Vegetable farm succeeds on South Bay mud flats

When Joe Perry took over his family's four-acre vegetable operation in the 1940s at the age of 13, Italian and Portuguese farms dotted the mud flats on San Francisco Bay.

Today, the 91 acres of mixed organic vegetables Joe, now in his 80s, runs with his son Doug and grandson Anthony Perry is the last remaining farm on the mud flats of the entire South Bay.

"My father took over his farm when he was13 because his father passed away," Doug Perry said. "He was an organic farmer, because that's all there was back then. For fertilizer, he had chicken and other animal manure."

The family grew many different vegetable crops to keep the farm going during the years, and even bought one of the first tomato harvesters in the area to add a side business working for their neighbors.

"We grow a lot of different crops because my dad says, 'You're not sustainable if you're out of business,'" Perry said.

Doug and Anthony Perry talked about farming in the heart of Silicon Valley at the annual Ecological Farming Conference in Pacific Grove, as part of a tradition of presenting a panel of successful organic farmers, with a unique twist added to the definition of "successful."

"What we define as successful is people who are performing exemplary acts," said Amigo Cantisano, the organic farming advisor who has been a lead organizer of the conference for the last 35 years. "It's a great tradition."

Don Tipping came down from Oregon to discuss energy and water at his family-owned Siskiyou Seed operation.

"Our farm is mostly about rainwater catchment and gravity flow, so we don't have to use electricity to move water," said Tipping, noting that in normal years the snowpack in the Siskiyou Mountains above his farm lasts until August.

As the weather turns drier and warmer, however, Tipping is focused on finding or creating new vegetable varieties.

"We have about 30 varieties of kale we're looking at," Tipping said. "We're not always looking for the best one. We're allowing the pollen to mix, to see if we can come up with something new. One of the most salient things we can do in response to warming is to be constantly breeding new plants, and a commitment to experimentation means you're open to a certain amount of failure."

Guido Frosini discussed the commitment to grassland and soil restoration at True Grass Farms, a beef and pork ranch on coastal land in northwestern Marin County that has been in his family since 1867.

"We realized that beef was only a byproduct of what we do," Frosini said. "We have these animals that can restore the soil. The grasses have evolved with herbivores; we need that disturbance."

He illustrated his point with starkly contrasting pictures of sandy soil suffering from overgrazing, which measured at 97 degrees, and richer soil benefiting from low-impact grazing, which was measured at just 82 degrees.

"The regenerative process is incredible," Frosini said. "The highly grazed soil blows away in the wind. We can destroy topsoil in a storm, but it takes years to bring it back. We need to empower the consumer base through education. We need fewer laws protecting consumers and more efforts empowering them with information."

The Perrys are uniquely positioned to offer information about farming from their farm stand next to the freeway near the border of Santa Clara and Alameda counties.

"We were getting moved out and wondered if we should move to Salinas or the San Joaquin Valley, when Ardenwood Park asked if we could farm a 91-acre farm they had," Doug Perry said. "We're surrounded by two freeways and a shopping center. We're the last farmers. Every time I drive by on the freeway and look down on the farm, I'm very proud."

With virtually all of the wheat fields that once filled the area from Oakland to San Jose gone, a proud family tradition remains at the heart of J.E. Perry Farms.

"My father is past president of the local Farm Bureau, like I am—he still fits in his FFA jacket," Perry said. "I took care of our cucumbers when I was young, and went and did something else for 28 years. I came back when my mother got sick. I came to love it; it became very special."

Perry also came back, in part, because of the larger family of employees who had built the farm during the years.

"We've been surrounded by really good workers," he said. "The guys who work for us are the best. Some of them have been with us as long as 35 years, and some of them started to worry what would happen to the farm as my dad got older."

As the torch is passed to Anthony Perry, Joe's grandson and Doug's nephew, the employees were glad to see the family tradition continued.

"I came in with a passion that I was here to better the lives of workers who have been here 25 years, and they saw that right away," Anthony Perry said. "It's an honor to come to work every morning; it's an honor to carry on what my grandfather, uncles and cousins started. Growing up a farmer holds a lot of weight."

While continuing a family tradition that goes back generations, Anthony Perry said he is open to bringing the latest tools to the job.

"We have a lot of new technology, and I'd be a fool to not take advantage of it," he said. "Google is my best friend."

One advantage of running the last farm standing in the South Bay mud flats is all those young visitors eager to soak up the world of farming.

"We have school kids come to the farm and when we talk about farming, it's the same thing we've said over and over," Anthony Perry said. "But when they get off the wagons, they come up and hug us and thank us."

(Bob Johnson is a reporter in Santa Cruz. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@aol.com.)