On a rural route
AS a full-time sales rep for national van-line companies for 12 years, Ellen Sullivan understood radical moves. One day she decided to make one herself.
Sullivan and her chemist husband, Paul Bernhardy, sold their Orange County home in Monarch Beach -- they were empty-nesters -- and bought a spread in San Diego County’s rural Valley Center. That’s when they added a new line on their resumes: hobby farmers.
No, they don’t hoe the back 40 -- their farm is only 9 acres -- nor do they milk cows or harvest wheat. But they do raise sheep and grow lavender, the sweet-smelling Mediterranean shrub that’s been cultivated for more than 2,000 years. They extract the oil, which goes into the dozens of products Sullivan sells online and to customers who flock to the farm each May and June.
The job’s not easy, though.
“It’s dusty work, you’re dirty, and you have to be unafraid of snakes, spiders and rats,” said Sullivan, 57. Bernhardy, 58, still works full time for a major food corporation. Until they purchased the farm, which includes a four-bedroom house, a 1,000-square-foot weaving studio, animal sheds, a wool shed and gift shop, Sullivan had never gardened before. “You don’t get rich doing this, but it’s a satisfying lifestyle.”
It must be, because plenty of boomers and Gen-Xers nationwide are getting dirt under their fingernails. “Lifestyle” farms now make up about half of the 2.1 million U.S. farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they are increasing by about 2% a year.
Hobby farmers -- loosely defined as those whose incomes are derived not solely from farming -- often bring little or no hands-on experience to their new avocation. Their business acumen and marketing skills from previous jobs, however, can turn their pastimes into gainful enterprises, said Karen K. Acevedo, editor in chief of 6-year-old Hobby Farms magazine, which has a circulation of about 81,000.
These “ruralpolitans” are willing to invest beaucoup bucks to pay for equipment to reap and sow organic vegetables; raise niche crops, such as herbs, grass-fed beef or organic pork; shear sheep or llamas for wool production; or harvest grapes for wine.
“Farming is not leisure-oriented, it’s for people who are ambitious and perseverant, who are accomplishment-driven,” said Acevedo, 36, who owns a 3-acre farm in Kentucky on which she grows summer garden crops and raises goats. “It attracts people from all over who are drawn to it for the various benefits.”
Some hobby farmers embrace the rural life because they love gardening, and others simply want a quieter, simpler lifestyle, with the whole family engaging in something meaningful together. Some city dwellers took up farming following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Acevedo said, seeking more time with their children and the feeling of safety the countryside provides.
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The good earth
“Our society has become so disconnected from the natural world that we develop a desperate longing to reconnect in that way,” said Michael Ableman, a farmer and author of the book “On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm.” “The resurgence in interest in small farming is in response to that.”
Lavender grower Sullivan knew exactly why she wanted a farm: a steady supply of wool for her weaving. The longtime artist -- she was a weaver in residence at the Mission San Juan Capistrano for three years before she established the Lavender Fields, as the farm is known -- said she always dreamed of growing her own organic wool.
And, when she and Bernhardy bought their farm in 1998, “lavender was the herb of the year,” Sullivan said. So they decided to plant it to produce some income for the property’s upkeep. It wasn’t long before they had 3,000 starter plants.
For the first five years, Sullivan got up at dawn daily to feed the sheep, clean their pens and prune and fertilize the plants. She now has one full-time helper to do many of those chores. She spends most of her time manufacturing the oils, lotions, soaps, body mist, candles, sachets and other products that she sells online and in the property’s gift shop. The weaver also sells her knitted products and yarn.
Bernhardy drives the tractor, distills the lavender oil and helps Sullivan with her product shows. Annual sales are about $200,000, which help defray the costs of running the farm.
“Some people have a romantic idea about farming, but we live far away from town and deal with many inconveniences,” Sullivan said. “Still, dealing with animals and being alert to the environment have been the most exciting and interesting parts of owning this place.”
And then there are the llama lovers.
Nanci and Ken Sutton always enjoyed hanging out with their menagerie of animals on the 1-acre property they owned in the San Gabriel Valley town of Glendora. A plumber for 30 years, Ken, 58 and now retired, made service calls and ran a plumbing-supplies business. Nanci, 52, is an accomplished weaver who runs an embroidery business. Both grew up around animals.
Five years ago, no longer able to accommodate their growing herd of llamas, the couple sold their home for $550,000, waved goodbye to suburbia and bought a 7 1/2 -acre ranch in Apple Valley in western San Bernardino County for $200,000. The property, on a quiet dirt road with neighbors spread far enough apart to give everyone breathing room, faces Mt. Baldy.
The ranch holds their three-bedroom house; separate pens for the 25 llamas; pens for five goats and three peacocks; sheds; apple, apricot, peach, pear and pistachio trees; and 20 grapevines.
Nanci Sutton’s income from her business helps the couple pay for the animals’ feed and care, which cost about $4,900 per year.
She and her husband show the llamas at local and national events, attend fairs and occasionally take the llamas to nursing homes and schools for young and old to enjoy. Also, the llamas provide wool for Sutton’s loom.
Both Suttons get up at dawn every day to feed the animals, clean the pens and sometimes train the llamas on obstacle courses and in other show maneuvers. Weekdays, Nanci Sutton drives an hour and a half each way over Cajon Pass to Glendora to run the store.
So why do it?
“The llamas,” said Sutton, as she cuddled long-lashed, 1-year-old Iroquois in his pen, where a sign warned: “Caution. Our llamas will capture your heart.”
“Unless you have very expensive breeding animals, they don’t make you money,” she added, “but the animals are therapy for me.”
The rural areas of San Bernardino County aren’t for everyone, but such distance from suburbia is typical of the burgeoning “new ruralism” trend, said Calvin Beale, senior demographer in economic research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hobby farmers want their acreage to be far enough away to feel like they’re living in the country but still be fairly close to mid- and large-sized metropolitan areas of 50,000 people or more -- in this case, Victorville, Rancho Cucamonga or even the San Gabriel Valley.
“The trend will keep growing because the U.S. population keeps growing,” Beale said. “We can’t add 2 million people a year to the cities.”
Large agribusinesses have bought up many of the mid-size working family farms for themselves or broken them up to sell as smaller parcels.
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The grape estates
The allure of gentleman farming may be the reason builders such as Rancon Group plan to offer “vineyard” estates to those who like stomping grapes or like to have someone else do it for them.
The Temecula-based developer, for example, plans to sell 63 lots next year: 58 are for homes on 2.5- or 10-acre lots, and five are for production vineyards and wineries, on 25 acres each. Prices range from $800,000 to $2.1 million. The homeowners may plant grapes on their properties, all of which have views of the Temecula wine country. Of the total 290 acres, half will be dedicated to vineyards.
Siena Vineyard Estates in Temecula has sold out its nine 5-acre parcels of vineyard land, where owners can build a home and other structures, such as a hobby winery, guest house, barn or greenhouse, and even plant their own grapevines on one of the acres; the other 4 acres will be farmed and maintained by Ponte Family Estate Winery. The lots cost about $700,000 each.
And then there are those who love growing food to sell at farmers markets. They don’t make much money from it, but they love the camaraderie of the markets and watching the fruits of their labor end up on others’ kitchen tables.
Rodney and Joy Chow are two such farmers who haven’t missed the city for a single day since they started farming their 5 acres of fruit trees full time in Carpinteria seven years ago.
Rodney Chow, 77, spent his earlier adult life in urban Los Angeles toiling as a civil engineer and helping to raise three children, but he “always grew things” in a little patch of the backyard. The engineer turned developer, who said he would have studied agriculture in college if he’d known then the joy of farming, bought the Carpinteria land in 1987 for $220,000.
Chow and wife Joy, 77, still live in the mobile home they put on the property two decades ago, not sure then that they’d last there. They’re building a 1,200-square-foot house. Their original enterprise of a few trees has turned into a 600-tree farm of Fuji apples, peaches, Heritage Kentucky Wonder Beans and some flowers too.
“I’ll do farming until the day I can’t walk,” said Rodney Chow, who receives income from a pension plan. “I love it.”
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Some of those greener pastures
Want to escape urban sprawl and get your hands dirty? If you’re thinking about joining the growing number of hobby farmers in California, here’s a sampling of what’s on the market:
* Oak Hills, San Bernardino County
Acres: 5
Price: $350,000
Includes: land zoned for a home, horses and farming
* Ramona, San Diego County
Acres: 8.9
Price: $495,000
Includes: two-bedroom mobile home, mountain and valley views; property zoned for horses
* Ramona, San Diego County
Acres: 8
Price: $699,000 to $749,000
Includes: three-bedroom, barn-style house; property zoned for agriculture
* Pauma Valley, San Diego County
Acres: 6
Price: $895,000
Includes: four-bedroom house, 3-acre avocado orchard
* Ojai, Ventura County
Acres: 6
Price: $1.25 million
Includes: land zoned for a house; orchard space suitable for tangerines, oranges, olives or avocados
* Temecula, Riverside County
Acres: 17.3
Price: $3.8 million
Includes: six-bedroom estate, winery and vineyard
A host of websites offers information about the farming life. Here are some to get you launched:
* www.hobbyfarms.com: The magazine website is dedicated to crops and gardening, livestock farming, tools and equipment. It also features community forums.
* www.localharvest.org: It provides an interactive guide to organic farming, farms and farmers’ markets at the regional level and has links to newsletters.
* www.progressivefarmer.com: The magazine website has articles with farming tips, links to farm animal information and the business of farming, and directs visitors to U.S. rural locations.
* www.newagrarian.com: The site has essays, poems and blogs about all things agrarian, including hobby farming.
-- Diane Wedner
