Organic Farm Tour

Prior to our trip we had contacted a California tour company to book a day visiting organic farms on the outskirts of San Francisco.  What better place than California to get educated on this increasingly popular and important process.  According to the website we would be visiting farms, talking to the actual farmers, learning about what they grow and the benefits of organic farming.

We were picked up at the BART station near where we were staying and headed to Santa Rosa to an organic vegetable farm.  It took about an hour and half to get to there.  Along the way our guide who was a great historian of the San Francisco area, filled us in with facts and history of the area we were driving through. We arrived at the farm, but unfortunately the farmer who was set up to do the tour with us was had been called away.  We were on our own to walk through the growing area and look at the fruits and vegetables.

A large part of the area was strawberries.  Organically grown strawberries are smaller in size then non-organic but oh so sweet.  They also grew asparagus, yellow squash, cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic, corn, potatoes, kohlrabies, a variety of peppers and tomatoes.  It was great to see the gardens but we did not really learn anything about organic farming.

Next stop was an organic dairy farm in Petaluma.  Again about another hour drive.  It was apparent that we were no longer in the city and that you had to put in some time on the road to get to these different locations.  We arrived at the farm and had to wait for other people to arrive who where signed up for the same tour.  While we waited our guide David had brought along some fresh bread and cheese for us to munch on.  We had skipped breakfast and were pretty hungry so this hit the spot.

The farm that had a herd of over 800 milking cows was family owned and operated by a couple and their daughter.  The daughter was our tour guide. She started the tour with some history and then we went to the barn to see all the calves.  They were from a day old up to 3 months. On average 3 calves were born per day. From there we observed and were educated on what it takes to operate a certified organic dairy farm.  We were amazed at some of the processes and steps they take to keep the costs down and to reuse their resources and not waste anything. For example when they flush out the stalls the water flows through a system of holding tanks that separate the waste from the water.  The waste is reused as fertilizer and the water is recycled to flush out the stalls.

To be certified organic the following is done;

• Fed organic feed raised on land certified as meeting national organic growing standards;
• Raised in conditions that limit stress and promote health;
• Cared for as individuals by dairy professionals on a farm that is certified American Humane;
• Not given antibiotics or growth hormones, nor are there any clones;

Check out the attached link to learn more.  www.mcclellandsdairy.com

Next we all had an opportunity to take a shot at milking “Bessie”.  Brian gave it a try and looked like he had been doing it his whole life!  It was then on to the milking house which was very efficient and automated.  They brought 12 cows in at a time, hooked them up to a machine and in about 5 minutes they had around 3 gallons of milk.  Each cow is milked twice a day, so if you do the math that is about 5000 gallons of milk per day.  WOW.

By this time it was mid day and we were both pretty hungry.  To our dismay nourishment and hydration was not part of the tour.  We tried to politely hint but our tour guide wasn’t getting it.  We then traveled to another vegetable farm but discovered they don’t do tours; poor planning on our guide’s part. By this time it was almost 4pm and we had been out for about 7 hours. We had really only visited one farm where we actually learned anything about organic farming. When our tour guide showed us where he planned to bring us next and we found out that it would again be self guided, we decided to end the tour. He brought us back to our original meeting point. When he asked us what we thought of the tour, we told him it was not what we expected or what was advertised on his web site.  We all agreed on only paying half of the original price.  Brian and I talked about the day and were disappointed overall on how it went.  But instead of dwelling on it we both decided that all we could do is reflect on the day and laugh it off.