Friday, March 8, 2019
5
CapitalPress.com
Farmer advocates passion and curiosity
By JULIA HOLLISTER
For the Capital Press
CUESA
Grant Brians farms over 200 varieties in Hollister, Calif.
His organic crops run the gamut from Polish golden
radishes and baby leaf greens to wasabi.
ranging from Brians’ own
bred variety of Purple Dai-
kon to Polish Golden Rad-
ishes to Long Black Spanish
Radishes.
The farm grows wasabi
and many other mustards pri-
marily as baby leaf greens
and stinging nettles as a
culinary and herbal green.
Unsurprisingly, the difficult
crops vary season to season
and year to year. Many of the
wild crops (some describe
them as weeds) are interest-
ingly challenging to manage,
he said.
Pests are always a prob-
lem and the ones that are most
problematic vary by crop,
ing, I would encourage any-
one who finds their passion
in farming to take whatever
steps needed to proceed in
the business,” he said.
“My strongest advice is
to find what it is that makes
you passionate and find a
way to make those items
your business,” he said.
“This could be goats, let-
tuce, wine, mushrooms, ani-
mal feed or any number of
other items. Be curious, seek
out knowledge and experi-
ence and find ways to enjoy
life other than pre-packaged
entertainment.”
His advice goes beyond
farming.
“Talking to older people,
young people, reading, work-
ing and doing are all import-
ant parts of making your way
in life and especially in farm-
ing. Life is hard, so be pre-
pared, have faith, don’t be
afraid of mistakes, but cor-
rect them as fast as possible
and forge forward with com-
passion,” he said. “I know
that as I have found and kept
alive many vegetable variet-
ies by producing their seed,
that it is rewarding psycho-
logically and also genetically.
There are many crop varieties
in grains and trees and fruits
that are on the brink of loss,
too, maybe a new farmer will
take on their preservation and
resurrection.”
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Grant Brians, an organic
farmer in San Benito County,
Calif., started his agricultural
career at an astonishingly
early age.
“I started raising vegeta-
bles in the backyard in Los
Angeles when I was 4 years
old,” he said. “I had a mar-
ket-size garden by the time
I was 11, thanks to a neigh-
bor who wanted their lot to
grow plants. When I was
14, I got a seed production
contract, bought my first
tractor and irrigation pipe
and embarked on commer-
cial agriculture.”
He also worked for a
grower who placed the young
Brians with his Hispanic
employees moving irrigation
pipe and doing other tasks,
thus allowing him to gain
experience, some money and
practice his Spanish language
skills.
“I farm here in Hollister
on six properties — about
280 acres,” he said.
He raises a wide variety of
crops.
“I tallied over 200 variet-
ies when I looked at the last
total,” he said.
Heirloom Organic Gar-
dens grows well over a dozen
kinds of radishes alone,
location and year, he said.
(Fun fact: The oldest cul-
tivated variety Heirloom
Organic Gardens grows is
the Golden Custard, a yel-
low scallop squash that dates
back to the Middle Ages.)
Brians sells his crops to
various markets, from farm-
ers’ markets to CSAs (Com-
munity Supported Agricul-
ture) and delivery services,
directly to restaurants and
small markets, restaurant dis-
tributors and a brokerage.
Brians is passionate about
food and farming and would
advise anyone to go into it as
a career.
“Despite the incred-
ible challenges of farm-