The accidental farmer
Gita Vanwoerden simply missed the deeply flavorful produce of her youth — so she started a movement
Gita Vanwoerden, the passionate proprietress of the certified organic Animal Farm Center, arrived in Houston from the Netherlands in the early ’80s with absolutely no intention of owning a farm. Nor did she plan to spearhead a local movement to grow organic vegetables or help rally to create a farmers market. Born in Jerusalem and having lived many years in South Africa, Gita moved with her Dutch husband, Cas, a petroleum engineer, with a plan to work in the booming oil business.
The Vanwoerdens started a family here and, wanting a retreat to get away from the bustle, they began looking for a piece of land. After an exhaustive search, in 1990 they purchased a 70-acre property with small clearings and beautiful trees in Cat Springs, about 65 miles northwest of Houston. They named their idyllic haven Animal Farm, after the famous George Orwell book.
Unhappy with supermarket produce and missing the type of deeply flavorful vegetables that grow in the rich South African soil — and to find a way to feed her three young children better food — Gita planted a modest vegetable patch. From zucchini and eggplant to the famous peppery arugula for which Gita is now known, the entire family participated in the farm’s growth: weekdays in the city, weekends in the country.
Over the years, that patch expanded enough to provide vegetables for some of Houston’s top chefs. Monica Pope, Jimmy Mitchell and Mark Cox were some of her early customers. Soon, at the urging of Gita and other local farmers, small markets with tables overflowing with locally grown produce began popping up around town. Gita was hooked, as she says, on “the magic of seeing a seed turn into a vegetable we can eat.”
Today Animal Farm uses 20 acres to grow flowers and some of the most brightly flavored and delicious vegetables in the area. You can find Gita, sometimes with her husband or her lovely daughter, Solame, at the Urban Harvest farmers market every Tuesday and Saturday.
Farming, one of the original small businesses of America, has never been easy — especially in Houston, with its sandy or claylike soil. Organic farming is even more challenging, with three to five years of pre-work maintaining strict rules and careful oversight of everything from seed procurement to soil conditions. If the plants survive the complicated processes for more than five years, only then can a farm be certified organic.
For me, this was initially a little hard to understand. I had never heard the words “organic” and “local” in relation to food until I came to North America. When I was growing up in India, everything we ate was organic and local since that is what was most economically feasible. Foods were limited to what could be trucked in from nearby farmlands, and there were no fertilizers to be had. The produce never looked as pretty as it looks here, but it was much more flavorful.
There is a strong belief among Indians that eating foods from their surrounding homeland fills them with immunity and strength to withstand the ills of nature. I did not fully grasp why any of the produce we were eating in the U.S. would not be organic or local. Little did I realize the havoc big agriculture corporations were wreaking on small farmers while deeply damaging the food we were consuming at the time. That damage subsequently has stretched throughout the world, including India.
An outlier in the community, Gita and her team did not just stop at an organic farm — they adopted the tenets of permaculture, an idea she was introduced to on a trip to the Amazon. Reminding me a great deal of Ayurveda with its strong association of co-existing with the elements, permaculture relies on designing harmonious, whole-system living based on three essential principles.
First, taking care of the Earth and making provisions for all life systems, from insects to animals, to grow. Because without a healthy Earth, humans cannot flourish. Next is taking care of the people around us by ensuring access to provisions they need. The last and probably most important rule is to govern our own needs and take only our fair share of resources to protect future generations by protecting the circle of life. A consummate vegetarian, Gita has built a farm that is home to plenty of animals — chickens, horses, pigs — but they are not for consumption. They coexist with the humans and participate in the stewardship of the land.
Tasting a tangy pepper, a peppery arugula leaf or a luscious heirloom tomato grown in a local mineral-rich soil is one of the true pleasures of living in Houston. I, for one, am addicted to shopping at local farmers markets for almost all of my needs. And if I have to pay a little more for fresh farm eggs or organic produce, I consider it money well spent. If I don’t pay now, I may pay later — a sobering thought. It simplifies my choices, and I truly believe that it fills me with the immunity and strength I need to withstand the ills of nature.