City of Ten Thousand Buddhas Proposal

Driving along the 101, people usually overlook the small town of Talmage in preference for a meal or fuel stop in Ukiah, Mendocino's county seat.  If one travels into Talmage, venturing until the end of the road, a luminous white archway forms the entrance to The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.  Peacocks and deer peruse the grounds as you pass through this former state mental health institution turned Buddhist monestary and school.  The monastery is world-renowned, with well-respected monks from many different countries, some of whom came as refugees.  

The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB) purchased seventy acres of farmland adjacent to their campus some years ago.  Grape vines span sixty-five of those acres, which produce a high-end grape juice.  Unfortunately, this three-year grape juice endeavor hasn't been fruitful because the juice can hardly compete with generic brands like Welch's in the conventional market and with wine in the high-end market.  An LLC comprised of CTTB volunteers and business experts oversees the juice operation.  Seeing that the juice hasn't been lucrative and a need to align the farm site's operations with CTTB visions of ecologically-sensitive land management, the LLC called for proposals for an ecologically-sensitive, holistically managed land use plan.  Scott Cratty of the Westside Renaissance Market and Ukiah Farmers' Market alerted me to this request, and here's the basic version of what I submitted:

Guiding principles

Regional food security and justice – grow affordable, culturally-desirable food without compromising environmental and social health

Soil health and stability – build and maintain nutrient-rich soil by using crop rotations, perennials, native plants, and fungi; minimize tilling by planting and harvesting from perennials

Water preservation, retention and recharge – reduce reliance on water by dry farming; retain subsurface water by planting deep and diffuse-rooted perennials

Carbon sequestration – capture atmospheric carbon for long-term storage through perennials and grains

Medicine – cultivate native Northern California and Eastern medicinal plants

Animal habitat – foster a pollinator-positive environment; use humane, natural pest deterrents

Waste reduction – reuse farm materials; avoid synthetic chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides

Job creation – generate steady employment with fair compensation

Partnership

I would like to be the steward of City of Ten Thousand Buddhas' five acre plot amidst the vineyards. I intend to use holistic, ecologically-sensitive practices that would improve the land while contributing to the Mendocino region food shed.

I request that water, irrigation infrastructure and electricity are provided. I would also like to use facilities for refrigeration, dry goods storage, cleaning and packing food, and food preparation. If there is existing farm equipment, I would like to have access to them and am willing to refurbish machinery. Additionally, I would like to live on or near the five acres. If there is no existing structure I could live in near the five acres, I would like to discuss the possibility of constructing a modest home.

Five acres

Intended uses

Cover crop: grains, red clover, mushrooms

Compost: farm scraps

Crops: herbs, vegetables, legumes, grains

Flowering plants: varieties that attract pollinators

Greenhouses: 1) sprouting starts, 2) edible mushrooms

Medicinal plants: native and Eastern medicine plants

      Storage area: shaded area for temporary storage of harvested goods

Development
Phase 1: Building Soil

Considering that the land laid fallow for more than 15 years, according to Troy, so soil nutrients and workability must be introduced. This would be done through rotational plantings of grain for staples and straw, red clover for nitrogen and weed suppression, and mushrooms for fostering beneficial microbial activity.

Phase 2: Greenhouses

Greenhouses will be built on the north side to grow starts and mushrooms. In the initial period of building soil, herb and plant starts will be sold rather than planted. Perennial native and medicinal plants propagated in the greenhouse will be planted in the spring.

Phase 3: Storage Area

A shaded storage area would be used to keep farm tools and stage gathered produce before transporting them to a cleaning and packing area. This would also be on the north side of the property.

Phase 4: Planting

Once the soil has been sufficiently built up, plants would be introduced to some sections while other areas remain fallow. Crop rotation will continue throughout the seasons.

Beyond the Five Acres

If we pursue a partnership beyond the five acres, I would like to discuss:

• transitioning from vineyard to other crops or trees by building
• forest management: introduce innoculated logs of edible mushrooms
• riparian restoration: supporting and reintroducing native riparian plants

Markets

Buddhist temples in Bay Area – build on relationships with temples, many of which serve lunch on Sunday but do not use sustainably- and vegetarian-grown food

Community Supported Agriculture – reach out to resettlement services and senior homes

Independent cottage food businesses – support immigrant women who make ethnic foods but want to have a steady source of local, sustainably-grown produce

Farmers' markets – vend at the Ukiah, Sonoma county, San Francisco Bay Area markets in neighbourhoods with high Southeast Asian populations

About the farmer

Mai Nguyen came to farming with a background in the physical sciences and social work. She earned her undergraduate degree in Geography with a concentration in Atmospheric Physics at UC Berkeley. She collected and processed atmospheric, soil, and water data and generated climate models, essentially cataloguing climate change catastrophes. Dissatisfied with documenting doom, she sought to mitigate impacts of environmental change by working on waste management and water sanitation in post-disaster refugee camps. That work inspired her to consider the long-term livelihoods of refugees, including her own family who are Vietnamese refugees in the US. Mai returned stateside and worked in the Food Security and Community Health department of a refugee resettlement organization, wherein she oversaw the first farmers' market purposefully situated in a low-income neighbourhood and one of the first farmers' market food stamp match programs. While the program reduced financial barriers to fresh produce, the lack of culturally-desirable options in an ethnically-diverse neighbourhood acted as another barrier to affordable, healthy eating. Mai hopes to provide nutritious, sustainably-grown, and culturally-desirable food through her farming endeavours.

Mai's farming experience includes grains, vegetables, and cut flowers, primarily in Mendocino County. She also volunteered in Vermont, Sonoma County, Southern Ontario, and various countries in Southeast Asia. She helped on Buddhist monastic farms during her four month exploration of Buddhist practices in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. To inform the business side of farm management, Mai draws from her experience as a former owner and operator of a farm-to-table restaurant, an event planning company, and a catering business.