LEHMAN FARMS

Vendor: Elmer Lehman
Location: Fresno, CA


Elmer Lehman helping a customer
Photo: Lee Carlson

Now 81, Elmer Lehman has been a farmer all his life. Elmer’s dad started the Lehman’s Fresno farm 104 years ago and Lehman “grew up on the farm and kept on farming [because] I like being self-employed.” He farms 40 acres with one employee to grow grapes, peaches, plums, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, and dried fruits.

Lehman has been selling produce at the PAFM for twenty years, leaving the farm at 2:30am Saturdays to make the 180 mile trek from Fresno to Palo Alto. He keeps coming back, he says, because the people are nice and they appreciate the good quality of his produce.

Elmer has two children, but they do not farm. This puts him in company with many farmers across our nation.

Recipe: “I do not cook,” says Elmer, “my wife does. My favorite vegetable is the tomato fruit-grape.”