PORTRAIT OF THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER In Her Own Words

by Meredith Nunn
Photos by Brad Shifflett

I bought my farm in 1985, when I was only 19 years old. However, I was a farmer's daughter (of course), as well as the granddaughter of a farmer. I had been working on my dad's farm since I was eleven years old.

I was in the middle of my first year in Chapman College when my uncle called and offered me the opportunity to buy the corner property where I am now. My uncle was purchasing a larger piece at the time and I was able to buy this as part of that transaction.

A Vision and a Name
I knew the property and remembered that it was the site of an abandoned labor camp. I also knew that it was in a good place for a fruit stand. Right from that first phone call I had a vision of what the place could turn into. Even in the early 80s traffic was picking up on Walnut as more-and-more people were commuting to the South, especially to Silicon Valley.

I spent the money that should have gone towards the rest of my education in planting an orchard and putting in the barn. Before I knew it I was in debt to everybody in town. I put up the first Farmer's Daughter fruit stand but had to wait four years before getting my first harvest so I could sell fruit that I was raising myself. In 1989 my first crop came in but it was pretty puny.

I began my little farm on a shoestring. There was no money to build a house, of course, so I lived in a little trailer that was parked on the front of my property. My piece of farm was pretty remote during those early years. During the day you couldn't see another fence and at night you couldn't see another yard light from anyplace on my property.

Hard Times Come
Unfortunately, my life as a trailer person didn't last very long because while I was gone one day someone broke into my home, stole every single item I had, including my toothbrush, stuck a hose through one of the windows, and filled the thing with water destroying it completely.

That robbery made me a stronger person. Things like that force a person to become more creative. After my home was destroyed I spent a couple years living in my barn. Actually, during the winter months I lived inside an old walk-in cooler inside the barn, since it was the only thing on the property with insulation. I stuck my bed and clothes in there and called it home.

The major loss with the destruction of my trailer was my bathroom facilities. I didn't have an outhouse or the money to buy or even to rent one. I never considered that to be a major problem because, whenever I needed to go, at least for number one, I just went where the dogs went. During the months when the leaves were on the trees I didn't even need to find a tree to go behind.

One morning I was squatted down doing what everyone does the first thing after getting out of bed. When I had gone to bed it was a fall day with leaves on all the trees. However, the wind had come up during the night. So there I was taking care of business and thinking about nothing in particular, when I heard a car honk its horn. This was followed by the sound of another horn and then by a whole series of cars honking their horns.

I was shocked to realize that the wind had blown the leaves from the trees during the night and that I was out there taking care of my morning business in full sight of the cars that were passing in a steady line to work in Livermore and the Silicon Valley destinations. I guess I was creating something of a distraction because the traffic was stopped for as far as I could see.

Birth of an Amazing Idea
It's amazing that under those circumstances I could do anything besides try to sink through the ground in shocked embarrassment. However, the thought suddenly flashed through my mind, "If I could offer a cup of coffee to these people, I bet I could make some money."

My friend, Kiko Ceja, and I spent the next month locating the right coffee and equipment. Kiko and I traveled around talking to various coffee companies. It was a tough sale. The companies didn't imagine that a woman farmer and a farm laborer could pull this off. Furthermore, they never heard of Brentwood; thought we were from LA.

It turns out that the coffee stand accomplished something that the fruit stand, which was open from 8 in the morning to 5 p.m. could never do.

The hours of the fruit stand were the very ones during which the local people were, for the most part, hard at work. Most clients who came to our fruit stand were from out of town. The coffee stand suddenly opened a connection between us and the local commuters.

Before the coffee bar started ninety percent of my business was out-of-town. We began to change that; the coffee bar and the fruit stand began to work together. We did things like offer a discount to our coffee customers for produce they would buy at our fruit stand. The coffee stand taught us that we needed to stay open until 7 p.m. so local residents could buy stuff on the way home.

Waiting for the Harvest
I love my farm. I'm writing this in the middle of March and I'm waiting right now for my first May Rose peaches to come in. These delicious white peaches are always the first crop of the summer. They get here around Memorial Day weekend.

I can't wait for my Redtop peaches to get here. Just one of these wonderful, delicious peaches can weigh a whole pound. I love to see people biting into these huge things, see the juice run down the front of their T-shirts, and listen to the delighted laughter that always explodes from everybody.

Plums are the first things to blossom in my orchard, followed by apricots, and then cherries. My summer extends from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Now about 75% of the stuff I sell at my stand is picked from my own trees.

I planted most of these things when I was still a teenager. A 19 year old farmer doesn't know very much so I planted the things I like to eat myself. My orchard has fifteen varieties of peaches, including varieties of both freestone and clingstone. White peaches are the most delicate varieties in my orchard, clingstones the most hardy.

Not too many people grow clingstone peaches anymore, but these are the peaches of choice for both commercial and home canners. These peaches have a honey taste to them. A number of my clients are families who pick the cling peaches for their annual summer home-canning fun.

Reaping the Fruit of my Efforts
This summer I'll be gathering my 16th harvest. I'm proud of the crops my farm produces. Everything I grow and sell is biologically safe. I'm not certified organic but only because I haven't gone to the bother of filling out the paperwork.

My farm is a great place for people. Besides the fact that my fruit is perfectly safe to eat right off the trees, my orchard is also handicap accessible. Wheelchairs can be pushed right out into my orchard and their riders can easily pick peaches or plums off the lower branches of my trees.

I've made picking fruit easier even for people not in wheelchairs by keeping my trees low and accessible to people who pick. This has doubled my pruning bill but customers no longer need to make a dangerous and awkward ascent to the top of some 12-foot ladder in order to get the fruit near the top.

I've worked hard to make my farm a people-friendly place because I'm a people-friendly kind of person myself. I really love it when folks come out here from the inner city. I've seen kids from Oakland pick a piece of fruit off the first peach tree they ever saw in their lives. Watching the expression in their eyes and seeing the big smile that always spreads from one ear to the other is always a rush for me.

That kind of experience is what keeps me going. Even on days when equipment is breaking down and everything seems to be going wrong, seeing someone have an experience like that that makes all the struggles and aggravation worthwhile.

A Tougher Row to Hoe
This business of farming becomes more difficult every year. Unfortunately, farm economies have been falling down as Brentwood has been growing up. My farm has been following the trend and my property is now reduced to 20 acres. Without the coffee bar the farm would have collapsed.

The local culture and economic environment is becoming much less friendly to small farms. There is no John Deer dealer in the area any more, no local source for farm chemicals, almost no ag business of any kind.

Most of the things we need come from out-of-town vendors. For example, buying a replacement part for the hydraulic pump on one of my tractors requires three times as much travel time as it should.

The farm laborers have stopped coming to Brentwood these days. Even the day workers have stopped coming by. I've had good farm laborers come to work for me, stay on the job for a couple days, only to have a contractor drive by and tell them, "I'll give you 18 bucks an hour to come work with me."

My workers tell me, "I'll make more money working in construction today than I would working a whole week with you." So they quit. And I don't blame them. If I were them I would quit working for me too.

As a result of these conditions, farming has become a much more expensive occupation than in the past. There's a lot of blank land around the area. Why should anybody plant trees? Forget trees because if a landowner did plant them, before the time arrived for the trees to begin producing a harvest, the land could probably be pushing up housing tracts rather than orchards.

So my neighbors are calling it quits. The farmers around me are retiring and leaving their land open, waiting for the developers. And I don't blame them a bit. It is difficult to accept but easy to understand.

Making a Tough Thing Even More Difficult
Things are even tougher for a farmer like myself who doesn't use any harmful chemicals. My biologically safe farming method means that you can safely eat a piece of fruit right off of one of my trees, but it also means that when the farmer across the road uses chemicals to kill his varmints, I end up with his gophers all over my orchard.

I found out the hard way that gophers love White Rainer Cherry trees. I planted some but they just fell over. The gophers ate the root system completely.

On the other hand, cherries are a wonderful crop for other pests than gophers when you don't use chemicals. Cherries change from blossom to crop faster than any other fruit so they often ripen and can be picked before birds and worms find out where they are.

I don't use chemicals because I want people to have a safe experience when eating fruit right off my trees. Also, I'm concerned about the long-term health of my workers, and even about the effects upon the residents of the housing tracts that are moving constantly more close to my land. Not least of all, of course, I'm concerned for my own long-term health.

For all these reasons I provide the highest quality product in the safest way I can. Instead of harmful chemicals we spray the crops with biodegradable soaps and other biologically safe products.

Having Fun with Animals and Kids
My farm is a beautiful and happy place. The views of Mt. Diablo from my orchard are gorgeous. The best times are when I've had a great day at the coffee bar and everyone is happy. The happiest days of all are in the summer when all the produce is ripe, the parking lot is full, and the corn is in season.

The most fun times occur when the busses full of inner city kids show up. We have a merry time with these children. For some of them this is the first time they ever were in an orchard. Sometimes we tell them "The first one to find a tomato tree wins a free box of peaches!" It is amazing to see how many of them go running off trying to be the first one to spot the elusive tomato tree!

The day before we opened for the season a couple years ago a bus load of kids came from Oakland. They ate peaches sunny warm and bursting with sweetness. Later we all had lunch on the ground and some of them couldn't believe that they could eat all they wanted.

While they were sitting on the lawn eating lunch a big gopher snake came out of his home in the yard and showed up right in the middle of their picnic. Those kids were all back on board their busses in an astonishingly brief time.

My friend grabbed the snake and held it over her head, "Come back! This thing works here! He's harmless." After some timid false starts they finally ended up all petting the snake and eventually got back to the meals they had abandoned.

My dog, Levi, especially loves the school outings. The busses usually arrive at 11:00. Levi is sitting by the road watching for them at 10:45. It's a mystery how that dog knows what time it is and how he even knows the days that the kids are scheduled to come. All the older kids remember him. "Hi Levi," they shout.

The dog goes on the tour with the kids and likes to eat the cherries and plums that get dropped on the ground. He cleans those things right up. I always thought that I should have named him Hoover.

The Farmer's Daughter's Coffee Bar

Now I'm in the process of putting together a structured educational program working with staff and faculty from East County Schools. Local school kids will visit the farm and pick produce. We will give them lessons on planting a seed of corn and a tomato seed in two cups. We're putting together coloring books for the younger kids.

The children will be able to take a piece of the farm home with them. We'll conduct some experiments in farming, teaching the kids how important fruits and vegetables are for a healthy body, and showing how they can taste as good as the junkfood the kids buy at school.

Family Reunion
On Labor Day we have a big party to close the season. Friends from all over get together in my yard and we eat everything that's left. We get a band out here, set up rows of tables, and put out a giant buffet that stretches all the way across the yard. That's when we serve the 20 pounds of tri-tip the butchers gave us in exchange for the cup sleeves.

We put up a two story water slide and by the middle of the hot afternoon the parents are all up on the water slide along with the kids. The children also have fun busting piñatas and playing games in the grass.

My two big dogs think they have died and gone to heaven, not just because of the snacks they can cage from all the people, but because they get a chance to visit with everybody they love all at once.

I love the big Labor Day blowout even more than my dogs do. It gives me an opportunity to actually have a conversation with people who are usually sitting in their cars waving up at me. The big party makes me believe again that life is not just good, sometimes it is awesome!

I'm working hard to keep the Farmer's Daughter "family" together. I'm here for the long-haul. I'm not planning to go anyplace else or do anything else for the rest of my life. In fact, it is a dream of mine that when I'm done or gone my farm will still be here. At least, I hope the barn and the crops will still be here.

The views of Mt. Diablo looming above the rows of trees in my orchard will continue to thrill the people who are picking fruit that they can eat right off the tree. Kids of all ages will still be laughing with delight when they bite down on that peach and feel the wonderfully, sunny taste explode in their mouths.

It really is a good life being The Farmer's Daughter. I plan to keep doing what I'm doing as long as I have the strength remaining to lift a crate of cherries and enough intelligence left to get a grande-moca-lo-fat-shot-of-vanilla-space-for-whipped-cream order right every time.