Proprietors of the French Garden

Sorrel Smith, Dan Smith and Joan Marler

Photo credit: Harvey Henningsen

Dan Smith and Joan Marler met over 40 years ago in Mendocino while Joan was still in high school and Dan was working in a lumber mill. Joan earned a BA in dance at Mills College while Dan completed his duty as a conscientious objector in lieu of fighting in Viet Nam. In 1975 they were married in Sebastopol where they have lived ever since in the house that Dan built. Here, they raised their daughter, Sorrel, and a foster son, Bruce, and began a long tradition of organic gardening. About 20 years ago, they purchased a 30 acre farm nearby where they now grow much of the produce for French Garden.

Our home garden and greenhouse in Sebastopol

For twenty-six years, Joan taught dance at Santa Rosa Junior College while Dan ran his construction company before creating The Master Builder software for contractors. Over a twenty year period, The Master Builder (eventually purchased by Intuit, then by Sage) became the most popular software for smaller general and subcontractors in the US. Meanwhile, Joan became known for her radio work on KPFA FM in Berkeley where she produced and hosted programs in the humanities for 15 years. She also worked closely for 7 years with the well-known archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and edited Gimbutas' magnum opus The Civilization of the Goddess (1991). Joan later edited From the Realm of the Ancestors: An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas (1997) while earning a Masters in Archaeomythology at Sonoma State University. She has been an Executive Editor of ReVision Journal and is the founder and Executive Director of The Institute of Archaeomythology. Joan lectures internationally and is an adjunct faculty member of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Today, Dan is active in non-profits as well as serving on corporate boards. He is past president of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation and is the founder and president of The Monastery Project, which is building a monastery in Kalimpong, India for the Sedgyued lineage of Tibetan Buddhism Dan has focused intensively since spring 2007 to make sure that our local hospital, Palm Drive, remains alive and well.

Dan works on the French Garden farm on a daily basis growning sustainably produced vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers for the restaurant and local farm markets. Joan manages the website and other business matters and decorates the restaurant with farm-grown bouquets. They can often be found hosting guests after a busy day at the farm. Their daughter, Sorrel, whose paintings grace the walls at French Garden, is a full-time artist living in Paris.