Farmer of the Month: Javier Zamora of JSM Organics

Stepping out of the automobile and onto the soil of JSM Organics in Royal Oaks, California, felt like setting foot in an orderly sort of paradise. Spring sunshine swept over the strawberry fields and highlighted employees harvesting berries in vibrant pink 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 staff from The FruitGuys to fulfill California fruit farmer Javier Zamora. We hoped to listen to his story and style his strawberries, which had been destined for our California fruit bins. 

A minute after we touched down, Javier—an enormous man with snigger strains round his eyes and a “Assist Natural Farmers” baseball cap—met us with handshakes and smiles. Talking each English and Spanish, he informed us that we had been in luck: That very day, March 27, was the primary day of the farm’s natural strawberry harvest, and we’d have the possibility to choose 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 previous. When he turned twenty, he moved from his hometown in Mexico to Redondo Seashore, California, the place he labored in eating places and a well-known nightclub known as The Strand.

It was the late Nineteen Eighties, and Redondo Seashore felt like a distillation of American tradition. Javier informed us that he discovered lots 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 mentioned. “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 training, 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 group 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 effective 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. Relatively than utilizing herbicides and pesticides, he weeds his fields by hand; and as an alternative of poisoning gophers, he traps them. He additionally vegetation fava beans and different cowl crops to stop erosion, feed the soil by 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 contemporary, 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 group 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 informed me and the remainder of the FruitGuys group, mentioning a ditch close by. “… I need to maintain [the land] in actually good condition and make it higher for future generations.” 

Not solely does Javier’s care maintain the farmland fertile, however 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. 

Strawberry Paradise  

JSM Organics grows no less than a half-dozen kinds 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 pink pores and skin. 

Our group was jittery with pleasure, and Javier fortunately allow us to unfastened within the subject to choose as many strawberries as we may carry. 

I stepped rigorously over and between the vegetation, scanning for glimpses of pink. 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 time in a chunk.  

Berries in hand, I waded again to the place Javier was chatting with a number of different members of The FruitGuys group. He regarded out over the sphere of Candy Ann’s with an enormous grin on his face.

“I’m the luckiest man alive,” he mentioned. “I face plenty of challenges, however I see plenty of stunning issues—and that is certainly one of them.” 

Style Testing

From there, Javier led us on an hour-long tasting journey. Along with making an attempt 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 certainly one of Javier’s hoop homes and munched on rainbow carrots pulled straight from the filth with their tops hanging off like tassels. 

The Chandler strawberries had been by far my favourite. Javier defined that their irregular, knobby shapes make them tough to pack, so that they not often if ever make it to grocery shops. As an alternative, he mentioned, giant companies 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. 

Javier bucks the norm by rising Chandlers and promoting them contemporary. He informed us that providing uncommon berry varieties is likely one of the methods he units his farm aside. 

“With a view to compete with the massive boys, I needed to be distinctive,” he mentioned, noting that JSM Organics is certainly one of just a few independently owned growers promoting below its personal label. 

“Solely my spouse has informed me what to do for the final thirty-five years,” the California fruit farmer mentioned with a smile.

A Second of Gratitude

After the farm tour, Javier’s group 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 selection of quesadillas, rice, salad, asparagus, guacamole, strawberries, and extra.

We settled at a protracted out of doors desk in one of many hoop homes and handed round glass bottles of imported soda. Listening to Javier discuss his household whereas I put away two full plates of meals, gratitude settled over me like a heat blanket. 

Javier and his group are doing stunning work for his or her group, the planet, and The FruitGuys’ clients at JSM Organics. We first related with the farm in 2019 when The FruitGuys Neighborhood Fund awarded Javier a grant to finish a sustainability challenge. 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 on his aim to coach the group about their meals. On high of internet hosting our group for a farm tour, he’s additionally energetic 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.”

If you happen to’re a FruitGuys buyer in California, you may be fortunate sufficient to obtain Javier’s produce in your bins this spring and summer time. I hope you get the possibility to style it!