People

Brother-and-sister team, Wayne and Lee James, along with 3 full-time field workers and 1 full-time assistant; Wayne’s wife, Evie, runs the farm stand and CSA.

Farmland

28 acres in Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, about 65 miles from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Farm History

Tierra Vegetables was seeded in 1980, producing a diversity of crops, including rare dried beans, heirloom grain corn, popcorn, and fresh produce. It is renowned for the many varieties of chile peppers and sweet peppers that they grow. In 2007, Tierra Vegetables completed a new commercial kitchen that they are using to expand their offering of farmstead processed products to include sweet and spicy chile jams, hot sauce, freshly ground cornmeal, chile powders and mixes, and more. Tierra Vegetables believes in using the “the best possible sustainable methods” for a healthy and lasting farming system.

Certification

None.

Soil

The farm’s Yolo silty loam is built with compost, legume cover crops, crop stubble, organic mulch, raw organic matter, and organic fertilizer.

Water Use

Well and rain water, sprinklers, drip irrigation, and by hand with a hose.

Weed Control

Hand weeding, machine cultivation, and organic mulch to shield sunlight from the weed seedlings.

Pest Management

Maintainance of a habitat for beneficial insects, crop rotation, selection of resistant varieties, and occasional use of organic pesticides.