On a fresh autumn day in the middle of October I made my way down
101 Highway. As I turned off I was clearly in a different part of San Jose,
nothing close to the hustle and bustle of the Downtown area or even near Santa
Clara. I was out in the open farm country with undulating hills of open
grassland and scattered oak trees. It's hard to believe that only twenty
minutes away I could go to a place just like this a family-friendly farm with even a farm stand on the corner with all the produce grown right in the area. But more so than just fruits and vegetables from the this farm and
even neighboring farms, during the month of October Spina Farms becomes what
most people remember as being their earliest encounter with this kind of
scenery, a pumpkin patch.
Spina Farms was established in 1944 by farmer John Spina. He
started with just a few fruit trees and row crops and after a generation of
that they decided to expand. They opened a farm stand to provide fresh local
produce to the public and in 1970 they decided to try their hand at a pumpkin
patch. Their venture proved successful as after over 40 years they are still as popular as ever. Three generations of
the Spina family have worked to provide fresh produce to the public while also
providing a friendly farmer face to go along with the fruits and
vegetables.
For many people living in urban areas a pumpkin patch during the
fall is possibly the closest they come to any farm setting. The typical idea of
a farmer, one who wears overalls and is always surrounded by cows and sheep, is
one taught to us through classic children's songs such as "old
McDonald" or children's toys such as the See 'n Say. These classic figures
of farm life make it seem as if the farm is way out of reach and an extremely
different place than the city life that a increasing majority of the United States
population live in today. These ideas push farms out of the believed reach of
many city folk and they don’t get to experience the daily fresh products produced
by friendly farmers who look and possibly live just like them. The social
construction of a farmer is slowly being broken down by society. The farmers
market is becoming more and more popular as people in cities want to become
more aware of where and who their food is coming from. The old ways of
conventional farming are being viewed as a hazard to our health and to the environment and people are ready for a change.
Although this movement towards more localized food is not happening as
quickly as some would hope it is indeed happening. The local food movement is
making its way into cities across the country and everyday more and more people
convert to locavore lifestyles that are more informed of where their food comes
from, making an environmentally conscious decision to buy local and eat
healthy. But little do people know they are interacting with local and
sustainable farms everyday, they are just disguised as some of their everyday
shops and restaurants.
