August, 2010 Column

Simply Sunol

By Barbara Egbert, editor-at-large

An aerial view of Sunol Valley is dominated by the huge scar of the gravel quarry. But west of the road that leads to the Water Temple is an oasis of green, where farmers take advantage of the excellent topsoil that once lined the entire valley. This is the Sunol AgPark.

Four farmers share 18 acres under the management of SAGE, which stands for Sustainable Agriculture Education. The Berkeley-based non-profit group has a nine-year lease with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and pursues three goals, according to educator and farm manager Cynthia King:

· Community benefit farming

· Public education about sustainable agriculture

· Natural resource stewardship

The success of the first goal was obvious from the smile of farmer Muang Saechao as she picked strawberries on a recent warm summer morning, and from the number of customers who bought those strawberries that afternoon from a table on Paloma Road. Saechao is a member of Iu-Mien farms, which includes six families originally from Laos. "We grow strawberries, squash, beans, onions and tomatoes," Saechao said about the Sunol part of the families' operations. She remembers farming in Laos, which she left at age 11. Today she works with her children and grandchildren. "I love seeing things grow," she said. "And seeing things grow makes me feel younger."

The Sunol AgPark has brought together a diverse set of growers. Besides Iu Mien, which cultivates four acres, it hosts Terra Bella Farms (four acres), Baia Nicchia (9.5 acres) and Fico figs (half an acre).

Iu Mien, as the name implies, is comprised of families of the Mien ethnic group from Laos. Shawn Seufert and his wife, Beth, run Terra Bella Farms with the help of Joe Sunderland. They lease five acres of the original Hearst estate on Foothill Road besides their share of the AgPark. Fred Hempel and his wife, Jill Shepard, grow gourmet vegetables at Baia Nicchia (especially tomatoes, herbs, squash and sweet peppers). Fico is a specialty fig grower, with the trees grown in pots for easy transport. They all grow organically and are involved in community agriculture, which typically involves participation in farmers' markets and Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. Subscribers to CSAs sign up to buy boxes of locally grown fruits and vegetables every week or two during the growing season or sometimes year-round.

King aims most of her public education efforts at Bay Area schools. "We're developing a curriculum of 18 lessons for fourth to eighth graders," she said. "We're about three-fourths done developing the curriculum." Field trips and service learning opportunities are part of the program that involves Sunol Glen School plus public and private schools in Fremont, El Cerrito, Hayward and Oakland. But the curriculum will be more than field trips: the goal is to incorporate farm experiences into classroom science courses and the humanities.

A recent visit to the AgPark was an education in the way modern farming combines the local and the international, the ageless nature of agriculture and the most modern of marketing methods and technology. A good example was Menkir Tamrat, a highly educated man from Ethiopia. Tamrat recently found himself in possession of thousands of tiny seedlings of the hot peppers that flavor Ethiopian dishes … and no place to plant them after arrangements in the Central Valley fell through. He found SAGE through the Internet. "Finding Fred was like an answer from heaven," he said. The offer of two acres from Fred Hempel at Baia Nicchia meant Tamrat could transplant his seedlings and hope that he can break into the ethnic foods market in California.

SAGE's final goal – natural resource stewardship – is less visible, since much of it involves keeping wild areas wild so that native plants and wildlife thrive alongside agriculture. King said native species can also provide pollination and even contribute to pest control. "We want to show how protecting the watershed and the ecosystem fit in with sustainable agriculture," she said.

Learn more about Sunol-grown fruits and vegetables at the SAGE Web site: http://www.sagecenter.org/ . SAGE will be involved in the Water Temple Centennial Celebration on Sept. 25. The Web site also offers information on pick-your-own strawberries at the Iu Mien farm and on memberships in CSAs through Terra Bella and Baia Nicchia.

SIMPLY SUNOL is a monthly column written by Barbara Egbert, Editor-at-Large for The Sunolian and author of the true-life adventure "Zero Days".