Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
at Paloma Vista Ranch in Hamilton
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| THE NATURAL WAY – Stacey and Brent Selman purchased property on FM 1241 two years ago and set to work to make it a certified organic farm. Paloma Vista Organics grows 100% or-ganic vegetables including several heirloom varieties. They also offer free-range eggs, grass fed, hormone and antibiotic-free beef by order, custom gardening where they will attempt to find and grow vegetables requested by their customers and soon they will have goat’s milk available for sale. They bring their produce to market at the V.F.W. Post each Friday from 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Staff Photo |
They purchased some property about eight miles south of Hamilton on FM 1241, known to locals as “the old Bob Gaida place,” named it Paloma Vista Organics, and began work.
The place was perfect for what they had in mind. The land had been fallow for a number of years, helping to expedite the process for the Selmans to become certified organic farmers, which is a fairly lengthy process.
The USDA will grant official organic farmer certification after they have seen proof that, among other things, the land has not been cultivated for a sufficient number of years. Massive amounts of paper work must also be completed. The Selmans anticipate that they will receive their certification in the near future.
Organically grown produce has no pesticides, unnatural fertilizer or herbicides used on the crop.
“Everything is grown from 100% certified organic seeds and seedlings,” Stacey said. “In stead of pesticides I use things like garlic, orange oil or jalape-nos; I might use vinegar for herbicide and compost tea with natural ingredients for fertil-izer.”
“We try to focus on nutritionally dense foods,” Stacey said. “The darker the plants, the more nutrients there are in them.” She particularly likes her burgundy okra both for it’s beauty and it’s outstanding nutritional value.
Stacey says that she has always been interested in organic foods, healthy eating and sound nutrition. “I’ve always liked to garden, but I never thought I would try to make a go of it,” she said.
Brent admits that he has not always been quite so focused. “I was raised on fried food,” he said. “But I feel a lot better now that I’m eating better. We’re rarely ill. I had a hiatal hernia for years and I was a candidate for surgery. I started taking organic vinegar and now I don’t even have to take a pill.”
“The organic food is a lot safer than what you can get in the stores,” Brent said, pointing out the stories of salmonella outbreaks in tomatoes this year and last year’s problems with spinach.
He also noted that locally grown vegetables are allowed to ripen on the vine while those packaged and shipped are picked while the vegetables are still green.
“Anything that doesn’t ripen on the vine is robbed of nutri-tional value,” Stacey said.
“Local and organic is the best,” Brent added.
Any kind of alteration to the natural state of fruits and vege-tables disturbs Stacey.
“I won’t grow a watermelon that doesn’t have a seed,” she said. “It’s just not natural! “If you eat food that’s genetically modified, it’s very harmful.”
The Selmans also like to grow heirloom vegetables. These are varieties of ‘old-world’ vegetables from the 1800s that have been passed down from generation to gen-eration.
“They are things you wouldn’t find in the grocery stores. They’re sweet and hearty, It’s a heritage, it’s his-tory,” Stacey said. “It’s neat to know you’re eating things your forefathers ate. I would like to have that heritage for my kids.”
Besides organic vegetables, the Selmans have 20 free-range chickens (there were 50 before a raccoon invasion) that lay eggs, which they have for sale.
Stacey explained that be-cause of the diet free-range chickens consume, the eggs they produce have a concentra-tion of Omega 3 essential acids that are healthy for people whereas mass produced chick-ens that do not free-range have a concentration of Omega 6, which is not healthy.
“What man has done to food by mass production is killing us,” she said. “Organic is not new. Before World War II, it’s what everyone did, naturally.”
Stacey said she is willing to do “custom gardening” for her customers. “If someone would like for me to find a particular seed or seedling and try to grow it for them, I will do that,” she said.
They also have a Nubian milk goat that will have her first kids within a few weeks. The Selmans plan to sell the healthy milk and have already had orders from a few families for it.
Also available for order, they have grass fed, hormone and antibiotic-free beef.
Each Friday the Selmans bring their produce to market, selling it in front of the V.F.W. Post across from Storm’s. This week they anticipate having available for sale Romaine and summer mix lettuce, yellow squash and two varieties of heirloom squash, two varieties of okra, cantaloupes, cucum-bers, melons, eggs and toma-toes. They set up at 7:30 a.m. and stay until about 12:30 p.m. They have been selling out each week.
The Selmans plan to pro-duce vegetables year-round at Paloma Vista. They will set up green houses and hoop houses to protect their produce during the winter months. They want to provide plenty of vegetables, year-round for the entire com-munity.
Their goal sounds monu-mental, but to Stacey and Brent, it makes sense and has proved to be worth the effort.
“Once I started eating better, feeling better and losing weight, I began wanting to sup-ply our town and school with food that would be nutritionally dense and about the same price as what they can buy in the stores,” Brent said. “What we’re trying to do is get be-tween the organic prices and grocery store prices. We’re usually half of what organic prices are.”
“To me there is something wrong with the idea that you have to be a millionaire to buy organic.” Stacey agreed. “It’s the way our forefathers grew our food. It’s good and it’s healthy.