Sugar beets, kale, broccoli and calendula poke out between rocks on Blue Marble Acres’ gravel parking lot, which overlooks an expanse of rolling hills on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road. Co-owner George Gund lovingly pinches the yellow petals of a calendula flower, explaining that the plants grew on their own from seeds that blew onto the lot. “This is a nice example of how really fertile the soil is with no help at all,” he said.
The volunteer crops fall nicely in line with the farm’s vision to grow a diverse array of plants with low inputs, support microbial-rich soil, sequester carbon and nourish the community with chemical-free food. The team believes that regenerative agriculture is a solution to climate change that increases biodiversity and values holistic food security.
The 772-acre property, which is protected from development by the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, has operated as a dairy for 160 years. Tony Spaletta, the grandson of the original owners and the third generation of the Spaletta family to ranch the land, still grazes around 700 cows as part of the organic-certified Cypress Lane Dairy.
Mr. Gund and his wife, Gloriana Mejia-Gund, purchased the property last year, naming it after Apollo 17’s famous 1972 photograph of the Earth, “Blue Marble.” They hope to transition the property into an “agricultural incubator” that can support an array of animals and crops. Though the team is in the beginning stages, their goal is to lease one-acre plots to small-scale farmers and individuals from urban areas who want to reconnect with the land. They will farm 100 acres and designate the rest for native plant regeneration and stream protection.
“We’re seeing it as a collaborative with people whose values are aligned,” Ms. Mejia-Gund said. “Not in the sense of profit and economic gain—more that the soil gains and the species gain. And us, by default.”
Besides Mr. Gund, an investor, and Ms. Mejia-Gund, an architect, the farm team consists of Edgar Cox, Adrian Fontaine, Jesse Kuhn and Sara Romero. They all wear many hats: Mr. Cox used to be a winemaker and oversees planting, Mr. Fontaine is a real estate agent and has done much of the building on the property, and Mr. Kuhn, who runs Marin Roots Farm across the road, is offering advice and “planting ideas.” Ms. Romero, an herbalist, is the project manager and media contact.
The team is currently focusing on cleaning up the land, establishing a water system and seeing what will grow. Ms. Romero is working with the county to expand water rights so that the stock ponds can be used for both cattle and agriculture, and the county just approved a well on the property.
“We didn’t really think through access to water at the level we needed for agriculture,” Mr. Gund said. “When we first came here, I just thought, ‘Oh we’ve got all this land, we can start distributing it out to people,’ but doing that without water is kind of a cruel joke.” So far, they’ve grown crops with spring water and have relied heavily on dry farming, a method that involves no direct irrigation or watering.
Mr. Gund said that when they do offer leases, a portion of tenants’ rent will be collected as a deposit and returned should the renter decide to leave. This method functions as a type of credit system that will help the team build infrastructure and renters invest in the land.
The team is also working with Mr. Spaletta to scale down the dairy operation from 312 milking cows to around 200. Mr. Gund said cows contribute to land erosion and degradation; their hooves make the ground uneven and leave pockets where mosquito larvae form. Until recently, cows had access to streams on the land, so one of the first things the new owners did was build a fence along Walker Creek.
Ms. Mejia-Gund said her team is “not against the cattle or dairy industry,” but that the presence of cows alters the land. “How could we have a different dairy operation that’s much smaller, that’s gentle, that has connection with the human being, that’s humane and that’s transparent?” she asked.
The team has been farming a one-acre plot of land to test the soil. They wanted the design of the plot to mimic patterns in nature, so they decided on a hexagonal structure based on a beehive. The plot is divided into triangular sections that are one-sixth of an acre and support a wide variety of crops, including potatoes, sugar beets, cilantro, peas, kale, quinoa and amaranth. An insectary row of flowers provides supplementary nectar, pollen and habitat for insects. They also have five varieties of tomatoes, rainbow and Swiss chard, artichokes, strawberries, leeks, peppers and eggplant.
The land is not certified organic and while no chemical inputs are used, they say the time-consuming and bureaucratic process isn’t worth it. “Having people come out here and see the way we’re farming and have their word of mouth certify what we’re doing, I think, is a lot more impactful,” Ms. Romero said.
The team recognizes that they are farming on the ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok people, and Ms. Romero, who is half Native, said that growing traditional native plants is one of their goals. To the right of the vegetable and flower rows in the test plot lies a section of wooden teepees designed to support the “three sisters”—corn, beans and squash, the three main crops of Indigenous cultures originating in Mesoamerica. The crops are thought of as companions because they benefit from being planted close together: the cornstalk can serve as a trellis for the beans, the beans fix nitrogen, and the large leaves of the squash shade the ground, keeping the soil moist and preventing weed growth. Ms. Romero will also grow a native plant garden with herbs and aromatics such as elderberry, yarrow and chamomile, along with tobacco, a traditional Indigenous offering.
The team is in the process of building partnerships with local organizations. They want to work with the Agricultural Institute of Marin, a program that operates nine Bay Area farmers markets, and Ms. Romero has established a partnership with The Cultural Conservancy, a San Francisco-based, Native-led organization aimed at protecting and restoring Indigenous cultures. Blue Marble just donated its first box of produce to the conservancy.
“Historically, Indigenous people haven’t had access to land that rightfully should be theirs,” Ms. Romero said. “How do we get a partnership with them where they can maybe have an acre to grow native plants and medicine that is culturally important to them? Those are the kinds of relationships that we all talk about facilitating. It’s not like ‘Yeah, let’s grow tons of vegetables and make money, money, money,’ it’s more just like, ‘How do we use this land respectfully and also productively?’”
On a broader level, the team hopes to engage the public in agriculture and restoration. “If we can get people away from computers and away from cities to a place in nature where they can restore the land physically and also spiritually within themselves, then I think that would be our ultimate goal,” Ms. Romero said.