Growing a market

Heidi Watanabe nurtures her organic produce from fields to sellers' stalls

By Gwen Schoen -- Bee Food Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, April 27, 2005

The morning was glorious. The sun was so bright, it made your eyes water. The air was crisp and clean, with just a touch of dampness.

It was the kind of morning that pulls at your senses and begs you to go outside and enjoy the garden.

And there, on her knees in the wet dirt, was Heidi Watanabe, doing exactly what many of us dream of doing on such a beautiful day. She was planting tomatoes at her West Sacramento farm. The look of pure joy on her face filled us with envy.

"We're about finished putting in the tomatoes," she said, her hand sweeping the air as though welcoming visitors to her home.

"We put in about 10,000 plants. Ten varieties, 1,000 plants of each. It's our largest crop and one of our most popular items," she said.

Heidi and her husband, Clark Watanabe, farm 7 acres of land tucked between Jefferson Boulevard and the Sacramento River in West Sacramento. At local farmers markets, they are best-known for organic heirloom tomatoes. During tomato season, customers are often three deep around the Watanabe stand.

They also grow a variety of organic fruits and vegetables, including radishes, squash, beets, onions, garlic, salad mix and flowers.

The farm, which has been in Clark's family since 1953, was fallow for many years until Heidi discovered the feel of soil between her fingers and the joy of tending the vegetables she so lovingly plants by hand. Today, the prolific farm produces enough fruit and vegetables for Heidi and Clark to make a modest living.

"I love working at the farmers markets," Heidi said. "People who shop there like to know the source of their food. They want to know how it was grown, and I think that's important. They also tell us what they hope we will grow. This year we planted herbs and added Roma tomatoes because our customers kept asking for them.

"It is fun when our customers come back and tell us how much they enjoyed what they bought."

During the summer, the Watanabes sell produce at a farmers market nearly every day of the week. Early in the morning, they walk the fields, pick what's ripe, load it into a truck and head to market. Every Saturday, their produce stands can be found at markets at both the Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights and at Country Club Plaza at Watt and El Camino avenues in Sacramento.

While Clark grew up working summers on the farm with his grandfather, Heidi is new to farming. Seven years ago, she was floating in life, as she says. She worked as a retail clerk, rushing to work, rushing home, looking forward to days off and time outdoors.

"I just wasn't accomplishing anything of value," said Heidi, 32, a Sacramento native. "I graduated from high school (Encina, class of '91), but I needed a purpose. One day Clark suggested I plant some vegetables on the land behind his grandmother's house, and that really was the beginning of our farm."

The first year was devoted to clearing the land, which looked more like a jungle than farm acreage. Clark's grandmother Mary, 83, still lives in a small house at one end of the property. Clark's grandfather passed away 10 years ago at age 93. Although Mary still has her own small flower and vegetable garden, nearly a generation had passed since anyone cultivated the land.

"I started working on it, clearing a little patch at a time," Heidi said. "The first year I planted pumpkins and squash, and I sold the excess at a farmers market. I was so excited. And I felt so good when I was outside working in the fields. The change in me was amazing.

"In the beginning, I really didn't know what I was doing, but the soil here is very fertile because it is so close to the river. Everything grows really well. Clark majored in agricultural science at the University of California, Davis. He was working for agricultural companies at the time. He taught me a lot and he got some of the old machinery working again."

The second year, Heidi planted tomatoes. Then she added onions, salad greens, beets and radishes, everything her customers at the farmers market requested.

Not long after Heidi's first pumpkin crop came in, Clark's parents, Roy and Ann Watanabe, showed up, offering to help. They still come to the farm every day. About a year ago, Clark left his corporate job to become a full-time farmer with his wife.

Today, dressed in denim shorts, boots and sweat shirt, her face scrubbed so clean it glows, her hair pulled through the top of a big straw hat, she looks and sounds every bit the seasoned farmer with just as many concerns over weather, water, bugs and rodents as a large corporate grower.

This spring, just as she had finished planting much of the tomato crop, a heavy hailstorm stomped across the field. The damage was easy to spot.

"Most of the plants survived, but the ones that got a direct hit will have to be replaced. You just never know how things are going to go," she said. "The cool spring and all of the extra rain has put things a little behind, but we will catch up as soon as the weather warms up."

This is a seven-day-a-week job. You can't call in sick. You can't stay home when it rains or it's too hot. You will never have pretty fingernails. Sometimes it hails and you have to start over. And sometimes there's no paycheck at the end of the week.

"We have changed our lifestyle," Heidi said. "We live very modestly in a little house just across the river from the farm. And we watch our expenses carefully. But the farm has enriched our lives so much that it has been worth every sacrifice. This is what I was meant to do. Every day, I wake up and I can't wait to get outside and go to work."

Heidi's dog, a rescue pup named Copper, bounds across the field chasing birds as the young woman with the sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks and muddy knees stoops to pull the last of the beet crop. Not everyone would love this lifestyle, but she has found her purpose.