Re-Frame Hair Gallery, Caff / Farmers Guild and Loren Hansen Photography in Support of Women Owned Community Supported Agriculture.

By Ceylan Karasapan Crow

This past Saturday Nov 16, I attended a very unusual and heartwarming event at REFRAME Hair Gallery run by Nevuah Tova and Cameron Nairn Wayland the owners. The event Glamour + Grit: Art Show & CSA Fair, featured women farmers from across Sonoma and Napa Counties. The event was hosted by REFRAME, CAFF and Davines and featured Loren Hansen's art and the farmers themselves. There was a delicious spread of food and wine in the center. The women farmers had set up displays and provided information at each styling booth, with the portrait of each farmer at their farm on the wall behind them. The photographs of Loren Hansen Photography are beautiful and capture the spirit of the women in their farm setting in a calm understated manner and a must see. Visitors could talk with the farmers and sign up for a CSA; a weekly subscriptions of the finest, freshest, local food. I was surprised to learn from Evan Wiig the communication and membership director of Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), that Every CSA farm in Sonoma and Napa Counties is either woman-owned or co-owned!

As per Evan’s clarification, “Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a way to buy local food directly from a farmer. You purchase a “share” and become a farm “member.” The farm delivers a box of farm-fresh goods regularly throughout the season. However, CSA is much more than just a weekly delivery of food. CSA is a powerful investment in your health, community, and local economy. It’s a partnership between farms and consumers that keeps independent businesses thriving, helps families eat seasonal, local produce, and charges farmers and consumers with the responsibility of building a strong, equitable food system." Learn more about CSA here.

Featured women owned or co-owned CSAs

Sonya Perrotti of Coyote Family Farm, Rose Madden of Pink barn Farm, Nancy Prebilich of Leland Street Local Food, Jennifer Branham of Laguna farm CSA, Aubrie Maze of Brambletail Homestead, Sarah Silva of Greenstar Farm, Elizabeth Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm, Rachel Kohn Obut of Little Moon Farm, Oona Eldridge-Squire of Tara Firma Farms and Suzi Grady of Petaluma Bounty Farm.

The Artist Loren Hansen, was thrilled to be able to contribute to the cause with her stunning photography and was one of the stars of the evening collecting much praise for her work and obviously stoked to have had such a meaningful and community oriented project.

The women farmers had set up displays and provided information at each styling booth, with their portrait taken on location at their farm on the wall behind them at the spacious vennue REFRAME.

I had conversations with both Nevuah Tova of REFRAME and Evan Wiig of CAFF at the event and asked both for a short synopsis of the event from their respective perspectives.

Nevuah Tova recounted the background of the event:

“The event was designed to support local farmers by introducing new customers to the possibility of shopping directly from them in order to support them and our planet.

This was a pilot program. Davines is a sustainable hair care company from Italy ( they are even a B Corp). Davines North America (The North American Branch) decided to create a campaign here on our continent. In Parma, and around the rest of Italy, Davines supports local agriculture and the slow food presidia by purchasing ingredients that could otherwise not be farmed (lack of need in culinary — or not very profitable compared to larger crops of other varieties) .

Here in Sonoma County we face a similar issue with The wine industry and mono-cropping.

Davine North America put myself and Evan Wiig (head of CAFF) in contact with each other to brainstorm a plan. We came up with a photography show and CSA fair. Since the summer crops were finishing up and we are traditionally moving into a slower farming time, we offered the farmers haircuts and they each had a photo shoot at their farm with Loren Hansen who volunteered her time and is an amazing photographer!!!

The ideas was to introduce our clients and other local guests to the farmers in our community.

This was a test run, as a pilot program, done here in Sebastopol, at one salon in the Hudon Valley (N.Y.) and one in Wisconsin. If all goes well, the idea is to roll it out on a national level next year. We do think it went well."

— Nevuah Tova (co-owner of REFRAME)

Evan Wiig on the importance and purpose of Community Supported Agriculture:

“The event was a fun showcase of the women behind our North Bay farms, introducing local food lovers and curious Barlow passerby alike to what CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, described in detail above) is all about. The whole point of CSA is to bring people closer to the source of their food, which is exactly what happened on Saturday.

Not only did attendees get to admire beautiful farmer portraits captured by local photographer Loren Hansen, but the subjects of those photos, the farmers themselves, were all there too. Folks got to meet and mingle with the producers, learn about their farm’s offerings and many signed up for CSA shares.

But on top of that, the whole experience was a special treat for the farmers too. These women (yes, every CSA farm in Sonoma and Napa Counties is either woman-owned or co-owned) got some much-deserved self-care and a chance to live out their glamorous side for an evening. The photos are still hanging at ReFrame and will be posted on the farmers guild website.

Big thanks to Loren Hansen and ReFrame! "

—Evan Wiig (CAFF Director of Membership & Communications)

The Farmers Guild's take on the event sheds light on the social and philosophical aspects of the event:

“A farmer, a hairdresser and a photographer walk into a bar... this event in Sebastopol, that truly embodies the spirit of CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. There was a time when everyone was deeply connected to the source of their food, when communities revolved around the bounty of the land and those who work it. But these days, most Americans are estranged from the field, knowing food only a hundred steps removed from the farm. We exist in silos, hyper-specialized in our compartmentalized lives. Most kids grow up never having met a farmer, never having touched the soil that sustains them.

The idea that agriculture should permeate everything, appear everywhere and that everyone should participate might seem foreign. Like, for instance, in a hair salon! Yes. Because even our local hairdressers eat and the ones at Reframe Hair Gallery recognize the importance of that connection so deeply that they wanted to share it with their customers. And with the help of Loren Hansen Photography and Davines that salon will transform into an art gallery and CSA fair, showcasing the women who grow our food, who steward our land.

If we can showcase the beauty of agriculture there, we can—and should celebrate it anywhere. Your kid’s classroom, the auto mechanic, your church, the hospital cafeteria, the corporate headquarters of your company, the local pub. If people don’t see and interact with agriculture, how can they do right by it? How we purchase food and how we vote on issues affecting agriculture depends on how well we understand where it comes from. And unlikely partnerships like this one do just that. And it’s this interconnectedness that lies at the heart of CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. “

Excerpted from:

The Farmers Guild is with Rachel Kohn Obut at Reframe Hair Gallery. Facebook Post.

Please make sure to see the photos still hanging at ReFrame, and perhaps get a styling haircut!