It’s incredibly easy to know next to nothing about how food production actually works. Most of us drive past the fields every day but barely note the gradual change from empty dirt to tidy rows of leafy greens. The workers sometimes seen running boxes of strawberries to the loading truck don’t seem to have any direct impact on our daily lives. Our food comes from the grocery store, or the waiter brings it. Sometimes it just shows up in a box on my doorstep, each sprig of parsley vacuum sealed in separate bags so I can garnish my assembled dinner like a real chef!
I know that someone planted a seed somewhere and probably watered it until it grew and turned into my tomatoes, but I barely think about the amount of planning and work it takes to ensure that hundreds of millions of Americans like me can go to the supermarket and find ripe fruits piled in neat displays.
It’s very new—anthropologically speaking—for most of us to be as disconnected from our food supply as we are, and Mary Maranville is trying to change that. She comes from farming folk and grew up with a deep connection to her family’s land and dairy operation in rural New York. She didn’t realize how unique her childhood was until life brought her to Ventura County and she witnessed a class of young children visiting a farm for the first time.
She knew immediately that she wanted to help as many kids as possible have that same experience, so she founded Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) in 2008. Since then, the organization has provided 40,000 students with free field trips to local farms, including SEEAG’s own interactive, outdoor Farm Lab, where students learn about sustainable practices like micro sprinkler irrigation, soil building, and using beneficial insects to control unwanted pests.
“We all depend on food for survival, yet we’re not educated about it,” Maranville told the Sun in a phone interview. “It’s kind of mind-blowing the things we put in our mouths without knowing anything about where they came from.”
In 2012, SEEAG expanded its efforts to include educational field trip opportunities for adults by organizing the Ventura County Farm Day, where dozens of farms and agriculture businesses open their doors for a day of self-guided tours. The event has been a hit for the last six years, and now Maranville is bringing the idea to the Santa Maria Valley for the first Santa Barbara County Farm Day on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Thirteen innovative farms and agriculture-adjacent businesses are participating in the inaugural event. Many are California certified organic farmers, and some are actively revolutionizing the growing game.
Rancho Laguna Farms, for example, is pioneering a new method of growing strawberries from old corn husks on waist-high table tops to ease the back-breaking strain on harvesters who’ve always had to hunch over low-growing vines.
Plantel Nurseries uses advanced cloning techniques to maximize the production potential of every crop, and they employ a super-nifty automated planting machine that can drive through empty fields and leave perfectly-spaced rows of crops in its wake.
Engel and Gray’s Harvest Blend compost will show visitors the massive equipment used to turn the area’s abundant quantities of organic waste into beneficial compost, and they’ll give a half yard of the stuff to every family that wants a little help with their fall gardens.
There are too many farmers doing too many unique things to list it all here, and Maranville said everyone’s eager to give the general public a taste of life on the farm.
“The growers are genuinely excited,” Maranville said. “They’re proud of their heritage and very enthusiastic about showing people what they do.”
In addition to farm tours, curious participants can stop by Allan Hancock College to learn about their course offerings in the industry and finish the day with a free screening of The Last Harvest, an award-winning film from Driscoll’s berries about the future of agriculture.
Maranville said that people of all ages will find the tours engaging and enlightening.
“I hope they feel inspired,” she said. “These are good people who have dedicated their entire lives to feeding us, but most of us don’t really appreciate it.”
Contributor Nick Powell appreciates all the food and the hands that grow it. He’s still looking for interesting people to show off their favorite food spots—contact him at npowell@santamariasun.com.
Powell’s Picks
• After all this conscientious farm talk, I was craving a field-to-table lunch, and Moxie Cafe hit the spot. The restaurant was founded by a local microbiologist with an MSG allergy who couldn’t find an eatery in Santa Maria that consistently served healthy and organic fare. So he opened his own place with a dedication to food that’s tasty and nutritious. Business was booming when I visited the big restaurant on the industrial end of McCoy near the airport. They had my favorite sandwich on the menu—a California turkey club with avocado on a flaky croissant—so I combined that with a cup of chunky Southwestern chicken soup for a delicious meal that cost less than 10 bucks. Eat for yourself at 1317 W. McCoy Lane.
• The Santa Maria Elks Lodge is offering all-you-can-eat pozole and menudo for just $10 on Sunday, Sept. 29, and you don’t have to be a member. The Elks menudo crew arrives at 4:30 a.m. to make these classic soups from scratch in time for the 7:30 to 10 a.m. breakfast service at the bar. Kids are welcome, too! The lodge is located at 1309 N. Bradley Road.
• Experience a little bit of the Old West firsthand at The Los Alamos Old Days Celebration Sept. 28 to 29 with free old-timey entertainment, a Peddlers Mart with artisan crafts and fantastic street food, and Sunday’s Greatest Little Small Town parade. Visit facebook.com/losalamosolddays for more info.
Correction
• The Sept. 16 Eats feature, “School of hard grapes,” published incorrect photo credits. The photos in the story were courtesy of Christopher McGuinness.
Contributing writer Nick Powell is cooking up ideas for fresh food recommendations. Send your suggestions to npowell@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 3, 2019.