Javier Zamora of JSM Organics
Stepping out of the automotive and onto the soil of JSM Organics in Royal Oaks, California, felt like setting foot in an orderly type of paradise. Spring sunshine swept over the strawberry fields and highlighted employees harvesting berries in brilliant crimson and yellow shirts. All over the place I regarded, my eyes met inexperienced vegetation or vibrantly blue sky.
I arrived at JSM Organics that day together with twenty-two different workers from The FruitGuys to fulfill California fruit farmer Javier Zamora. We hoped to listen to his story and style his strawberries, which have been destined for our California fruit bins.
A minute after we touched down, Javier—an enormous man with chuckle traces round his eyes and a “Help Natural Farmers” baseball cap—met us with handshakes and smiles. Talking each English and Spanish, he advised us that we have been in luck: That very day, March 27, was the primary day of the farm’s natural strawberry harvest, and we might have the prospect to select berries ourselves.
Our mouths watering, we shouldered our backpacks, slid on our sun shades, and adopted Javier deeper into his farm.
Javier’s ‘Why’
As we walked, Javier started to inform us his story. He’s a second-generation farmer who grew his first carrots and radishes at simply seven years outdated. When he turned twenty, he moved from his hometown in Mexico to Redondo Seaside, California, the place he labored in eating places and a well-known nightclub known as The Strand.
It was the late Eighties, and Redondo Seaside felt like a distillation of American tradition. Javier advised us that he discovered rather a lot there—together with the truth that many People are disconnected from our meals system. That’s a part of what impressed him to return to farming.
“I needed to coach the group,” he stated. “As a result of the group lives in la la land. … Individuals don’t actually have a way of how issues develop. They only don’t have the schooling, as a result of we’re blessed with all types of grocery shops the place something you need you’ll be able to just about get, [even out of season].”
Rising Natural as a California Fruit Farmer
In 2012, Javier partnered with the Elkhorn Slough Basis to buy 200 acres of land in Monterey County for JSM Organics. On eighty of these acres, Javier and his workforce of twenty-two to forty-five employees (relying on the season) develop natural berries, greens, and flowers. The opposite 120 acres are a part of a conservation easement.
The association is an efficient match for an natural California fruit farmer who prides himself on “letting Mom Nature do her factor” on the farm. As we walked the property, Javier defined his natural farming practices. Somewhat than utilizing herbicides and pesticides, he weeds his fields by hand; and as a substitute of poisoning gophers, he traps them. He additionally vegetation fava beans and different cowl crops to forestall erosion, feed the soil by way of nitrogen fixation, and enhance biodiversity on the farm.
As we handed the fava beans, Javier yanked a plant out of the bottom and defined the nitrogen fixation course of. Then, he plucked a handful of leaves and handed them out for our group to eat. Mine was crunchy, nutty, and recent, like a pea shoot with a faint beany aftertaste.
The farm’s sustainability efforts don’t cease there. When it rains, a ditch system directs the sandy runoff right into a reservoir. On the finish of the season, Javier and his workforce dig the sand out of the reservoir and haul it again to the place it got here from.
“There are many alternatives for us to do actually good issues with Mom Nature,” Javier advised me and the remainder of the FruitGuys workforce, declaring a ditch close by. “… I need to preserve [the land] in actually good condition and make it higher for future generations.”
Not solely does Javier’s care preserve the farmland fertile, nevertheless it additionally helps him develop strawberries so candy and juicy you’ll be able to’t assist however shut your eyes as you eat them.
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Strawberry Paradise
JSM Organics grows no less than a half-dozen sorts of natural strawberries, together with Chandler, Mara Des Bois, Candy Ann, Gaviota, and Monterey. The primary cease on our farm tour was a subject of Candy Anns—a semi-firm berry with shiny crimson pores and skin.
Our group was jittery with pleasure, and Javier fortunately allow us to unfastened within the subject to select as many strawberries as we may carry.
I stepped fastidiously over and between the vegetation, scanning for glimpses of crimson. When I discovered my first berry, I popped it off its stem and straight into my mouth. It was candy, juicy, and nonetheless heat from the solar—like summer season in a chunk.
Berries in hand, I waded again to the place Javier was chatting with a couple of different members of The FruitGuys workforce. He regarded out over the sphere of Candy Ann’s with an enormous grin on his face.
“I’m the luckiest man alive,” he stated. “I face numerous challenges, however I see numerous stunning issues—and that is one in all them.”
Style Testing
From there, Javier led us on an hour-long tasting journey. Along with attempting the fava bean leaves, we picked extra Candy Ann and Chandler strawberries and taste-tested a strawberry selection nonetheless too new to have a reputation. We additionally foraged for blackberries in one in all Javier’s hoop homes and munched on rainbow carrots pulled straight from the filth with their tops hanging off like tassels.
The Chandler strawberries have been by far my favourite. Javier defined that their irregular, knobby shapes make them tough to pack, so that they hardly ever if ever make it to grocery shops. As a substitute, he stated, giant firms typically flip them into strawberry jam. Biting into my first berry, I may see why—it was melt-in-your-mouth tender and extremely candy.
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Javier bucks the norm by rising Chandlers and promoting them recent. He advised us that providing uncommon berry varieties is likely one of the methods he units his farm aside.
“With a purpose to compete with the massive boys, I needed to be distinctive,” he stated, noting that JSM Organics is one in all only some independently owned growers promoting below its personal label.
“Solely my spouse has advised me what to do for the final thirty-five years,” the California fruit farmer stated with a smile.
A Second of Gratitude
After the farm tour, Javier’s workforce cooked us among the best lunches I’ve ever eaten. They served up ribs and sausage from an open-air grill and set out a ramification of quesadillas, rice, salad, asparagus, guacamole, strawberries, and extra.
We settled at a protracted outside desk in one of many hoop homes and handed round glass bottles of imported soda. Listening to Javier speak about his household whereas I put away two full plates of meals, gratitude settled over me like a heat blanket.
Javier (heart proper, blue and white plaid) with The FruitGuys workforce
Javier and his workforce are doing stunning work for his or her group, the planet, and The FruitGuys’ prospects at JSM Organics. We first linked with the farm in 2019 when The FruitGuys Group Fund awarded Javier a grant to finish a sustainability undertaking. Now, we’re honored to incorporate his natural strawberries, corn, zucchini, greens, squashes, and broccoli in our fruit and fruit and veggies bins.
Javier is following by way of on his objective to coach the group about their meals. On high of internet hosting our workforce for a farm tour, he’s additionally lively on quite a few farm-related boards and committees. He offers assets to different small- and medium-sized growers throughout the Salinas Valley and advocates for his California fruit farmer friends every time he can.
As FruitGuys’ fruit purchaser Rebecca North, who works intently with Javier, places it: “Javier is greater than a grower: He’s a change maker.”
In the event you’re a FruitGuys buyer in California, you is likely to be fortunate sufficient to obtain Javier’s produce in your bins this spring and summer season. I hope you get the prospect to style it!
Need farm-fresh fruit?
We have got you lined.
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