Episode 80: Molly Nakahara

Molly Nakahara founded Dinner Bell Farm in 2010 with Paul Glowaski and Cooper Funk. She is an educator, urban agriculture advocate, and as a Ninth generation Californian, she has a strong connection to the Golden State. Molly’s original Californian ancestors were the Peraltas, a Mexican Spanish ranchero family that raised cattle on the green hills of the East Bay Area from El Cerrito to San Leandro. In the 1930s and 40s, Molly’s great-grandparents, immigrants from Japan, farmed green onions and lettuce in the Salinas Valley. Their children, Molly’s grandparents, moved to Berkeley following the internment camps of World War II and built an agricultural oasis in their urban backyard. Molly spent countless hours looking for earthworms, picking green beans, and spraying cabbage moths with water in their garden on Harmon St. Prior to farming with the Dinner Bell crew, Molly worked with the Alameda County Office of Education Project EAT to bring nutrition education and food production gardens to urban public schools. Along with many dedicated students, teachers and staff members, she founded the Tennyson High School Farm at Tennyson High School in Hayward, CA. She believes that food production is a wonderful way to connect people to the land that we all live on. Sponsored by Hearst Ranch.