Our Story
We're new to the mountains but not new to gardening.
Written in January, 2023
About 10 years ago, as we were raising our family in San Diego, we started to dream a little bigger about what it meant to be backyard gardeners. "What if we replaced our traditional lawn with a native plant garden or a food forest? What if we had some chickens?"
Those questions set us off on a journey we're still on. Minivan-load by minivan-load of compost, mulch, rock, and even more mulch we transformed our city yard into an urban oasis. When we started sheet composting our lawn, the neighbors thought we'd lost our minds. "Who covers their grass in newspaper, cardboard, compost, and 6 inches of mulch? And then they watered it?"
Yeah, we are those people.
From there we turned our backyard into an urban mini farm. Before long we had more than 50 fruit trees, giant garden beds, aquaponics, and 5 chickens. It was insane and we loved every second of it.
The Pandemic Wrecked Us
When the pandemic hit... well... we got lucky. Adam had always started seedlings, usually a few too many, and he sold them to friends to pay for more dirt.
It just so happened that in early 2020 we started a lot of plants. Like a lot. Just as everything shut down we had hundreds of tomato, cucumber, and other stuff ready. When the office closed well-- you can't give a gardener that kind of time. With the world shut down we got to work, eventually selling a whole mountain of spring starts from our driveway farm stand. Along the way we grew and donated several thousand more seed starts that were distributed all over San Diego County.
With every neighbor who stopped by to buy some plants, take some photos of our garden, and share with her friends... our dreams were ignited more and more. That success was the beginning of something bigger than our little lot in San Diego.
Flash forward a few years and we decided to take our dream born during the dark days of the pandemic and try it here in our new home in Mariposa County, California. (We are about 70 minutes from the Yosemite Valley in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.)
What will we offer?
Well... if it's a fruit, vegetable, native plant... we want to grow it for you and set you up for success in your garden. We have a pretty good idea what people like to grow but we also want to introduce area gardeners to new stuff, too.
As new residents two things that we quickly realized which we think we can help with:
We basically live in a food desert! It's really hard to find a good variety of high quality produce close to home.
What you find is expensive! Like many people here in the mountains we drive to the valley to save money on produce.
Our hope with The Farm at Worman Mill is to help solve those problems by igniting locals to grow healthy, delicious, and organic food at home year-round.
We're crazy enough to believe that the land we live on can provide everything we need and we want to bring you along on that journey!
Got an idea for us? Let us know.
We might be new to farming but we are not new to business. We've learned to listen well. If there's something you want to grow in your garden that we don't have or something you want to try... ask us! Your idea might not fit with what we're doing but we'll gladly set you on the right path.
We want to see you succeed with your garden. Whether you're growing on 5 acres or a patio we want to help you succeed.