Photos: Young organic farmers

Jack Motter harvests parsnips on his farm, Ellwood Canyon Farms, in Goleta, Calif., for the farmers market. Motter founded Ellwood Canyon Farms in 2009, and is from a fourth-generation farming family in the Imperial Valley.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Jeff Kramer, left, works with Motter, right, in organic farming. “There’s nothing romantic about it,” says Kramer. “It’s hand labor, it’s hard work, and long hours for little pay. That’s the reality of small-scale farming. But the rewards make it all worth it.”  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Jack Motter farms on 15 acres and uses sustainable, organic farming methods such as crop diversity, crop rotation, cover cropping, and using compost to grow a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Jack Motter harvests parsnips on his farm, Ellwood Canyon Farms, in Goleta, for the farmers market.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Jack Motter, left, and Jeff Kramer pause during their busy morning of harvesting produce on their farm for the local farmer’s market later in the day.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Jack Motter makes price tags for the produce being sold at the farm stand on his Ellwood Canyon Farms in Goleta, Calif. Customers can come throughout the day to pick out fresh produce, and then pay on their honor.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Jeff Kramer bags and weighs lettuce at Ellwood Canyon Farms in Goleta, Calif., to sell that day at the farmers market. Kramer hand-washes the lettuce, then batch-dries it by putting the washer, used for their lettuces, on spin cycle, prior to bagging it.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Stella Luna Farm intern Estelle Swanepoel works her way down the fields’ rows planting tomato plants on the 5-acre farm in Auberry, Calif. Stella Luna sells its produce to its CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members and to area restaurants and markets.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Farmer Chris Velez, left, places lettuce starts along the rows of a field at Stella Luna Farm in Auberry, Calif. “The earth is in a pretty dramatic state and right now, more than others, it’s truly calling on people to come tend to the land in a healthy way,” Velez says.   (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Stella Luna Farm’s workers say they think of the farm as one organism, trying not only to replenish the soil, but to help make the soil capable of replenishing itself.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Farmer Chris Velez, center, along with his wife Jamie Carr, left, volunteer Tyler Wright, second from left, and farm intern Estelle Swanepoel, right, wash produce just harvested at Stella Luna Farm for their CSA boxes that shareholders will pick up.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Quintin Finley plays with his toy tractor near farm implements in the fields of Finley Farms in Santa Ynez, Calif. Quintin’s mother and father, Johanna and Christopher Finley, run the 50-acre organic farm.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Johanna Finley works around the “on-your-honor” farm stand on the organic farm she and her husband, Christopher, own and run in Santa Ynez. Neither of them come from farming backgrounds or knew much about it when they started.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Johanna Finley looks on as her husband Christopher takes a break with their daughter Ashlin and son Quintin. “I feel very privileged to be able to raise my family in this lifestyle and in this surrounding,” says Johanna. “It’s just the way it should be.”  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Johanna Finley prepares jars to preserve produce as her daughter, Ashlin, looks on, in their farm home in Santa Ynez. “As soon as the season is over, I always try to put something up,” Johanna says. “The most important thing in terms of canning is about eating seasonally.”  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Johanna Finley gives her son Quintin a haircut outside their farm house in Santa Ynez. “It’s been important for me to know where my food comes from,” says Johanna, “and as our family has grown especially, it is a wonderful way for our kids to grow up.”   (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Quintin Finley climbs up the tractor to his father, Christopher, on their Santa Ynez farm. Christopher and his wife are self-taught farmers. “We knew how to plant stuff,” Christopher says of starting out, “but it was like, ‘When do we plant tomatoes around here, when do we plant peas?’ ”   (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Farmer Christopher Finley shares a quiet moment with his son Quintin after taking a break from work on the farm to eat lunch with his family in the fields.  (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)