From Suburbs to Soil: The Binleys Put Their Stamp on a Historic Hydesville Farm

Hard to miss: Goose Prairie Farm put out signs along Rohnerville Road directing visitors to Saturday’s Farm Flea, the third annual market at the Hydesville property.

The parking was spilling onto Rohnerville Road by mid-morning Saturday at Goose Prairie Farm in Hydesville, and Linda Binley was everywhere at once — making change, greeting vendors, running her own booth, pointing people toward the Youngpreneurs Tent, and somehow still stopping to chat with anyone who wanted to talk.

It was the third annual Farm Flea, and it had grown again.

This year’s Farm Flea had tripled in size since it started three years ago.

“The first year it was just me and Sue,” she said, nodding toward her neighbor. “We had 10 dealers. The second year we had 22. This year we have 33.”

More than 30 vendors filled the front portion of the property on May 30, offering a mix that would be hard to find in one place: vintage furniture, chain mail and leather goods, tie-dye, fire rings, antiques, sourdough bread, and BBQ from Smokin’ Amens. A local rescue organization brought puppies looking for homes. Connie Card, who farms blueberries and keeps bees near Bridgeville, had returned to the Farm Flea to sell her honey and tie-dye.

Connie Card of Bridgeville has been tie-dying since her daughter was in preschool — about 25 years ago. Now she adds honey from the bees she keeps on her blueberry farm to the mix, selling both at farmers markets in Garberville and Eureka and at events like Saturday’s Farm Flea at Goose Prairie Farm.

“I’ve been doing tie dye for about 25 years,” Card said. “It was just something I started with my daughter when she was in preschool.” For vendors like Card, Saturday is still a workday — but one they choose. Running a small business means no real days off, she said, but the flexibility to show up for the things that matter, like kids’ events and grandkids’ milestones.

Vendor Sean, who runs The Demented Armory on Instagram and TikTok, showed up with Sir Mauscott — a small, well-traveled companion billed as the “Warden of Whimsy.” Sean does chain mail, leather working, glass etching, wood burning, and sewing. “When you can find something that feeds your soul,” he said, “this is one of the things that feeds mine.”

Sir Mauscott, Warden of Whimsy and mascot of The Demented Armory, holds court at the Goose Prairie Farm Flea on Saturday. Owner Sean says the tiny ambassador has been spreading “innocent giggles” on social media since the pandemic shut everything else down.

Down in the Youngpreneurs Tent, kids under 18 ran their own booths. By the time most vendors had hit their stride, some of the young sellers were already sold out. Their offerings included lemonade, fresh pasta, watermelon juice, fishing flies, hand-dipped candles, plant hangers, suncatchers, trading cards, and wood crafts. One vendor was four years old, making suncatchers.

Raylan sold hand-tied fishing flies next to his buddy Cyress who was selling colorful headbands.

Kiana and Alayah ran a lemonade stand at the Youngpreneurs Tent, one of more than a dozen young vendors who turned Saturday’s Farm Flea into their own small business showcase.

The farm at 6786 Rohnerville Road has been a gathering place for longer than the Binleys have owned it. The property sits on land with deep roots in the Eel River Valley. The route that ran from Southern Humboldt through Hydesville and on to Eureka was once a mail route and later a stage line, with stops every 15 to 20 miles for riders and horses. Linda said the farmhouse itself dates to around 1850 and that the property was once a stagecoach stop.

The town, named Hydesville for John Hyde who donated the land it was built on, was temporarily called Goose Prairie between 1910 and 1918 before the original name came back. That old name is the one the Binleys chose for the farm when they bought it in 2022.

Farm Flea patrons enjoying the spring flowers around the self-serve Gosling.

Before them came Charlou and Jeremy Weaver, a Mennonite couple who ran the property as Riverside Produce and the Olde Farmhouse Bakery, becoming locally known for their cinnamon rolls, cookies, pies, berries, and vegetables.

The Binleys had actually shopped there, before it was theirs. “We had come here with the grandkids when the Mennonites owned it,” Linda said.

That’s really the beginning of the story. Linda and her husband Wade had spent their lives in Southern California. Wade built a chiropractic and functional medicine practice in Dana Point. Linda worked as a freelance copywriter, ghostwriter, and editor, and eventually published her own novel, Beach Glass.

They raised three daughters there. When their daughter Rachel and her husband Brandon moved to Humboldt County with their four kids, the grandparents started making the trip north. “They dared to move up here away from me,” Linda said, laughing — “the best four grandchildren in the world, of course.”

“Every time we came up here we’re like, what are we doing down there,” Linda said.

Renovated Blues let patrons craft their own Gnome in Build-a-Bear style with upcycled denim.

She made a vision board. Four quadrants: health, wealth, relationships, and where she wanted to live. What she drew was a farmhouse, not too far from town but not in it, with enough land to grow things. Then she started looking at real estate. “I’m in trouble,” she thought.

They put Wade’s practice up for sale and moved north in 2022, buying the Weavers’ former property. Neither of them had farmed before, beyond ripping out the lawn at their Southern California house and filling the front yard with galvanized tubs. The learning curve, Linda said, was steep.

“The first year was really hard because we were trying to do everything,” she said.

Goose Prairie Farm leases its fields out, while the Binleys focus on running the stand and bakery. Rows of flowers offer a u-pick option for visitors to the Hydesville property.

They found their footing by leaning into what they’re good at. They now lease the fields while they run the stand. Wade drives to Turlock once a week to pick up stone fruit, melons, and corn from another family farm, filling out the shelves before local crops come in. The farm’s own chickens — fed organic, corn- and soy-free — produce eggs sold through the honor-system kiosk, The Gosling, which also carries pies, cake, and granola. The Binleys also carry goods from area producers, welcoming locals who show up with figs or blueberries and want to put them on the shelf.

The big farm stand opens for its fourth season Wednesday, July 3, running Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Farm Flea, Linda said, came from a lifelong habit of garage selling sailing and a passion that was getting out of hand. “My husband one day stands in the driveway and goes, ‘You’re not coming in until all that junk is sold.'” She ended up at her friend Billy the antique dealer’s place, sold the load, and realized she’d found a second career as a picker.

Booths showcased a variety of wares from home decor to plants, from picnic table for kids to clothing.

“I always said if I ever had a farm I’m going to have some antique vintage junk in there to justify my shopping,” she said with a chuckle.

Now the Farm Flea is its own thing, drawing people from across the county and beyond, and it’s hard to miss: Linda puts up signs and, in her words, “posts like a crazy woman.”

She and Wade are still finding their footing in Humboldt after years of knowing everyone and everything in Southern California. Trading Dana Point for Hydesville meant leaving behind the convenience and the connections that come with spending a lifetime in one place. “I’m not gonna say it’s not lonely,” she said. “But we’ve got a rhythm going.”

The trade-off, she said, is worth it. The traffic is gone. The pace is different. And the farm has become its own kind of social glue — people come to shop and end up lingering, telling Linda things, coming back.

“Some places are kind of like a nexus for connection,” she said. “The community has just adopted this.”

Goose Prairie Farm’s big farm stand opens Wednesday, July 3. Find them at gooseprairiefarms.com or on Facebook.