Full Belly Farm

Full Belly Farm has been nestled into the Capay Valley of Northern California since 1984, when a small group of dedicated, principled, and idealistic farmers started growing organic crops together. Today, the 400-acre CCOF certified organic farm is run by the 4 principal owners (Andrew Brait, Judith Redmond, Paul Muller, and Dru Rivers), two secondary owners (Amon Muller and Jenna Muller), and about 80 employees. In addition to dozens of beautiful crops like purple carrots, the farm has orchards of nut-trees, grazing sheep, chickens, and pigs, and dozens of community offerings including monthly dinners and pizza parties, catering, floral design, and events.

Like many organic farmers, the Full Belly Farm family (literal and metaphorical) is committed to environmental stewardship from the soil up. This means engaging with organic farming not as a laundry list of products and practices to avoid, but as a proactive process of care: providing year-round employment for the people who work on the farm; using nitrogen-fixing and seasonally appropriate cover crops like sudangrass, rye, and vetch; and integrating places for more layers of life, from soil microbes to pollinators to birds. Environmental stewardship goes hand-in-hand with educational outreach, both farmer-to-farmer and with the broader community. Through tours, school group visits, summer camps, and long term internships, Full Belly Farm celebrates sustainable food production and seeks to raise awareness of the integral position farms hold in society.

As part of their community outreach, Full Belly Farm’s produce can be found not only in local farmers markets but in CSA boxes, which the farm (with the help of CSA members) also donates to an Oakland primary care clinic that serves low-income women with cancer. Perhaps the most celebrated part of Full Belly Farm’s outreach is the annual Hoes Down Harvest Festival, which along with honoring and promoting the agricultural arts also benefits organizations like the Ecological Farming Association, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and the Agriculture Scholarship at Esparto High School.

Your co-op is proud to offer a selection of Full Belly Farm’s produce - we hope you get a belly full of love!

Photos © Full Belly Farm