This is Tehama: Northern California Renewal; Field to Fork Tehama

Photos by Alexis LeClair http://www.alexisleclairphotography.com

Northern California’s recent wildflower super bloom was a welcome sight, momentarily helping us to forget the destruction wrought by the 2018 fire season. The flowers beckoned us outdoors after a wet winter, and hobby gardeners soon felt the itch to put their hands in the soil.

Farmers and ranchers don’t have the luxury of waiting until the rains pass before they brave the elements. Long before our wildflowers bloomed, local agriculturists were diligently working the soil, tending crops and herds and making their living amid Northern California’s unpredictable weather. As they toiled, new life was born, and with the new life, renewal.

How can we partake in Northern California renewal? In our area, Field to Fork Tehama LLC (fieldtoforktehama.com) will bring it right to your door! Field to Fork Tehama is a non-traditional, multi-farm CSA (community-supported agriculture) with a distribution system that connects local farmers and ranchers to consumers. Owners Rachelle and Jake Gould are passionate about eating fresh locally and handing money directly to the farmers and ranchers who dot the landscape from Chico to Redding. Each week, Rachelle supports those producers as she sources their crops to pass on to her customers.

A box delivered to my door with flavorful and fresh food harvested within a 75-mile radius? Less decision making and less shopping? Sign me up! In fact, Field to Fork Tehama is accepting new members in Shasta and Tehama counties.

Field to Fork Tehama offers a month-by-month crate delivery service of fresh, local harvest to their customers’ doors each Thursday. A sample box for customers ordering both vegetables and meat might contain cauliflower, red radishes, bok choy, carrots, sassy salad mix, sugar snap peas, komatsuna greens, pork chops, ground beef, chicken and stew meat. In the summer, the customers’ kids look forward to seeing what fruit the “Watermelon Lady” might bring next.

Something magical occurs for both adults and children upon receiving that gift box full of surprises—shopping stress vanishes from the adult while wonder fills the child. A doorstep box delivery brings ownership to children as if they produced the food themselves. This goes a long way toward placating picky eaters! Rachelle’s six-year-old daughter Maggie was a very picky eater until her family started working together, packing the boxes for delivery. You would never guess that Maggie’s new favorite food is flowers! She nibbles arugula and kale flowers while little sister Claire happily grazes through an array of fresh produce.

Erin Urban, a long-time customer, says, “the CSA has decreased the time spent planning meals and heading out to the store, while also allowing us to cook ‘outside of our box’ and try new veggies and meats that we wouldn’t normally buy. Our kids, ages three and four, are even willing to try new things! Veggies are a hard sell for any toddler, but we can play it up that these veggies are ‘special’ because they come from around where we live.”

“From around where we live” is key, and so is collaboration over competition. If Field to Fork Tehama isn’t right for you, Rachelle hopes you will find a CSA that is, because eating fresh food and supporting local producers is what matters. One of Rachelle’s suppliers, Carrie Lustig, CEO of Fulfilling Fields Organic Farm, has similar goals. She says, “I was not raised privileged by most definitions, but I was raised with the privilege of picking and tasting amazing, organic strawberries grown less than 50 feet from my front door. I didn’t realize it for many years, but this experience changed my life. I was hooked. Hooked on the real flavors of real food. After many years in a totally different profession, I decided to devote my life to recapturing this childhood experience. I want my daughter and the diverse families in our community to experience this every single day. CSAs such as Field to Fork Tehama make it possible for small farms like mine to reach this goal.”

Collaboration, renewal, life—just like the wildflowers flourishing after a burn. As our beloved Northern California recovers from the aftermath of devastating wildfires, one way to foster renewal and find beauty from ashes is to support our local farms and ranches through CSAs such as Field to Fork Tehama.

Why not join a CSA as a Father’s Day present for the man in your family? If he likes to cook, he will enjoy cooking with the quality, flavorful foods delivered fresh and will no doubt become the hero at the dinner table. Sign up at fieldtoforktehama.com.

Field to Fork Tehama’s frequent suppliers:

• Grub CSA
• Maou Farms
• Farmelot
• Kitchel Family Organics
• Fulfilling Fields Organic Farm
• Spring Meadows Beef
• Providence Farms
• Rancho Llano Seco
• Wookey Ranch
• Jefferson Bee Co.
• Small Town Specialties

The ancient word “Tehama” once meant a place where rivers could be crossed. With our county’s rich currents of history, happenings and hope, this is our crossing place today — where we meet to celebrate our beautiful Tehama County.