Tour of Iacopi Farms
On July 28, 2013, CUESA visited Iacopi Farms in Half Moon Bay, the first stop on our “Close to Home: Peas and Peppers on the Peninsula” farm tour. Photos by CUESA and Barry Jan.
Legume and artichoke grower Louis Iacopi farms about 165 acres on various leased plots scattered around Half Moon Bay.
The son of an Italian immigrant, Louis grew up on a 6,000-acre farm in Pescadero, California. He moved to Half Moon Bay to start his own operation in 1962.
Louis grows about 8 to 10 varieties of beans, including the freshly cultivated Blue Lake and Romano beans shown here.
This 20-acre plot is adjacent to a hotel. Being on the edge of civilization is both a blessing and a challenge for Louis. "It's nice being close to town, but it can be hard to farm," he said. He and his workers must be careful not to work the land on windy days to avoid blowing dust into a wedding party.
Iacopi Farms is well-known at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for their Green Globe artichokes, a variety that enjoys the foggy coastal climate. The perennial plants produce year-round but go into hiberation during the winter. The artichokes are vulnerable to gophers. "They’ll go down the row and knock out 15 to 20 plants before you know it," said Louis. Each day, one of his workers will walk around the farm and trap them.
Similar to artichokes, cardoons remind Louis of his Italian roots, though the cardoon is typically eaten for its stalks rather than its bulbs. Cardoons are not a lucrative crop, but he decided to plant a small one-acre plot for sentimental value. "My dad used to cook this stuff," he said. "It was so tasty. You fry them up like zucchini or zucchini flowers and do a nice fritto misto."
Sugar snap peas and English peas are also grown on the farm.
Our tour group picked and enjoyed fresh sugar snap peas.
Each year, Louis starts planting in November and seeds a new field every 10 to 14 days in order to ensure a steady supply of fresh beans and peas through the following fall. He uses this tractor implement to sow the seed.
The machine includes a hopper fitted with a plate that has holes corresponding to the size of the seed. Seeds drop the through the plate's holes to ensure even spacing in the field rows.
Legumes like beans and peas are vulnerable to aphids and soil-borne diseases like Verticillium and Fusarium wilt, as shown on these fava plants. Many farmers use methyl bromide, a toxic fumigant pesticide, to ward off wilt diseases, but Louis relies on crop rotation. He also uses some organic and synthetic pesticides to combat disease and pests.
Our group sampled raw fava beans. Louis recommends shelling the beans, removing the slightly bitter skin around each bean, blanching the beans quickly, and adding them to salads, pastas, and rice.
Louis has three sons, Steve, Peter, and Michael, as well as grandsons, Dante and Nicolas, who also lend a hand at the farm. Dante (on the right) is the farm's "number one market vendor." He can often be found helping Louis at the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. "Dante probably eats half a case of sugar snap peas when he's at the market," said Louis.
Next, we took a brief drive down Highway 1 to another one of Louis' farm plots, located at the Half Moon Bay Airport. He is permitted to farm the fields between the runways in exchange for maintenance work such as mowing. A neighboring farm grows the Brussels sprouts that Iacopi Farms sells at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market under a second certificate.
At this site, Louis grows Italian butter beans (shown here), cranberry beans, and Borlotti beans. All of the airport fields are dry-farmed, which means they are watered solely by the winter rains and don't get irrigated the rest of the year. The plants and pods are small but produce some flavorful beans, according to Louis.
Cranberry beans.
Beans that are not harvested fresh are allowed to dry in the fields to save for seed or to sell dried at the market.
Once the plants have dried, a harvester is driven through the fields to pick up and thresh the beans.
Before they go to market, the beans will be sent to a cleaner to remove the twigs and other debris. A ladybug found her way into this storage bin.
Louis allowed our tour group to take home some freshly harvested beans.
Thank you to Iacopi Farms and our farm tour sponsors, First National Bank of Northern California and Coach 21, for making this tour possible!
