Star Route Farms

FARMLAND: 40 acres in Bolinas (25 miles to market) and 10 acres in Thermal (520 miles to market).

PEOPLE: Owner Warren Weber, farm manager Doug Gallagher, and sales manager Annabelle Lenderink, along with 2 full-time and 16 parttime or seasonal workers

FARM HISTORY/PHILOSOPHY: Warren grew up in Missouri and Connecticut, taking summer farm jobs from the age of 15. After receiving an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Economics and a PhD in English Literature, Warren began farming organically in Bolinas in 1974. More recently he has expanded his farming operation to the Coachella Valley in Southern California.

From 1985-88 he served as President of California Certified Organic Farmers and co-founded the Organic Farming Research Foundation in 1991. He served on the steering committee of the California Sustainable Ag Working Group, 1997-98, and is a 1998 recipient of a "Susty" award from the Committee for Sustainable Agriculture. Over the years he has served on many diverse boards and presently serves on the boards of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA). He also serves as President of Marin Organic. Warren was instrumental in the creation of Marin Organic Certified Agriculture (MOCA), one of the first county government certifiers in the country.

SOIL: The farm's silty clay loam is built with compost, cover crops, and crop stubble. Certified organic fertilizers, raw organic matter, and compost add essential nutrients to the soil.

WEED CONTROL: By hand and machine, cover cropping, flaming of weed seedlings.

PEST MANAGEMENT: Population monitoring, crop rotation, selection of resistant varieties, application of certified organic pesticides.

WATER USE: Sprinkler and drip irrigation from direct source and groundwater.

ORGANIC CERTIFICATION: MOCA since 2001.