Not every vendor at the Berkeley farmers market seems to enjoy the face-to-face sales aspect. And from a very random, unscientific sampling, it seems to me that the ones who enjoy it most tend not to be the actual farmers.
For this second installment in the Five Minutes at the Market series, I went to my favorite fruit stand, which always has some ridiculously attractive, smiling young people working at it. (Is it just me, or do all the Berkeley vendors — even the grumpy ones — look like they’re just bursting with health? It sure is good advertising.)
Melanie Miller
Farm Blossom Bluff Orchards, Parlier, CA
Connection to farm Sales rep/vendor
How long farm has been operating Since 1931, by the Loewen family
Size Under 100 acres
Crops Stone fruit (cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, pluots), pomegranates, persimmons, and pommelos
Where to find San Francisco Ferry Plaza market, Derby and Center markets in Berkeley, Grand Lake and Temescal markets in Oakland, Marin County Civic Center market; local restaurants
Organic? In progress — “part of the fruit is, but we don’t want to advertise it until it all is”
Dairy Queen: So are you one of the Loewen family members?
Melanie Miller: I wish! I’m commonly mistaken for Renata, but I’m not so lucky as to actually be a member of the family. But they make all of us feel like we are, anyway.
DQ: How long have you been working for them?
MM: This is my fourth summer of Saturdays. I like to be outdoors at least one day a week.
DQ: Just one day? Are you on a work-release program from prison?
MM: No, I work in a lab at UC Berkeley, in integrative biology.
DQ: So you like the human contact?
MM: Totally. This is one of the best jobs in the world. We all trade our fruits and vegetables, and I love educating people about family farms and the organic movement.
DQ: What’s your pitch?
MM: Shopping at farmers markets is one of the best things you can do if you care about food and the Earth. The food tastes better, because it’s so much fresher — our fruit is picked when it’s actually at the peak of ripeness, not a few days before so it can be shipped to a grocery store. And you’re helping small farms be competitive by cutting out the middleman: the profit goes right back to the family.
DQ: Sold. I’ll take some of those Elephant Heart plums and Flavor Grenade Pluots.
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September 10th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
I love Blossom Bluff stonefruit! Great to see them get some props online. Their yellow peaches can’t be beat.
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Thanks for plugging our favorite family farm! I’d like to offer a correction about farm lineage. “Blosson Bluff” was in the Lichti family for many years (before Loewen). Daniel and Babette Lichti, Mennonite immigrants from Germany, bought the farm in 1931. Their son Herb ran the farm for many more years before turning it over to Ted and Fran Loewen (Herb Lichti’s son-in-law and daughter) when he “retired” (at least 10 years ago). (Though like many farmers, Herb never really retired and up until quite recently still did work on the farm, into his mid-80’s.) Herb and Elsie Lichti have two more adult children - Jim (my dear friend) who lives in Los Angeles and works for the farm at the markets in the summer — and Christine who also lives on the land with her family.
My partner and I got a personal tour of the farm from Patriarch Herb a few years ago, around the time of the annual Mennonite relief auction in Fresno (where they auction beautiful handmade quilts). He demonstrated how he grafts trees; it’s fascinating and quite an art/science! (Ted, by the way, was involved in trying to get the “California Clean” label off the ground — an alternative to “organic” based on sustainable farming practices — but “organic” is much better known with consumers, even if (sometimes) it can involve shipping food from great distances, burning fossil fuels all the way.)
Anyway, I could go on and on about the Lichti’s as I am very fond of them - and love their delicious fruit!
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Joanne, thanks for the correction and the additional information. Blossom Bluff really is my favorite stone fruit seller; I am so disappointed they’ve run through their store of dried Flavor Grenade pluots for the season.
Also, I’d never heard of the “California Clean” label — that’s pretty interesting!