photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
Siblings Wayne (left) and Lee James (right), have been farming in Sonoma County
since the 1980's.The duo are fundraising to finally purchase the land they've farmed
Tierra Vegetables on since 2002 from Sonoma County Ag & Open Space. 

The small farm behind some of Sonoma County's most sought-after produce is going up for sale, to the farmers who've worked it for over 40 years.

Adjacent to Highway 101, Tierra Vegetables feels like a hold out.

The 10-acre farm is a stone's throw from the Sonoma County Airport, wedged between the bustling freeway and back fences of suburban neighbors.

"We started farming along the Russian River, off of Chalk Hill Road," said Lee James.

Lee has been farming with her brother Wayne in Sonoma County since the 1980's.

Tierra Vegetables has called the Airport Boulevard property home since 2002.

Over those years it has grown into a favorite for some of the Bay Area's most acclaimed restaurants and chefs, like Geoff Davis.

"We're just trying to keep it going so that we can keep...supplying the Quince's and Californios and, you know, Mr. Jiu's and all these restaurants that are...really  putting... the Bay Area on the map as a culinary destination," Davis said.

Davis is chef and owner of Oakland's Burdell restaurant, and has gotten vegetables from the James siblings for over a decade while working at various restaurants in the Bay Area.

"They're not super young," Davis said. "So I was just like, what is the plan?"

Davis has joined in an effort to permanently purchase the 16-acre property. Davis and Burdell are part of a long bench of Bay Area culinary all stars who source produce from Tierra.

Davis was a 2024 James Beard award finalist for best chef in California, and Burdell took home top prize in the San Francisco Chronicle's best Bay Area restaurant list last year.

Davis said the plan is to transition Tierra's day-to-day operations to another farmer once the purchase is complete.

When asked about retirement, Lee James said, "when you retire as a farmer you don't you don't ever really quit."

"You know you just don't work quite as hard," James said.

But why the push to buy the property now? It's currently owned by the Sonoma County Agriculture Preservation and Open Space

District.

"Ag and Open Space, bought the property back in the 90's, to protect it as a green belt property between communities," said Steph Tavares.

Tavares is part of the acquisitions team at Sonoma County Ag and Open Space. The agency is mandated to sell or transfer properties they own, to farmers like Lee and Wayne, non-profits or public agencies like Regional Parks.

"We had started talking with them at the very beginning about the possibility of selling the property to them," said Tavares, who's been working on the sale for past few years. "It's always been our goal to do that; and various things have put that plan to a halt."

Tavares said at times the economy, and rising property values have put a sale out of reach.

"Other times...we had our staffing affected by the economy and so we didn't have the staff resources to do the transactional work to sell the property and that happened quite a few times over the last 20 years," Tavares said. "In the last I'd say eight or nine years, we've been negotiating in earnest."

After completing a round of appraisals, and finalizing documents with Ag and Open Space, which bind the property to farm production, Lee and Wayne have spent the better part of the last year fundraising.

The selling price for the farm is just over $450,000. That price is thanks in large part to what Tavares calls an 'affirmative agricultural use covenant.'

"In this case it says that 75% of the farm-able area needs to be farmed on average over the course of about 3 years," Tavares said.

Still, Wayne James said it's a serious squeeze to make a small Sonoma County farm work, especially with the high cost of land compared to cheaper farm areas in the Central Valley.

"We're trying to do on this small parcel what commercial farms do on 1,000 acres of vegetable production," James said.

Tierra Vegetables has gotten a boost from its supporters though, a mix of individuals and local restaurants like Santa Rosa's Marla Bakery. San Francisco's Zuni Cafe has even donated money from sales of the restaurant's famous roast chickens to the help the James siblings purchase the property.

The duo were also recently named Legacy Farmers of the Year by the California Alliance with Family Farmers.

Steph Tavares said the sale process for Tierra has given some important insights for the Ag and Open Space district, specifically about how the agricultural covenant on the property affected the land's value.

"On some properties they're worth very very little," Tavares said. "Then there are other properties like this one, where they have a real impact on value. The appraisal really outlined what was different about this property that made that affirmative covenant so impactful on the resale market for this property that really the only people who would be competing for this would be farmers."

When it comes to that question of the bigger picture, Geoff Davis said, "there's certainly farms that [have] gone away, and you know the average age of farmers just keeps rising in this country and especially in California," Davis said. "I think in 10 years it's going to be very very different."

Davis said he sees keeping Tierra Vegetables going as important for the Bay Area's food landscape, a landscape that ties together farmers, fisherman, meat and dairy producers, and restaurants.

"Really being community focused and supporting these small farmers that treat their staff well, and treat the land well in the sustainable way and ...are really committed to that conservation of land, and treating their people well is where where we want to invest our money," Davis said.

Lee and Wayne James say they are looking to finish fundraising and complete the purchase of the property in the coming weeks, and in the meantime, keep doing what they've done for over 40 years....growing food.