FARMERS: Tony Mellow

LOCATION: Morgan Hill, San Jose & Gilroy, Ca

CONTACT:

GROW: Apples, Artichokes, Avocados, Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, Eggplant, Onions, Potatoes, Peaches, Plums, Tomatoes, Okra, Squash & more

WHEN: Sunday & Wednesday, year-round

Tony Mellow's family has been farming in the Silicon Valley for four generations, since the 1800s. His grandparents started the first of the family farms, growing apricots, prunes, and pears for the local  canneries. His father continued the tradition, adding farms spread  across the San Francisco Bay area to grow walnuts and fruit for local canneries and prune dehydrators. Tony always knew he  wanted to be a farmer and has been farming since he was 12. In 1966, he started growing pumpkins and miscellaneous vegetables and by 1977 he owned his own ranch in Morgan Hill. He went to the Garden City Farmers' Market in San Jose when it opened. "That was the first of the local farmers' markets, before farmers markets got big" he remembers. Today, he has built his business around farmers markets and says they are the only way small and medium sized farms will survive in an urban area. He has been selling at Heart of the City Farmers Market since the very first day and remembers the huge crowd of people who were lined up before dawn on opening day.  There was nowhere else to buy fresh produce if you lived in this neighborhood in 1981, and today is much the same.  A painting of Tony selling his goods is incorporated in a mural on Taylor street, which was created as a  celebration of neighborhood pride. After 40 years selling here, Tony and his produce are an important part of this neighborhood.