HREE GENERATIONS of the Nuss family have farmed their patch of land just outside of Lodi in a picturesque corner of the San Joaquin Valley. Nestled on the eastern edge of the verdant Sacramento-San
In 2018, another sea change came with the return to the family fold of sons Tim and Tyler. Both had developed their own careers outside of farming, with Tim spending about a decade in international imports and exports, and Tyler working in the world of Silicon Valley tech startups. Eager to connect more to the family business, but feeling unequipped to add value to the hard work their father and older brother were carrying out on the farm, the younger Nuss brothers started a podcast, “The Modern Acre,” to learn more about emerging trends in agriculture. Through conversations on the podcast with
Joaquin River Delta, in a region known primarily for its vineyards and orchards, Nuss Farms has been producing specialty vegetable crops on more than 1,000 acres for nearly 50 years. Today, Dave Nuss is president of the family business, which he runs alongside his sons, Derek, vice president of farming; Tim, vice president of operations; and Tyler, vice president of strategy (though for some time Dave and Derek were at the helm of Nuss Farms, with Tim and Tyler joining later). Under their management, the company grows a broad variety of produce. From watching other farms, Dave had seen the risk that came with committing to a single crop after years of struggling with ups and downs in the agriculture industry, subject to the whims of market forces such as labor woes, regulatory restrictions, and trade complications brought on by the arrival of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That’s why Nuss Farms produces a diversity of higher-value specialty crops — everything from garlic, basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins, to banana peppers, red and green bell peppers, jalapeños, and a hybrid of wheat and rye called triticale — with roughly 10 different crops in cultivation at any given time.
experts, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in agriculture, the two were exposed to a range of groundbreaking ideas — including, importantly, that of regenerative agriculture. Armed with this knowledge, Tim and Tyler approached their father about incorporating some regenerative concepts on the family farm to improve soil health — and thus its long- term productive capacity. Described at times by his sons on their podcast as “an old-school farmer,” Dave instilled in them the value of hard work and caring for the land from a young age. Despite years of adhering to conventional farming practices, he was, to his sons’ surprise, open to their suggestions. So, in 2019, the farm began the transition toward a regenerative agriculture approach — implementing practices such as planting cover crops between harvests, integrating livestock, and reducing soil disturbance by minimizing tillage. The challenges, it turned out, were considerable, and required several seasons of trial and error to refine. Though regenerative farming practices had been fairly well established on other farms in the region, the Nuss family quickly realized that the methods implemented on those farms — largely vineyards and orchards — could not easily be replicated in the cultivation of vegetables. Regenerative farming “is still pretty nascent with respect to vegetables,” Tim tells The Rooted Journal on a tour of the farm. “We just wanted to find better ways to farm, and hopefully get a head start,” he adds, in showing “that this is a viable route, so other farmers could try to move in this direction.”
PREVIOUS SPREAD: TIM NUSS AND HIS FATHER AT FIRST LIGHT. THE FAMILY HAS BEEN FARMING THEIR LAND IN LODI FOR THREE GENERATIONS. CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: BROTHER TO BROTHER CHITCHAT. TIM MAKES A REPAIR. NATIVE-PLANT HEDGEROWS AND RIPARIAN HABITATS ENCOURAGE THE RETURN OF NATIVE POLLINATORS, LIKE BEES, AND WILDLIFE. TIM INSPECTS GARLIC AT DAWN.
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ISSUE 01
FAMILY VALUES
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