Envisioning the future of the San Geronimo Valley, Lagunitas resident Janet Brown looks to its agrarian past when crops - not homes - dotted the landscape.

Brown, an organic tomato farmer, is one of several Valley growers trying to promote farming as a means to local self-sufficiency. Though her vision is far from realized, the county is taking steps to maintain it as a possibility.

With the Planning Commission's approval of the San Geronimo Valley Community Plan on Monday, new land-use guidelines encourage small-scale farming in the Valley, including greater emphasis on identifying property with prime soil and adequate water.

But if this property is to be turned into productive land instead of subdivisions or open space, the experience of Brown and other local growers proves it is also going to require commitment, patience, hard work, and cash.

A Valley resident for 29 years, Brown quit her sales and marketing job at a software-development firm to devote herself to farming and teaching others about the social and economic issues related to agriculture.

Using the savings from her corporate career, she has developed a viable tomato farm on three acres in Lagunitas during the last five years. She grows quality Heirloom tomatoes and delivers them to markets and restaurants throughout Marin County

"I do it the old-fashioned way," said

Brown. "I touch every tomato on the farm."

Brown's neighbor atop Mount Barnabe, Diane Matthew, cultivates three acres in a community-supported system; some 60 families "subscribe" to the farm, paying her up front and receiving a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season.

However, after working seven years to develop the hardscrabble summit of Mount Barnabe into a productive farm, Matthew said that next year she, like Brown, will concentrate on a few crops she hopes to market locally.

"On this scale, the only way it really works is to have some sort of niche market," she explained. "I feel like I've been through my learning curve."

Although neither farmer has ever turned a significant profit, both see themselves as examples that farming can become an integral part of the San Geronimo Valley once again. County officials aren't disputing them.

Both women are "on the leading edge of a return to agriculture in West Marin," said Supervisor Steve Kinsey. This summer he got fellow supervisors to create an agricultural easement of up to 20 acres within the open space French Ranch will donate to the county.

Kinsey said other agriculture opportunities in the Valley might include the 50-acre Tamalpais High School District property or the agriculture easement on Spirit Rock.

There could even be a fishery in San Geronimo Creek or commercial gardens in the villages, Kinsey added.

The Two Bird Cafe restaurant in San Geronimo already buys a portion of its lettuce, salad greens, and fresh herbs from the Woodacre garden of one of its workers.

The Two Bird owner, Tony Miceli, said his business benefits through this arrangement by getting the freshest possible vegetables without any transportation costs.

And, he added, it helps the community by keeping income in the Valley.

Although Miceli said he would like to grow more of his own ingredients or buy them as locally as possible, he noted that he still must travel to the San Francisco produce markets to fully supply the restaurant at a reasonable cost.

"It becomes economics," he said. "It's difficult to match up with the big guys."

Besides price competition, county Agriculture Commissioner, Stacy Carlsen said, one of the major inhibitions to small-scale, farming in West Marin is that even if a strong market existed, local producers wouldn't be able to supply it regularly with all its needs.

Part of the problem, Carlsen said, is that customers are used to getting what they want when they want it, regardless of whether it is in season or can be grown in a coastal climate.

"Those hurdles of growing a local product and selling it to a local market are huge because it requires a producer to do a lot of homework - and a flexible consumer," he said.

Both Brown and Matthew agree marketing and sales are vital to small-scale farming. Brown said her experience in marketing has taught her networking skills to find customers for her tomatoes.

And they agree that customers need to be sold on the benefits of using local produce. When selling, they list freshness, greater nutritional value, and environmental farming practices as reasons to pay more for their goods.

Although none of the developable land in the Valley is zoned exclusively for agriculture, Kinsey said the success of Matthew and Brown should encourage more farming there.

A remaining obstacle, however, is the expense of water. Valley growers currently pay drinking-water rates for their water, but Kinsey said he and Marin Municipal Water District are discussing ways to provide small-scale farmers with water at agricultural rates.

Brown said she tries to escape exorbitant water bills by limiting her use of MMWD water on the farm to the hottest, driest months of the year while drastically reducing her household use of water.

She said she cannot afford to construct a collection pond or get a second water meter on her property. (Rates accelerate as more water is used, so a second meter would allow her to avoid the highest rates.)

Matthew does not use MMWD water at all, relying instead on a spring and two wells, including one she had drilled for $40,000.

Both growers also benefit from leasing part of their farms from a neighbor, Walter Pack, who owns the water rights to a seasonal creek that flows down Mount Barnabe.

Pack has cultivated walnut trees in Lagunitas for 30 years. In his collection pond, he raises trout for sale to county restaurants.

Explaining why they think the Valley should be self-sufficient when it comes to food, both growers say it is a political act to buy food from local producers.

They claim that agribusiness is an unsustainable form of farming. Over-harvesting and the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers slowly ruin the soil while weakening the natural resistance of crops to pests and disease, they add.

They also say agribusiness relies upon the low cost of fossil fuels for farm machinery and trucks to transport produce thousands of miles, thereby contributing to air and water pollution.

Though Pack must send his walnuts to Santa Rosa to be hulled and sorted, he said he has no problem growing or selling them in Marin County. "It's taken me a number of years to get to this point," he added. "It didn't happen overnight."