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MIGUEL FARMS
Vendor: Vic Miguel
Miguel Farms is a 10-acre family farm located at 2771 Ferguson Rd in Gilroy, California. Vic Miguel has been growing and selling garlic, onions, shallots, green bell peppers, Anaheim chili peppers and sometimes sweet corn at the Palo Alto Farmers’ Market for the past twenty years. His wife Donna creates the beautiful, decorative garlic braids laced with purple statice flowers--they are very popular at the market. "Customers in Palo Alto are generally very friendly...over the years I have really gotten to know my clientele, as well as the other farmers. Even if they don't buy every week, it's nice to see and chat with them," he says. He says that his garlic is especially popular with customers who like the idea that they are buying garlic, "with a pretty strong good taste to it" straight from Gilroy, long known as the garlic capital of the world. "Actually, there is more garlic being grown these days in the San Joaquin Valley, but Gilroy is still well known for its garlic," Miguel says. He adds that farming is a side line to his primary vocation as a history and government teacher at Harbor High School in Santa Cruz. "My students don't believe that I am also a farmer," he says. "So I have to bring in heads of my garlic to show them." Miguel says that the biggest change he has seen in twenty years of selling garlic and vegetables is the amazing growth of farmer's market venues in California. (He sells Saturdays in Palo Alto during our market season and on Sundays year round in Menlo Park--each town about an hour or so drive away from the farm. He also sells at the Los Gatos market, closer to home). He remarks that he gets a real kick out of selling in Palo Alto a few stands away from farmer Tony Mellow. "My Dad and Tony's Dad started out together selling produce side by side at the San Jose Farmers’ Market--when it was one of the only places around for growers to sell," he says. "We enjoy keeping up the Farmers’ Market tradition."
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