Farmer of the week: Tom Shepherd

Roasted veggie crudite, originally uploaded by Main Course California.

We have a thing for farmers. And there's nothing like having a relationship with the person who grows your food (except maybe growing it yourself, of course). Anyway, one of our longtime loves is Tom Shepherd, an organic farmer up in Carpinteria. He's been farming organically in the Santa Barbara area since the 1970's. He grows his bounty on a 40-acre piece of land at the base of Shepherd Mesa in Carpinteria, and has another space in the Santa Ynez Valley.

And boy does he believe in the power of eating locally. As he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent, "Food loses vitality when it sits around for a few days...And when it comes from Mexico or Argentina, it's just dead. It's filler. It's like chips." Currently, we are getting our white beans (for our house made hummus) and Tahitian squash (which you see in our roasted veggie sandwich and salad) from Shepherd. And co-owner, Robert Jacobi, is a member of Shepherd Farms CSA, where you buy a share of the bounty and get a box overflowing with fresh fruit, veggies, and herbs every week.