Two Acres and a Back-to-the-Land Dream - Jim Kent
Jim's Sonoma Journey - I Found page
This is the second of three stories about Jim's relationship with Sonoma.
🟩 Weekend Visits Led Us to Sonoma - Chapter 1
🟥 Two Acres and a Back-to-the-Land Dream - Chapter 2 (You are reading this story.)
🟦 Taking Sonoma's Young Performers to England - Chapter 3
Click the story title above to continue Jim's journey as his interest in theater leads to an unforgettable experience with Sonoma's young performers.
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Jim and his wife bought two acres in Sonoma in 1976 with a back-to-the-land dream. They imagined farming after Jim retired from the Oakland Fire Department. Farming never became a livelihood, although Jim tried growing pick-your-own strawberries, planted grapes, and made wine in his barn for forty years. What lasted was the life they built here: raising their children, sending them through Sonoma schools, and watching a quiet rural town change over nearly fifty years.
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My wife and I bought two acres in Sonoma in 1976.
We were interested in farming and imagined that when I retired from the Oakland Fire Department, we might make a life from the land. A lot of people were experimenting with that back-to-the-land idea at the time.
It did not work out quite the way we imagined.
The closest I came to farming as a business was planting several varieties of strawberries. I chose varieties that would ripen at different times, placed an advertisement in the newspaper, and invited people to come pick their own.
People came, picked strawberries, and gave me some money, but it never became much more than pocket change.
We also planted a small vineyard, about half of a fifth of an acre. The vineyard did not turn me into a farmer, but it did lead to something that became part of my life for decades: I made wine in my barn for about forty years.
The land gave us the rural life we had been looking for, even if it did not provide the livelihood we once imagined.
We eventually got divorced.
I moved into town, remarried and bought a house.
Sonoma was a very different town then. It was less populated, less developed, and much more agricultural. I was so taken with the rural ideal that I once considered getting a horse and buggy and using it to ride into town. That was probably ridiculous even then, but it shows how I imagined the life we might have here.
Local businesses reflected that rural character. You knew the people who repaired things. There was a man on East Eighth Street who seemed able to fix almost anything. You could bring him a broken chainsaw or another piece of equipment and expect that he would find a way to repair it.
The plaza served everyday needs. There was a grocery store, a hardware store, and agricultural businesses. The shops that later sold decorative glassware, party napkins, wine, and specialty goods once served local households and farms.
There was not much for teenagers to do. Young people sometimes called the town "Slow Noma." Friday nights at the Sebastiani Theatre became a gathering place. If you arrived for a movie on a Friday, you found teenagers greeting one another, talking, and socializing as much as watching the film.
High school football games served a similar purpose. The students in the stands were not always paying close attention to the game. They were there to see one another, joke around, and be part of the social life of the town.
Our children went through the Sonoma school system, and we had no complaints. My daughter later attended the University of California, Berkeley. Homecoming traditions, including class floats driven toward the plaza with music playing, connected the schools with the larger town.
Over the decades, I watched Sonoma become busier and more polished. Music appeared in more local venues. Tourism grew. The wine industry expanded from a small number of familiar producers into a major part of the local economy and identity.
The Sonoma we found in 1976 cannot be recreated. It was quieter, more rural, and built around the daily needs of the people who lived here.
Our farming dream never unfolded exactly as planned. But the two acres brought us to Sonoma, and Sonoma became the place where we raised our family and spent nearly fifty years of our lives.
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Jim and his wife bought two acres in Sonoma in 1976 with hopes of pursuing a back-to-the-land life.
A pick-your-own strawberry operation produced only pocket change, but a small vineyard led Jim to make wine for forty years.
He eventually moved into Sonoma and that changed him again.
Sonoma's repair shops, hardware store, feed store, and grocery store reflected its rural, resident-focused character.
Jim's children attended local schools, and his daughter later went to UC Berkeley.
Over nearly fifty years, Jim watched tourism, the wine industry, entertainment, and development transform Sonoma.
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This story was created from a recorded conversation between Jim Kent and Don Lundgren as part of the Sonoma Stories project. The conversation was edited for clarity and length while preserving Jim's experiences, reflections, and voice. Once published, Jim may request changes at any time or ask to have the story removed.
