game. Tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, parsley,
corn—everything is in a tangle, but the output is staggering.
“We’re like, ‘Maybe if we move this over an inch, we can get another
row in,'” said Marks, laughing. It requires nimble feet and
gentler-than-normal farming practices, but it’s well worth it: They
estimate the output to be around five times more per acre than what
they’ve produced at other gardens.
And there have been other gardens. Their résumés sound
like travel guides: Washington. Jamaica. Costa Rica. Canada. Louisiana.
Patagonia. But these days, their thoughts are firmly rooted in Tucson,
where business is booming.
“We’ve totally outgrown ourselves,” Valdivia said. “If we were
growing three times what we are, we’d still be cleaned out every
week.”
The farm started selling to Zona 78, Harvest, Hacienda del Sol and
the Dish in the last month or two alone, and the requests keep coming
as word spreads.
“I think we both feel a sense of urgency about it,” Valdivia
said.
To keep up with demand, Marks and Valdivia are looking at leasing
land in Amado. They posted online ads for help through the World Wide
Opportunities on Organic Farms program (www.wwoof.org). The volunteers—who
showed up weeks later—will stay for several months, working for
room, board and the experience they’ll gain.
As far as local food goes, it doesn’t get much better than Sleeping
Frog. The veggies rarely travel farther than 12 miles; a recent
delivery to Harvest Restaurant at 10355 N. La Cañada Drive only
traveled 1.5 miles.
They also use no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, something that
appeals to local chefs.
Janos Wilder lists Sleeping Frogs’ name on his menus, and Chef Eric
Larcom of Primo at the JW Marriott Starr Pass was spotted
hand-selecting basil and peppers on a recent morning. Valdivia and
Marks are also helping Larcom redesign Primo’s chef’s garden.
But they’ve got other plans too. They figure if they can outgrow
themselves in a year, anyone can.
“What we want to see is food access,” said Valdivia. They want to
start community gardens across the city to make their produce available
to low-income families.
It’s an ambitious idea, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s two guys
who turned a horse pasture into a verdant foodscape in less than a
year.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.
Best veggies in town hands down.
Glad to know about this. The growing Green Community includes Kids Orchard a mamber of WWOOFusa.org. There are many good choices being make. <3
Organic food is one of the biggest scams out there… Here are three popular myths perpetuated by the organic food industry and the counter arguments to those myths…
Buying organic food benefits small farmers, and represents a blow to the big food corporations.
All right, let’s take for granted the position that major food producers deserve to be struck with a blow. I’m sure the starving millions in Africa appreciate the sentiment.
Make no mistake, organic food is big, big business. The days when the organic produce section of the supermarket represented the product of a small local farmer are long gone. California alone produces over $600 million in organic produce, most of it coming from just five farms, who are also the same producers of most non-organic food in the state. 70 percent of all organic milk is controlled by just one major milk producer.
Five or ten years ago, when the major food producers saw that organic food was coming into vogue, what do you think they did? They smelled higher prices charged for less product, and started producing organic crops. Nearly all organic crops in the United States are either grown, distributed, or sold by exactly the same companies who produce conventional crops. They don’t care which one you buy. You’re not striking a blow at anyone, except at your own pocketbook.
Trader Joe’s is a supermarket chain specializing in organic, vegetarian, and alternative foods with hundreds of locations throughout the United States, centered in organic-happy Southern California. Shoppers appreciate its image of healthful food in a small-business family atmosphere. Really? In 2005 alone, Trader Joe’s racked up sales estimated at $4.5 billion. The company is owned by a family trust set up by German billionaire Theo Albrecht, ranked the 22nd richest man in the world by Forbes in 2004. He’s the co-founder and CEO of German multi-national ALDI, with global revenue in grocery sales at $37 billion. According to Business Week, the decade of the 1990’s saw Trader Joe’s increase its profits by 1000%. Trader Joe’s also compensates its employees aggressively, with starting salaries for supervisors at $40,000. They hire only non-union workers. Now, to any capitalist or business-minded person, there’s nothing wrong with any of that (unless you’re pro-union or anti-big business). It’s a great company, and very successful. Trader Joe’s customers are willing to pay their premium prices to get that healthful image. But they should not kid themselves that they’re striking a blow at big business and supporting the little guy.
I’m not exactly sure why anticorporatism wound up on the organic food agenda, since it’s so counterintuitive. The irony is that the organic food companies supply a smaller amount of food per acre planted, and enjoy dramatically higher profits, which is why anticorporatists hate corporations in the first place.
For more information about organic food as big business, go to consumerfreedom.com and do a search for organic foods.
Organic foods are healthier to eat.
Did you ever wonder why Chinese drink only hot tea? They boil it to kill the bacteria. Most local Chinese farming uses organic methods, in that the only fertilizers used are human and animal waste: Without being boiled, it’s basically a nice cup of E. coli. In the case of China and other poor Asian nations, the reason for organic farming has less to do with ideology and more to do with lack of access to modern farming technology.
The National Review reports that Americans believe organic food is healthier by a 2-1 margin, despite the lack of any evidence supporting this. When you take the exact same strain of a plant and grow it in two different ways, its chemical and genetic makeup remain the same. One may be larger than the other if one growing method was more efficient, but its fundamental makeup and biochemical content is defined by its genes, not by the way it was grown. Consumer Reports found no consistent difference in appearance, flavor, or texture. A blanket statement like “organic cultivation results in a crop with superior nutritional value” has no logical or factual basis.
Some supporters of organic growing claim that the danger of non-organic food lies in the residues of chemical pesticides. This claim is even more ridiculous: Since the organic pesticides and fungicides are less efficient than their modern synthetic counterparts, up to seven times as much of it must be used. Organic pesticides include rotenone, which has been shown to cause the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease and is a natural poison used in hunting by some native tribes; pyrethrum, which is carcinogenic; sabadilla, which is highly toxic to honeybees; and fermented urine, which I don’t want on my food whether it causes any diseases or not. Supporters of organics claim that the much larger amounts of chemicals they use is OK because those chemicals are all-natural. But just because something is natural doesn’t mean that it’s safe or healthy — consider the examples of hemlock, mercury, lead, toadstools, box jellyfish neurotoxin, asbestos — not to mention a nearly infinite number of toxic bacteria and viruses (E. coli, salmonella, bubonic plague, smallpox). When you hear any product claim to be healthy because its ingredients are all natural, be skeptical. By no definition can “all natural” mean that a product is healthful.
Consider the logical absurdity proposed by those who claim conventional growers produce less healthful food. To the organically minded, conventional growers are evil greedy corporations interested only in their profit margin. What’s the best way to improve the profit margin? To buy less pesticides and fertilizer. This means they must use far more advanced and efficient products. The idea that pesticides leave dangerous residues is many decades out of date. Food production is among the most regulated and scrutinized of processes, and today’s synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are completely biodegradable. They’re supported by decades of studies that demonstrate their total safety.
In the United States, 2006 brought two major outbreaks of E. coli, both resulting in deaths and numerous illnesses, ultimately traced to organically grown spinach and lettuce. According to the Center for Global Food Issues, organic foods make up about 1% of all the food sold in the United States, but it accounts for 8% of E. coli cases.
Organic growing methods are better for the environment.
Organic methods require about twice the acreage to produce the same crop, thus directly resulting in the destruction of undeveloped land. During a recent Girl Scout field trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine, California, one of the owners told us his dirty little secret that contradicts what you’ll find on his web site. Market conditions compelled them to switch to organic a few years ago, and he absolutely hates it. The per-acre yield has been slashed. Organic farming produces less food, and requires more acreage.
Many so-called environmentalists generally favor organic farming, at the same time that they protest deforestation to make room for more agriculture. How do they reconcile these directly conflicting views? If you want to feed a growing population, you cannot do both, and soon won’t be able to do either. If you support rainforest preservation, logically you should oppose organic farming, particularly in the developing world. On the other hand, if you demand organic soybeans, then you should have the courage to stand up and say that you don’t care whether black and brown people around the world have enough to eat or not.
I’m not making this stuff up. For every dreadlocked white kid beating a bongo drum in favor of organics, there is a Ph.D. agriculturist warning about its short sightedness and urging efficient modern agriculture to feed our growing population. Personally I like forests and natural areas, so I favor using the farmlands that we already have as efficiently as possible. This benefits everyone. I say we dump the useless paranormal objections to foods freighted with evil corporate hate energy, and instead use our brains to our advantage for once. When we find a better way to grow the same crop faster, stronger, healthier, and on less acreage, let’s do it. We all benefit.
Sleeping Frog Farms is not a corporate conglomerate nor was this a political article, just a referral to a local organic source. The bizarre response deriding all that is organic contains no factual information nor any references or sources – just a lot of rhetoric and disinformation concerning the organic movement and organic farming.
Sources, disinformation, rhetoric? I guess you don’t read very well, do you? Since you appear to be thick, here are the sources… consumerfreedom.com, The National Review, The Center for Global Food Issues, Tanaka Farms, Irvine, California, USDA, and the FDA. Unlike you, I actually did research for this piece and my facts are exactly that, facts that are verifiable. Why don’t you do a little research of your own? As far as the local organic farm, more power to them; may they stay small and local.
You are right, I am unable to read and also thick, probably from all the natural pesticides in the organic food I consume not to mention the tea from China that I prefer to drink cold. FYI – referencing sources nonsensically and out of context does not make your “piece” factual just full of hyperbolic rhetoric.
erlichman writes, “Food production is among the most regulated and scrutinized of processes, and today’s synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are completely biodegradable” Really? Then explain to me how e-coli winds up in our fast food hamburgers and peanut butter, just to name a few processors, when we have such rigorous regulation and scrutiny from the establishment. Sheesh….