Both Tara and Craig had spent 15+ years in the Long Term Care industry and had little knowledge about the food industry let alone farming experience.
The shock and dismay as they investigated further created the spark that launched a 180 degree career change for Tara. After discovering the Joel Salatin, soil building, carbon sequestering, pasture managing, community based farming books, she put away the business suits in exchange for muddy boots and leapt.
Creating a vision of a farm that would be transparent, sustainable, profitable, serve the local community with grass fed beef, pastured chicken, pork, turkey and eggs, and a veritable vegetable garden, she began looking for land that would allow for such an endeavor. In April of 2009, Tara Firma Farms was opened in the beautiful hills of southern Petaluma, CA. Easy access from both Sonoma and Marin county offers the communities to come and enjoy the 300 acres and attend weekend tours. The tours offer a basic understanding of carbon sequestering, building soil, growing perennial grasses, understanding pasture management and the most fun parts of holding tiny chicks, scratching the belly of a piglet, standing eye to eye with a turkey and sizing up a black angus cow. Also with tours came a demand for healthy food. With that the farm was underway and feeds over 600+ families a month.
Our values hold animal “happiness” as the core of what we do. Building soil naturally through animal fertilization, bug and weed control, this allows the growth of perennial grasses all year round. From that a habitat for animals is created so they may live a rich, stress free life that produces healthy, real, unadulterated food for the local community.
After 2.5 years of some of the funniest occurrences (think about city girl on the farm) the farm is a destination for members and families, supported by 12 of the most dedicated employees and has educated over 6000 community members.
The next step is an educational component that will operate as a non profit. It’s goals are 4 fold:
1. To educate the community in specific topics through classes offered at the farm from industry history to pastured chickens to canning.
2. To utilize an age specific curriculum working with local schools to educate children of all ages as to the nature and processes of where their food originates.
3. To provide an accredited 1 and 2 year program for students that wish to become farmers including the business practices necessary to be profitable.
4. To support those future farmer graduates by assisting them financially into local property so they may eventually own their own farms.
We welcome all participation from your thoughts, guidance, volunteer support and financial support!
Come visit us in Petaluma! Know your farmer! Know your food!
We are committed to a sustainable future, for us, for you, for all beings. We are completely transparent in all of our farming practices and are dedicated to education, in hopes of creating a happier, healthier existence for everyone on this beautiful earth!
Free tours on Saturdays & Sundays out on the farm.
10:00 am through 3:00 pm
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As we learn more and more about the environmental, social, and health costs of our industrialized food system, it becomes ever more critical to begin spending your dollar on choices that make a difference.
Questions we are asking ourselves…
• How did we end up with the food system we have now?
• Are the animals and vegetables I am eating healthy & happy?
• What price would I put on my long term health? And of my children’s health?
• Is a farm truly sustainable if it isn’t economically sustainable?
• Why is cheap food so worrisome and actually “more expensive”?
• What do I want the landscape I see and the one inside my body to look like?
“Eating is an agricultural act.”
– Wendell Berry
Every time you buy food, you are casting a vote towards the kind of food system you want.
We invite you make educated choices with the vote you cast every day.
We invite you to Tara Firma Farms.
(707) 765-1202
Farmhouse@TaraFirmaFarms.com
3796 I Street, Ext ~ Petaluma, CA 94952