None

Window Seat

W e know it as that cute roadside stand on Carmel Valley Road. The one with the big sunflowers and baskets of shiny tomatoes and sunwashed squashes. Set against a backdrop of fertile fields that edge up to rugged mountain forests, the farm stand attracts more than folks who remember what it''s like to pull over on the side of the road to buy just-picked fruits and vegetables right from the guy who grew it. Artists come here, too, with their paints and easels. It''s a bucolic setting that is both quaint and gut-stirringly, God''s-country beautiful. Earthbound Farms is that, and a whole lot more.

What began in 1984 as Myra and Drew Goodman''s gone-back-to-the-land, entrepreneurial organic produce venture, in 1995 became Natural Selection Foods. And what started in the Goodmans'' kitchen sink has become one of the biggest consumer booms heard in this century: pre-washed specialty salads. They were the first ones to spare the harried, haggard consumer the fitful chore of dunking the dinner salad and getting it dry. The idea caught on. Natural Selection Foods is the nation''s leading supplier of a whole parade of specialty salads and organic vegetables, grown on nearly 6,000 acres in different parts of the country.

To help manage the farm, a couple of years ago the Goodmans hired Mark Marino. His business card says simply "Farmer." But his business card also has three phone numbers, a fax number and an e-mail address. "I''m a little bit of an anomaly," Marino admits. "Even though this appears to be a small ma-and-pa farm, I''m a part of this much bigger thing." Although typical farmer-type stuff like heading out into the fields at 5 o''clock in the morning, making the rounds with his dog, checking the plants, and overseeing the store are part of the job--"I make sure it''s got that Martha Stewart thing going on"--Marino''s desk is piled high with other pursuits.

"I write the computer programs, and then make sure that the data entry gets loaded on the spreadsheets. I can then take that and show stuff like my fertilizer and yield data, and my timing data to other farmers in the company. I work a lot with research and development; the orange flags you see out in the fields are experimental crops. I''m always trying to think about what we can do that''s new and different and weird, and profitable. I make sure that the orders are ready to go out. And I do PR stuff, as sort of a diplomat for organic gardening."

One of Marino''s favorite parts of the job is working with chefs. " That''s where the trends get started. I''m stimulated when I work with chefs--I learn from them and they learn from me. Cal [Stamenov] from Bernardus and I can shoot the bull for hours, getting psyched up about what we can do. So I''m doing chervil, mache, baby leeks, some fun stuff. Chefs from White Oak Grill, Stokes Adobe, Sole Mio--they love to come here and get stuff that''s so fresh." Other local customers are serviced with the same astounding array of produce from the operation in San Juan Bautista, Natural Selection''s headquarters.

Kids love getting in on the act, too. Marino created a special kid''s garden just for them, and school groups are welcome. The public is invited to bring a basket for harvest walks. (Call 625-6219 for details.) Mark Marino, farmer, likes what he does. "I feel good about it when I go to bed at night," he nods.