Farmers don their retail hats as Christmas nears

Far from the bustling mall, Georginne Foster and Nancy Young are doing a little holiday shopping in an old cow barn.

With its concrete floor and a working wood stove, the Red Barn Store at Oak Hill Farm near Glen Ellen features farm produce and holiday wreaths. Shoppers can purchase turnips, beets and pomegranates, but also festive swags of cornbroom and red chili peppers, and bay leaf "kissing balls" for hanging overhead as a substitute for mistletoe.

Nearly all the store's items come directly from the farm, which sits on 700 acres off Sonoma Highway.

"It's just a tradition to come here," said Foster, a resident of nearby Sonoma. "You have to come and see. Everything is beautiful."

The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas remain crucial for U.S. retailers. The National Retail Federation predicts holiday shopping will amount to more than a fifth of annual sales for electronics, sporting goods, jewelry and clothing stores.

But local farmers who make direct sales say the holidays matter to their bottom lines, too, providing income that helps keep their operations going the rest of the year.

"This is a huge time of year for us," said Ridgely Evers, who owns Davero, a farm near Healdsburg, with his wife Colleen McGlynn. "It's about a third of our business."

For Kozlowski Farms near Forestville, "this is hands down the busiest time of year," said Carol

Kozlowski-Every.

While many gifts vie for shoppers' attention, farmers say the county's residents value local food products.

"They like to take them and share them with relatives outside the area," Kozlowski
Every said. "They're sending a little bit of Sonoma County to their families."

Many of today's farmers need not only a good tractor but also a good mailing list. And while on-farm stores and farmers markets remain key sale venues, the farms' own Web sites today are reaching new customers.

Kozlowski Farms this year doubled its holiday catalog to 14 pages and printed 100,000 copies, inserting them in newspapers and sending them to 18,000 customers on its mailing list. Shoppers can drive to the farm, buy online or call toll free to order jams, pies and dressings.

Davero this fall opened a tasting room on Westside Road for its olive oil, wines and nearly 50 products. But the farm also depends on its online site, which allows it to ship products to many of the 8,000 customers on its mailing lists. Ridgely, who developed Intuit's Quickbooks business accounting software, designed his own shipping software that allows the farm to accomplish the same tasks in about 60 percent of the time.

"It's astounding how much more efficient we are than we were four years ago," he said.

Even farmers who rely less on holiday sales say they still get a boost at this time of year. At Gabriel Farm near Graton, that means more Asian pear conserves purchased as gifts.

"We do definitely sell more, because people will buy it by the case, rather than a jar at a time," said Gabriel owner Torrey Olson.

Sebastopol's Redwood Hill Farm each year has shoppers purchase collections of its artisan goat cheeses.

For those regulars, "it's been a tradition to send a gift box," said spokeswoman Sharon Bice.
Besides gift-giving, the holidays mean extra sales of farm products to brighten the tables of parties, dinners and gatherings. Farmers benefit by having their products featured not only at farmer's markets but also on the shelves of local markets.

Kozlowski Farms makes 20,000 pies a year, and a disproportionate number are sold over the holidays, many at local independent and chain grocery stores. Some of those pies even become part of the prepared holiday dinners that the stores offer shoppers, Kozlowski-Every said.

A few of the farms remain destinations for shoppers, including visitors with fresh Christmas trees lashed atop their cars. At Twin Hill Ranch outside Sebastopol, customers have come for decades to purchase apple bread, pies and crafts.

Farmer Ben Hurst said nearly 90 percent of his annual pie sales occur during the holidays. These days his agricultural operations break even, but the holiday sales and year-round apple bread sales make the farm profitable.

"Basically all of that supports the farming part of the business," he said.