FOOD BLOG      

A Visit to Dirty Girl   Rachel Glueck •  Dec 18, 2008 •  2 Comments »

The tomato.

What other ingredient, in the kingdom of the soup and the sandwich, could lay claim to the crown? Americans might be split over ham or turkey, swiss or cheddar, wheat or white, but the tomato they agree on - it's a necessary component of our daily lunching lives. How much more American can you get than a BLT? Just what would Andy Warhol be without Campbell's tomato soup? And who would dream of asking Joe the Plumber to give up his inalienable rights to ketchup? Carnivore or vegan, Republican or Democrat, the tomato is the bipartisan fregetable, the clear winner in the produce polls.

Given the unanimous support it receives, you can imagine the awkwardness I felt at telling the gentleman at my table that, in fact, no - he could not have tomato on his burger. The look of surprise on the man's face would have been no greater had I withheld the cream from his coffee. The shocked expression turned into a chuckle over the course of the evening when I also refused him pineapple juice for his cocktail and Patron for his shooter. ("What the hell kind of joint is this??" was the unspoken question of the night.)

The fact is, tomatoes, like most fruits and vegetables, have a season. We've grown accustomed to having whatever we want, whenever we want it - a fabulous luxury that outshines its own environmental and social costs. As nopa strives to use local, seasonal, organic ingredients, there are staples that simply aren't available at certain times of the year. The upside? Man, do we get excited when we see tomatoes back on the menu! What is taken for granted in most restaurants - due to its omnipresence - becomes nopa's ambrosia. This is especially true when those tomatoes are the Early Girls of Dirty Girl Produce.

I first tasted these Early Girls at a Complete the Circle lunch (a monthly event for nopa's staff where we sit down for a meal with our farmers and winemakers): tomato granita, and a smokey, chilled tomato soup...oh, dear God! Heaven in my mouth! I have always lamented the downfall of the fruit (vegetable?) in our industrialized world, but never had I dreamt that tomatoes could be so exciting. That night I awoke just before dawn fantasizing about those red little balls of bliss. Despite my aversion to spending my precious few hours in the kitchen, I later found myself experimenting with an Early Girl parfait: tomatoes layered with a basil and lemon yogurt. (Sadly, the result wasn't quite what I'd hoped for.)

Fortunately, I work with others of greater skill. Those of you familiar with nopa's tomato salad may wonder how it is that they taste so damn good! As it turns out, they owe their heart and soul to dry farming - an ancient technique used around the world, and responsible for supporting many of the great civilizations. Strictly speaking, it is farming without any irrigation. Today's farmers, however, are happy with a looser interpretation. Usually, seedlings are raised and watered in containers up to a certain height, then transplanted to wet soil, at which point, no water is added. The flavors of the fruit become concentrated, rather than watered down, as they would be with continuous irrigation.

Nopa finds the dry farmed tomatoes from Dirty Girl Produce to be particularly mouth-watering. Their business originally sprouted as Fan Tan Farms in 1995 under the guidance of Ali Edwards and Jane Freedman. The two were dubbed the "dirty girl farmers" - the inspiration for the current name. In '97, Joe Schirmer began working on the farm, and in '99 he purchased the farm and expanded it from 3 acres to 12. Now the farm is spread over about 20 acres in La Selva, Watsonville and Santa Cruz. Business runs year round. The fall's harvest of tomatoes pays the bills, while everything from leeks to cranberry beans fill in the cracks. The ideal soil and climate of the 2.5 acre site in Santa Cruz is what makes Dirty Girl's tomatoes the best of the bay. And although it's the last remaining parcel of cultivated land within the city limits, it's under threat of development.

I had a rudimentary understanding of dry farming, but I was dying to get down to Santa Cruz and see the plots in person. So one gorgeous Monday afternoon I hopped on my trusty steed (a motorcycle of the vintage breed) and rode down the coast to the land of "live-and-let-live". After a photographic fly-by in La Selva, where the farm's winter crops are grown (Tokyo Turnips, Cabbage and Carrots), I met with DG's manager, Stella, in Santa Cruz proper.

In the dusking of the western sun, I stepped onto the field. The rows were shrouded with a purple light; the red orbs dangling happily, proudly - like ornaments on a well-endowed Christmas tree. At the center grew a lone pear tree, its fruit holding fast to the black branches. The moon, rising fat and nearly full, hung solemnly overhead. As Stella batted at the stubborn pears, we talked about all the blessings of organic farming in bay area: the climate, the insatiable demand for organics, the youthful supply of "starry-eyed folk that want to farm" - blessings absent from most other farming communities in the world. Having seen the views from the farm in La Selva - with it's sloping fields aglow in the afternoon sun, the Pacific expanse opening up beyond, the strawberry pickers bent over quiet rows - I was not surprised to hear that there's no shortage of young, willing agriculturalists here. There is a silence and a simplicity that pervades these lands. In the absence of urban white noise, of clustered buildings and pavement, with the flavor of unadulterated early girls still sweet on my lips, I was reminded of what life really is.

Dirty Girl Produce
Organic Farm
Joe Schirmer
111 Rathburn Way
Santa Cruz, California 95062
http://dirtygirlproduce.com/

See website for Farmer's Market Schedule

Rachel Glueck is a server at nopa
Posted December 18, 2008 • Filed under Where Our Food Comes From • Share: del.icio.us / StumbleUpon / Digg
Photos by Rachel Glueck

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