Meet the Farmer

Teo and Maxima Zarate live and breathe what they do on their farm. While they are both young, they each come with two decades of farming experience, having started their agricultural careers as teenagers working in the fields of California. Eventually, they landed at County Line Farm, where, over the span of fifteen years, they worked first as farmhands and eventually as field managers. When the owner of that farm, David Retsky, moved his operation away, Teo and Maxima decided to stay behind and take over the land that they had been working for so long. Now, operating on those same acres, Teo and Maxima run Zarate Family Farm.

To start their own business, Teo and Maxima bought the tractors, basic equipment, and implements that they needed from David, and negotiated a new lease with the landowners – first for just four acres, then eight, and now eleven. One of the family members that owns the land connected them to Michelle Ganga, who has become a vital part of their business, helping them to manage their books and compliance along with running a widely followed social media account. 

Over the past two years, galvanized by a groundswell of community support and a steady stream of farmers market customers they had already been serving for years, Teo and Mexima have grown their business exponentially. With support from the Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM) and Marin Organic Certified Agriculture (MOCA), the couple was able to quickly transition from farmworkers into farm-business ownership. The Dolcinis, whom they lease the land from, offered them flexible lease terms with generous ramp up provisions that gave the couple the time and space that they needed to get their business off the ground.

Zarate Family Farm is the dream Teo and Maxima spent years building toward, from working under David to actualizing their own vision of their relationship to the land and their community. They grow the same fabled chicories and field greens that once put County Line Farm on the map, alongside a broad assortment of roots, shoots, herbs, flowers, and more. Teo learned a way of doing things from David, and is invigorated by the opportunity to create his own style of farming. He mechanizes tasks where it makes sense, while also staying rooted in the hands-on, labor-intensive practices that help him grow the incredible quality of produce he is becoming known for season after season.

Over the past year, Teo & Maxima have been increasingly selling through FEED cooperative, placing their freshly hand-harvested rainbow carrots, radishes, chives, cilantro, and greens into restaurants and onto the shelves of grocery stores across the North Bay. Every week, rain or shine, January through December, they show up to four markets across the Bay Area, and are a cult favorite amongst a dedicated group of chefs and families. 

While Teo and Maxima have a deep connection to the land they farm on and the family who owns it, the couple hopes to eventually grow the business to a place where they can purchase their own stretch of ground and farm it, and one day pass it down to their son.