Farm Profile: Farquhar Farms

Name: Farquhar Farms
Location: Redlands Market Night, Daily Produce Stand located on the corner of S. Wabash Ave & 5th St. in Northern Redlands
Organic?: Not officially, but generally follows.
Some Price Highlights:
-Oranges: $3/ bag

-Avocados: $.33-$1 each





Talking with Marty Farquhar at his abundanct stand at Market Night is nothing less than interesting. He has a wealth of knowledge about Redlands history, food, as well as the people who grow it. Not to mention he has a fun sense of humor!

His stand is tidy and full of various types of fruit when I stop by. Although his table is currently only graced with oranges, grapefruits, lemons, tangelos and avocados at this time, he also grows a lot of different seasonal vegetables that will soon be available such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, eggplant and asparagus.

I stopped by his smaller stand on the corner of Wabash and 5th a few days later, and he gladly welcomed me again. Although I was just stopping by to take pictures, he launched into a long conversation about growing, the navy, his family, and how oranges came to Redlands. He is not afraid to talk to anyone, obviously, and he gladly told me how his family started up this business over 100 years ago.

Marty Farquhar and his family's farm is a perfect example of the kind of community that comes from freshly grown food. You can assuredly find him every Thursday down on State St. in Redlands, most likely having another lengthy conversation with someone who stopped by his stand.

Pictures: Farquhar Farms, since 1889 (left), Marty Farquhar's stand at Market Night where Marty talks with friends as his assistant Scott takes care of customers (right)

Why Local?

(The actual introduction to my class project):

The City of Redlands has had a love affair with food grown locally since it was founded, one that still thrives today. The city is so proud of its relationship with oranges, as a matter of fact, that it graces just about every logo associated with Redlands, including (but of course, not limited to) the official city logo, city street signs, and city buildings.

Despite being located in an area of California that can technically quality as "desert," produce seems to flourish here. It is so successful that many family farms have been growing in this area for over 30 years and selling their produce either on the local or commerical scale.

So why buy local? Other than the many different arguments for its environmental benefits, there are many different reasons. First, buying local gives you a clear idea on where the food you have bought has come from, so you can know that the produce has been picked fresh and ripe off the vine (or tree, or from the ground, etc) then brought straight to you rather than picked upripe and left to ripen in a box. Because of this fact, local food is always fresher than that sold in commercial grocery stores. Plus, with freshness comes increased deliciousness!

Local food is also seasonal, so you will always know that your food is ripe because it has not been picked or grown out of its seasonal limitations.Local can often be synonymous with cheaper as well, because there are no packing or shipping free to increase prices.And finally, buying local produce supports your local economy, which is great for everyone!

Redlands (and the rest of the Inland Empire) has an abundance of local produce farmers whom altogether could easily cover all your produce desires. From a variety of citrus and other fruits, to every type of vegetable desirable, buying local is not only sensible, but preferable!

A little about Farm Fresh & Local

During my 2010 Spring semester at the University of Redlands, I was enrolled in a Gender & Food class that truly sparked my interest in all things food related. For the final project of class, we had to come up with a creative project that would somehow relate to what we had learned in the class.

Since we had talked about the "fast" food revolution (tv dinners, canned food, etc), I had become extremely interested in learning more about fresh food and its importance. I knew that every Thursday there was a market night that was sure to boast an impressive amount of fresh produce, but I was so to learn that I knew very little of this subject.

I decided to make a magazine/newsletter type thing. I did a lot of research about quite a few of the local farms in the area, took lots of nifty pictures, and compiled all the information into a handy booklet that ended up looking rather nice.
My professor, and classmates, enjoyed it so much that they said I should get it published. I scoffed at these comments because I didn't think it was that quality, but it did spark a number of different thoughts in my head.

While researching information about local farms in the area, I found that there was a solid source of information at all. I had discovered an entire underground community of fresh food lovers, but it was something that you had to discover with a little bit of work because the information was not readily available.

So while on my run today (I run for the University of Redlands), I finally decided to make a blog to not only post all the information I have already gathered about various farms in the Redlands area, but to hopefully start finding and reporting on lots of different farm fresh food in the Inland Empire.

I can't promise that this will be perfect, but I think it's a start to something. I can only hope that this information will reach someone who is looking for it, someone who is looking to become a fresh food lover just like me!