Apples
Our heirloom apples are grown on the Navarro River bottom in Mendocino County. Our 1300 trees range in age from young whips to over 100 year old specimens. The orchard is truly a treasure in an area that is quickly losing its diversity. Morning fog and hot afternoons produce tender skinned and intensely perfumed fruit.Picking and packing are done by hand. The apples are not washed or waxed but are left with their own natural bloom and sent directly to market.
Growing Practices
We envision our farm as a place where soil, plants, animals and people can live together and thrive. In the interests of speaking a common language, any farm claiming to be organic must be certified by a Federally approved Certification Organization. We have been members of CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) for many years.
In a perfect world we would prefer to operate on trust, but the organic world has become increasingly complex as its popularity has increased. We like to think of that popularity as a positive thing even though it has created growing pains for everyone involved. The idea of looking at the farm as a complete organism is central to the practice of biodynamic agriculture, which gives us a good guiding principles. We will continue to work with the concepts of biodynamics, which will probably keep us occupied for the rest of our lives, but we don’t expect to seek biodynamic certification.