Threshing the Sweet Peas

Here I have caught Wayne in another of his myriad of duties around the farm...of course, this is a self constructed project as farming priorities tend to be. You must pick and choose your battle amongst a never-ending list of options that call at you non-stop throughout a day, everyday. We decided to save the seeds of that bumper crop of sweet pea flowers many of you may recall this early summer. The pleasure of the sweet bundles of flowers pairs so nicely with the spring flush of strawberries. We hope to do that again next season and saving this year's seeds is the first step towards that goal.

Tierra Vegetables is the proud owner of a seed separating device, or Thresher, an investment that became rational as a result of the many dry bean and experimental grain crops that are employed on the farm these days (did you know Wayne has a dream of one day expanding the grain production to service a grain CSA?). If you would like to read on about threshing techniques, equipment and seed/grain processing follow this link or Google more about the process for yourself. This image captures one of two very expensive seed plates we have for this thresher. Although not ideally suited to the size of a sweet pea seed, it would have to do the job as it is all we had.

Here are those little round pea seeds that I diligently begin planting in fall and continue to ensure they make it through pests and frosts throughout the spring. What a wonderful spring of sweet peas we had on the farm this season and I can honestly admit I am quite tired of cutting tiny sweet peas flowers this year. Maybe it is time to rest up for next season now. So this is how the plants are removed from the field once gone to seed. They have been left to dry on a tarp for a week or two prior to processing in the thresher so that they dry up nicely to remove the plant material from the seed. I could slowly and diligently remove seed after seed from the dried up pods with my hands, the quiet and meditative form of seed saving. Alternatively, since Wayne already has this nice mechanical piece of equipment, specifically suited to these purposes, we may as well give mechanical efficiency a chance.

The first of the three steps the plant material goes through, I have forgotten the name of this portion of the machine, but this is where you insert the plant material for crushing/grinding. It then passes through a screen in the inner depths of the machine where my camera does not easily see and then passes either out the back as trash material or falls down a chute into our tub as seed material. Voila! Pounds and pounds of sweet pea seeds saved for future generations of floral pleasure and therefore no need to go buying more down the road. Seed saving is so appropriate to the continuous grower if you have time, space and resources to be doing so. Tierra has also grown out a seed crop of the Early Red Burger onion this season, a good seed crop to invest energy into as onion seeds to do last long and must be purchased annually if not saved.

Here is the trash material going out the back of the machine. Once upon a time, pre-mechanical processing, Tierra staff and friends gathered to stomp and process beans by hand and foot. Changes and choices like these are options that can make a difference in the efficiencies and affordability of particular processes and crops around a small farm. It is really worth no one's time in the long run to be processing grain crops by hand, unless we were going to charge an arm and a leg for them and then you would never buy them. The reality is that the mechanical approach is really the only way to make any sense of the greater picture, unless you are a small home grower who has the time to spend and finds pleasure in the process.


This is what results look like as the seeds began to filter their way to the tub. We filled a good quarter of this tub on Saturday afternoon, plenty of seed for the farm next season and my own personal personal trials as I seed sweet peas around my own home and garden spaces.

Potato Planting Per the Moon Phase in the Children's Garden

Lee suggested to Lisl (self motivated leader of the Children's Garden) that yesterday was the day to plant potatoes. The moon phase determined this decision more than anything else as it was time again to plant for root growth. Children were invited for a noon-time potato planting that included Lisl in charge, Wayne in support and whatever kids and parent's might show. A small initial group of participants and a beautiful day made for a great initiation and potato planting experience to a few young participants.

Bamboo bean trellis serving as a constant back drop to the setting of this plot, it will one day soon be walls and tunnels of greenery. Thanks to the small group who gathered at the farm yesterday, we will now have some spuds to dig up in a month or two. Potato harvest is one of the most exciting for kids and adults alike, such surprises to be encountered with each newly harvested tuber hiding under the earth. Now we have this to look forward to in the future.

Stay tuned for more events in the Children's Garden or come by the farm stand and visit the land and/or drop your email on the register so you will be contacted for future events.

Winnowing with Wayne

Enjoy the following short video, filmed and produced my farm friend and follower, Andrea who is a Sonoma County native and Bay Area local of my own generation. This is just the first of a series of films she intends to create, documenting various operations and people around the farm. Enjoy her expert eye, this is what she does for a living.

On the topic of Winnowing with Wayne, I recently finished reading the book Fields of Plenty by Jonah Raskin. The book contains a small chapter with the same name and excerpt describing his own experience cleaning beans and visiting the farm. A wonderful Sonoma County-local farming read that I highly recommend to others.

Wayne did build the vertical winnowing device in the video below. A huge part of finding efficiencies in the details of farming is the modification of tools to suit the circumstance and location specific to the farm. This farm is large enough that is does rely on mechanical assistance to a large extent, otherwise it would never be able to provide for so many households and survive. In addition to the winnower Wayne and others around the farm have constructed farm specific planting equipment, a recently developed harvesting cart (more coming soon), the smoker that makes all those chipotles, and much more. This is all part of the fun of farming!

Winnowing fava beans in July from The Seedling Project on Vimeo.

A low-tech method of winnowing fava bean pods from fava beans, which is demonstrated by Wayne James of Tierra Vegetables. Tierra is located just outside of Santa Rosa and they are famous for their chili peppers and delicious pepper products.



This is an excerpt of a larger documentary about Tierra Vegetables—I've been following them for almost two years.

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.

Wayne's Feet

Here is a topic people cannot seem to get enough of. Young and old, informal inquiry and local news publications, people are always caught in fascination with your farmer's bare feet.

WHY?! He just prefers to be this way. Exceptions? Muddy days I find him in a pair of garden-type Crocs and middle of winter you might find him with woolen slippers crafted by his sister.

Pros: No need to worry about the proper footwear for a given situation. Whereas I will often juggle boots and garden shoes for different activities and settings, Wayne is always set to go whether he is indoors or out.

Cons: I have more than once observed significant foot splinter events as a result of the heavy bark mulches around the farm. You'd think a painful lesson like this might provoke change, but as I mentioned previously, he just prefers his feet remain bare.

I'm sure there is much more to say to this topic if I wanted to go into a full interview, but it seemed worth a mere mention as I stole a photo the other day in the farm stand. Maybe more action shots of Wayne's feet in the future this season, but he does admit it is a topic that has been over-publicized as it is.

Field Operations

Farm work is busy. When there are things to do (which is almost always) there are tons of things that need to be done at once. Priorities are a MUST and we wander about picking and choosing out battles all day long on the farm. A Saturday afternoon project yesterday was to apply row cover to newly planted and emerging seedlings. I think it was arugula the guys were trying to save from insect damages. It typically gets munched into a doily full of holes by flea beetles. Other plants like cucumbers and squash are attacked by cucumber beetles, and the list goes on and on. When is it worthwhile to spend the time and energy to save a crop from these pest damages? Wayne and Jesus work together in the above image to attach a large roll of brand new row cover to the tractor for application. Tis the season of insect pests and if we want to have certain crops they will need protection in the form of exclusion.

Once the tractor is rigged to apply the row cover it can actually drive itself while the guys follow along and cover the edges so that it will not blow away. All of this extra time and labor and the resources are good examples of why farming organically can be challenging and costly in the broader scheme of food production techniques. These row covers will be re-used around the farm again and again until they out live their life cycle and a full of holes and tears. The guys will have to remove the covers in order to harvest and once the crop is done. It is a lot of extra work, but lets the crop thrive without the damages of our local insect pests.

Meanwhile, Roberto got called off of field operations to go pick more strawberries! He is our number one berry man when the time comes around to re-stock inventory throughout the sales day. We try to pick enough for everyone while also not over-picking. But it is trivial because we never know hen a large strawberry order might hit a the end of a day. You can often see Roberto out filling boxes of sweet berries from out the back of the farm stand. I'm certain he loves his sweet job as he was probing and calling for months as we anticipated the first berries of the season. I never find hesitation is asking for MORE berries AGAIN.

Strawberry Raffle Results and the First Harvest

Here is the first harvest of strawberries for the season. Jose is holding the berries with Jesus on his right, stopping to smile over the occasion. It took these guys some time to gather up this many berries, but they went ahead and did it because otherwise the next round of oncoming rain could just rot whatever berries were sitting out in the field. So, this harvest was a little rushed by the weather, but so is farming one way or another for the most part. We revolve around weather before all else.

Here is Wayne (you can recognize the barren feet) giving the grit ridden berries a rough washing....water is often sparse around the farm as we run on a generator. This round of berries has endured some weather and not many came out free of a good layer of dirt from recent rains. They weren't all super red and perfect either, but that did not rob them of true, sweet strawberry flavor. These early berries beat the shipped in grocery store varietals on any day of the year. It was such a treat to have berries to snack on again....a huge benefit of operating the farm stand.

Despite the white edges seen in the photo, for the most part these berries were quite sweet and full of flavor. I think the cardboard and flavorless grocery store options might train us to shy away from a berry that does not look perfect, but the truth is that a home grown berry is just all around better. We are able to grow strawberries that do not require shipping and hence have better flavor qualities in exchange for durability....this is the usual issue with local versus commercial food choices. Trade in your Costco and Trader Joe berries for local ones, it is time to enjoy a quality product from your local farm. As a side note, the folks who stand on the corner of Fulton and Airport and sell flats of berries do not come from the farm....they just hang out on our corner and next to our sign, coincidentally.

And here is my first strawberry sale! Nancy; a committed weekly customer, friend, supporter of the farm and all the people and products involved; gathered up the first pickings of berries to take home and savor this week. She has some rhubarb too....also in season right now. For those of you who need strawberries and rhubarb together that time is here. Before expecting too much from the strawberry crop, let's wait and see what this coming rain does first. It won't help the berries, but hopefully they won't get damaged either and we might have more this coming weekend.

And finally, here is Sara. Dropping in after her morning run, Sara got lucky as I had just tallied up the results of the Strawberry Raffle. Instead of leaving her recycled strawberry basket with me, she got to refill it with the first berries of the season at no charge. Sara was one of three winners in the raffle who came closest to guessing the first harvest date. You never know what surprises you might find when you drop in at you local farm. Unpredictably, it might not have the grocery store selection you are seeking, but there is always something and very often something new, exciting and unexpected as we wait for seasonal treats to come to fruition.

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 and Who Does What: Wayne

What doesn't Wayne do? It is a daunting task to report the day in the life of your farmer, Wayne James. There are those things he sets out to accomplish, then there are those things he gets pulled off to respond to in support of others, and there are all those things that MUST happen as this is a business. Not only a farmer, but also CEO of a small farm business, Wayne stays quite busy in the field, office, kitchen, farm stand, and busily moving about between all these places.

Notoriously donning bare feet under all circumstances and often accompanied by not just Willow, but now his new pup Oso, Wayne is easily recognizable around the farm and I do think most of you know him. Married to Evie and brother of Lee, employer of all us farm employees, he is a central figure that we all turn to as a leader and foundation of Tierra Vegetables.

Wayne is in charge of hiring, payroll, billing, taxes, sales/invoicing/accounting, farm data base management for both crops and customers. He makes packaging labels for products, develops spreadsheets for crop operations and facilitating sales. I think it is obvious he is the computer guy.

While this myriad of office tasks does keep him well tied to his office space that adjoins the commercial kitchen in Windsor, he does find time for the farm field and must do so as he and field manager, Pablo, cooperatively make seasonal decisions. Wayne walks the 17 acre field frequently to keep up with what is ready to harvest, till in and replant, what seeds has germinated with success or not, etc... Customers of the farm are constantly wanting to know "what is next" in the seasonal scheme of things. While a general guess can be made based on past seasons, each year is unique and only a regular survey of the farm will really tell you what is happening out there.

Luckily, Wayne does not have to do all of these field walks alone as he is in constant companionship with his newly acquired Shelty, Oso. Brother to Lee's new pup, Cloudy, these two joined the crew last fall when Lee and Wayne's parents had a large litter on miniature Shelty puppies....just what everyone had been waiting for. There are now three of them scattering the farm scene, in addition to Willow (making 4 farm dogs) who is really Evie's side kick. All of them love carrots very much, by the way.

Wayne starts his day in the office/kitchen usually, catching up on whatever is piling up on his desk or last minute packing of products for daily sales. Off to the field and farm stand he is involved in setting up for business, packing and organizing the CSA, planting the latest crops, whatever the day calls for. Wayne turns and makes compost, plans for the future of the farm and how to innovate and improve and increase production and sales, of course. When harvest season sets in, life gets pretty darn complicated with bulk quantities of dry corn, beans, and chiles for processing in the thresher or smoker and dehydrator. Wayne plays a central role in all of this delightful farm chaos.

While Lee is in charge of things like jam production and other kitchen activity, Wayne and Evie are ready to step in on these tasks at a moment's notice. These three are a team and while each has their focal point relating to individual strengths, they come together to celebrate and accomplish those activities that are crucial to the farm survival. In this case, the chile jam has been a very popular item for years and diverse annual production is important in serving customers and making good use of a wide array of chile types in a storage product. Wayne also helps make sauerkraut, mills the corn meal in periodic batches, and serves as kitchen assistant whenever duty might call him away from his desk. That is the unfortunate thing of having an office space adjacent to a busy commercial kitchen facility. Distractions emerge at a constant rate. Not only do they use the kitchen themselves, but also lease it out to a handful of other local producers in need of such a work space. This creates a little bit of kitchen and people management on top of everything else.

Needless to say, your farmer is working and living a busy, busy lifestyle to feed and serve the customer and community at large (I'm confident I forgot to mention many things Wayne does here). Take a minute to say thanks....as someone who observes from an intimate perspective I can tell you these guys deserve it.