Author: Arielle Laub
The I-5 North runs through hundreds of miles of flat farm land. The uniform green of monocrop farms dot a parched landscape that is so devoid of water it looks like a modern day dustbowl. But an hour west of the interstate, off of highway 41, is Paso Robles, where traditional, sustainable agriculture still thrives.
In the midst of vineyards and horse pastures, down a bumpy dirt road, lies Windrose Farms. Owned by Bill and Barbara Spencer since 1993, the 50 acre, biodynamic farm exemplifies positive, small-scale food production. On Oct. 24 Farmer Bill came to Occidental’s campus for Good Food Day to share produce from Windrose. Over fall break, a friend and I spent three days camping out on the Spencers front lawn, discovering just how good food is grown.
Windrose is open from 10 a.m. until 6-ish, according to its sign. During that time, Bill Spencer may be anywhere on his 50 acres. He is more than a farmer — he is a chef, mechanic, tour guide and community member. Farmer Bill rides his bike across the farm, tending to the ewes, overseeing the picking of the squash and tuning up the trucks. His fingers are thick and callused from years of hard work. Kind and witty, he has been known to happily fix a broken-down car in exchange for some local salami.
Though Windrose is a small operation, fighting to make ends meet, it exemplifies how biodynamic, organic farming can aid in sustainable food production. The Spencers do all they can to work with their land within its natural ecology. Above all else, they refuse to monocrop. This means that instead of growing acres of one, profitable crop – such as soy or corn – they choose to grow a diverse range of fruits and vegetables in constant rotation. While monocroping quickly strips the soil of its nutrients, a biodynamic farming system actually enriches the soil year after year. They grow a variety of heirloom, open-pollinated, non-GMO crops instead of growing a single, genetically modified strain of one crop. Such diversity fosters disease resistance in the plants, as well as nutritional value and boldness of flavor. And, instead of spraying their fields with pesticides, the Spencers rely on biotic forms of pest control. When stink bugs began to overwhelm the squash crop, the Spencers introduced a flock of guinea fowl, who happily devoured the bugs.
A biodynamic farm is more labor intensive and less profitable than a monocrop operation. Yet the crop diversity serves as a natural insurance system for the farm because not all of their eggs are in one basket, pun intended. If one plant on a monocrop farm becomes diseased, it threatens the entire crop and therefore, an entire season’s worth of profit for the farm. If the Windrose squashes are in fact devoured by stink bugs, there are still forty varieties of apples to turn a profit.
During my first night at Windrose, Farmer Bill sent a friend and me out into the field with a mission to find the last of the season’s cantaloupes. I have never liked melon, particularly because I associate them with the cold, tasteless specimens which pad fruit bowls. But we found one, small melon that had been passed over during the harvest. It wound up serving as that night’s dinner and was one of the sweetest fruits I have ever eaten. It was at this moment, devouring cantaloupe in Farmer Bill’s kitchen, that I realized how little I understood about my food. I don’t hate melon — I hate mundane, out-of-season melon.
Like me, most consumers in urban environments are detached from their food’s origins. Walk into any given Los Angeles supermarket in October and there will still be cucumbers and tomatoes, peaches and raspberries on the shelves. These foods are well out of season and to bring them to a supermarket in late fall means that they have either been grown in hothouses or transported from other countries. In order to survive transportation, produce is picked prematurely and refrigerated excessively. Past September, tomatoes taste vaguely like a refrigerator because they are a summer crop. Chances are, the tomatoes in a supermarket in colder months have been grown in Mexico and are a variety which has been bred specifically to be disease-resistant and to withstand travel well. In doing so, the flavor is bred out of the tomato, as is genetic diversity and nutritional value. As vegetables and fruits lose their flavor and value, consumers lose awareness of where their food comes from.
At Windrose, food is commerce. Neighbors exchange fresh cheese, meat, wine or honey for fresh produce. There is no mystery as to where food comes from or what is in-season. This cheese is from Bill who lives up the road, that wine is from Mary’s vineyard, this honey is from the Pipestone beehives. In knowing the face of the farmer, a new relationship with food develops. It binds individuals to their community and to the land. Somehow, knowing the name of the person whose hands picked that late season apple makes it taste that much sweeter.
Windrose Farm’s produce can be found at the Santa Monica and Hollywood farmer’s markets as well as at various high-end Los Angeles eateries. Their apples are currently being sold in the Marketplace.
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