THREE GENERATIONS Charles Imwalle, Kevin Imwalle Hatch and Joe Imwalle III (L–R) at Imwalle Gardens.
Farm in the City Imwalle Gardens, a legendary Santa Rosa oasis BY JESSICA DUR TAYLOR
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s far as business plans go, Joe Imwalle’s is pretty simple. He doesn’t advertise. He has no cell phone, doesn’t use a computer and isn’t sure what email is all about. His wife, Maria, keeps the books, and son Charles, who will eventually take over, works alongside him. His employees are few and loyal:
most have worked there for two decades. Thanks in part to paying no rent, he can afford to keep his prices low. As he puts it, “I just can’t gouge people.” Unsurprisingly, the familyowned Imwalle Gardens, which has been growing and selling produce and plants since 1886, is the business most locals said they would hate to see closed, according to a recent local poll. Lucky for them, Joe shows
no signs of stopping. “I’m 73; I should be retired,” he tells me on a recent afternoon. We’re sitting in his office, a cozy nook just off the barn, which his grandfather built out of virgin redwood in 1919. His desk is filled with photos of his three grandkids, a clutter of papers and order forms, and a phone that periodically chirrups. He grins and explains, “Business has really grown the last few years. I’ve built it up so big that I can’t leave it now!”
This despite the fact that the very popular Oliver’s Market, with its polished produce, opened a nearby store on Stony Point Road in 2007. “We don’t aim to sell everything under the sun,” says Imwalle of the difference between his stock and that of a supermarket, “and we can’t give you a box of perfect-looking tomatoes.” What they do have, though, is remarkable: a huge selection of flavorful produce, much of it grown right on their eightacre farm, sold at surprisingly low prices. On a recent visit, I picked out a bunch of organic kale, a shallow basket of plump blackberries, two local Rome apples, an organic onion and two huge gold beets. My total came to $5.79. I had to check the receipt to believe it. Longtime customer Hannah Bartee remembers pulling into the parking lot one summer day. “There was Joe,” she smiles, “plucking figs off the giant fig tree, then bringing them right into the store to sell.” The store itself is little more than a covered stand, where the wagons used to load up their vegetables for delivery. In addition to all the produce, Imwalle sells a smattering of bulk nuts, dried fruits, crackers, cider and some other picnicworthy items. And then there’s the nursery, a maze of greenhouses filled with bedding plants and vegetable starts, potted ferns and coleus and tuberous rooted begonias, which were developed by Imwalle’s grandfather, Joseph. When he moved to the United States from Germany in 1885 at the age of 21, Joseph was already a skilled horticulturalist. For years, he saved up to buy 15 acres on West Third Street in Santa Rosa, which at its heyday blossomed to a population of 60. But from a business standpoint, flowers weren’t enough—“You can’t make a living just selling shrubs,” Imwalle points ) 14
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Michael Amsler
Dining
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