Union Tribune Article 9/30/2013
What it takes to run an organic farm
Morning Song Farm, which is known for its rare fruits and vegetables, is a labor of organic love for San Diego County woman
Donna Buono, who learned many
homesteading skills such as cheese making from her grandmother, an
astrophysicist with NASA — has always had a desire for rural living. As a
child, Buono and her family of five spent the summers camping on her
uncle’s Maine farm in a 20-foot trailer, giving her the conviction that
she’d rather live in a shack on acreage than a mansion in the suburbs.
Fast
forward to now and you will find Buono on her 20-acre organic farm in
the small town of Rainbow, in the northern part of San Diego County.
What started out as a “hobby” in 2001 is now Morning Song Farm, which
grows 70 different fruits, macadamias and heirloom vegetables.
The
farm is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and has drop-off
points throughout San Diego and Orange counties for its customers to
pick up weekly baskets. CSA is sometimes referred to as a “subscription
farm” because the consumer buys a subscription from a farmer for a set
price to receive fresh produce on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Morning
Song Farm is one of about a dozen CSAs in the county.
Morning
Song Farm is known for its rare fruits and vegetables, such as
mulberries, pineapple guavas, dragon fruit, and Purslane, a leafy green
high in omega-3. More than half of the farm is covered with 700
macadamia trees.
A
recent weekly Morning Song Farm basket was packed with kale, royal
purple beans, cucumbers, beets, passion fruit, pomegranates, green
onions, parsley, basil, tomatoes and Purslane. A small CSA box from
Morning Song Farm costs $34.50, weekly or biweekly; and a large box runs
$44.50, weekly or biweekly. A box of salad fixings goes for $19.75 a
week. Morning Song Farm, which is mostly family-run, has one part-time
and one full-time employee.
Buono,
known as Farmer Donna, is a staunch food advocate, but will be the
first to admit that passion aside, organic farming is a tough business.
The Chula Vista native talked to U-T San Diego about the challenges and
jubilations of owning and running a small organic farm.
Q: What was your motivation behind buying a farm?
A:
My original vision was to grow passion fruit and fioja guavas, two
underappreciated fruits that I really love. It was supposed to be a
hobby. But I realized you can’t run something like this and make it just
a hobby. As I started out at the Santa Monica farmers market, it became
clear that two mostly out-of-season items on the table wouldn’t even
pay the water bill. I wasn’t really thinking in terms of return on
investment. I did follow my passion and have ended up doing something I
love. In terms of ROI there are probably more lucrative industries to
devote one’s life to, so for the young farmer just starting out, I would
say that you need passion to get you through the rough times and the
unprofitable years.
Q: Why did you choose to become a CSA?
A:
I was doing farmers markets, and I love them, but economically it just
didn’t pencil out for us. At the end of the day once you pay your
employee and pay for gas, you don’t make anything. The CSA model turned
out to be great for a mom like me. I didn’t have to work weekends at all
anymore, which was life-changing.
With
farmers markets, the farmer never knows how much to harvest; rain or a
sporting event can change sales figures substantially. We gave or threw
away a lot of food. With a CSA, you only harvest for the exact number of
boxes you are preparing for your subscribers. We started the CSA with a
single friend of mine who had admired the beautiful produce on my
kitchen counter.
She and I
shared in the cost to grow a vegetable garden, and we split the produce
each week. Several other girlfriends joined in soon after, and we were
off. Soon friends of friends asked to join.
Q: What are the challenges of marketing a CSA to consumers?
A:
We don’t do a lot of marketing. We use Susco Media’s Z Code Magazines
to get the word out a little bit. We also advertise in the two local
newspapers. For small farms like mine, getting the word out can be an
issue.
Advertising is
expensive. A majority of San Diegans who want non-GMO organic foods in
their homes are still not aware of CSAs. Every single local organic farm
should have a waiting list and should be maxed out. That’s not
happening yet. There is no strategy for strong growth.
We haven’t had much growth in years, and have had about the same number of subscribers.
Q: What have been some of your biggest challenges?
A:
As a small farmer I think talented labor is a huge issue. So much of
our farming knowledge was coming from Mexico, and then there was a
crackdown on labor laws and immigration issues. Immigration laws changed
the face of farming in California. It’s been said that it takes at
least 20 years to know what you are doing in farming. That knowledge
base is precious. Current California law also states that farm
internships are noncompliant. That’s a problem industry wide. The average
age of a farmer in California is 60, which is scary. Where are the
young people just starting out supposed to learn? We have a knowledge
base that is not transferring as fast as it needs to. And many small
family farmers aren’t expecting their children to continue the family
farm, because the kids see firsthand the economic trade-offs that are
involved and decide to do something else.
Q: How do you deal with profit pressure?
A:
We’re profitable most months, but we would be much stronger by simply
increasing our CSA subscriber base. We have a much larger capacity for
production than we are utilizing.
We’re
considering adding macadamia tours, a farm experience
bed-and-breakfast, a sprouting class, and more cheese classes to
diversify our income base and increase exposure.
Q: What fuels you to get up before dawn every day to farm?
A:
I really believe in myself and I think I can do it. Healthy food should
not be considered a luxury. I have an infectious passion for amazing
fruits and vegetables. Many of our subscribers say they feel like it’s
Christmas when they open their boxes every week.
Donna Buono
Hobbies: Fixing up her old farmhouse, taking care of her llama and goats, hiking and jet skiing.
Favorite
quote: “Is there anything sadder than the foods of the 1950s? Canned,
frozen, packaged concoctions, served up by the plateful, three meals per
day, in an era in which the supermarket was king, the farmers market
was, well, for farmers, and the word ‘locavore’ sounded vaguely like a
mythical beast.” — Jeffrey Kluger
Career
path: Although she took as many horticultural classes as she could,
Buono ended up with a business administration degree from Saddleback
College. “I was afraid I might end up working at a neighborhood nursery
chain selling ornamentals. If you can’t eat it, I’ve never been
interested.”
Subscription farm
Morning
Song Farm is one of about a dozen Community Supported Agriculture farms
in the county. The consumer buys a subscription from a farmer for a set
price to receive fresh produce on a weekly or biweekly basis.
Cost: A small box is $34.50, weekly or biweekly; and a large box runs $44.50, weekly or biweekly.
Sample
contents: Kale, royal purple beans, cucumbers, beets, passion fruit,
pomegranates, green onions, parsley, basil, tomatoes and Purslane.
I’m
really excited about the new things that are successfully growing, such
as our dragon fruit, olives, and sapote. We’re just starting a trial of
carissa plums. It’s a lot of hard work and most of my customers are
aware of that. I also have a blog, and love to tell our farm stories. We
recently started a cheese-making class here, which is another way to
get people interested in the farm and in great food.
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