Yadira, Queen of Vegetables: An Agricultural Success Story Rooted in Community
AIM’s Incubator Booth Alumni Spotlight – Yadira Mendiola, Founder, The Queen of Vegetables
Monday, March 24, 2025
Yadira Mendiola, known as "The Queen of Vegetables" in her ever-expanding circle, built her farm business by prioritizing her community. When she started her farm in 2020, Yadira's original plan was to sell vegetables through wholesale channels. Having worked in large-scale agriculture for years, that was the path she knew. Then she heard about AIM’s Incubator Booth Program through the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA). This program trains low-income agricultural workers in organic farm and business management, helping them pursue farm ownership. In collaboration with Kitchen Table Advisors' business expertise and AIM's access to farmers markets, the Incubator Booth Program offers beginning farmers the chance to explore direct-to-consumer sales and experiment with diversifying their business model.
Yadira’s farm began on a ½-acre plot in Salinas. She saw it as an opportunity to explore organic farming in a way that she couldn’t while being an employee of large-scale conventional farms.
"I had been working with conventional crops, and I was curious about other options... I was learning that conventional [produce] was damaging people's health, and I wanted to be part of making a difference," she explains.
Yadira is committed to ecological and organic farming practices. She farms organically, rotates her crops regularly, and plants cover crops every fall. Her motivations are both community-focused and personal. Yadira wants to provide healthy food for her community, and she also wants to provide stability for her family.
"I'm a single mother—I have three kids, and I've been renting since I moved to the U.S. I realized that if I could have my own business, maybe in the future, I could even own my own house."
Joining the farmers markets through the Incubator Booth Program drastically changed the trajectory of Yadira’s business and set her on a path to achieve her goal by diversifying her business model and shifting away from relying solely on brokers and coolers. She immediately recognized the first benefit of selling at farmers markets—the instant cash flow.
"With a broker, you sell your whole crop at once, and you sometimes wait months for them to actually pay for it.”
Yadira quickly adapted to the markets, and within a few years, the impact on her business expanded far beyond cash flow. Markets bring people together, but it’s still up to us to engage with one another. When Yadira first joined farmers markets, she seemed to understand that instinctively. She would spend the entire day walking around her booth, educating customers about her vegetables, organic growing practices, and asking them what they wanted to see more of. She invests a significant portion of her time at markets teaching customers about farming and the realities of growing food.
"The Incubator Booth helped me become more involved with and connected to my local community… and that changed my plans for my business."
Once she started building relationships with people at the farmers markets, her goals became much clearer. Yadira's business model now prioritizes her community. She grows crops primarily for children in the two school districts she works with and for the two farmers markets she attends every weekend. She sells any excess to coolers and brokers, but she doesn’t shape her crop plan around these sales. Yadira speaks with great affection about the relationships she's built at farmers markets, reinforcing why she's doing the work.
"Meeting the community through farmers markets has made me feel more committed to serving them."
Yadira is a force—strong, capable, adaptable, and an incredibly fast learner. With a lifetime of experience selling food that her grandmother made, talking to all kinds of people, and possessing a warmth that draws people in, she has cultivated an atmosphere that keeps customers returning to her booth. The power of being invited into the community cannot be overstated, especially in today's world.
"The more conversations you have with people, the more you realize how much we all need each other."
Looking ahead, Yadira hopes to expand her work with school districts and farmers markets, while also giving her children more opportunities to learn through the business. She acknowledges the growing pains of not being able to be in every place at once, but her kids help her with the business and enjoy the experience of selling at farmers markets. She hopes they will eventually lead their own markets and gain more business knowledge that way. Yadira also encourages more farmers to adopt organic growing practices and get involved in their local farmers markets, especially in areas where access to fresh produce is limited.
"We need to go to places like Hayward and Richmond. They need farmers, and farmers need people to sell to."
For Yadira, the experience went beyond the typical benefits of selling at a farmers market. Joining the farmers market allowed her to build relationships and partnerships that are shaping a promising future. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of community-building and resilience, standing as an inspiration at a time when many stories are filled with division.
You can find Yadira and her family at the Saturday Hayward Farmers Market, the Marina Bay Farmers Market in Richmond, and at schools throughout Watsonville and Richmond.