Farmer George at the Sebastopol Farmers Market
Earthworker Farm, founded by George Macros in 2007, makes a colorful splash at the two weekly farmers markets it attends, the Sebastopol Farmers Market on Sundays and the Santa Rosa Original Farmers Market on Saturdays. His salad mixes have dozens of varieties of edible flowers among the greens he also grows and he has recently named these mixes with whimsical monikers that resonate perfectly. Frieda Kahlo is exuberantly colored and Mark Twang has a spicy flourish, with leek grass and micro-cilantro.
George works with a local dairy, which delivers organic manure that he then transforms into worm-rich compost, a process that requires a few months and is ongoing: A farmer rarely rests or takes a vacation. He takes the same tender care at every step in the process. He saves seeds and harvests either at night or early in the morning when temperatures are cool, using only ceramic knives to avoid the oxidation caused by metal knives. To protect his crops from the critters that would enjoy munching on it, he uses netting and other barriers to keep things safe. He also traps a few gophers a week to keep the popular in check.
To learn more about Earthworker Farms and its practices, visit its Web site here and listen to my interview with Farmer George here.
Salad of Earthworker Farm greens, smoked salmon, currant tomatoes and a poached egg. Photo by Beth Schlanker.
A few years ago, I used one of Earthworker Farms’ mixes to create a salad with smoked salmon, currant tomatoes and a poached egg for a feature story for the Press Democrat, which you can read here.
