Goats, chickens, and a lone lamb roam Two Moon Family Farm, the historic property where Steven and Shannon Lee also tend 10 beds of vegetables and a tiny orchard. The couple started out wanting their daughters to know where their food came from, and now Shannon sells produce to chefs, and is known for her fresh eggs and crisp greens at the Kenwood Community Farmers Market.
The farm sits on Sonoma Mountain – surrounded by panoramic views of the mountaintop, reaching across Glen Ellen to the Mayacamas. Steven grew up on this five-acre property, returning to it with his own family in 2009.
The land speaks to the oldest roots of the Valley of the Moon. It’s where Joshua Chauvet planted the first vineyards in the Valley, and it was later owned by the winemaking Pagani family. The vines are long gone, but the raised mounds where they once were are still visible.
Steven’s parents, William and Margaret, bought the property in the early 1970s, and Steven has loved this land from the moment his family arrived here when he was a little boy. He left to attend UC Santa Cruz, where he met Shannon. They are both marine biologists, and hold Ph.D.s from UCLA.
Steven and Shannon were ?married here on June 29 in 1996, the day of the blue moon – the second full moon of the month. When they decided to name their land, Shannon’s research showed the term blue moon “was completely overused” and they decided on a spin off, with “two moon” referring to two moons in the same month, as on their wedding day.
The family was living in the Los Angeles area where Steven was doing coastal research monitoring for UCLA.
When he was able to continue to work for the university remotely, Shannon left her teaching job and they returned to the family land. Steven works from home at Two Moon, and Shannon teaches biology at Sonoma State when she’s not gardening or milking goats.
The home Steven’s parents built on this property in 1974 had a failed foundation, losing its footing to shifting clay soil.
They now live in a new cottage on the property, with a lovely front porch, and Steven and Shannon had a new, 3,000-square-foot home built on the site of the original house. They kept it similar to the original, L-shaped structure to honor the family memories, but their new home has a second-story master suite and office with a stunning view.
The farming idea grew slowly, starting with veggies for family meals and a few chickens. As the chicken population grew, the farmers market happened to be looking for an egg vender and Shannon loved the opportunity to get to know more neighbors and enjoy the camaraderie amongst the vendors.
Starting with egg sales, she then stepped up her produce production, allowing them to have a greater variety of veggies for their girls, Annette, 14, Amelia, 12, and Linnea, 8. She farms in raised beds and also in another small patch currently planted with fava beans as a cover crop. Extremely eco-conscious, she dry-farms tomatoes, resulting in scraggly vines that force more fruit.
Shannon packs her plants densely in the beds, employing a method called “square-foot-gardening” to get the greatest return on the space. She uses no chemicals, fertilizes with compost and manure from their chickens and goats. “Carrots Love Tomatoes,” is a book she uses to place plants effectively. Some of what she grows: bok choy, cabbage, lettuces, spinach, onions, radishes, kale, beets and asparagus.
The young orchard holds peach, apple, fig, cherry and pomegranate trees.
When Shannon’s brother was getting out of the goat business, they took on two of his Nubian goats, which are good for both dairy and meat.
One of the goats was pregnant, which lead to two more, and so on and so on. They make cheese and yogurt from the milk, and have learned many recipes for goat meat which, Shannon points out, is a major source of protein for countries throughout the world.
“The girls are for dairy production and the boys go to freezer camp,” Steven says about the darling herd.
They share goat-tending duties with Stacey Tuel, now a Woodland Star teacher who was a longtime Oak Hill Farms employee. The Lees are not licensed to sell dairy, but this year will add USDA certified goat meat to their farmers market offerings.
Financial proceeds from their labors only about cover the costs of the expenses involved, and don’t come close to compensating them for their time. “Between May and September, 95 percent of our food consumed at home comes from either our production or from exchanging with other local farmers. During winter months, we rely on food we have frozen or canned from the main growing season,” Shannon said. Staple foods are purchased at the store.
“We focus on buying local, but we are not trying to be superhuman about it,” Steven said.
The Lee family dogs, Hazel and Charlie, romp around the property, enjoying the land that feeds the family body and soul – now into the third-generation.
‘We focus on buying local, but we are not trying to be superhuman about it.’
- Steven Lee
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