Organic Family Farm Thrives on Foothill Road

Shawn Seufert, who runs Terra Bella Farms on Foothill Road, believes his 70 chickens eat better than a lot of humans do.

That's because his poultry eat buckets of trimmings from the organic farm acres and at the Sunol AgPark. As a result, they get fresh, nutritious food, free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

It's the same kind of healthy food for which Pleasanton residents pay a premium on Saturday at the Farmers' Market on Angela Street or when they pick up their Community Supported Agriculture boxes during the week at the Seuferts' farm.

The program allows customers to sign up for a box of freshly picked fruits and vegetables every week or every other week, provided by a group of farms which trade among each other to ensure variety and dependability.

"Three hundred people come here to fill and pick up their boxes," Seufert said of the farm's program.  "We're a big community of people."

That community includes both the customers who sign up ahead of time for their $30 boxes, thus providing a reliable market, and cooperating farmers from Fremont, Sunol, Reedley and Santa Cruz, who provide a reliable supply.

Some operators provide the service year-round; at Terra Bella, the program runs five months, from June through October. Customers can pick up boxes in Lafayette on Tuesday or they can visit the farm on Wednesday or Friday.

Many CSAs, including Terra Bella, provide recipes for people unaccustomed to cooking with  kale or fennel or kabocha squash. Terra Bella also provides baked goods from Pleasanton's Bibiane Bakery and Alameda's Feel Good Bakery.

"Being in a CSA takes the risk out of farming," said Seufert.  

Terra Bella also sells to Wente Vineyards and other local restaurants and at half a dozen farmers' markets.

Seufert comes across as laid-back, but behind that relaxed demeanor lies a constantly working brain. Family farming isn't for the uncommitted.  Seufert was attending the University of California-Santa Cruz and planning to become a teacher when he joined the farm apprenticeship program at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 

Six intensive months later, he knew farming was for him.

"I was an insect trapper for Alameda County when I met the owner of this land. It had been lying fallow for 40 years," he said of how he came to Pleasanton.

The land used to be part of the Hearst estate, where George and Phoebe Apperson Hearst built their hunting lodge.  He and his wife, Beth – who provides the book-keeping and runs the business end of the enterprise -- now lease five acres and live there with their 2-year-old son, Oliver. 

The fact that no conventional farming had taken place on the land made it easier for the Seuferts to qualify for organic certification, which requires the land to be free of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides for at least three years.

Seufert sees many advantages to farming in Pleasanton – 66,000 to be exact, since he views the entire population as possible customers for Community Supported Agriculture boxes, the farmers' market booth or special events such as the annual farm dinner, which features chefs from Wente Vineyards cooking Terra Bella produce and chickens.

He hopes the next one, on Sept. 4, will attract 60 people to pay $85 per person for the five-course meal with wine. 

Farmers who operate right next to residential areas sometimes have to deal with neighbors' complaints about noisy roosters, flies and other side effects of farming. Seufert , whose operation abuts the Castlewood Country Club, said he's had no problems at all. "Our neighbors don't complain. In fact, most of them are CSA members."

Farm manager Joe Sunderland, a native of Kansas, came to farming via massage therapy school in Hawaii.

"I enjoy eating really great food," he said while taking a break on a sunny day at the Sunol AgPark, four miles down the road. "To know where your food comes from, you've got to be the farmer."

Terra Bella is one of four operations renting from SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education), which in turn leases 18 acres near the Sunol Water Temple from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. 

People who seek out locally grown organic produce, Sunderland said, are people who want to avoid food contaminated by coliform bacteria or salmonella.
Seufert explained what a visitor will see on an organic farm that wouldn't be seen on a conventional farm.

"Here you see weeds," he said. "You don't see them on a conventional farm because they've been sprayed with poisons... You see flowers on an organic farm, it's part of biodiversity."

He pointed out the blue flowers of borage, which attracts bees and beneficial insects, is edible and is also good for composting. "You see living things here: birds, bees and butterflies. It's a balanced ecosystem. You see more hand weeding here. Labor costs are higher here, vs. chemicals.

Standing among the tall hollyhocks that catch the attention of drivers on Foothill Road, Seufert pointed to their bug-eaten leaves to demonstrate how the old-fashioned perennials contribute more than showy blossoms to the farm. 

"Bugs eat the hollyhocks instead of our cilantro and tomatoes," he said.

Terra Bella is still accepting CSA members for Friday pick-up dates. Members can sign up for the farm dinner now; non-members can sign up through the Web site www.terrabellafamilyfarm.com beginning Aug. 1.