HAMILTON CITY, Calif. — Raquel Krach and Greg Massa have an organic farm near Chico, but most of the questions they get from visitors involve their straw bale home.

“We heard about straw bale construction from University of California-Santa Cruz Professor Michael Souls, who we knew in graduate school,” Krach said. “Since we grew rice and would need to build a house and be able to live on our land, which we thought was really important, it was a good opportunity to use rice straw bales.”

Construction took place over two to three years, she said. “We also put on an addition (also straw bale) six years later.”

Straw bale homes first appeared over 100 years ago in the sand hills of Nebraska. With few trees to supply lumber, settlers baled prairie grasses and stacked the bales like bricks to form the walls of the house. Some of the houses are still standing and became the model for a straw bale house revival that started in the 1990s.

With walls that are two feet thick, the insulating property of bale construction is outstanding. Coated with plaster or stucco on both sides, bale walls are rodent-proof, fire-proof and even bullet-proof.

Massa Organics has 75-100 acres planted to organic rice and almonds. They use crop rotation to manage weeds and fertility.

“We try to schedule our crop rotation so that we have three years between rice crops in any one field,” she said on the farm’s website. “This can dramatically help with weed control in rice. Rice is a summer crop that is grown in flooded fields, so it has a particular set of weeds associated with those conditions. By contrast, wheat is a fall planted crop that is dry and fallow in the heat of summer.”

Safflower, one of the other crops, is planted in spring, and also dry through the summer, she said. “Each of these crops has a unique planting, tillage, and irrigation regime, which means that any particular weed would be unlikely to grow in all three crops. We hope that by always changing what we plant, we are able to reduce the number of weed seeds present in the soil.”

They also raise sheep and hogs, selling the meat.

The sheep graze on grasses and clovers under the almond trees, fertilizing the trees as they go. The heritage breed hogs live outside in temporary pens in the fields.

In 1997, the couple moved back to the Massa family farm and shortly thereafter began transitioning a portion of the land to organic. They also took on the challenges of selling their rice directly to the public — a rarity for rice farmers. Their calrose variety is served in over 30,000 school lunches each week.

“We have five children and a son-in-law, ages 14-22,” she said. “Over the years they have all worked as laborers on the farm, packing and shipping online orders and have operated booths at farmers markets. During the pandemic the three teenagers still living at home are our primary farm helpers when they are not distance-learning.”

Massa Organics has experienced ups and downs due to COVID-19. The farm lost some restaurant and school accounts but online sales have remained high.

Krach said Massa Organics is lucky to have the flexibility that comes with producing shelf-stable foods.

“Greg and Raquel Massa are deeply thoughtful and caring farmers who constantly work to make their farm more sustainable, creating a diverse and robust ecosystem while providing wholesome food to our community,” said Brie Mazurek, communications director of CUESA, which operates a farmers market at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. “In an industry dominated by commodity, they have forged their own path. We are proud to support them in bringing their delicious organic rice direct to the public at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.”

Over the last year Massa Organics has implemented more regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till planting, year-round cover cropping and intensive grazing of their sheep.

These practices improve soil health, which not only results in healthier crops, but also leads to improved water use efficiency, promotes greater biodiversity and sequesters carbon.

Family: Five children and a son-in-law, ages 14-22

Hometown: Glenn, Calif.

Occupation: Organic farmers

Education: University of California-Santa Cruz (Krach) and San Jose State (Massa)

Personal quote: “(We strive) To nourish our bodies with healthy, high-quality food; to regenerate our soil with conservation farming practices and to heal our planet by restoring the carbon balance.”