FROG HOLLOW FARM Giving Farmers a Choice
	MARCH 2004

by Al Courchesne
Photos by Brad Shifflett

Frog Hollow Farm is situated in one of the most fertile and diverse agricultural regions in America, if not the world. The soil was formerly an alluvial flood plain. For uncounted eons, deposits were washed down from the Sierra Nevadas, flooding this area and leaving behind a rich, mineral-laden sediment and creating some of the world's richest agricultural land.

The topsoil on Frog Hollow Farm, for example, is nowhere less than nine feet deep. In many places soil depth is as much as 12 feet. Rich soil of that depth is perfect for the growing of magnificent tree crops. Soil depth in the surrounding foothills, on the other hand, might be only 3-6 inches deep. The shallow depth is good for grass and cattle, but not good for orchards.

Rich farmland in East County is constantly being lost to development. All intelligent people feel a pang of loss at some level when they see an entire orchard of fruit trees lying on its side behind a giant "Coming Soon" billboard announcing the new fast-food restaurants, car washes, subdivisions, or multiple- screen theaters that are going to be built on the property.

In my opinion, it is always a catastrophe when parking lots, homes, and commercial developments are laid on a base of a foot of reinforced concrete that is poured over the surface of topsoil that might be many feet deep. Every time that happens, a rich resource is lost to us forever.

LOSING OUR PLACE AT NATURE'S TABLE
With the decline of agriculture as a valued part of the American economic scene, some of us are losing the sense of community that formerly sustained our social and spiritual vitality. Our communities are becoming fractured. Home is where we sleep and watch TV. Many of us never work, shop, or even play in the neighborhood where we live.

People often hardly know the people living next door. Neighbors no longer laugh together, or cry together, or visit each other in the hospital, or attend each other's birthday parties. Most of us don't like the loss of community values. We hunger to get reconnected to neighbors and even to family members that we've fallen completely out of touch with.

A symptom of the loss that has occurred in our culture is visible in our eating patterns. Food is an important and elemental part of society. Too often these days breakfast is simply an Egg McMuffin that we eat out of a bag we hold on our laps on the way to work.

Upon reflection, I realize that I'm sometimes part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I would like it if neighboring farmers just stopped in for a cup of coffee, but I don't stop by to visit them either. I read an article by one of my neighbors in last month's issue of 110 Magazine and made up my mind to get out there and meet him.

RETROFITTING SOCIETY
I'm on a mission to make possible a recapturing of the old sense of community that we've lost. I want to raise my kids in a place that honors beauty, art, wholesome food, and friendship.

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