In 1965 Bill Coleman moved to an abandoned lemon orchard in the foothills behind Carpinteria and started farming it. He had learned farming from Japanese and Filipino farmers several generations older than himself who farmed using the traditional techniques of their youth, and this is how Bill continued to farm: amend the soil only with compost or 'green manure', control pests by encouraging natural predators, trapping, hand removal of pests and crop rotation, and improve the quality and quantity of the harvest by matching each crop and variety planted to the local growing conditions.

Bill first concentrated on raising a few crops, such as snow and sugar snap peas, which had a reliable demand at the Los Angeles wholesale produce market. Although successful, this plan had shortcomings: the farm was underused in the Summer, and Bill's horticultural curiosity was constrained by the restricted list of produce the wholesale market would buy.

Toward the end of the Sixties the fad for things 'natural' opened new venues. Several small groceries run by hippies opened in the Santa Barbara area. They weren't in the market for large quantities of produce, but they appreciated Bill's farming techniques, which qualified as 'organic', and were willing to try almost any of the exotic items he'd been growing for his own use. These shops faltered, but interest in locally farmed produce continued to grow, and in 1972 the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market was founded, with a weekly market on the steps of Mission Santa Barbara. Bill was a founding member.

In the Eighties and Nineties the desire for fresh local produce spread and the number and size of California Certified Farmers' Markets increased tremendously. From its beginnings as a meeting place for hippies, health-food nuts and agricultural enthusiasts, the farmers' market movement has become mainstream, markets are frequented by all kinds of people, and California Farmers' Markets now play a gastronomic, social and economic role in the community at least as large as the marché does in a French market town.

Coleman Farms now sells at four markets, from Goleta to Santa Monica, and sells direct to a number of upscale restaurants in the Los Angeles area.