The Nakata Family celebrates a century of stewardship on Bainbridge Island
John and Pauline Nakata waved goodbye to their granddaughter, Susan, until she disappeared down the road every time she left their house on Bainbridge Island. She and her sister Julie were there five days a week during the summer, catching crickets, climbing trees, and helping their grandmother hang laundry. But every time their mother picked her up, her grandparents stood in the driveway, waving until she faded from sight. Today, Susan Allen is the Executive Director of Brand Development for Town & Country Markets and the land her grandparents lived on is called MiddleField Farm.
The land was first purchased in 1924, by John’s parents, Japanese immigrants Jitsuzo and Shima Nakata. They raised seven children on the land, including John and his brother Mo, with whom he started Town & Country Markets in 1957. Today, three generations of the Nakata Family still live on the land, produce grown there is sold at Town & Country Markets, and Susan sees her grandparents’ natural hospitality as one of the many ways that her family’s traditions, culture, and homestead are woven into the fabric of the company.
A Land Built on Trust
In 1924, using money saved from Jitsuzo’s $1.30 a day job at the Port Blakely Mill and Shima’s barbershop, bathhouse, and laundry business, the Nakatas hoped to purchase a 15-acre strawberry farm. But Alien Land Laws passed in many Western states in the early 20th century prevented Japanese immigrants from purchasing land.
To buy the parcel on Wyatt Way, the Nakatas put their trust in the Nakao family, whose oldest son was a U.S. born citizen of legal age, to purchase the land for them. Four years later, when John Nakata reached legal age, the Nakaos upheld their end of the agreement and transferred the land.
In 1942, President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 mandated internment of all Japanese Americans. With just 10 days’ notice, the Nakatas and much of their community were uprooted and forced into camps. Though John Nakata sold his business, the Eagle Harbor Market, the family kept the strawberry farm by entrusting another family with its care, this time the Vadalions, a Filipino family.
A Business Built on Collaboration
The Loveriches, who had owned the Winslow Dock Grocery Store in the 1920s, also helped care for the Nakata’s property. Returning from internment at Manzanar Relocation Center in California, the Nakata Family were relieved to be welcomed home to Winslow, where John’s son Wayne started kindergarten.
Lacking many work options in the post-war landscape, John’s brother Mo and the Loveriches son, Ed, carried on their family legacies in the grocery business, taking over a vacant grocery store, Bainbridge Gardens. John and another Nakata brother, Jerry soon did the same, leasing a store on Capitol Hill, then re-purchasing Eagle Harbor Market. When Bainbridge needed its first supermarket, John, Ed, and Mo pooled their experience and resources and joined together to open Town & Country Market, a product of multiple generations of family friendship and a partnership built on collaboration.
Stewarding a Future
Mo’s four sons and John’s four sons all grew up on the MiddleField Farm property, playing basketball on the hoop out front and flag football in the grass. They splashed in the creek, picked strawberries and cherries, and had friends over for sleepovers on the flat roof. With each generation, Jitsuzo and Shima Nakata’s family grew only closer to the parcel of land on Wyatt Way, now 20 acres.
As the family grew, so did the business: Mo’s sons Ron and Larry Nakata, John’s sons Wayne, Vernon, and Don, and Ed’s children all grew up in the business, and Don eventually became the president of Town & Country Markets, leading its expansion through the 1980s and 90s.
Perseverance and Preservation
When Don Nakata passed away in 2000, he left behind a legacy of love for his family, care for his employees, and a passion for constant improvement. His cousins, Larry and Ron, and daughter, Susan, took his longtime messages to heart.
Larry Nakata spearheaded a movement to bring the old strawberry farm on Bainbridge Island, now divided many times, over many generations, back under a single owner – Town & Country Markets. Though the expansion, combined with the recession of the early 2000s, made the business a less-than-ideal loan recipient, Larry returned to the same principles that guided his parents and grandparents, trusting the bank to see the importance of the land and how the company would be the ideal steward for it.
In 2001, Town & Country Markets took ownership of the original property and named it MiddleField Farm, a literal translation of the family name, Nakata. Larry’s perseverance, like that of his grandfather, meant that the land would be preserved, and, it turned out, returned to its original purpose as a farm.
Leaving a Legacy
Organic farmer Brian McWhorter replenished the soil and restored the land, which now grows produce and flowers that go directly into the stores. At the same time, he works with interns and hopes to grow another generation of farmers, to find someone who can take over farming this special piece of land when he retires.
MiddleField Farm serves as a tangible reminder of the history of the Nakata Family, of what it means to put down roots and stay connected to them. As it tells the story of generations who trusted people and the land, it emphasizes that everybody has a history, some told more than others.
For 100 years, the Nakata Family has lived on and cherished the old strawberry farm. Now, under the stewardship of the company, the farm has transformed into a place that reminds everyone of where their food comes from and of where they come from. It provides a legacy for future generations: a place to grow food and children, to nurture plants and community, a place for the next chapters to be written in the story of MiddleField Farm, the Nakata Family, and Town & Country Markets.
We invite you to bring one of our traditions into your kitchen with this beloved family recipe.