The Farmers’ Market is where it all began for the Hall family, selling produce from their first garden at the Mayacamas Estate. You’ll still find Laddie at the Farmers’ Markets every week selling our farm fresh products.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PARTICIPATING IN THE ST HELENA FARMERS’ MARKET?

28 seasons!

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?

In 1989, we set up our own family garden after we bought the ranch in the Mayacamas mountains. We started producing more than our family could consume so we happily shared with friends and neighbors, but even then we had too much. The boys were young and interested in figuring out a way to earn money, as young kids do, so instead of a lemonade stand, I thought they should take our produce to the farmers market. The manager of the market at the time was excited to have the boys involved because they would be the “farmers of tomorrow”. We’ve been at the market ever since.

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START IN FARMING?

Ted and I had a community garden plot when we were married students at Stanford. I had never grown vegetables before. We also attempted a small vegetable garden at our first home in San Francisco but the weather made it challenging to have much success. I was very excited to try a tomato variety called “San Francisco Fog”. It grew and produced a small amount of fruit that had very thick skin and no flavor. However, the most learning and the most success in growing vegetables and fruits came when we bought Long Meadow Ranch and started our own family vegetable garden. Ted was very familiar with growing vegetables from his experience as a child with his family’s garden. This new garden brought the challenge to the rest of the family and the children and I learned so much and began to have a lot of success and a lot of fun and we were all eating a lot of delicious veggies!