About
Who We Are
Teddy Macker (Co-Founder, Executive Director, Farmer) is a husband and father who has worked with the disabled, taught literature at UC Santa Barbara, served as the head of a private school, and published writings and given talks on the importance of a reverent, holistic approach to agriculture. Teddy’s writing appears in Front Porch Republic, the Los Angeles Times, Orion, Resurgence & Ecologist, The Sun Magazine, and elsewhere. Teddy is also the author of the poetry collection, “This World” (foreword by Brother David Steindl-Rast). And the biographical detail of which Teddy is inordinately proud is that a tomato he grew (a Cherokee Purple) won “Best Character” at a harvest festival at Fairview Gardens Farm in Goleta, California in 2010.
Laura Macker (Co-Founder, Director of Operations, Farmer) is a wife and mother who has worked—in the classroom and in the administration—in various Santa Barbara County elementary schools. Laura attended Cornell and UCLA for her undergraduate degree and UCSB for her graduate degree. She also worked at the Santa Barbara Birth Center as a birth assistant and office manager. Laura spent many weekends in her childhood on her grandparents’ apple farm in upstate New York. And the biographical detail of which Laura is inordinately proud is that her mixed plum jam has been described by customers as “THE BEST JAM EVER!”
The Farm
Whole Harvest Farm is located at Ranchito Alegre, an old, small, family farm in the foothills of Carpinteria, California. Decadges ago Ranchito Alegre was a much larger farm that grew lemons and avocados driven by horses down to the railroad tracks to be taken to market. Over the years Ranchito Alegre has known a series of owners, one of whom was the prominent, longtime Santa Barbara mayor Patrick Joseph Maher. The original barn—one of the oldest in Santa Barbara County—still stands. Whole Harvest Farm is deeply grateful for the opportunity to lease land from Ranchito Alegre and carry on Santa Barbara County’s rich farming tradition.
