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The Dirt

For Fiddler’s Green Farm, organic is an instinct

By: Wendy Weitzel

When it comes to growing greens, Jim Eldon doesn’t fiddle around much. He says it’s one of the secrets to his successful organic farm.

At Fiddler’s Green Farm, using natural processes helps conserve resources, improve the soil and promote biodiversity. 

“I think respecting the soil is a driving force,” said Eldon, who has owned the farm with his wife since the early 1990s. “I’ve never really been into beating up the soil to make it perfect.”

But the name Fiddler’s Green isn’t referring to its farming methodology. Clifford and Marion Cain started the farm in Yolo County in the 1970s. Their honeymoon was a voyage around the world on a 24-foot sailboat. In a nod to their Irish ancestry, the name refers to 19th-century maritime folklore of a sailor’s version of heaven. Fiddler’s Green is an enchanted place every mariner dreamed of for retirement and beyond. 

Fiddler’s Green started selling at the Davis Farmers Market in 1989. When Eldon was hired in 1991 to manage the farm, he steered the sales from wholesale to farmers markets and a consumer-supported agriculture subscription program. He and his wife of 38 years, Julie Rose, are now the sole shareholders of the 30-plus acre farm in Brooks. 

“I’m a firm believer in the original intent of a farmers market: to get farmers to have direct contact with the customers,” Eldon said. “I like actually being there. When people have questions about the farm, I’m the one who can really answer it.” And if he’s not there, at least one of his longtime employees is.

He enjoys teaching customers about eating seasonally. “They want basil in January. It’s a hot-weather crop. People are used to seeing it in the supermarket year-around.

Fiddler’s Green is known for its baby greens and specialty crops that are hard to produce organically. “We were the first in the county with organic asparagus. And we have some unusual varietals,” he said, mentioning heirloom tomatoes, lettuces, melons, mustard, arugula and others. “I like to educate them about the botany of some of the food crops. People enjoy hearing me talk about it.”

The complete list throughout the year includes arugula, Asian vegetables, asparagus, beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, endive, fennel, herbs, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, melons, onions, organics, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, rutabagas, salad mix, tomatoes and turnips.

The best sellers are salad mixes, baby greens and baby lettuces. Oh, and savoy cabbage, an attractive and round, green cabbage with crinkly leaf tips. “Suddenly everyone wants them and I can’t bring enough of it.” Asparagus and melons are popular, as are carrots and several varieties of potatoes.  

Luckily, these are the things that grow well with his organic-farming method of doing “as little tractor work as I need to to get the crops in the ground.”

Fiddler’s Green Farm

Find them at the Davis Farmers Market every Saturday, rain or shine.
Farm address: 18265 County Road 70, Brooks
Facebook: @fiddlersgreenhouse

Davis Farmers Market

Central Park, Fourth and C streets, Davis
Saturdays: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round
Wednesdays: 3 to 6 p.m. October through April; 4 to 8 p.m. May through September for Picnic in the Park

Jim Eldon is shown in a Fiddler’s Green Farm field in 2011. (Craig Lee/Courtesy photo)

Kevin Weedon sells produce for Fiddler’s Green Farm at the Davis Farmers Market in January 2023. (Wendy Weitzel/Courtesy photo)

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