It was while attending an heirloom plant auction put on by Sotheby's in New York last fall that Jerre and Emilee Gettle of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. first hatched the idea for an heirloom expo for the masses a continent away in Sonoma County.
"It was a wonderful event and the purpose was to create awareness and generate funds for farmers in the vicinity," said Paul Wallace, manager of the Petaluma Seed Bank for Baker Creek, of that exclusive event put on by an auction house better known for rare paintings and antiquities. "But the people in attendance were far removed from the people benefitting. We thought, wouldn't it be wonderful to have an event that also was about the produce but that farmers could attend and school groups could attend and that was affordable and open to everyone?"
So the National Heirloom Exposition was born.
The first-ever event, which is attracting vendors, speakers and exhibitors from all over the country, overtakes the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in a three-day celebration of what Gettle and Wallace call "pure food." Running from Tuesday through Thursday, the event will feature a farming and gardening trade show with more than 250 vendors and food producers, a chance for backyard growers and small farmers to show off their produce and compete for ribbons and prizes, children's events, food tastings and demos and some 55 speakers covering everything from "The Renaissance of Heirloom Agriculture" and "Urban Homesteading" to seed saving and edible landscaping.
Missouri-based Baker Creek, which is organizing the expo in cooperation with a host of sponsors, including Sonoma County Farm Trails, Whole Foods, Amy's, Marin Organic, Seed Savers Exchange and the local Daily Acts, expects to display an array of up to 4,000 different heirloom varieties, with the goal of having something trucked in from every state in the country. Wallace says they're prepared for 15,000 to 20,000 attendees but they really have no idea how many will show.
Early locavore and fresh food pioneer Alice Waters of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, Dr. Vandana Shiva of India, an international voice for protecting biodiversity and preserving native seeds, and anti-GMO activist Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsibility Technology have been tapped as keynote speakers. The addresses will be at 7 p.m. each day of the show.
Gettle and Wallace say this event is really the first of its kind to be held on a national level. It comes at a time when home vegetable gardening has become a national pastime and more and more people are giving more thought to what they eat, where it was grown and how it was grown. The number of U.S. households that use only all-natural fertilizer, insect and weed controls increased from an estimated 5 million in 2004 to 12 million in 2008, and that was before Michelle Obama launched a national home gardening movement at the White House in 2009.
Harvest will be in abundance as well, as will small livestock like chickens and sheep. But the emphasis is on preserving heritage varieties and breeds, said Wallace, the kind that are vanishing in the face of corporate-controlled agribusiness.
"We'd like to think it will be a platform where we can showcase the diversity of produce that is out there and the general public can see that there is more to tomatoes than the two varieties you see at your grocery store, which are both round and red," he said.
Sonoma County, with its abundance of small farms and farmers markets and its high ethos for high-quality, locally-grown produce, made it an ideal location for a pure produce fest, said Gettle, who has been fascinated with seeds since he was a child and published his first seed catalog at the age of 17, growing Baker Creek into the largest selection of heirloom vegetables, flowers and herbs in the U.S. — some 1,400 varieties.
Gettle said aside from Asheville, N.C., he knows of no other place in the U.S. with such a high proportion of small farms for the population as Sonoma County.
Although Sonoma County voters in 2005 rejected a moratorium on growing genetically modified crops, both neighboring Mendocino and Marin counties have anti-GMO laws.
"We thought it would be a good idea to use an event like this as an educational platform to create awareness around the issue of pure food," said Wallace. "For me, real food is something that grows as nature intended. Now if you look at a tomato, for example, that has the gene of a salmon inserted to maintain its shelf life, to me that is not as nature intended."
While food politics is a part of the expo, it is also just an old-fashioned agricultural gathering.
"Basically, fairs started as a place for people to display their pumpkins and chickens and cheese. What we're trying to do is take it back to a true agricultural exposition. It's not about farmers growing 1,000 acres of corn and making biofuel. It is about people who are actually growing food for themselves, for restaurants and the local market," Gettle said.
On the true homegrown level, there will be a host of educational talks for backyard gardeners. Dan Smith of the French Garden in Sebastopol will talk about growing heirlooms in Western Sonoma County. Johanna Silver of Sunset Magazine will discuss "Edible Places in Small Spaces." There will be a mobile bee observatory, talks about seed saving, heirloom bulbs and fall and cool weather gardening, as well as showcases for other homestead arts like soapmaking, butter churning and natural fibers.
People are also encouraged to bring in their giant pumpkins and tomatoes and anything else from their gardens they are proud of and want to show off. Even if they miss the deadline for judging they will be put on display.
You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.
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