“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.”
H. Jackson Brown Jr.
For the past few years, we have been getting flowers for the CSA from Steve’s cousin, Josh, at the Thomas Farm in Corralitos. Josh’s parents, Jean and Jerry, started Thomas Farm back in 1971. Jerry Thomas was there for the beginning of CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), and was delighted — and relieved — when Josh and his wife Kari decided to continue the family farm when he retired several years ago. It’s fair to say that without Jerry Thomas, we would not be successfully farming today either. Steve would come up from Southern California and work on his uncle’s farm during summers as a kid. When Steve decided to transition from the cooking business (he cooked for 8 years both in LA and San Francisco), he came back to Uncle Jerry’s farm as an intern and took classes in the agroecology department at UCSC. Jerry helped us find our first few acres of leased land in 1997 and passed on to us the Corralitos Connection CSA, originally a collaboration between three Corralitos farms — Thomas Farm, Blue Heron, and New Natives Nursery. When our current home farm was on the market, Jerry told us about it, walked the property with us, discussed its potential and encouraged us to try for it. I could go on, but let’s get back to the flowers.
Flowers have been an optional part of the CSA from the beginning. Why do we feel compelled to offer organic flowers as part of our CSA? It’s true that they are not (usually) eaten. But locally grown, organic flowers offer many of the same health, safety, and environmental benefits as their edible counterparts. In recent years the majority of flower production for US markets has moved to central and south America, where land and labor are cheap and conditions are less well-regulated than in the United States. Flowers are grown there using pesticides that are so toxic they are outright banned in the US. In contrast, growing organic flowers for you here means safer conditions for farmworkers, no chemical residue exposure for your family, good stewardship of the land, no pesticide contamination of the environment, and lower fuel emissions from transportation. Plus, you get a truly beautiful variety of field grown flowers which changes by the season.
Chrissi has strong opinions about buying non-organic flowers. She writes “Several years ago I became aware of the horrible conditions that flora workers were exposed to and wanted to commit to supporting local, chemical free flowers. Now I don’t often get on the old soapbox, but when it comes to encouraging health for the body, mind and spirit, I’m going to stand on whatever box I can find. Regulations aren’t as strict for a non edible product, but the effects of chemicals in this industry continue to propagate devastating results. This is an excerpt from an article called Deceptive Beauty…
Many flower workers experience physical and emotional problems related to their jobs. They are subject to drastic temperature changes, a polluted environment, a heavy work-load and psychological stress. The most common health complaints are respiratory illness, skin diseases, varicose veins and ulcers. Since floriculture requires people to spend long periods of time working in awkward and uncomfortable positions, many suffer chronic back and muscle pain. Kneeling for hours on damp ground causes a variety of leg and knee problems. Most flower workers are not given protective clothing or masks, and companies provide little or no training on how to decrease risk when handling and applying pesticides. One-fifth of the chemicals used in flower production in the countries of the South have been proven to produce cancer and have been restricted or banned in Europe and North America. Yet, in some cases, workers do not even have a place to wash their hands before eating lunch. Dust from fumigation causes dizziness, headaches, cramps and other long-term symptoms. Workers are also vulnerable to severe respiratory infections due to exposure to temperature changes and high humidity levels in the greenhouses. [1]
Who would guess that something of such beauty, an object that is given as a token of friendship, a sign of appreciation and a symbol of love, could come from a place of such sadness?”
Fortunately, we have the option of choosing flowers that are produced in our own community with all the love, care, and attention to health, safety, and the environment that we could ask for.
Left: Lucy, Josh, Henry, Kari, and Monty Thomas with dog Junior in front of their flower fields.
Top: Josh Thomas (right) with brother Patrick at a farmers’ market.
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