Red Barn Store at Oak Hill Farm

After touring Oak Hill Farm, I shopped at the Red Barn Store. What a treat to step into the cool store after being in the midday sun, and to be met with the intense fragrance of real produce. And how satisfying to see the produce I’d seen in the fields now washed up and presented on the shelves like pieces of art, and ready to be taken home to create flavorful and nutritious meals. Herbs, berries, watermelon, peppers, chard, eggplant, carrots, flowers and bouquets, squash, cucumbers, to name a few, beckoned from the shelves.

Eggplant	Apples
Peppers	Berries

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The Red Barn Store was handling a continual stream of customers. I did my part to contribute. Some of my purchases included a beautiful sunflower bouquet, an assortment of heirloom tomatoes, a bunch of aromatic basil, olive oil (grown and pressed by Lucero Olive Oil with the Oak Hill Farm label), intensely fragrant apples for pie or apple sauce, and fingerling potatoes that look like ginger root and have a wonderful earthy smell. I would have purchased more, but there are only two of us at home now that our son is back to college.

Now I’m ready to make the kitchen smell good with all these fresh, beautiful ingredients, and the lettuce, peas, parsley, and tomatoes from my own little raised bed. Bon appétit!

Oak Hill Farm

I spent a fabulous morning touring Oak Hill Farm in Sonoma County. About 15 of us gathered at the Red Barn off Sonoma Highway at 10:00 a.m., then David Cooper, the farm manager, lead us on a tour of the historic farm’s barn, greenhouse, orchard, and fields. Cooper has degrees in chemical engineering, but decided being stuck in an office was not for him. He's been a farm manager for about four years now.

David Cooper leads the tour	Beehives on the hill
Basil, melon, sweet potato, squash	The barn

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The farm is beautifully situated – surrounded with oak and mixed evergreen forest. We learned about the farm’s organic and sustainable farming methods, which have been in place since the 1950s when the owners purchased the farm. They grow a whole array of fruits and vegetables, rather than planting a single crop. They practice crop rotation, plant cover crops to enrich and protect the soil between plantings, and allow a beekeeper to keep beehives on the property (honey for him, pollinators for Oak Hill Farm). The property is alive with bees and birds (and gets its share of pests in the form of deer, crows, squirrels, and gophers).

The produce is sold directly to several restaurants in San Francisco, at Farmers’ Markets (Ferry Terminal and Jack London Village), through CSA subscriptions, and at the Red Barn on the property. The tour is offered the first Saturday of the month. It is a great opportunity to see a farm in operation, and spend some time surrounded by beauty, growing things, and the natural world. To learn more: http://www.oakhillfarm.net/.

Planning a Farm Trail Adventure

I love an expedition, and Sonoma County Farm Trails offers eight of them. Download their Map and Guide PDF from the Farm Trails web site, and start planning: http://www.farmtrails.org/map-guide/. Pick a region, pick a vendor, or pick a product, and go from there.

The Sonoma Valley region looks inviting (and close – around 56 miles from us). It is also known as  the Valley of the Moon, and is close to the ruins of Jack London’s Wolf House. I see several interesting options – an alpaca ranch, several wineries, a farm that offers a tour the first Saturday of the month, another farm that sells heirloom tomatoes at a roadside stand, and an artisan cheese manufacturer.

Goat herd resting in the heat of the day

Searching through the vendor descriptions, I learn more about what they offer – weaving and spinning supplies, CSA subscriptions, puppies, farm stays, eggs, herbs, honey, wreathes, soap, and so on. I could easily shop for the week, and start my Christmas shopping early. And this is just one of the eight regions!