Land, Housing, Customers. Seeking partners to help supply Oliver’s Markets.

This is an opportunity for two beginning farmers to split my rent, live and work on my farm. You can use my farm equipment and proprietary Mac software, pick my brain, and build an organic vegetable production capability and business either separately or as a team. You should have an Ag education, be a Mac computer user and understand the importance of growing clean organic produce that meets commercial requirements. You will be filing Schedule F. I am looking for business partners so If successful and able to run a farm and maintain reliable production for twice a week harvest and delivery, you can contribute that business for a partnership percentage in my business, Wine Country Cuisine. I have life long sales and income security with prompt payment having supplied Sonoma County’s premiere grocery store chain, Oliver’s Markets for the last 26 years. My goal is to pass my relationship with Oliver’s to the next generation of farmers.

The property is 3615 Stony Point Road just North of Todd Road about 4 miles south of Santa Rosa. I had bought it in 2004 at the top of the market but had to sell it short in 2011 with the bank losing 65%. The buyer has a low cost and soft spot for farmers and I have 3 more years on a renewable sweetheart lease that I can share. The entire 8 acre property is CCOF certified organic. The Google Earth view is from 2021 and all of the clean ground in the west half of the property starting at the mobile home plus the fallowed area on the north middle is available. I am using the east half. The planting beds are 5 feet wide with 16 inch pathways matching the tractor tires, leaving 44 inches between the tires and are 190 feet long. This fits 4 rows for arugula and lettuce, 2 for kale for example. My well puts out 100 gallons per minute at 50 psi, enough to run 3 to 4 pipes with 5 oscillating sprinklers each that cover 10 beds per pipe. A pipe can also supply 10 beds with drip lines. There are 7 pipes and 70 beds on the south side, 5 pipes and 50 beds on the north and another 30 available in the fallow area for a total of 3.3 plantable acres.

There are several high tunnel frames and additional space to put them for both in ground and container production. There is greenhouse space, a packinghouse with wash system and refrigeration, a 48 HP 4WD tractor with loader bucket and forks, 60″ rototiller, 42″ spading machine and 27″ ripper as part of the package. The total rent is $1,000 per month so two farmers would pay $500 each.

The housing is the 2 bedroom mobile home that I now live in. The owner bought a travel trailer that I will live in. He will then upgrade the mobile home for you. It needs new windows and doors, foam roof, replacement floor insulation, stucco exterior walls and interior upgrading, essentially a rebuild in place that doesn’t trigger a new septic system. If you can do some of this work, the owner will pay you. Depending on how much is done, I expect the rent could increase to about $1500 per month or $750 for each farmer. This would require a revision of my lease. That would be $1,250 per month in land and housing, an amount that I can easily pay with one week of produce sales during the main growing season.

As a new farmer, your marketing outlets are usually on-farm stands, farmers markets, CSAs and independent grocery stores. Restaurants are required by California state law to buy from qualified vendors of which certified organic is the minimum requirement for produce vendors. Restaurants are also dangerously bad payers. CSAs are a lot of packout labor plus a CAFF study showed less than 40% customer retention into the following year. Farmers markets require labor and also charge a stall fee, and sometimes a percentage of sales fee and are subject to price wars when every farmer has too much of the same thing. Plus many customers don’t come if it is raining. Independent locally owned grocery stores will buy from local farmers if their produce meets commercial quality, sizing and labeling regulations and is certified organic. Guaranteeing the sale usually wins their business and they will pay promptly. My software does everything needed to run and document your farming business and print your income tax returns.

Regardless of your marketing plans, major regulatory changes have affected agriculture in the past 10 years that require complex and expensive solutions. Farmers cannot sell their produce for human consumption unless they comply with the regulations. The record keeping requirements of the National Organic Program can take so much effort that it can limit the number of crops a farm can grow and keep track of. To use the USDA Organic logo on their labels, farmers must have records sufficient to prove that every activity and input they used to produce their crops followed the law. Crop protection that includes any kind of pesticide requires monthly reporting including the date, start and end time along with material, crop and area of the crop. All pesticides must be approved by the Organic certifier, and used in strict accordance with the label. Spraying a crop not listed on the label is a crime and the crop cannot be sold. The fact that produce sickens and kills thousands of people each year has resulted in the Food Safety Modernization Act. Farms must have sanitation and cleanliness practices approaching those of food manufacturers and commercial kitchens. There are criminal penalties if willful violation of the regulations results in sickness or death. Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) must be followed. Any processing beyond washing and packaging, like dehydrating or cooking, requires Health Department registration and a HACCP plan. What was once the vocation of peasants is now a profession as complex as rocket science. I can help you with all these things.

There are a lot of different ways to be a farmer and the products produced have a major impact on the level of personal satisfaction and happiness a farmer gets from their work. Tobacco, sugar, alcohol ingredients, drugs, corn syrup and animal fat are major agricultural products that sicken and prematurely kill people plus ruin lives and families. I can’t imagine any person doing that for a career except for Republicans. In comparison, organic produce makes people healthier and strengthens their immune system which can give them a better attitude towards life and other people. Organic production methods also protect and improve the environment for future generations. Numerous customers over the years have thanked me for growing the food that helped cure their chronic illnesses and extended their life. Being an organic produce grower is how I have been able to drop out of this crazy world yet improve the lives of my neighbors and make this world a better place. You can do this also.

My goal is to find partners to take over my business supplying Oliver’s Markets with Sonoma County grown organic produce. I was an opening day vendor when Oliver’s Mendocino opened in April, 2000. I offered to restock and rotate every Tuesday and Friday a mini farm stand of Sonoma County grown organic produce in their produce department, so I have my own shelf space. Oliver’s does not buy my produce nor do they check it in or monitor what I do. I deliver through the front door whenever I get there, sometimes as late as 7:30 pm. I operate just like the bread companies do. All my products are labeled in compliance with NOP and FSMA requirements complete with UPC symbol and price. I stock the shelf and buy back what didn’t sell after 7 to 10 days as a return on the invoice and print the invoice at the store with a Mac Air laptop and portable printer. Returns are less than 15%. I originally guaranteed them a 40% profit, however, in 2024, Oliver’s lowered their profit margin on Sonoma grown produce to 35%. Oliver’s makes their money and prints a check for my share, 65% of retail, usually 7 days after delivery for each delivery day – two checks per week. This relationship requires total trustworthiness and integrity, essentially that of a fiduciary taking care of and protecting the interests of their client. However, it is the easiest and fastest way to operate and I have life long sales security because of it. You will have to have unquestioned integrity and honesty also. Now that Oliver’s is employee owed, they will be here for ever and will provide you and your descendants sales security also.

I have always pre-packed produce as a brand named product line but am now bunching Kale and Spearmint with flag ties that are a direct substitute for products from the wholesale market. Oliver’s will take what I have and buy the rest from the market if they need more. For example, they move around 40 dozen bunches of Dino Kale per week which at my price of $31.20 would be $1200 per week. Bunched Spearmint is around 20 dozen per week at $23.40 or $460 per week. These and additional bunched products are the growth opportunity for you. Though customers are moving away from plastic packaging, several bagged products are very successful and several more can be added. Oliver’s can move over 400 four ounce bags of basil per week during tomato season. I get $2.60 per bag. Bagged Arugula, Lettuces and Spinach are also big sellers. Weekly produce sales per store range from $150,000 to over $180,000 so Oliver’s sells almost $700,000 and buys over $400,000 of produce each week. They are seriously looking at a fifth store which would imediately increase produce purchases by 15%. Oliver’s sources around 30% of their total store inventory from Sonoma County based vendors but local produce is less than 10% for the year, summer and fall supply and minimal during winter and early spring. A good goal Is for you is for Wine Country Cuisine to grow to 5% of Oliver’s produce sales, a million dollars a year. I have the land, water and high prices for us to do this.

Email Greg Nilsen at winecountrycuisine@me.com or call 707-585-9434 if interested.