Common Ground: Laguna Farm

August 2004

Laguna Farm

Sowing Seeds of Sustainability

by Patricia Dines

Something just sparked, ten years ago, when farmer Scott Mathieson met herbalist Leslie Gardner over rosemary and arugula while delivering their organic wares to a local distributor.

Not long after that meeting at Emerald Valley Herbs (now Terra Sonoma), Gardner joined Mathieson on his farm at the edge of the Laguna de Santa Rosa, just south of Sebastopol. She renovated the farmhouse in the Mission style and now she grows herbs there, raising their two children, teaching piano and herb gardening, and managing the garden at the California School of Herbal Studies. She also helps with the farm’s strategy, bookkeeping, and newsletter. He collaborates with the farm’s employees, volunteers, and apprentices to grow “beyond organic” vegetables, build straw-bale buildings, and develop alternative energy sources to help power the farm — including solar, wind, and vegetable oil.

Some might be surprised to find that neither Gardner nor Mathieson were raised on farms but in suburbs. She grew up in Ohio and he in southern California where his mother shared her passion for organic gardening. Each summer, he visited his grandfather on the cattle ranch that forms half of today’s Laguna Farm.

Nestled along a stream on the Laguna, with egrets and herons gliding overhead, this wide-open farm is dotted with the crooked reachings of ancient oak trees. Mathieson remembers his childhood visits fondly — feeding cows, helping his grandfather move irrigation pipe (still in use today), riding horses bareback, lashing rafts together, fishing and hanging out by the Laguna. Even today, he kayaks on the Laguna and only farms half their 50 acres — and none at the Laguna’s edge, to keep that land in its natural state.

Small Farm Survival

The twist in this bucolic picture is the struggle to sustain a small farm, an endangered way of life. The USDA’s 1998 Small Farms Report described how decades of government programs have encouraged consolidation of food distribution systems that has disadvantaged small farms. As a result, from 1910 to 1991, nearly half-a-million Americans left farms each year and the farming population fell from 32 million to below 5 million — less than 2% of Americans. In 1993, the U.S. Census Bureau said it would “no longer count the number of Americans who live on farms.”

Leslie Gardner teaches piano and works at the herb school not only because she loves it, but also because it brings in extra income. “You need to have two jobs in agriculture these days,” she says, especially on small farms. In the early years, Mathieson also worked at Real Goods and Harmony Farm Supply to support his “farming habit.”

“I don’t think Scott would be in agriculture if it weren’t for this family land,” she says, “because his parents have made it such that we can afford to stay here, which is generous.” The couple rent out two houses on the property, plus some farming land, to help piece together an income that keeps them here.

When asked how the couple makes a living farming, Gardner says, “You have to decide that you’re willing to adopt a voluntary simplicity, because you’re not going to get rich.” The compensation, she adds, is being active physically, out in nature, and living a healthy lifestyle. “And you know you’re part of the solution and not part of the problem,” she says. “You don’t have to work under fluorescent lights; you’re working with the soil. And that feeling of being connected — seasonally, climatically. When you’re inside working in an office, you’re disconnected from all that.”

Creating a Community Farm

Another key reason the farm has survived is its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) structure. The CSA idea started in Japan in 1965, when a group of women became concerned about decreasing farmland and increasing food imports. They approached a local farmer to find a solution and he agreed to provide fresh produce if multiple families committed to support the farm. Although formats vary, the core CSA idea endures.

In the Laguna Farm CSA (Mathieson prefers to call it “Community Shared Agriculture”), subscribers pay monthly for a weekly box of farm-fresh produce, which they either have delivered, or pick up on-site for a more direct “farm experience.”

Mathieson believes the CSA structure kept him in farming and that it offers a solution to the economic challenges facing small farms. Laguna Farm has been on the CSA path since 1993. Before then, it sold to distributors, restaurants, stores, and farmer’s markets. Today, the CSA provides a steady income that allows more time for farming. Indeed, with its 380 members, Laguna Farm is now the North Bay’s largest CSA and has enough subscribers for some financial stability. By selling direct, they can level their prices just below retail and still give the consumer a good deal, because they’re eliminating the middleman profit that customers pay in stores. Even though their prices are comparable, Mathieson feels their quality is higher — like his carrots, “which are just so much more vibrant and have so much more life force in them.”

One CSA subscriber, Marlina Eckel, calls Laguna Farm “the accomplice in my love affair with organic vegetables. Since joining the farm years ago, my pleasure in vegetable consumption has risen tremendously. My body definitely feels the benefit from consuming nutritious, fresh, seasonal foods. It’s a win-win situation. I eat a diversity of nutrient-dense vegetables and support a local project that is healing the earth [and] spreading health.”

Mathieson calls his vegetables “beyond organic.” An early local chapter president of CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), he has always used organic practices but, today, he can’t call his produce “organic” because he’s no longer certified. He dropped certification because of the cost and because he thinks it’s unnecessary, given his CSA customer relationships. “My rebellious side came out,” he says. “I’m getting taxed to farm correctly while the [pesticide users] aren’t!” Still, he buys organic to supplement the winter CSA baskets and his own diet.

A diverse team helps sustain the farm, which Mathieson leads using collaborative decision-making. The field crew is led by “Nacho” (Ignacio) who has been here ten years. There are two half-time CSA administrators, two apprentices who trade labor for learning, and volunteers who pack boxes in exchange for food.

Mathieson continues to explore new ways of aligning his farming with nature. “The farm already has a pretty high life force.... I could just be content with what I’m doing, but I’m always wanting to dial it up. So I’m learning about biodynamics and energized water and flow forms and all that esoteric wild stuff. My field manager thinks I’m crazy, but he’s definitely intrigued by my creativity.”

Green Energy Projects

As the CSA gained it’s footing, Mathieson has been able to explore new ecological projects. When the farm needed a larger cooler, Mathieson bought a used one and got a team to surround the four-inch walls with two feet of straw bale and mud to increase insulation and reduce energy costs. And, after years of interest in solar, he finally bought a small two-kilowatt solar array (with help from a federal rebate).

“I wanted to put [our money] into being more self-sufficient,” he says, “It’s my form of creating security. Then veggie oil fuel came along,” he laughs, “and I dived in pretty deep on that one.” The idea of people using discarded cooking oil as fuel appealed to him: It reduced waste while creating an alternative to petroleum; and he could produce 15 kilowatts of power with just one diesel generator. After learning more and experimenting, he co-created and now hosts a veggie oil co-op here. Each month, the co-op picks up 1,500 gallons of waste oil from Petaluma’s Spectrum Naturals. With this, the 55 members fuel their cars and Mathieson runs the farm generator, irrigation pump, three tractors, the delivery van, and two family cars. Mathieson is pleased to be helping co-op members reduce their pollution and dependence on petroleum. Plus, with these alternatives and energy management, he’s cut the farm’s $700 monthly PG&E bill in half; he hopes eventually to get off the grid.

The Herb Exchange

Leslie Gardner shares her husband’s appreciation of “alternative, progressive, previously untried, and innovative solutions.” The farm hosts one of her creative endeavors, the Sonoma County Herb Exchange, which connects local organic herb growers with product makers. The Exchange was born when a member of the Sonoma County Herb Association asked: “Why are we ordering our herbs from Oregon when we could be growing herbs here and supplying them to one another?” Gardner’s background as an herbalist, grower, and teacher made her ideally suited to become director of this volunteer cooperative.

As far as she knows, “there’s nothing like the Herb Exchange in the U.S. We have a great growing [climate] and a huge community of practicing herbalists that traces its roots back to the herb school and Rosemary Gladstar, who founded the school in 1978. That may be the reason it’s working.”

The Future

In the coming years, Mathieson plans to expand the farm’s educational component with more farm tours and workshops, to share both their projects and the farm experience. “People... have an inherent desire to get in touch with the earth,” says Mathieson. “Even if they don’t really know that, they feel it.” And he imagines a scenario “where my expertise is valued enough that I’ll be able to travel and help other people in agriculture, to create CSAs or transition their farms to more ecological, sustainable systems.”

Why is this work so important to him? “I get fed by engaging with people and helping the community. And I know that somehow, karmically, I’m helping my children’s future, the people close to me, and indirectly the whole planet. There’s the hope that you’re going to help do something positive, globally.”

Patricia Dines is author of The Organic Guides, two books that make it easy to explore and support Bay Area organic food, wine, and much more. For more information, visit www.healthyworld.org.

On Oct. 9, Laguna Farm will be hosting a Harvest Festival as a benefit for Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). For more information, call (707) 823-0823 or visit www.lagunafarm.com

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