Established 1991

Owners

Paul Holmes and Paul Underhill

Paul Holmes started the farm. Paul Underhill started working with him 15 years ago, and eventually became part owner. They began on one parcel of land. By poking around and by word of mouth, they found abandoned or forgotten orchards. The farm eventually expanded to its current size.

Chef Canales says “Terra Firma is the workhorse/backbone of the Oliveto menu.  They grow all the key staples for us: tomatoes, cabbage, beets, kale, eggplant, peppers, and spinach.  They supply us with some of the best green garlic in the spring, and their melons in the summer are always exceptional.”

Principles

There’s nothing they would rather do, and they are happy they found a way farm and make a profit, which is difficult to do in this day and age.

Paul Underhill thinks that CSA turns people into better cooks. Customers learn to experiment with products with which are unfamiliar.

Practices

They are not afraid to learn from their experiences and experiments. They try to stay flexible, and figure out what works.

Their employees work for them year-round. Their employees are happy and experienced, and they know what they are doing.

Seasons

They grow year-round

Length of relationship with Oliveto

several years

Location

99 acres in Winters, Sacramento Valley

Crops

Tomatoes

Organizations/Certification

CCOF

Distribution

Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Thursday

Community Supported Agriculture Programs

Currently accommodate over 1,200 CSA subscribers in the Bay Area, Davis, Vacaville, Sacramento, and Winters. Learn more.

Terra Firma Farm website

Wonderfully, inside each apricot is the noyau- a seed inside of the pit of all stone fruits, including plums, peaches, and cherries.   The noyau inside apricots and peaches looks almost identical to an almond, and is indeed the source of  bitter almond flavor.  Amaretti, the fantastic Italian cookies generally thought to be almond, are made entirely from apricot noyaux.  (Also made from noyaux is arsenic;  I love the old stories where Sherlock Holmes or some other detective sniffs the glass beside the dead person’s hand and confirms “the aroma of almonds… yes, it was murder…”)

To cook with noyaux at home, the biggest challenge is to collect enough to actually make something.  What I recommend is that you keep a tub of pits in the refrigerator, adding to the tub as you eat from your fruit bowl, extracting the noyaux and freezing them every week or so.  Label the seeds in the freezer so no one thinks they’re almonds.  Kept frozen, noyaux will be good for many months- plenty of time to store up for a noyau dessert.  When you have a cup or so, grind them coarsely and steep in the custard for a 2qt batch of ice cream or custard sauce.  Substitute for the almonds, omitting the almond extract, for a batch of amaretti.  Or get creative.  Drop by the restaurant and I’ll be happy to confer.