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Driving along a country road in rural Sutter County and seeing endless rows of corn, you can’t help but think of the movie “Field of Dreams.” The Sills family decided to build their dream eight decades ago. Pleasant Grove Farms, a family-owned, certified organic grain and bean farm, has been growing corn and other crops for nearly 80 years.

Organic farming — practices that improve soil, produce good yields and protect the environment — was relatively new back in the 1980s when Ed Sills wanted to give it a try. A forestry major at UC Berkeley, he was intrigued by the sustainable farming methods he learned and tested them out on the family farm by planting 40 acres of popcorn. He did crop rotation, which is growing different crops each year in the same field, and planted cover crops — a single crop such as legumes — that are grown just to enrich the soil.

“I was interested in this idea that through farming, you could improve your soil. The different crops you’re going to grow, you’re going to rotate. You’re going to have legumes and cover crops to improve the soil,” he says.

Back when his father, Thomas, started the farm in 1946, it was common for other farmers to use pesticides and herbicides on crops, but Ed didn’t want to do that. His experiment paid off. Pleasant Grove Farms is one of the largest organic farms in Northern California by acreage and produces rice for big companies such as Lundberg Rice (since 1986) and beans and corn for Amy’s Kitchen, a national organic food company. Ed says they’ve had a 20-year partnership with Amy’s, growing dark red kidney beans for their soups and corn for their masa.

“They send us lentils and pinto beans and other things for us to run through our mill,” he says. “We set up our own equipment in the late ’80s, and we’re on our third iteration as far as equipment and a milling operation. So we do our own popcorn, and we do our own cleaning of wheat, beans and corn. And packaging.” They also sell their products wholesale to other U.S. and Japanese companies. 

The Sills family farm was started in 1946 by Thomas after he served in World War II. He started off by planting rice, which grew well in the clay soil of Sutter County. Ed did seasonal work for the U.S. Forest Service but decided to come home in 1976 and join the family business. “I came back, and I said, ‘Well, let’s give this a try.’” 

He met his wife, Wynette, who grew up in Arizona in a farming family and was working at the UC Cooperative Extension as a farm advisor for Sacramento County. She and Ed worked the farm together until they had their three children and she became a stay-at-home mom. With the children grown, Wynette is back full time on the farm, planning special events, doing social media and working on the farm’s regenerative compliance. Daughter Jessica has been the farm’s operation manager for the past 10 years. 

The farm is now about 550 acres, with 350 of those planted and others leased out. Pleasant Grove Farm has about a dozen full-time workers and another 15 seasonal workers.

Wynette planted 64 milkweed plants on the farm the past year and was thrilled to see threatened monarch butterflies fly in and enjoy them. Children came to see them as part of the family’s Friday on the Farm program — “to see the milkweed grow, and then to see the little caterpillars and the caterpillars making their chrysalis, and then this whole life cycle, and they do that on the plant,” Wynette says.

“Regenerative expects you, encourages you, to reflect upon the stewardship responsibility that we have as caretakers of the land and soil and other resources. So that means enhancing bird habitat and pollinators and butterflies and all of these things,” she explains.  

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