The Farm Family

Simba & Becca

Davis/Woodland/Lincoln, CA

So far, it's just us!

Why did I start Simba's Heirloom Farm? Well, it all began with a desire to serve my community. Early on, I thought that practicing medicine would provide the best opportunity to heal and support those in need, so I chose biology as my field of study in college. Paying tuition and strenuous financial circumstances had me juggling multiple jobs along with my heavy math and science class load. Fortunately, I landed a job with a local organic farm working their farmers markets on the weekends. Within months, I was hooked, but this time by a new path to fulfill my goals of healing and supporting my community. I absolutely fell in love with the intrinsic satisfaction of providing people with healthy food that had been grown sustainably. I found that food opened new doors for deep community education and connected me with my community members through new relationships centered around the ritual of seeing regular customers every weekend. Over the past seven years, my network of farming friends grew into something that felt more like a family. In my experiences working with these friends, I witnessed the well-known widening age gap that has grown due to a lack of young farmers. In fact, in the past 5 years alone, the average farmer age has increased from 50 to 58 years old. With my passion ever-expanding for growing and sharing sustainable food, and recognizing a crucial gap that needs to be filled, this year (2018) I decided to take the leap of faith as a first generation farmer by starting Simba's Heirloom Farm.

I farm on just a 1.5 acre plot in Lincoln, but grow a wide variety of crops ranging from rare crops like ground cherries and sun-chokes to common crops like carrots and kale. My goal is to have a diverse range of crop selection that supports ecosystem diversity and education.

My girlfriend, Becca, has been a huge support, physically, emotionally, and mentally as my partner in establishing our first generation farm. As a middle school science teacher, she has spent her summer crop planning and organizing the greenhouse, in between working weekly farmers markets by my side. Together we hope to build a sustainable organic farm that one day will sustain both our family and our community. :)