For Roblar Farm’s patrons and lead farmer, the venue’s new market garden is nothing less than a win-win.
“We’re not just doing the traditional farm stand varieties, I’m putting some things out on the table that honestly don’t sell all that great,” said farm director Michael Vining, who has been enjoying the experimentation aspect of operating an intimate market garden.
Vining is using the new 3-acre garden to grow several kinds of vegetables, fruits, and herbs at once—for example, “three rows of broccoli, three rows of cabbage, three rows of lettuce,” and so on, he said—rather than produce bulk amounts of fewer varieties.
This process allows patrons of Roblar’s new farm stand—which opened at the end of May—to choose from a wide variety of offerings, and it simultaneously grants Vining the opportunity to grow a handful of rare items.
“I grew a bunch of chervil. … People don’t know what chervil is. It’s like a French parsley. It’s unique, you know? And I just want to expose people to it,” Vining said. “There’s an education component to it. We’re trying to expose people to heirloom and rare varieties and teach people a little bit about more diverse types of greens and vegetables they can have rather than just, you know, the standard corn, tomatoes, and zucchini, that kind of stuff.”
Vining has worked as a contractor for Gleason Family Vineyards, which owns Roblar Farm, for about seven years. In 2021, he became Roblar’s farm director and initiated the development of the venue’s new permanent farm stand, which is now open to the public seven days a week.
Born and raised in Goleta, Vining briefly left the Central Coast during his college years to study agriculture at UC Santa Cruz. His background in organic farming prepared him for his role at Roblar Farm, where he has also spearheaded the community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.
Members of the CSA are invited to the farm every weekend to pick up a box of produce—about $25 worth of fruit, vegetables, farm eggs, honey, and more, with other options available. The 22-week program kicked off on June 4 and will run through Oct. 29.
Vining said he has a text thread with some CSA patrons and recently sent out a list of chervil-centric recipes to the group chat.
Vegetables at the farm stand that are ripe now were planted earlier this year, around March, Vining explained, before listing off some examples of “cold weather crops”—carrots, beets, and broccoli. Flowers and herbs also grow in the garden.
Vining has recently been observing the 18 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes growing at the farm.
“I’m tracking the results to see which ones are well adapted to our climate, and sharing those results with our community as well,” said the farm director, who added that the tomatoes should be ripe in July.
“Any farm stand is always going to track the seasons more than the supermarket,” Vining said.
While most grocery stores carry the same kinds of fruits and vegetables, imported from various areas, year-round, Roblar Farm’s crop supply depends on the season.
“At the farm stand, I’m not going to have a tomato in December—unless I’m really lucky,” Vining said with a laugh.
Vining and his family joined several other families and individuals in celebrating the farm stand’s grand opening on May 28. The event included live entertainment, an outdoor barbecue, and a petting zoo-esque opportunity for guests to visit with Roblar Farm’s babydoll sheep.
“We have babydoll sheep that we use for grazing in our vineyards. They’re super, super sweet, perfect for kids to come in and pet and get close to,” Vining said. “We had a bunch of families there [at the grand opening] with their children.
“We served food to at least 120 people, but there were never 120 people there at one time of course,” Vining added, as guests trickled in and out throughout the event, which ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Local artists provided live music during the celebration as well, which really helped amp up the festivities, Vining said.
“The music added a lot to it,” the farmer said. “There were even people dancing there at one point. It was a great event.”
Send toe-tapping and grape-stomping comments to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2022.
