Local resident debuts vegetables at downtown Hollister’s
farmers’ market
Paul Hamilton traveled around the world, but now the San Benito
County native is back to debut his organic produce at this year’s
Farmer’s Market, which opened May 21 in Downtown Hollister.
Local resident debuts vegetables at downtown Hollister’s farmers’ market
Paul Hamilton traveled around the world, but now the San Benito County native is back to debut his organic produce at this year’s Farmer’s Market, which opened May 21 in Downtown Hollister.
“I’ve had a very privileged life,” Hamilton said. “I’ve gotten to see a lot of things.”
Hamilton taught English in Hollister’s sister city, Takino, Japan, and traveled across Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China and Europe.
Hamilton and his partner Aurora Wilson spent nearly a year in New Zealand.
“I worked for about a dozen farms through a program called Willing Workers on Organic Farms,” Hamilton said. “It was just a good opportunity for me and Aurora to see what different people are doing.”
After returning to the United States, Hamilton worked as a gardener on George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in San Francisco.
“It’s kind of weird that I used my film degree to grow melons for Darth Vader,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton received a degree in film and digital media from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Andrew Ihley, an organic farmer on Skywalker Ranch, taught him the morals and methods of organic farming.
“Without his profound mentorship, I would not be able to farm on my own,” Hamilton said, in an e-mail.
Hamilton wanted to pursue a simpler lifestyle.
“I realized I was living a sort of carbon-intensive lifestyle,” Hamilton said. “I think, maybe return home and sort of balance the equation.”
Hamilton grew up in San Benito County.
“My dad moved us from Los Angeles to a little house right around here in Tres Pinos,” Hamilton said. “A lot of people from my generation wanted to get the hell out, but I think there’s opportunity here.”
Hamilton and Wilson are growing on three acres at Paul Hain’s ranch, Hain Ranch Organics.
“In exchange for me helping him, he’s giving me this land,” Hamilton said. “This was sort of just a dead field here.”
Hamilton grows cut flowers and a variety of produce, including heirloom fingerling potatoes, carrots and corn.
“I’m actually growing things that I like to eat, and seeing how it goes,” Hamilton said.
His first job was growing apricots on the ranch next door.
“I think, at this scale, you can kind of balance things,” Hamilton said. “I looked everywhere in California to find a situation.”
Hain Ranch Organics is nestled in the rolling hills that surround Tres Pinos.
“I was on that bluff up there with my buddy,” Hamilton said. “He pointed down here and he said, ‘That’s Paul Hain’s ranch.'”
Hamilton cornered Hain.
“He did,” Hain said. “He was lurking.”
The ranch had everything Hamilton was looking for.
Hain produces organic chicken, eggs and walnuts.
The baby chicks live in a corrugated metal shed. The floor is lined with pine shavings.
When composted, the chicken manure and pine shavings make a rich fertilizer, Hamilton said. He uses the compost to start seeds.
He uses the brown paper bags from the organic chicken feed to line the furrows of his plot. The bags decompose naturally.
“Literally everything you see over here has been recycled from other uses,” Hamilton said.
From a local gas station he retrieved cases from soda bottles. Hamilton uses those to start seeds. He constructed tables for his seed trays from old lumber.
His irrigation system was salvaged from a farm that shut down. Purchased new, the drip tubes would have cost thousands.
“All this hose, it was just lying in the fields,” Hamilton said. “I was actually able to start a small scale farm with almost no money.”
One person can farm two or three acres by themselves, Hamilton said.
Hamilton does not rely on many of the standard practices of modern farming.
“It’s certainly a lot more physical work,” Hamilton said, “But I think we rely a lot less on tractors and giant combines.”
