Farming With a Purpose That Goes Beyond the Farm
I tell stories about farmers—about how, where and what they produce, as well as the journeys that led them to farming.
Some were born into farming. Some felt destined to farm and began doing as soon as they could find an affordable a piece of land to plant. And some followed other career paths before pivoting later in life to realize their dream of farming.
And then there are people like Laura Newman and Jim Tauber, who just happened to fall in love with a house in Los Olivos, California, that just happened to be sited on a seven-acre hillside property with a fruit orchard and a vineyard spread over three of the acres. Voila! A farm!
By definition, “a farmer is any person engaged in the business of agriculture, whether for profit or otherwise, including the cultivation of land, the raising of crops, or the raising of livestock. Farmers play a major role in society; they feed us, some of them warm us and all are custodians of nature. Commitment goes way beyond their farms, crops and livestock; many play vital roles in their communities.” (LawInsider.com)
Laura and Jim are the kind of farmers that feed us and warm us. They have great respect for nature and feel an overpowering commitment to give back to their community and to the planet.
Honeybear Orchard wasn’t at all premeditated. The couple was simply looking for an occasional getaway from their busy lives in Los Angeles.
In fact, they already had a second home in the Cuyama Valley, a little cabin situated on a remote 30 acres that Laura purchased long before she met Jim. Sadly, it was too rustic for Jim’s taste. And thus began the search for a more inviting property.
A rural landscape topped Laura’s wish list. Jim agreed, though he required that it be an easy drive to and from Los Angeles and an easy walk to a good cup of coffee. They had visited the Santa Ynez Valley. It was rural enough. And yet cultured. It seemed a good place to start.
After looking at several properties, they were introduced to a house in Los Olivos that immediately grabbed Laura. At first sight, there was an extraordinary stone entranceway that carried into the house, arching its way through the living room and wrapping around the fireplace, a dramatic ribbon of earthy tones and textures gathered from nearby Figueroa Mountain.
“I could tell by the many details that whoever built the house built it with passion,” said Laura. “There was something magical about the place. And then we walked through the house to the rear and—lo and behold—there was a vineyard and an orchard. It blew our minds that we could possibly have a place with fruit already growing on it. The house was ranch style, not big, but I knew it was the house for us!”
The year was 2016. The property in Los Olivos seemed the perfect retreat from the couple’s professional lives, she a former general contractor, he a former film studio executive, both now co-therapists specializing in couples therapy, a shift in direction made early in their relationship. While they each had fulfilling careers of their own when they first met, they had wanted something that they could create together. A shared interest in psychotherapy inspired their practice. If that was the second chapter in each of their lives, they were about to embark on the next.
Spending as much time as possible in Los Olivos, their first year was devoted to renovating the house. They doubled the size of the orchard. They put in more fruit trees, including pluots, peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, pears, persimmons, pomegranates and apples, all religiously farmed following sustainable and organic practices.
Laura and Jim were diligent in learning about plants native to California and, over time, blanketed their grounds with sages, salvias and various native grasses. They ground up the jojoba beans to make jojoba oil from the old-growth bushes original to the property. Olive oils would follow. They were taking none of this casually. Intentionality is the word that comes to mind. This was the beginning of Honeybear Orchard, named after their Australian shepherd dog.
“We were setting the stage for what we wanted to do with our newfound farm,” Laura said with a sigh. “But right in the middle of the renovation, Jim became very ill and was diagnosed with cancer. Not a curable cancer but one that’s manageable.
It was a traumatic year, one that caused us to shift our focus and ask ourselves how we wanted to live our lives. Who do we want to be, what do we want to do and where do we want to do it?”
“My cancer diagnosis changed our perspective on life,” added Jim. “Life is short. We only have one, and we want to live it the way we want and where we want and that’s here on our farm. We’ve literally planted roots here.”
Making Los Olivos their home, Laura and Jim began eyeing the neighboring two and a half acres. Three years later in 2020, they purchased the property and planted another 300 fruit trees, primarily stone fruits but also a field of Arbequina and Manzanillo olive trees. They bought a few goats, a couple of donkeys and some chickens. A farm!
But they still couldn’t find a good cup of coffee in walking distance. The solution: open a coffee shop that offers a really good cup of coffee in downtown Los Olivos, an easy walk from the farm. Lefty’s, named for their Corgi, opened in November 2021. The shop is another opportunity for Laura and Jim to express themselves in the choices they make, in how they source their products and in how they run their business. Key to those choices—”local, organic, sustainable and small-scale.” They choose suppliers who are like-minded and committed to fair trade and organic sourcing. Lefty’s has—in many ways—become a vital community hub and host to various cause-worthy gatherings. As important, Jim has a good cup of coffee within reach.
Again, intentionality. Lefty’s recently received B Corp Certification. The B in B Corp stands for “benefit for all.” Certification requires that businesses meet the the highest standards of verified social and environmental performances, public transparency and accountability to balance profit and purpose.
Asked how many hours they have in their day (since I was apparently slighted with only 24), they exchanged looks and laughed, because they’ve obviously learned how to squeeze life out of every hour given to them.
It’s clear that their sense of purpose goes way beyond their farm. Laura is a hands-on board member of Brave Trails, a nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ youth leadership programs. And she is now at the helm of building the first-ever LGBTQ-owned and -operated camp and community space in Santa Clarita, California. Laura and Jim are also deeply involved with Feed the Valley, a nonprofit that supports employees of the restaurant industry.
“Life is precious, which is why—over the past few years—we’ve been pursuing stuff with complete abandon,” said Laura. “As soon as Jim was feeling better, we decided to work with a winemaker and make our own Chenin Blanc. We expanded the farm. Planted more trees. We’re burying drip lines horizontal to the stone fruit trees to encourage root spread that should help the trees through drought years. We keep pushing to get more and more sustainable.”
Laura continued to show me around as we strolled through the orchard and recently harvested grapevines. “We’re making our own compost to feed the five acres that are farmed. And to combat the constant pests, as well as to increase the nutrients in the soil, we brought in a professional worm tea maker to help formulate a recipe of compost, worm castings, fish emulsion, amino acids and soluble kelp brewed together in 300-gallon tanks for 24 hours before spraying. We now have a really robust spraying schedule throughout the year. And it’s working. We had over 1,000 pounds of fruit this year as compared to the 100 pounds at the start.”
Now firmly dedicated to farming organically and sustainably, Honeybear is free of all synthetic (chemical) fertilizers and pesticides. Laura and Jim have applied for organic certification, meaning that they will have finally met the strict standards of transitioning over three years to the USDA’s highly regulated organic practices in growing and processing their produce.
And what are their plans for this bounty of fruit? The Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc grapes are under contract with local winemakers. The peaches, plums and other varieties will find an audience at Lefty’s, as well as at local farmstands and markets. And a portion of the produce is donated to Veggie Rescue, which then delivers the fresh fruits directly to nonprofit organizations, schools and others within the Santa Barbara County community who are struggling with food insecurity.
Asking Laura and Jim if they had ever imagined themselves as the farmers they are today, Jim replied, “I’ve never been a country boy, but I now feel comfortable living on a farm, waking up at sunrise, putting on my farm clothes, feeding the animals and picking fruit. It’s an honor and a privilege.”
“Life unfolds in ways you never imagine,” added Laura with a contented smile. “We wouldn’t have ended up with a vineyard and farm if we hadn’t fallen in love with the house. Feeling grounded since moving to the Santa Ynez Valley, I can be present and therefore of service to our farm and to the recipients of what we’re growing, to caring for a person with a chronic illness, to getting involved in local projects. This is where we now live. We want to use all our good fortunes to do right by the planet. We’re committed to our activism in making the world a better place by doing what we believe must be done.”
Farming is only one piece of it.
