When Dan Gannon, 31, decided in 2010 to become a farmer in Yolo County, he knew he would be starting at ground level — no pun intended.

Yes, he has an agricultural ecology degree from Berkeley. However, he had no land, no family rooted in agriculture and no markets. He also would have to quit his salaried job. That truly would be starting at the bottom, especially when he would have to support himself and his 3-year-old daughter, Frankie.

But the alternative — staying put as manager of an irrigation supply warehouse — wasn’t acceptable. His daughter was in day care 10 hours a day. It was no way to live.

From an acquaintance, he rented half an acre in West Sacramento for $300. He planted a cover crop that fall. He decided on a name, Humble Roots, as seen on a chalkboard each week next to his simple table at the Davis Farmers Market. The name for his farm, Humble Roots, seems aptly chosen.

It’s hard to break into the Davis Farmers Market. Overall space is very limited; the stalls are coveted. One can’t simply petition the board for a space to sell heirloom tomatoes, beans or strawberries and expect ready accommodation. Existing vendors already offer all of these.

Gannon, however, drew on his scientific background to become a year-round grower of sprouts. That’s a novel crop, offered by no one else. It earned him a spot late in 2011. These days he’s featuring garbanzo, mung and lentil bean sprouts, as well as sprouted quinoa and sunflower seeds, in half-pint jars for $3 or $4.

That’s hardly a livelihood, however.

But it does add to the initiative he made last summer, when he sold heirloom tomatoes at the West Sacramento Farmers Market. The foot traffic there isn’t up to the standards of the Davis Farmers Market, and it’s a seasonal market, not year-round.

Still, Gannon knows he’s starting out, and he does indeed have a vision, a strategy and a business plan to go beyond his humble roots.

Often there’s a burning sense of mission in today’s young farmers in Yolo County, who can’t afford land and have to find markets for their produce in a competitive environment. Selling wholesale doesn’t cut it, so they have to find ways to get top dollar without a middleman.

“A lot of people want to pay me a wholesale price,” Gannon says, but it won’t pencil out.

“The first step is to redefine the value of food,” he explains. To achieve that, a compelling story is often necessary, so that customers will want to support your vision and your livelihood.

In Gannon’s case, he refuses to rely on petroleum for growing. No commercial fertilizer or gas-driven machines are part of his operation. “Energy should come from life, not from cheap fuel,” he says.

No tractor, no rototiller? He’s using a no-till approach, merely forking compost into the top of the soil by himself. Eight chickens take care of insects, eat grass and weeds, and deposit their natural fertilizer within a mobile, fenced-in caging arrangement. It’s not an unusual technique these days for very small operations.

“The microbial community is what I count on to do the work,” he says.

In a YouTube video, Gannon offers another take to a young boy, explaining that he’s working to “restore the agricultural heritage of West Sacramento.” He plans to incorporate a lot of native plants into his farming to serve as pollinators, to draw desirable insects and enhance the ecology.

When Gannon graduated from Berkeley, doing what he’s doing today was not his vision. It took some experience and reflection to define what he wanted to do.

At Berkeley, he had done research and worked in the community gardens. Afterward, he couldn’t find traction in the world of agribusiness, and he had what he characterized as “a bad attitude.” So he shifted into landscape consulting, working in Oakland and Vallejo primarily. He advised clients who wanted to establish environments that used little water, incorporated native plants and were ecologically efficient.

This spring and summer he’ll continue with his sprouts, and he’ll have an expanded roster of produce for sale at the West Sacramento Farmers Market. He’ll also have a third leg for his operation: Humble Roots CSA boxes.

Here, too, his strategic vision shows a sharpened sense of marketing, which is what new farmers need. CSAs abound in our area. What would be different?

Gannon is offering people a $5 “Meal Share” CSA box, or a “Metro Share,” a slightly larger box, enough for two to three meals for a small family. This arises from the fact that he hears of many CSA subscribers who waste a lot of what they receive from their CSA grower. So many people don’t have time to incorporate a crate of fresh produce into their weekly cooking, given their hectic lives.

From the two farmers’ markets and his CSA initiative, Gannon says he expects revenues of $15,000 to $20,000 this year. It’s not much, but he believes it’s workable at this stage. He has some savings to help him along. “I’ve learned to live very frugally,” he says.

Is there enough scale for this approach to succeed? Curiously, there was a feature in the New York Times business section in February about a couple in Maine who derive $125,000 a year from their farm, with just an acre and a half and a very inhospitable climate. It’s a fully blossomed version of this type of small-acreage dream, with paid apprentices, books and talks. But that’s at the very top end of this niche, on land the farming couple purchased for $35 an acre many years ago.

At the end of the day, the personal narrative and sense of mission have to work together, and the product offerings have to be pristine, in order to command top dollar and build a following. This is already evident in many instances.

At the Davis Farmers Market, for example, there are vendors selling eggs with a very personal approach for $6 a dozen. Yet just a few steps away, Vega Poultry Farms, whose eggs are certified by UC Davis as salmonella-free, offers a dozen fresh medium eggs for $2.50, large eggs for $3.50. All have their customers.

As for the sprouts, Gannon has to educate a clientele. That would include me. Mention “sprouts” and I think of pale, inch-long sprouts in salads, adorning Chinese food, and in wrapped, uncooked spring rolls. I find them unappealing, rather tasteless, and I don’t eat them if possible.

Gannon’s sprouts are nothing like those sprouts. They’re harvested in an earlier stage, smaller than pumpkin seeds in your hand, and their taste is remarkable.

“A seed has all it needs to grow a whole plant,” the Berkeley grad explains, dropping into his molecular lingo. “Add water, and all that energy, through metabolism, is available to consumers. It’s life, and that’s what’s central.”

Asked about the future, he doesn’t readily speak of acres or money. He talks of “lots more people” involved with him in his vision of correct, small-scale agriculture, and how life best happens in a good ecological environment.

“Bringing ecology home” is a phrase he uses.

— Dan Kennedy, a Davis resident, has a long history with the bounty of gardens and small farms. Reach him at [email protected]

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Gannon’s crops of sprouts — including garbanzo and lentil sprouts — are unique among Davis Farmers Market booths. Courtesy photo

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Dan Gannon mans his small table at the Davis Farmers Market. Courtesy photo

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