Sharing the Story
A Northern California family is telling the good news about farming By John Frith
The owners of Muller Ranch, LLC, a sprawling operation outside of Woodland, CA, are farming evangelists. They passionately believe they have a good story to tell and want the outside world to see how farming is beneficial for the economy and for the environment. “Agriculture can be vilified in many circles,
festival that’s been held for a number
and we need to show people that we’re
of years in the nearby Capay Valley.
good stewards of the land and we’re not
Sunflowers are one of the farm’s top
raping Mother Earth,” said Colin T. Muller,
crops, along with tomatoes and peppers,
the farm manager and part of the third
with their seeds exported to Eastern
generation of the family to farm the fertile
Europe and Russia for production of
Sacramento Valley soil.
sunflower oil and other products.
“Farmers are often very secretive people,
Muller said the sunflower fields on either
and we are, too. We don’t want to give
side of busy Interstate 5 in Northern
away any trade secrets. But at the same
California have become popular tourist
time, we need to open up a bit to shine
attractions during the summer months as
a good light on agriculture.”
people from nearby Sacramento and the
To that end, the Mullers are exploring creating an annual sunflower festival in the area, similar to an existing almond
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SPOTLIGHT | Summer 2017
San Francisco Bay Area are captivated by their beauty and want to take a tour.