Meet Our Farmers: Mair Farm- Taki
Farmer Katsumi Taki of Mair Farm- Taki harvests specialty produce.
Photo by Tara Austin Weaver for her article on Mair Farm- Taki in Edible Seattle.
If you've ever visited the University District Farmers Market, chances are you've seen Farmer Katsumi Taki surrounded by his incredible specialty crops. Fresh and candied ginger, chestnuts, unique greens, about a billion kinds of plums, (only a slight exaggeration), yuzu, Japanese cucumbers, and the list goes on. Farmer Taki himself is hard to miss- his beaming smile beneath a weathered straw hat warm you right up on even the drizzliest of market days. While he always has a helper in his tent, Katsumi never misses a Saturday at market.
Katsumi Taki farms his treasures on 36.5 acres in the Yakima Valley. His background in farming began as a caseworker in Japan teaching gardening to orphans in Okinawa. Before that, he was putting his fisheries biology degree to use for the Japanese government, but as he told Edible Seattle, “‘I hated the government job… It was just sitting around, not enough work.’” When Katsumi Taki and his young family immigrated to the US, he taught in the farming program at a youth retreat center in Yakama. Eventually, Katsumi purchased the old Mair farmstead, and rather than change the name he simply tacked on his own at the end, “Mair Farm- Taki.”
In 2008, Farmer Katsumi befriended Ayako Gordon, a market regular and fellow immigrant from Japan. The two bonded over nostalgia for Japanese cooking and food, and in 2009, Ayako & Family was founded, creating beautiful jams from ingredients sourced exclusively from Mair Farm- Taki. Every Saturday, booths for the beloved Jam maker and her favorite farmer could be found right next to each other at the University District Farmers Market, until the corona virus pandemic prevented Ayako & Family from attending.
When Ayako passed, her daughter Alessandra has took the reigns of Ayako & Family, and continues to source from Farmer Taki as she makes the recipes her mother created over a decade ago. Learn more about Ayako & Family here. You’ll also find information about where you can source their gorgeous products, including jam and shokupan. Support this wonderful business until we are able to welcome them back to the University District Farmers Market.
When you visit Mair Farm- Taki each Saturday, be sure to bring cash as Farmer Taki remains card free!
Check out this article from Edible Seattle to learn more about Mair Farm- Taki, and Farmer Katsumi's amazing, and international, story.