Dan Flynn: Down on the Farm

Community Comments

By Judie Fertig Panneton
Photography by Max Whittaker 

Thanks to good timing, some guidance from an angel and the right connections, Dan Flynn has been able to trade his office at the Capitol in downtown Sacramento for a farm near Marysville. A legislative aide for almost 20 years, Flynn no longer wears suits to work, and he’s not glued to a computer or a slave to legislative sessions. Instead, he’s an organic farmer, works outside, and his storms come in the form of nature instead of political deals gone awry.

Timing Is Everything
The good timing came when Flynn, who worked for such high-profile legislators as senators Gary Hart and Herschel Rosenthal, was faced with a big decision. His boss, Santa Rosa Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins, was “terming out” of office, and Flynn had been thinking for months about trying something new.
     A “foodie” who loves to cook for his wife, Karen, and sons, 10-year-old Jimmy and 12-year-old John, Flynn wrote a food column for the Sacramento News & Review and self-published visitors’ guides to Sacramento. While he was writing about food and restaurants, Flynn also was dreaming about buying farm land. “Writing about food gets you thinking about how food is grown,” he says. “I was interested in getting some rural property and working with olive trees, which are fairly easy to grow and take care of.”

A Guiding Angel
In his search for land, Flynn often would take his family for leisurely drives to the Sierra foothills. “We drove by the property we own today, and thought that if it came on the market, we wouldn’t be able to afford it,” Flynn says.
     Then an angel came into their lives, an angel whose name Flynn says he knows. 
     Her name is Mary, and she was Karen’s mother. The way Flynn tells it, shortly after Mary’s funeral, he persuaded Karen to go for another drive in the Sierra foothills. “I said, ‘Let’s get out of here and check out some property,’” Flynn recalls. On their way to look at an olive tree farm, they passed the property they had admired once before. “It was up for sale,” Flynn says. “We kind of felt like it was Mary who (led) us there.”
     The Flynns found that they could afford the five-acre farm, 20 miles northeast of Marysville and about an hour from their home. They decided to call it Oldani Farm, in honor of Karen’s family name. On the property are several types of fruit trees, including cherries, peaches, apples, plums and a few olives. “When I drive back and forth from my home to the farm,” Flynn says, “I have a smile on my face, as if I’m getting away with something after all those years of working in the same place indoors.”

Learning from the Ground Up
With no background in farming, let alone organic farming, Flynn used his research and networking abilities to learn how to grow crops and kill weeds while protecting the environment. “I started reading, got hooked up with a mentor in the area who had 25 of years experience and began working with California Certified Organic Farmers,” Flynn says.

The Olive Oil Connection
Flynn’s career change got a boost when an olive oil maker he had connected with received an email from Sal Genito, the director of building and grounds at UC Davis. Genito was looking for someone to harvest the olives that had been falling from the trees along the bike paths. Enter Dan Flynn, who was happy to help the school with its harvest idea and its problem of slippery, olive-oiled roads that had led to painful injuries and expensive lawsuits.
     “I wasn’t interested in making money,” Flynn said. “I got to do a study, talk to a lot of people in the industry and learned a lot. The bottom line was that the harvest and production were a fiscally responsible thing for the campus to do.”
     Fast forward to 2006, and Flynn is now on the UC Davis staff, overseeing all facets of the campus’ extra virgin olive oil production. The work supplements his farming income, and its timing has been perfect. “During fall and winter, when not much is going on at the farm, the olive harvest happens, and I can do some of the marketing,” Flynn added.

Transplant Takes Root
While Flynn admits it’s not easy to make money as an organic farmer, he remains optimistic and enjoys selling his farm’s produce to places like the Sacramento and Davis food co-ops, Taylor’s Market and some high-end local restaurants, including the Waterboy and Mulvaney’s.
     Is Flynn completely done with working in politics? “I could see going back at some point,” he says, “but I need to recharge my batteries, and I don’t know how long that will take.”

• Share
  • Digg This
  • del.icio.us
  • Newsvine
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Furl It
  • !Y My Web
  • Google
• Email
• Print

Recommend This

Community Comments