30th Anniversary Celebration

Wayne, Evie and Lee pose with the strawberry filled cake made for them by Dominique (of Dominiques Sweets and Macaroons-she rents and works in our commercial kitchen).

See cake and icing details....Dominique really put some effort into the farm theme here. It is always challenging to cut into work like this.


A second creative vegetable-themed cake was presented by farm friend, Ina.

This group shot captured all past and present employees who were present at the moment of this photo session. There are a few figures I am not sure about from the past, but left to right the approximate identities include: Wayne, Katya, Evie, Jesus, Roxie, Callahan, Ellery, Lee, Erica (self), Paige (behind my head), Linda, Dominique and daughter Marisol, and Zeni.

Scene from the front of the hay ride tour on the farm. Wayne gave us an overview of the farm field in general, this season's crops and whatever else we happened upon along the way. Slight sprinkler spritzes were a feature of this tour.


This is Marisol. She knows a good strawberry and this was a good day for her to stroll down the rows of the strawberry patch and check out what was good, or not so good. I was impressed by her ability to sort out the bad ones and toss them away, savoring the perfect berries. Marisol is Dominique's daughter (that is, Dominique who is now working with the farm stand and CSA, not the Dominique who made the cake shown above). Two Dominique's now.

Here Roxie and Brian gossip away (they can't help it) next to Roxie's spinning demonstration. Brian is a handy man around the farm these days, formally our master welder. He also was the driver of the hay rides during this Sunday event so that Wayne was free to lead the tour.

This kids enjoyed the pinata and respectfully took turns....smaller children were not required to wear blind folds. No candy as a reward, there may have been a few disappointed reactions at first, but once they realized their prizes of popcorn and strawberries, I think there was some sweet relief.


The farm stand served as a wonderful shelter and gather place for the pot luck and social center for all of our guests an friends.

A big thanks to all for coming. It is the people and community who make an event like this. I know your farmers and friends greatly value the support and interest all of us invest into the hard work that goes into farming, not to mention 30 years of it. Looking forward to many, many more years of Tierra Vegetables.

Historic Review-Rough Draft

I'm working to incorporate new content into the website and await final review from the farmer's on this draft, but will share it here now. Enjoy 30 years of evolution with Tierra with the biography found below:


The 30 year history of Tierra Vegetables

The Start-Up Years

Wayne James began his farming career in the mid to late 70s. While studying Viticulture at the Santa Rosa Junior College, he also picked up a practical farming position working alongside his mentor named Clarence of Potter Valley in Mendocino County. Clarence had once worked with Wayne's grandfather and at the time was operating a large market farm out of Potter Valley. Wayne spent approximately two seasons working with Clarence in 1976 and 1977, trucking their diverse summer produce to the very first Santa Rosa Farmer's Market (including opening day) and initiating markets in the Ukiah area. Clarence was of the opinion that there were far too many vineyards and drilled this perspective into Wayne as a young student of the wine grape growing business.

Following this experience, Wayne took some time to travel around the United States. During the same time his folks purchased and established themselves on their new property located on Chalk Hill Road in Healdsburg where Wayne and his older sister, Lee, reconvened in 1979. Lee had just acquired her Master's degree from Humboldt State and returned home to Sonoma County to pursue whatever the future had in store for her. Turns out, the home on Chalk Hill would eventually evolve into a small family farm base of operations.

Staying at their folks' place on Chalk Hill, Lee and Wayne discovered a swimming hole across the street and via a trail along the neighbor's property. This was the Lorry's property and became the site of their first market garden, conveniently located close to home. Upon initially asking to use the riverside space to grow vegetables, the Lorry's agreed to exchange the land for $100.00 per acre per year. Eventually, the Lorry's dropped the lease when realizing how much they appreciated the aesthetics that the farming offered and perceived it as a benefit to their property. By spring of 1980, Wayne and Lee had purchased the required rototiller and along with their dad's bulldozer and disk were able to work up the land. They started out seeding carrots and like items by hand and executed many of their tasks on their hands and knees. They sold the vegetables at the Healdsburg and Santa Rosa Farmer's Markets. They recall producing and selling bulk quantities of items like cucumbers and tomatoes that their customers then purchased for canning and storage. A 20 pound box of tomatoes may have gone for $4.00 back in those days!

A second property was added to the scene in the early 80s. The field along Franz Creek was utilized for a couple of seasons until the pest pressure became so fierce that the field was finally abandoned. Lee recalls the plot covered in beautiful winter squash vines one day only to return a few days later and the entire thing had disappeared. Deer had taken everything.

Off to Africa

Around the same time in the early summer of 1985, Wayne opted to join up with the Peace Corps. This decision left Lee farming on her own for a couple of years while Wayne worked in support of communal garden efforts in Lesotho, South Africa. To this day, Wayne often refers to this experience in fondness and expresses the value it had on his perspectives in life and farming. During his time there he grew just about everything in support of the local community and worked on smaller garden plots in addition to ten acres of farm field production.

Meanwhile, Lee continued to keep up the market farming in Healdsburg with the support of family and friends. It was during this time that committed customer Evie Truxaw appeared on the scene. Then an employee at Clo Du Bois, Evie would rush on over to Lee's Healdsburg market stand for her weekly share of vegetables (then located in the old prune sheds, not far from Clo Du Bois winery). As a strong supporter and customer, Evie eventually started helping with some of the markets along with her other work.

Getting Bigger

In 1988, Wayne returned with his renewed perspective and focused his energy back the riverside property of the Lorry family. This was the season that Tierra Vegetables hired on their first employee. Adolf, soon followed by Martin, got Lee and Wayne thinking about hiring on more help and boosting the production of their blossoming operation. By 1990, hired help became necessary to optimize the farm. Also around this time, Evie and Wayne had realized a common interested in one another, in addition to the farm.

In 1990, another property was added to the farm. There were more hands to expand the production and markets were now becoming established, not to mention these farmers had more than ten years of experience under their belts. Another neighboring Chalk Hill property by the name of Tosky was utilized for the next three years in addition to the field by the river at the Lorry's place. This land eventually succumbed to the monoculture of vineyards and now operates under the name of Lancaster Vineyards.

Land, land, the hunt for land resumed. A piece was discovered in Windsor off of Pleasant Avenue, owned by the Bertoli family (Tierra still grows a tomato named for this historic family). When the neighboring property went up for sale, Wayne and Evie had to buy it....that was where the well was that was watering his neighboring farm fields after all. Additionally, he and Evie were ready for a place to share and call home. The Windsor field is a part of the Tierra production to this day, but remains a remote site where crops that need less daily tending and harvesting usually end up (potatoes, dried beans, corn).

As time went on, Evie took on more and more roles with the farm. For years she taught in local schools and worked alongside Lee and Wayne in the marketing realm of the farm, eventually leaving teaching behind and going full time into the farm business. Her energy in marketing and as coordinator of the CSA brought enlightenment to the community and customers of Tierra Vegetables. The CSA program started as a group of Evie's friends, eventually evolving into the hundreds of farm shares spread all over the county today.

The land and employee chronology starts to get confusing here in the mid 90s. There was a field off of Wood Road in Fulton. This field was used and soils improved with Tierra farming techniques for a couple of years until it was snatched for vineyards...yet another small farm squeezed out by local monoculture. The Wood Road site is currently used for hydroponic tomato production that you may find in the off season markets in Santa Rosa.

Airport Boulevard and working with the county

Finally, around 2000, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space district purchased the 17 acre field at Airport Boulevard, ensuring it's "green" uses for years to come. There was an open bidding for use of the property and Tierra Vegetables jumped on the opportunity. They were subsequently selected to lease the land from the county, but endured two years of processing prior to being able to enter and begin farming their new acquisition.

In 2002 they experienced their first spring on the Airport Boulevard site. They had temporary permission to begin farming at this point, in part due to a lack of water. The well had not yet been added to the site, but with late rain that season a few dry farmed crops were brought to harvest. About 1/4 of the 17 acre parcel was planted in winter squash and other like items that produced with no irrigation except for the two times that Wayne hauled in and hand watered to get the seeds germinating.

In 2003 the well was completed, along with a pump and generator on site. The field was now fully equipped for use and it was just in time for another spring. This season half of the field was used as the infrastructure for irrigation of the entire place was still lacking.

In 2004 underground main lines, piping and irrigation were added.

In 2005 it was decided that an upgraded base of operations was needed not only for convenience to the Airport field, but also to bump up the capabilities of processed and value added products coming from the farm. Jams, dried chiles, and a plethora of unique and traditional kitchen experiments could now take place with the abundance of top notch ingredients coming from the farm. Lee is especially talented in the kitchen and has been the master-mind behind the majority of the unique Tierra products. Additionally, office and storage space was established, improving the convenience of trying to operate a business.

In 2007 the kitchen and office spaces completed construction and were ready to use and the farm was then incorporated. The incorporation of the business had become necessary for liabilities, the size of the operation and the use of the kitchen.

30 Years Later

As a team of three, Tierra Vegetables is made up of 1/2 Lee, and the other 1/2 shared by Wayne and Evie. In addition, the hired help now numbers near ten in the main season and continues in smaller numbers year round. Employees assist with anything and everything from office to kitchen and field work. Weeds, sales, harvesting, and processing. The projects on this farm could take a village to complete. A supportive community and consumer base has worked to broaden and diversify what Tierra has been able to accomplish. As a result, the community is infused the by the expert ability of experienced small scale farmers who are willing to take risks to feed and serve us all.

In summary, a brother and sister who learned and loved to grow and have earned the never-ending support of family and friends, joined by a friend and partner to them and the community at large, together have created a farming system celebrating 30 years of history that spreads itself across the Healdsburg/Windsor/Santa Rosa areas, into the city of San Francisco and as far away as Africa.

The People of Tierra: Evie

Evie serves as your number one Point of Contact when it comes to dealing with Tierra Vegetables. She is really the Marketing Manager, but this also evolves into people manager. Luckily, she is darn good at it and well suited to answering the calls, questions, emails. She is the face you almost always encounter when visiting the farm and farm stand, others off working behind the scenes. Evie seems to know everyone. She maintains the CSA membership and literally knows each and every member's personal story and history in her head. In addition to farm stand sales and CSA memberships, Evie might also wheel and deal with restaurants sales and, less frequently, some wholesale orders. Much of the vegetable sales interface passes through Evie one way or another, therefore, the majority of you all know her well.

Who better suited to be tucked away in the office to manage the CSA member data base? A computer spreadsheet accounts for each farm subscriber. Wayne and Evie both work constantly to keep this information updated as members pay, move, change phone numbers, and make special requests. Because all of this specific information causes additional work on the end of the farm, a CSA member is rewarded with savings if they pay all at once (that is less visits to their row in the spreadsheets). Phone calls and emails galore make up this system of ensuring everyone gets what they pay for and arrive at the right pace to pick it up.

A favorite component of the CSA is the menu that accompanies each vegetable pick-up. Evie fabricates this entire thing with her expert understanding and use of vegetables in the kitchen and ability to research and dig further when Wayne and Lee have produced something a little less ordinary. At Tierra, you are likely to encounter a new vegetable from time to time in your box and, fortunately, Evie is here to interpret this item and make suggestions for what we all might do with it.

And what about accounting for all the the sales? Evie is usually in charge of this portion of the office work too. Quickbooks facilitates the process of creating invoices and receiving payments for each and every customer and sale that goes through Tierra Vegetables. Nothing is left unaccountable!

A weekly email is produced (twice weekly when in the depths of main season produce) reminding you all what is in season and what you might expect at the farm that week. Whether it be first of the season asparagus, strawberries, a glut of eggs or the introduction of a new product, Evie ensures you know what is happening each week as she provides updates featuring the seasonality of farm products.

While you may see Evie as the friendly face that is usually to be found at the farm stand, her role within the company encompasses much more behind the scenes too. As for that friendly face, children galore come to see just that face at least weekly. They might earn themselves a free carrot or strawberry, learn to type a few numbers into the cash register or weigh their produce. Great with children and folks of all ages and types, Evie is a friend to us all and a community figure we are all missing presently as she takes some time to focus on her health.

It is no secret Evie began her personal battle again ovarian cancer during the holiday season. It is only as a result of this that I have learned first hand how diversified her role can be as I face her customers each week, ensuring them she is doing the best she can under the circumstances of her treatment.

I'm not Evie, but she is trusting me to stand in for a bit and I'm doing the best I can with it. As we each have our own unique strengths and weaknesses, Evie's character and knowledge is certainly missed by all those who know and love her. She hopes to return by the time summer kicks in and she is still out there behind the scenes making her irreplaceable contributions to the farm operation.

Sorry for a limited number of photos on this post! I need to chase Evie with my camera in 2010, she seems to have slipped past me so far.