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Despite estimates that more than 10% of winegrape acreage is to be retired in Sonoma County, land values remain unchanged. When Longer Table Farm, located near Sebastopol, aimed to expand its acreage, ideally through purchase, they reached out to more than a half dozen organizations. Ultimately they were able to access 34 acres near Talmage, just south of Ukiah, with lease-to-own financing and support for organic transition.
Owned and operated by Will Holloway and Gina Strathman, Longer Table Farm plays a key role in Sonoma County’s food system. In a recent interview, Will explained that he’s a first-generation farmer, having started working at a cousin’s winery before launching the farm ten years ago on 10 acres leased from the City of Santa Rosa.
Over the past decade, they left behind their early chicken production and have settled into a 80/20 allocation of space for vegetables and flowers, respectively. The flowers, Will said, “are very high labor and touch, but when it goes well, it's pretty astounding what you can do on a small bit of land.” For the last seven years, Will added, their only limit to growing sales has been their ability to produce more. “We've really maximized our site here.”
As the business grew, Will explained, it became risky to operate without long-term land tenure. “It starts to affect your ability to get appropriate financing,” Will explained. The lease with the city has historically been stable, with small farmers leasing the land for more than 25 years, but the terms are short. California FarmLink staff have advised on their leases over the years, and while the arrangement has been stable, the terms were no longer sufficient as the sole source of land tenure for a growing business.
Their plans are to maintain the current lease while expanding on the 34 acres near Talmage, with more affordable land, in part to maintain their six to eight year-round employees. The farm employs about twice that number in the high season, and Gina completed FarmLink’s Employment Resilerator™ this year. Reflecting on their growth, Will reflected, “It has escalated to be quite a meatball.”
Secure land tenure was a major factor in their decision to expand, but there was also what Will describes as the “economy-of-scale squeeze.” Their labor costs were increasing because the cost of living is increasing and insurance costs have grown exponentially. “We saw that we employ more people than we need in the winter just to be able to keep good staff,” Will explained, “because staffing has become such a challenge. We make a deliberate choice to take a financial hit…because we can't be staffed correctly in the summer if we don't keep those people [in the winter].” The leased ground isn’t well-drained and difficult to work in the winter and shoulder seasons, which limits their options. They recognized that they could do better with more space, incorporate more cover cropping, and allow the soil to rest for longer periods.
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For several years, Will recognized that the only restriction on sales was the ability to produce. “Once I realized the growth potential for the business, and where we were bottlenecked, and that we could increase our production without having to increase our staffing, [with] strategic crop planning and pushing seasons out a little bit,” Will explained, “I saw real potential. Once I got serious about that, I talked to a lot of different organizations.”
In fact, he talked to more than a half dozen organizations. Ultimately Dirt Capital Partners arranged to buy a 34-acre former vineyard outright, with buildings and other infrastructure to support Longer Table’s packing and storage. As Will explained, “We lease it on a 10-year lease, with purchase options starting at year five. It's not cheap. It's about the equivalent of a 7.5% interest-only deal [and it’s] a triple-net lease, but the payments start out smaller and increase as we go. That allows us to have easier cash flow, get off the ground, build some equity, and get the business up and running.”
They anticipate that the biggest impact of the new acreage is allowing them to produce more in early spring, and grow more lower-dollar crops. “That might sound counterintuitive," Will said, “but because we've been space constrained, the way I've been crop planning for the last few years is based on what produces the most dollars per foot per day it's in the ground. We need a diversified market table to make it interesting for customers.” Will wants to bring back products that generally store well, like cabbages, onions, potatoes, and hard squash.
Having been certified organic from the beginning, it was not very difficult to add another parcel to their certification. The last application of prohibited substances on the 34 acres was in 2024. With the required three-year transition period, their new ground will be certified organic in February 2027. They received assistance from Community Alliance with Family Farmers’ Organic Transition Program, which closed its applications last year. It was part of USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), through which California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) accessed and distributed funding to farm organizations, including FarmLink.
The funding supported vital investments for Longer Tagle Farm’s organic production: 240 tons of organic compost, 120 tons of gypsum, and three tons of potash. They were able to pay a contractor to spread the materials and perform subsoil tillage to address highly compacted soils resulting from 50 years of vineyard operations.
In their search for land, organic certification was a critical factor. Sustaining three years of cash flow without organic certification would have been difficult. “We sell a lot of our vegetables into the grocery market,” Will said, ”so we can say everything we want about how good we're doing at farming, but really, the value comes from that USDA [organic] stamp.” Their customers can look forward to garlic and other winter crops in the spring.
To purchase products from Longer Table Farm, find them at three farmers markets: Healdsburg on Saturdays, and San Rafael on Thursdays and Sundays; as well as through Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax and Mill Valley, Oliver’s Markets in Cotati, Santa Rosa, and Windsor; FEED Cooperative; and the Sonoma County Flower Market.
Photo Credit: Sarah Davis.
