I dropped by Tess’ Community Kitchen (https://www.instagram.com/tess_community/) yesterday. A community-centered agribusiness a few hundred tards from the entrance to my neighborhood. Tess is 70, and she bout the building and the land with the intent of providing healthy community gardens, an event space embedded in the ecosystem as it stands, and a farm-to-table cafe. I dined at Tess’ with my family before she was shut down.
There is no provision in the agricultural zone to allow for a farm-to-table cafe. Throughout the agricultural zoning around Discovery Bay proper, the land is considered so valuable and so rich in potential one can’t build anything but an agricultural business. The zoning demands 95% of the use of a property generate ag product. For Tess, this means that 19 of her 20 acres must be agricultural. Zoning had at least been modified for Tess, so it was at least possible, and she’s envisioning that in 2022 she might get back to her Farm to Table cafe.
In the meantime, she’s looking to sublet the 19 other acres to a farmer to cultivate — she’s thinking of U-Pick cherries. According to Tess, the U-Pick cherries industry in and around Discovery Bay draws in 10s of thousands of peoples and millions of dollars. While admittedly, she says, a u-pick cherry farm is not unique or aspirational, it is, in her opinion, the most likely crop to be successful.
This led me down a bit of a rabbit hole of Contra Costa County policy operations. I will want to return to look at the “Preserved Forever” policies of East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy (https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/depart/cd/water/HCP/).
And also look at the EBPRD “Parks to People” work (https://www.ebparks.org/activities/parkstopeople/default.htm). As I Looked at parks in the area and noted my ignorance of Mt Diablo and the Save Mt. Diablo efforts (https://www.savemountdiablo.org/featured-content/2020/12/01/2020-save-mount-diablo-accomplishments/ ).
Here I am, this intrepid backpacker. I have this story of myself where I’ve spent days in Yosemite's backcountry, And Sequoia-Kings traveled to the Grand Canyon and Bryce and spent days hiking Pinnacles National here in Central California. I have multi-day backcountry trips schedule for Lassen and Trinity in Northern California. To certify my backcountry cred, I even encountered a few mountain lions in my overnight through-hike of the Ohlone Wilderness a few hours south of here. And yet, I’ve never hiked the 100s of miles of trails practically in my backyard. What is that?
Anyways, after looking for County policy on land use (and my side trip into the above), I took another left turn and found myself looking at the UC Davis Soil Web ( https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/ ). I zeroed in on the nature of the loams all around Discovery Bay. I’d always wondered about the signs on the side of the road warning against setting soil afire. Based on the map, I found a doc that could be my key to what Capay loam versus Webile loam (and the dozen or so other loams might entail, I found a Bureau of Plant Industry doc to explain the soil types. (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/ssjdaCA1941/ssjdaCA1941.pdf ).
I see Tess’ Community kitchen sits on Capay. What is Capay? A loam type classically associated with growing barley.
So I have no idea what all this means yet … but as I inspected the geomorphic conditions around Discovery Bay I can see how a permaculture approach like Tess’ Community Kitchen is challenged to have a broader agenda than current county policy allows for. Tess? She is a lawyer, in her 70s, getting by during the pandemic by subventing the community kitchen with her wages from her practice.
In years prior she held many events nearly to the allowable quota (provate and public) — this helped her while she worked new policy at the county level. As the new Farm-to-Table policy was coming to vote — and expected to pass — the pandemic hit. Will the policy be reconsidered as its resurfaced as California re-opens?
The future of Tess’ Community kitchen is unknown. Tess may see that policy change and we may see her dream of a sustainable crop on her property, filling the barn with visisors, eating in her cafe and sharing in the bounty of the local ecosystem. Tess’ asipartions towards a sustainable habitat at the juncture of education, agriculture and ecology excites me. I’m hopeful her business and more like it become associated to Discovery Bay proper.
Afterword:
Consider watching “Kiss the Soil.” Narrated by Woody Harrelson — I had pretty low expectations of this Netflix-available documentary. I mean, I love Woody Harrelson, but his persona doesn’t shout “guy who gets dirt.”
See: https://kissthegroundmovie.com/
Available for Kids in Schools…