Steven Ellery

Farm Fresh To You is a subscription Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provider of organic produce based in Capay Valley, California. The farm was started in 1976 by two back-to-the-landers, Martin Barnes and Kathleen Barsotti who were raised in California suburbs.

Inspired by University of California, Davis professor Isao Fujimoto, the farm began as a garden on rented land. The couple helped to start the Davis Certified Farmers' Market [1] and the Davis Food Coop Storefront [2] before moving with their twin boys to 22 acres in Capay Valley in 1979. The farm was one of the earliest in Yolo County to have organic certification from the California Certified Organic Farmers [3]

Local sales were supplemented by sales to San Francisco Bay area farmers' markets and to wholesalers such as Veritable Vegetables [4] and Greenleaf Produce [5] Two more sons were born, but in 1990 the couple suffered a marital breakup leaving Kalthleen to manage the business. She founded the Farm Fresh to You subscription CSA in 1992, and it soon became an essential element in the farm's income.

Kathleen died from breast cancer in 2000 leaving her sons to inherit the farm. They expanded the farm, buying and renting land from neighbors, and establishing a retail store, Capay Organic, at the San Francisco Ferry Building.

By 2008 Farm Fresh to You had grown to over 4000 families in Northern California making it one of the largest CSA farms. The boys have kept alive the ideals of their pioneering parents by providing fresh, organically grown food, husbanding the land, and respecting the farm's employees.

External Links and References

Farm Fresh to You [6]

Fruit Grower News [7]

Davis Enterprise [8]

Agriculture Pioneer Award [9]

UC Small Farm News [10]