Anna & Andrew Brait - Full Belly Farm

Anna & Andrew Brait

What is your specialty?

Our specialty is diversity. We grow over 100 different crops: vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, hay, flowers, livestock, children and new farmers. We decided we wanted to grow just about anything and everything possible for our region and climate. Believing that by creating a biologically diverse polyculture on our farm, we would simultaneously develop a “one-stop-shop” for our customers. There has always been attention towards fostering ecological sustainability paralleling economic solvency and social responsibility. Fairness, honesty, and right relations are all integral to our farm’s overall health. Perhaps our specialty is that we try to “grow” all three of these elements – fiscal stability, ecological sustainability and social responsibility – into everything we produce!

What makes your product unique?

Flavor, flavor, and more flavor! Flavor is the most important factor in varietal selection, and then we look at yield, uniformity, disease resistance, etc. If we are not wowed by flavor – why bother growing it?!! We pride ourselves on producing and selling the highest quality and freshest crop possible – if we wouldn’t buy it, we won’t sell it. All of our crops are freshly picked the day before the market. What we don’t sell at the market is given to the local food gleaners or brought back to the farm and fed to our extensive array of farm animals or put into our compost.

How did you become a farmer?

I grew up as a “fish out of water” in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I was thrilled to go to college in rural New England where I could finally get my hands dirty! After college I worked for six years on various small organic farms in Vermont. During a cold Vermont winter in 1990, I decided to thaw out a bit and started working at Full Belly Farm until the spring of 1991. I returned to farm in Vermont that spring but felt I had left a piece of my heart back on Full Belly Farm. In 1993 I packed up my life and moved 3,000 miles west to become a partner in the farm. The last 12 years has been quite a whirlwind!

Do you have any special memories about your farm?

I love the fact that I can pick and eat a couple dozen different crops at any given day of the year – from figs in the summer to carrots in the winter! Some of my favorite times are during “crop-walks” at dusk with my wife and kids, eating our way across the farm. We get to sample what’s ready, see what’s coming soon and look forward to the possibilities of what’s to come down the road – so many possibilities!!

Have there been any obstacles you’ve had to overcome?

One obstacle I’ve had to overcome is a very steep learning curve. This remains a perpetually challenging and engaging part of being a farmer.

What does your farm look like right now?

Picture a full flush of winter vegetables in every shade of green, veined in reds, golds and whites. Citrus trees dotted with orbs of juicy, sweet oranges waiting to help ward away the winter sniffles. Our orchards, pastures, and freshly-covered cropped fields are starting their renewal process as they prepare for their winter hiatus. The trees are dropping their leaves (thank goodness!) and tender young green undergrowth is making its appearance after these recent rains. Oh, and don’t forget mud; what’s a farm without mud being almost everywhere you look?

Why are you here in Marin?

We are blessed with a favorable year-round growing season here at Full Belly Farm. Our mild wet winters and hot dry summers, deep fertile soils, and full-time crew enable us to farm from January to December. We have been selling at the Marin market for 20 years. We show up every week, rain or shine, because our customers depend on us just as we depend on them.

What else do you like about Marin?

You can’t beat the climate! It’s hard to beat a beautiful day at the Marin market, sharing beautiful produce with appreciative people.

What do you like about the people in Marin?

Dedicated customers are the best advocates of fresh, quality and seasonal produce in the world!

What is your method of farming (conventional, organic, etc.)?

We are organic growers, but we are always thinking about what to call ourselves since the “O” word has become a federally defined term. Simultaneously, organic agriculture has become increasingly more industrial. We are moving in a different direction. We could call ourselves a “biologically active, fermenting, sustainable polyculture family farm,” but it doesn’t quite have the right ring to it yet. We have always had a strong environmental outlook as well as concern for healthy food. I’ve never considered farming any other way than as sustainable as possible.

Do you have any special memories about the Market?

Every time someone says, “That __ you sold me last week was the best __ I’ve ever had in my life!” Every week creates a new memory at the market.

Do you have any favorite customers? Why?

We have many regular customers who all always have positive things to say! I especially appreciate the doting ones who aren’t shy about asking good hard questions and giving constructive criticism! I have one chef who hands me the baton every week and I choose and put together his whole order each week. Trusting that I will provide the best, freshest, most flavorful and in-season products coming off my farm that week, I send him packing with the 10 best picks of the week. He’s been doing this for six or seven years now!

What should a customer look for in your product?

Something that stands on its own and doesn’t need to be bathed in condiments, but rather has its own integrity; a flavor that merits its own place on the plate!

Why should people shop at farmers' markets as opposed to the grocery store?

In my mind it’s not about supporting one over the other. I think they are apples and oranges. The freshness, quality, and intimacy of the farmers market are unmatched. Nobody will talk your ear off about the nuances of flavor between a Suncrest and an O’Henry peach outside the farmers' market. Only at a farmers' market will someone hand you a 2-pound Marvel Strip tomato and say, “I promise that you will be ‘wowed’ by this one!” Where else but at a farmers' market will people want to tell you how their child, who never eats greens, devoured your kale and asked for more?! Farmers’ markets are a blessed wrinkle in a pervasive industrial agriculture.

Do you have any other good stories to share?

We have put a warning label on our almond butter:

“WARNING: HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!”
If you need help we offer free counseling
services at the farm!