Every October the idyllic fall fields of the Capay Valley are the setting for a celebration of sustainable agriculture and rural life. There is music and dancing, there is fresh food, there are arts and crafts — and it is all part of the annual Hoes Down Harvest Festival. The host of Hoes Down, Full Belly Farm, couldn’t be a livelier place to live and work. When husband and wife team Paul Muller and Dru Rivers decided to buy the land they had rented and farmed since 1984, they envisioned creating a healthy and vibrant place to raise their children and grandchildren. They invited friends Judith Redmond, and later, Andrew

Brait, to form a partnership with them to round out their small farm community. Since then, Full Belly Farm has grown substantially as the team has added new crops and events to their menu. Even when they aren’t preparing ready for Hoes Down, the

folks at Full Belly Farm are constantly busy, hosting educational farm visits and field trips, raising cows, sheep and chickens, growing an amazing variety of crops, and raising their three families. Six children have already grown up at Full Belly Farm, the youngest of whom still help out at the farmers’ market stand and in the fields. With so much life and activity, the Full Belly Farm family hopes not only to show the importance of farms in the larger community, but also how much fun farming can be.

Full Belly Farm