Meet Our Founder: Kirsten Olsen
A Journey of Four Decades Continues By Kirsten Olson, Cornerstone Farm, Gazelle
Kicking off the market season this week marks the beginning of the 24th season for this annual community event. The gathering together of farmers and food crafters with chefs and consumers has become integral to the cultural fabric of Mt Shasta. But it has not always been this way. The Market Management team contacted me to share a bit about the history of the market and also to say a few words about John and myself as farmers. Neither of these are particularly short stories to tell, but I’ll try to whittle it down:
With tremendous help and encouragement from my husband John Tannaci, I founded the market in the spring of 1999. At the time there was not much thought of what would lie ahead down the trail. My focus was to create a space in town where growers could offer their produce, flowers, meat and herbs to the community. I wasn’t thinking ahead twenty or ten or even five years; I was only scrambling to keep it together the first season. Over the preceding winter the work had been done that would provide the market framework: getting the approval from the city council; creating market rules and submitting them to the state agricultural department for review; obtaining insurance; and securing a lease for the site. Oh yeah, and finding a few farmers.
It was a bare bones operation that first year and survival was shaky. Three growers had agreed to participate; one grew flowers, another produced vegetables, and we grew fruit. Not long into the first season the flower grower moved out of the area. The veggie grower got hurt and could no longer participate. And we lost most of our fruit crop to late spring freezes. We were barely able to open the season but, surprisingly, the supporting public showed up to shop. After a few weeks, more and more growers appeared with their produce which encouraged more and more shoppers. We ended the season with enough interest from everyone that the market survived to try it again the following year. Over the past decades the market has hosted over fifty different Siskiyou County agricultural producers, plus many art and food crafters.
The location of the market has been a bit of a journey as well. The first ten years or so it was located on N. Mt Shasta Blvd in an unpaved, dusty, empty lot owned by Union Pacific. The ownership of the space changed hands a few times over the decade but the market was still able to lease it. Eventually, under the ownership of Mountain Runners, it was transformed into a very sweet public space with trees, paving stones, gorgeous local boulders, and benches. The space has become a focal point for downtown events. We now know it as Parker Plaza. I like to reflect that the vibrant energy of the market during its first decade brought attention to that otherwise dreary space and encouraged the community to consider that the potential of a dusty lot could be so much greater.
However, when Parker Plaza became a welcome reality the market had to find a new location. Farmers need easy access to their trucks so they can unload produce throughout the market day and it would not be possible to park vehicles in the Plaza. So, with the blessing of several downtown merchants, the market moved to the northwest quadrant of Castle Street for a few years. When the space there became too crowded the city encouraged the market to move to the middle of N. Mt Shasta Blvd, closing the main thoroughfare between Castle and Alma streets. This returned the market to be immediately in front of Parka Plaza. A few years ago it was relocated, again to Castle Street, but this time occupying more quadrants. And this is where you will find the market for the current season. Having the market located downtown has been vital to its success, providing easy access and great visibility for visitors and local shoppers.
As the market has moved into different locations throughout the years, John and I have farmed in different Siskiyou County locations throughout the decades. In 1981 we settled our young family onto an old homestead in the wilds outside of Happy Camp. There was an old log cabin with chinking between most of the logs, a huge barn, gravity water from springs, no phone or electricity, no neighbors for six miles, acres of forest and quiet, a large meadow, year-round creeks, and I couldn’t have been happier. Our gardens grew bigger and bigger, along with our family. Now with four children, home-schooling, gardening, 4-H, a small tractor, and a handful of dear friends, life was beautiful. Then came bigger gardens, forming the local chapter of California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), growing enough food to have a surplus, selling organic cabbage and sweet corn to Mark Derby of Prana Produce (which later became General Produce wholesalers in Mt Shasta), taking the kids with me to do organic farm inspections throughout Siskiyou and Humboldt counties in the days when there was no paid staff at CCOF, still home-schooling, and John doing construction jobs to bring home some jingle. With all this bounty we were falling fully in love with farming.
Then September of 1987 happened. A complex of forest fires consumed much of the surrounding forest and consumed much of our time afterwards as we tried to save surviving trees from “salvage” logging. Our cabin, barn and meadows survived but much of the forested land was burned, animals and birds and bugs gone. The next few years were difficult, something had shifted. We kept expanding the gardens, adding vines and fruit trees, but there was change in the air. We began to wonder if there was a place better fitted to growing food and better fitted to nurturing our family.
When you open yourself to wonder, some amazing things may happen. What happened to us was that an entire vortex came together that led us to Hunter Orchards. With the help of family and dear friends we purchased the orchard in the spring of 1989. I am still stunned when thinking of the enormity of that move, of our lack of any real orcharding skills, the responsibility of having employees, the whole and the everything of it. We were so naive we didn’t even know what we didn’t know. The only thing we knew was a little bit about how to care for plants, so we focused on that intensely. Somehow it all worked out. Our kiddos were enrolled at the little local school, we had a phone (dial-up!), electricity, an abundance of questions, plus a huge will to pursue answers. And we needed it all. We put our heads down and got to work. With loads of good advice from other farmers, a lot of good guesses, a few really understanding stores, and terrific support from the community, we spent the next 25 years at Hunter Orchards growing organic fruit, winter squash, u-pick pumpkins and more. Every year we hosted educational orchard tours for thousands of school kids. We hosted meetings for the CCOF Board of Directors and benefits for community groups. Weddings were held in the pumpkin patch and amongst the blooming fruit trees. But the orchard health was always in focus, every day, every year. With winter pruning, spring thinning, summer and autumn harvesting, the orchard provided the path for our journey. And in the middle of all this full-time farming we thought it would be a good idea to create a farmers’ market in Mt Shasta, so we did that too.
I am exceptionally proud of our work converting a conventional orchard-farm into one that is fully certified organic, especially during a period when it was almost unheard of. An unexpected but welcome surprise occurred during our early times at the orchard; we noticed new species of birds arriving every year for the first several years. Now that there were no more heavily toxic sprays being used on the farm, the insect population flourished. And to a bird, more insects mean more dinner. We also now had quite a crop of weeds in the orchard, which was a hopeful sign. It meant that the herbicides that had been applied for years before our arrival had not sterilized the soil to death. It also meant more work for us. We had an abundant crop of that, work, each and every year.
Eventually, with all of our children married and with families of their own, John and I began to wonder what might be next for us. As John often says: “Orcharding is a young person’s sport”, and day by day we were not growing much younger.
Early in 2015 we sold the orchard-farm. A few years prior to this we had bought a hay farm located just three miles away. This 45-acre hay farm was also not organic when we purchased it. But we managed to fix that situation and now our farm, Cornerstone Farm, is fully certified organic. We knew next to nothing about growing hay but that didn’t stop us from giving it a try. A bit of déjà vu? It was at this same time, 2015, that we delivered ownership and management of the Mt Shasta Farmers’ Market to JEDI, Jefferson Economic Development Institute. I figured that we would now be growing hay and would have no future participation in the market so it should be passed on to an entity that does good work in the community.
It appears that I was wrong about no longer participating in the farmers’ market because, curiously, we have returned. Not content with just growing hay, we now also grow wheat. And rye. (Grain crops use so much less water than hay and, as an added bonus, grain is food for people!) We bring our grain to market. We have also planted a small 33-tree orchard and some berry vines. We bring our fruit to market, unless we lose it in a late spring freeze, like this year. We grow a few acres of vegetables and bring those to market too. Just for fun, this year we are planting a small u-pick pumpkin patch. Déjà vu again?
Sometimes we have no idea where a journey will lead. Journeys often take us to places filled with excitement, challenges, beauty and incredibly interesting experiences. Journeys may introduce us to new friendships, encourage us to be of service to others, and also allow us to accept help from others. Our long journey of farming in Siskiyou County has been all of this. And it continues to be.
