The Heart & The Harvest: Rooted in Vaca Love, Grown at Lockewood Acres

McGuire Grounded: Where people, place, and local food come together each Wednesday.

Long before our doors opened on that first Wednesday morning, one person was already weaving the threads that would become the soul of McGuire Grounded: Traci Foderaro.

If you’ve ever been here, you’ve felt her presence — even if you didn’t realize it.

Behind the scenes, Traci is pure, delightful chaos — the ADHD queen of “I’ve got it!” who shows up armed with labels, price tags, lamination machines, tape, tote bags, and a million ideas she cant get out of her brain fast enough. She moves fast, thinks faster, and leaves behind a breadcrumb trail of creativity that is as unmistakable as it is endearing. Her mess is magic — bold, brave, and entirely her own — and we would not trade it for anything.

And truly, McGuire Grounded wouldn’t be what it is today without that magic.

A Builder of Community Long Before Grounded Existed

For more than a decade, Traci has been a cornerstone of our real estate family — an intuitive, big-hearted Realtor who embodies her own brand: Vaca Love — “Love Where You Live.”

Vaca Love began as her way of connecting with her clients - celebrating the people, places, and soul of Vacaville. Through her posts, events, and stories, she built a movement around hometown pride and community connection. It was never just real estate branding — it was her heart on display.

As McGuire Grounded blossomed, her Vaca Love spirit naturally expanded into something new: Support Our Farmers — by Vaca Love.

If you’ve seen the hats, totes, or merchandise sprinkled throughout our displays (or on half the town lately), that’s her. It’s her way of uplifting the people who nourish us, giving our community a way to proudly support the hands that feed it.

The Soul Behind the Scenes

Traci’s passion for clean food and local agriculture is not an afterthought — it is the quiet engine behind our success. She’s the one calling farmers, welcoming artisans, organizing inventory, and showing up every Wednesday with the kind of devotion only a mom, a believer, and a community-builder could bring. She is the one who makes it all feel like home.

And it is relationships like these — nurtured with care, consistency, and genuine love — that brought farmers like Ben and Denise Lyons of Lockewood Acres into the McGuire Grounded family.

SPOTLIGHT: Lockewood Acres — A Family Farm Rooted in Resilience

Ben and Denise Lyons started their 9-acre family farm in Vacaville during one of the hardest chapters of their lives. After the 2010 downturn left them struggling to find work and worried about feeding their family, Ben turned to farming.

“It was more out of self-sustainability as opposed to being a farmer, and then it just grew into a whole lot more,” he said.

Ben had studied to be a veterinarian and worked everything from construction and glass work to selling custom stuffed animals at state fairs and rodeos. Denise, meanwhile, works as a criminalist supervisor in the Solano County District Attorney’s Office. Their shift into farming emerged from grit, faith, and an old 1954 publication on the benefits of earthworms and self-sustaining agriculture.

Inspired, they invested everything. “We pretty much invested all we had and built the rest on Craigslist and garage sales,” Ben said. “The first piece of brand-new equipment I bought was a wagon, and it cost $150.”

Their farm is truly a family operation:

• Ben grows the produce,

• Denise manufactures their value-added products,

• Their daughter designs all the labels,

• And every once in a while, their grandson jumps in to help.

Lockewood Acres offers an impressive array of handcrafted treasures:

• pomegranate jelly

• shrubs and syrups

• an award-winning pomegranate–merlot jelly

• red and white wine vinegars

• spiced elderberry herb syrup (with local honey)

• kombucha kits

• roasted garlic salt

• brandywine tomato salt

• garlic scape salt

• sriracha pepper salt made from their own peppers

And they’re always experimenting, always adding new creations. They are considering adding a CSA box to their offerings in 2026.

They are also strong advocates for the small-farm community, working with the Pleasants Valley Ag Association to push for more accessible regulations.

“There needs to be a graduated permit standard in order to bring things in compliance without breaking the bank,” Ben explains — a powerful truth many small farmers feel.

Certified organic in 2012, Lockewood Acres embodies everything McGuire Grounded stands for: resilience, creativity, family, and local nourishment.

And it is exactly these kinds of vendors that Traci tirelessly champions.

Rooted in Faith & Family

Outside the farm stand, Traci is a dedicated wife and a loving mom to two incredible kids — roles she cherishes with her whole heart. Her journey of faith guides her choices, fuels her service, and anchors her in a kind of love that shows up in everything she touches.

The Truth We All Know

McGuire Grounded has become a gathering place to purchase clean local food straight from the harvest — for new moms, farmers, grandparents, teenagers, and long-time locals — because of people whose lives reflect both heart and harvest.

Traci brings the heart.

Ben brings the harvest.

And together, they represent exactly what McGuire Grounded is meant to be.

Community movements aren’t built on perfect plans.

They’re built on devotion, grit, humor, resilience, and the willingness to show up before the sun and stay until the lights go off.

They’re built on people whose mess is magic, and whose magic grows into something bigger than themselves.

So this month, we honor them both —

Traci, whose love for people shapes the soul of our Wednesdays,

and Ben, whose family’s story and offerings shape the flavor of what fills our tables.

Come support both Traci and Ben at McGuire Grounded, every Wednesday at 548 Main Street between 1pm and 5pm.