Gaye LeBaron talks about Nancy Skall at a memorial at the Sebastopol Farmers Market in mid February, as Clark Wolf stands alongside.

Today, escrow closed on Middleton Farm, the remarkable property on Westside Rd. founded by Nancy and Malcolm Skall in the 1980s. When Nancy passed away on January 23 of this year, just what would become of the property was up in the air. Would the garden and orchard be torn out to make room for vineyards? What would become of the more than 3000 strawberry and hundreds of asparagus plants?

Now there is great news.

Anne and Monty Woods of San Francisco have purchased the property and are committed to maintaining it as a farm. They have made an offer to the farm’s long-time manager, a very private man who does not like to be interviewed, and hope that he will remain in his position.

The Woods have a long connection to Sonoma County. For several decades, Monty’s parents, Kay and Frank Woods, have had property in Dry Creek Valley. Monty and Anne lived locally in 2006 and 2007 and have been looking for land they could farm for a long time.

It sounds like a match made in farming heaven.

If things unfold as hoped, Middleton Farm will have a booth at the St. Helena Farmers Market on Friday and the Healdsburg Farmers Market on Saturday.

Nancy Skall’s farm market booth last fall, with tomatoes and fresh lima beans in the foreground and pears in the background