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| Harley honored as Farmer of the Year By Clay Lambert--[ clay@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 1:46 PM PDT It was a relatively straight shot along Highway 1 from Dee Harley's Pescadero farm north to Half Moon Bay and the I.D.E.S. Hall for Friday's Mel Mello Farm Day proceedings. It is a bit ironic, considering the circuitous route the famed maker of goat cheese had to travel before being named Farmer of the Year at the 38th annual luncheon. Harley, 40, was as surprised as she was out of uniform Friday. Husband Tim Duarte knew she would be honored and asked her to dress up for the occasion - in a skirt instead of her more usual denim. "Half Moon Bay is the big city," she quipped as she stepped to the microphone. "It's quite exciting to be out." Whether down on the farm or out and about, Harley has always chosen her own path. Her Coastside journey began in 1988, when the native of England took a job aboard the Golden Hinde, a replica of the ship Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the world in the 16th century. "We dressed as pirates and entertained the tourists," Harley explained. The gig brought her to the American West Coast where, in the finest tradition of pirates, Harley set out for her own fortune. "I jumped ship in Portland," she said. From that port of call, she and some friends headed south into California. Like countless young travelers before her, that included a night at the youth hostel at Pigeon Point Lighthouse. "I heard this music and that is how I met 'Three Finger Bill,'" she said. Bill - TFB as Harley calls him - would introduce Harley to the delicacies of Duarte's Tavern. She took a job there and met Tim Duarte. By the time she had been named Farmer of the Year, the couple had been married for 16 years. They have one son, 13-year-old Ben. Harley Farms has found international acclaim like few other Coastside enterprises. The creamy cheese produced at 205 North Street in Pescadero has won prestigious American Cheese Society honors for five straight years. The farm itself has become one of the Coastside's top tourist destinations. If it seems odd that an English traveler would settle in Pescadero, you have to consider her hometown. "Old Royston is 10 houses surrounded by farms," she said. The goats were a surprise though. Another area farmer suggested she get a few and in the course of a decade or two, six head became 250. At the Farm Day celebration she joked, "I used to be Tim Duarte's wife. Now I'm the goat girl." The fact that Harley is female was not overlooked at the luncheon, which featured another woman - former state Sen. Jackie Speier - as keynote speaker. "It is such a wonderful, wonderful thing to give this to a woman, though we're not giving this to her because she is a woman," said one of Half Moon Bay's own pioneering women, Mayor Naomi Patridge, who serves on the Farm Day committee. Harley is not the first woman to win the prize. The Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce and Visitors' Bureau, which sponsors the luncheon, notes that Nanda Muzzi shared the honors with her husband, Joe. Valerie and Tom Phipps, and Madeline and George Lea also shared the prize. Dolores Mullin and Virginia Centoni accepted the award in their own right. Harley thinks women may be increasingly important in the area's agricultural fortunes. "We need to think more broadly," she said. Two other awards were given, both to popular, active Coastside men. Mel Mello Jr. - the namesake of the man who lends his name to the event - was honored with the Dolores Mullin "Like a Rock" Award. Mello noted that he grew up at the knee of Mullin, an iconic community leader whom he joked was his "first girlfriend." The award was presented by Mello's brothers, Rick and Frank, in a tribute that brought tears to some in the audience. American Legion Post 474 Cmdr. Russell Bissonnette was given the Glenn Ashcraft Chamber Community Service Award. Bissonnette has his hand in many Coastside projects, including a planned Fourth of July fireworks display. "I'm stunned," he said. "It's our community. It's our town. It's been a great pleasure." |