We had the good fortune of connecting with Noel Stehly and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Noel, how does your business help the community?
We believe we are filling a void of natural, organic food in a market place that focuses on fast, processed foods. We wanted the feel of 7-day a week farmers market for our community. Our consumers can shop daily and purchase premium quality, organic produce sourced locally from our farm and from other vendors. This allows our consumers to get out of the box store purchasing environment or style of purchasing that causes consumer waste.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a true farmers market. We are the farm and the market. Stehly Farms Organics grows and packs produce that we then sell at Stehly Farms Market, less than fifty miles from the farm. There is no other store in San Diego County that is a true farmers market.
It has been a learning curve, but our amazing staff has made our business succeed with over forty years of industry knowledge. It has not been an easy process, especially when we throw the Covid years into the mix. Our biggest challenge since Covid is finding employees that want to work in the grocery/food service industry as a career. We have adapted to the challeges and our anchor employees have assumed new and additional roles. It has been wonderful to see our staff grow in knowledge, confidence and excitement.
We are a true mom and pop, neighborhood market, but the challege for a small store is always pricing. We do not have the buying power of a Whole Foods or a Vons, which gets the cost to the shelf down. In 2020 to address this issue we joined INFRA. (independent natural foods retailers association). It is a co-0p of over eight hundred stores nationwide that has allowed us the buying power of the bigger stores, and works on our behalf to secure monthly deals, every month. This changed our trajectory. We are able to then offer over three thousand items on sale every month to our consumers at deep discounts. During this time of economic struggles, it has made a huge difference for our consumers.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
South Beach bar & grill in Ocean Beach for Fish Taco’s and Fried Calamari, and that white sauce!!! Hands down the best ever!

Coranado Beach and Hotel Del. Must see

La Jolla Cove and a drink at Catania at sunset.

Petco Park – game or concert, best venue ever.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Farming is a difficult profession, especially in California. Our water and labor issues are the hardest issues we face daily. We are blessed to work with an amazing group of people. Without our support staff and management we would not be able to do what we do.

Website: none right now

Instagram: stehly farms market & stehly farms organics

Linkedin: Noel Stehly

Facebook: Stehly Farms Market Kensington & Stehly Farms Organics

Yelp: stehly farms market kensington & Stehly Farms Organics

Image Credits
stella stehly

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