Pinnacle Ranch

The Saturday morning Farm Stand is amazing! They have a wide variety of organic produce available in one place at very affordable prices. I’m so happy to be able to buy directly from a grower and support a great local ranch!

This farm stand is out of the way, but if you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth the detour. Living in San Francisco, I was surprised by the low prices and the freshness of the organic produce. The people managing the stand were very friendly too.

I don’t like apple juice but just drank some from this grower and it’s unbelievably delcious. I could drink the entire 32 oz bottle right now! I want more!

We just returned home from our weekly Saturday morning jaunt from Aromas to the Pinnacles Farm Stand outside San Juan Bautista. The produce is right out of the organic fields: juicy, fresh, organic and cheap. We’re fans. Thanks to Phil Foster we eat well and stay within the budget. I was just munching on a carrot while my husband rinsed greens, saying «This is the best carrot I’ve had in my life. I never even knew that carrots could taste so good. Sweet, juicy, crunchy!» I grew up with old, dried out carrots, and could never see the charm. Well, Phil’s carrots are Charming! And my husband said, «it sounds like a Unilocal review.» So I’m letting you know about it, just don’t buy up all my Kale.

No fuss, basic produce stand with a great variety of exceptionally fresh organic produce. The prices are reasonable.

I am finally willing to let the secret out:
For the freshest, most delicious, largest variety of and economical organic produce, head to the Pinnacle Organic Ranch’s Saturday farmstand at 400 Duncan Ave., in the fields surrounding San Juan Bautista.
The farmstand is open Saturdays from 8 am to 1 pm year-​round. The broad variety of seasonable produce changes weekly. And the prices are amazing. Check out the website at
.
About to start caramelizing onions and fennel. Yum!

Phil Foster (
) is a very unique type of farmer.
In listening to him he explains to us how many believe that California farm workers are some of the most overworked and under appreciated workers in the state and how that is not the case at the Pinnacle Ranch. Phil is a different type of employer in the farming industry. He’s quite well known among his peers as somebody who takes care of his workers. The workers who are employed at Phil Foster’s Pinnacle Ranch farming communities in San Juan Bautista (50 acres) and in Hollister (200 acres) enjoy a wide range of benefits including fair wages and medical coverage.
Phil Foster runs his farms in a very notable fashion as well. His farms are some of the most environmentally concious in the state using solar power for electricity and recycled well water for irrigating his crops. He produces 2000 pounds of compost (
) annually for use on his crops, uses cover crops to add nutrients to the soil of specific types of crops and recycles as much used products as possible. All of the farm’s vehicles are run on recycled biodiesel fuels. His farm is certified organic in the state of California and he is quite proud about the exclusive ways his farm is run.
This past weekend Phil took a few hours out from his busy schedule to offer a group of us a very unique tour of his farm in San Juan Bautista. His farms are currently in its 21^st season of being certified organic. That’s a lot longer than most. The farms feature over 60 varieties in crops and they sell mostly everything themselves at 11 farmers markets within a 100 mile radius of the farm. At the San Juan Bautista farm 45 workers are employed with 25 to 30 workers present on most days except Sundays which he allows most of his workers to take off.
Some of the tour focused in on a series of structures (
) that he built onto the property some 8 to 12 years ago. These buildings house his offices in addition to cooler rooms where much of the harvested crops are stored. The crops grown at the San Juan Bautista farm are mostly winter crops such as leafy vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, celery (
), cilantro, lettuce, leeks (
) and fennel. There are two varieties of strawberries on the farm, and Phil was quite generous in allowing our tour group to walk through his strawberry fields to pick and sample the fresh Albion (
) and CG3 (
) varieties of berries (
).
As we walked throughout his farm he stopped at different crop rows to give us tidbits of information on soil management and pest control. When we arrived upon his apple orchard Phil offered his generosity once again by asking us to pick some of the Braeburn apples (
) from his trees to sample. Three types of apples are harvested on this farm, but Phil admitted that the Braeburn variety is among his favorites. Phil also explained to us that in the past most of his apples have been sold to Martinelli’s for juicing, but beginning this season the ranch will be developing their own brand of apple juices to be sold exclusively at their farmers market locations.
For the tour we basically covered the majority of his current crops ending at his cherry orchard where he explained why his cherry trees are all cut down so low. He does this so his workers don’t need to climb on ladders in order to pick the fruit. In addition he explained how nets are used to cover each tree during the cherry harvesting season to keep birds and insects from eating his fruit.
For a list of farmers markets where you can find crops from the Pinnacle Ranch click on this link (
).
For additional photos of our farm tour you can view my photo album at (
).