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Stanley Ward, also known as “Farmer Stanley”, came to Tilden’s Little Farm three years ago. 

“Things were a bit run down,” Ward admitted, “and there was room for improvement.” 

But now, an increased sense of order and care permeate the Little Farm that sits in the Berkeley hills off of Grizzly Peak Boulevard. Ward’s knowledge experience and hard work have made their mark. Fences are renewed and sturdy, animals gambol “oink” and “quack” in clean pens and reseeded pastures.  

Ward’s animal farm, operated by East Bay Regional Parks, has provided Berkeley families a chance to learn about small farming for decades. There is no cost and the farm is open during regular park hours. With Ward tending the farm five days a week, there’s a good chance you’ll see Ward hard at work. 

“This is just the kind of work I enjoy,” he said. “I like being outdoors, I enjoy meeting the public, and I like working with nice breeds of animals on a small scale. (Because it’s a park,) I don’t have to squeeze profit out of the animals.” 

When asked how many animals he had at the farm, Ward said confidently, “19 hens, 2 roosters, 5 geese, 11 ducks, 5 female goats, 1 male goat, 16 female sheep, 2 rams, 3 cows-one is away at the bull to be bred, 2 calves, 2 pigs, 4 turkeys, and 2 rabbits, because the others were stolen, there should be 8.” 

Ward grew up in London and as a young boy had an interest in farming. His mother bought him the “Farmer’s Weekly” magazine. Ward took part in youth camps descended from the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry and was quickly introduced to the English countryside. 

At age 15, Ward became disillusioned with the state schooling he was receiving in London, he said, and left to hitchhike around Great Britain. Since he was good at carpentry, he found carpentry jobs and helped farmers with their hay harvests. He learned to shear sheep and became so good at shearing that he traveled to remote farms in Wales shearing as many as 280 sheep in an eight hour work day. 

In Wales, Ward later attended an agricultural college, becoming technically and practically trained in Animal Husbandry and Grassland Production. 

On holidays Ward liked to travel, sometimes to Ireland, sometimes farther a field; eventually he visited Sri Lanka. There he led bird safaris in wildlife sanctuaries and National Parks throughout India. In India he met his wife, Raju, who is from Orinda. 

This brought him to California in 1990 and, for several years, he studied geography and cartography at San Francisco State while working as a carpenter and landscape gardener. In 1998 he was hired by the East Bay Regional Parks as a carpenter and became the farmer at the Little Farm in 1999. 

One of Ward’s greatest accomplishments at the farm is his successful breeding program last year. He bred lambs, kids, calves and one litter of six piglets. One visitor, an Albany grandmother who brings her grandsons as often as possible, came to the farm last spring. They saw a nanny goat lick her just-born kid, and watched curly haired lambs leaping four feet into the air. The woman’s grandsons have stout boots like Ward and sometimes come to the park as much as twice a day.  

Over the past year, teachers and children alike have petted the real life versions of Wilbur, the pig from “Charlotte’s Web.” “Pigs are the most popular thing with the public, especially the baby pigs,” Ward said.  

Unfortunately, due to staffing restraints, the result of financial cut backs in the East Bay Regional Park system, the breeding program will not be possible this year. Ward has other goals. Among them, he would like to have a stronger educational emphasis. He believes urban and suburban people need more information about farming and the problems of real farmers. He thinks they should be educated about where their food is coming from and what is going on to produce it. 

Ward and his wife Raju are now raising their three-year-old daughter in Orinda so Ward intends to stay at the Little Farm for many years to come.