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| The farm was founded by Kathleen Barsotti and Martin Barnes in 1976.
Graduate students at UC Davis, Kathy and Martin borrowed money from
their parents to buy 20 acres of property in Capay Valley. |
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Kathleen Barsotti was born in Belmont, CA in 1949
and attended UC Riverside where she earned her B.S. in Agriculture,
with a minor in statistics. She went on to earn her master’s
degree in Ecology at UC Davis. In 1979 she and her husband Martin
moved to Capay and built a house on 20 acres of land where Capay Fruits
and Vegetables was founded. She worked part-time at the UC Davis Plant
Pathology Department and then in 1982 began work full time with the
farm. In 1992 she and Martin divorced and Kathy continued as sole
proprietor and manager of the farm. In late 1992 she began the successful
home delivery service Farm Fresh To You. Kathleen is beloved by all
who knew her as a devoted student to ecological sciences, an excellent
farmer, and loving mother of four sons. In June of 2000, Kathy wrote
her last farm news and the following month ended her courageous battle
with breast cancer on July 2, 2000: |
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Martin Barnes was born in Riverside, CA in 1949 he
attended UC Riverside where he met and married Kathy. He earned a
degree in Psychology at UCR and at Davis he received his master’s
degree in Community Development. At Davis, he played an active role
in founding the Davis Farmers’ Market, one of the first farmers'
markets in the state of California and also played a role in the beginning
years of the Davis Food Co-op and Eco Farm Conference, both continuing
successful enterprises. Martin’s pioneering spirit was instrumental
in forming an early vision of a successful small-scale organic farm.
In 1976 he moved with Kathy to Capay and began full-time farming and
helped caring for the couple’s twin sons, Che and Noah and two
later sons, Thaddeus and Freeman. After fifteen years on the farm,
Kathy and Martin divorced and Martin spent extensive time traveling.
He purchased a home in Vers, Provence France in 1992, where he currently
lives. He also spent many years again in Davis, where he founded a
small community newspaper. Learn more about visiting his home in Provence
at www.maisondemartin.com. |
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Che Barnes was born in Davis, CA in 1974, one of
two twins out of Kathy and Martin's four sons. As a child he spent
many hours selling at farmers markets, moving irrigation pipe, and
harvesting and tilling the soil. From an early age he was fascinated
with flight. He soloed an airplane on his sixteenth birthday - before
getting a driver's license. After graduating high school, he was accepted
into the US Coast Guard Academy where he graduated with a degree in
Mechanical Engineering. He currently is a Lieutenant Commander in
the Coast Guard and has flown both fixed-wing aircraft and search
and rescue helicopters. He is currently a C-130 pilot at USCG Air
Station Sacramento. Che remains a shareholder in the farm and plays
a valuable role as advisor. |
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Noah Barnes was born is Davis, CA in 1974. Like Che
he spent many of his childhood years selling at farmers markets and
working on the farm. In 1991 he spent his sophomore year in high school
living on a farm in Germany as an exchange student. He graduated from
UC Davis in 1996 with a degree in Agriculture Economics and German.
Interested in agriculture, but drawn to the international arena, Noah
moved to San Francisco after college and began working in the field
of international commodities, specializing in dry beans, peas and
lentils. Noah maintained during this time an active role with the
farm, supervising accounting and sharing his business experience.
In 2004 he joined the farm full-time and is currently managing sales
and marketing. In 2007 he married his wife, Camille, and later that
year their son, Jonah, was born. |
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Thaddeus Barsotti was born in 1980, a home birth,
on the farm in Capay. Thaddeus also spent many hours working on the
farm, in what was then an enterprise just beginning to show signs
of promise. Thaddeus showed early proficiency in the machine shop
and is responsible for designing some of the tools used today on the
farm. In 2002 Thaddeus took a year away from college to manage the
farm’s new project, the opening of the Capay Organic store in
the S.F. Ferry Building. Thaddeus graduated with a degree in Agriculture
Engineering from Cal State San Luis Obispo and in 2003 he returned
to the San Francisco to continue running the store in the Ferry Building
and pursued part-time his interest in cuisine at chef school. In 2004
Thaddeus returned to the farm as farm manager where he is active growing
and maintaining over 40 different fruit and vegetable crops. He is
also editor of the weekly farm news, which many Farm Fresh To You
customers look forward to reading each week. In 2007 he married his
wife, Moyra; the two currently reside in the original Capay farmhouse. |
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Freeman Barsotti was born in 1983. Freeman was a
senior in high school when Kathy passed away. He spent his senior
year in high school living on the farm, going to school, and helping
the new farm manager run the farm. He graduated high school as the
valedictorian and attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. He graduated
in 2005 with a degree in Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering.
In 2006 he married his high school sweet-heart, Carol, in a wedding
on the farm and managed the opening of the Farm Fresh To You Store
with her in the San Francisco Ferry Building. He currently manages
the San Francisco retail store, the farm’s accounting department,
and Farm Fresh To You. |
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