The History of Pie Ranch

In 2002, three founding partners—Nancy Vail, Jered Lawson, and Karen Heisler—purchased a triangular 14-acre property on California’s San Mateo coast to establish Pie Ranch. The shape of the land, and their shared vision to create a model center of sustainable farming and food system education, inspired the farm’s distinctly fitting name.

Since 2005, Pie Ranch has operated as a working farm, hosting youth from regional high schools to participate in farm-based programs and activities. Pie Ranch also works with educators and community collaborators in diverse urban, suburban and rural settings to help students apply what they’ve learned at Pie Ranch in their daily lives. In addition, Pie Ranch mentors aspiring farmers as resident apprentices who spend a full year immersed in all aspects of farm operations and marketing.

Why Pie?

We call ourselves Pie Ranch for several reasons:

• The ranch is in the shape of a slice of pie.
• Pie, with all its ingredients and associations, is a great means for understanding how food comes from the land to our tables.
• The promise of pie will encourage city youth and adults to come discover the beauty and importance of rapidly disappearing farms to the future of people in the Bay Area, our food security, health and our understanding and appreciation of life and nature.
• Pie Ranch is a place for “pie in the sky” idealistic thinking to guide social change, such as helping an urban school source local produce for their cafeteria; or a neighborhood to get their “slice of the pie” to ensure access to high quality fresh, locally grown foods. We create meaningful and measurable change toward sustainable communities. We believe enjoyable and thoughtful engagement with good food can bring individuals, families and institutions–from children to school boards– together to create a more healthful and just society.

The Pie Ranch Team

Our team comes to this work with many years of experience in organic, diversified food production, non-profit program development, farm-based education and small-farm advocacy, as well as public service and community organizing.

Jered Lawson, Executive Director

Jered has been linking communities with local farms since 1990. He initiated and coordinated Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs at the Homeless Garden Project and the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS). Jered also initiated and coordinated a statewide CSA advocacy, outreach, and educational program for the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF).

In 1995, he organized a Western Region CSA conference that brought together over 450 farmers, consumers, educators, and agency representatives. Jered worked with Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley for three years (1999-2001) and again for CAFF until 2005 to launch their Farm-to-School programs, Food Policy Councils, and buy local campaigns. Jered is an avid photographer and writer, contributing to publications of the Center for Food Safety, the International Forum on Globalization and the Community Food Security Coalition.

Jered has published interviews and writing in the books Farms of Tomorrow (1998) and Sharing the Harvest (1999), as well as a report of how Live Power Community Farm permanently protected their land as a sustainable farm. Currently, Jered splits his time between caring for his children, Lucas and Rosa, and this nascent educational farm.

Pei-Yee Woo, Operations Manager

As the Operations Manager, Pei-Yee serves as the business manager for the organization, providing guidance and support to the director on business and financial systems establishment and support for all farm-based and off-site programs and functions. Pei-Yee brings a decade of nonprofit experience and education to her work with Pie Ranch. Prior to joining the Pie Ranch community she had been working with local environmental nonprofits as a consultant while also pursuing her love of sweets by starting up a small pastry company, Dulcinea. She also worked with NatureBridge, a organization dedicated to providing science and environmental education in nature’s classroom and inspiring the next generation of environmental leaders, where she designed and managed youth leadership and teacher professional development programs and raising the funds to support these efforts. She is passionate about empowering young people to be active leaders in their environment and communities. Pei-Yee graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College with a degree in Visual Arts and Art History and received her M.A. in Teaching from the University of San Francisco. Today her favorite pie is pumpkin. Tomorrow…maybe pear and raspberry!

Nancy Vail, Farm Programs Director

Nancy is a broadly experienced sustainable food systems farmer, advocate and educator. She managed UCSC’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) from 1998 until 2008 where she trained forty apprentices a year in organic food production and the workings of CSA.

She was a contributing writer to the Center’s two training manuals, Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening and Teaching Direct Marketing & Small Farm Viability. Additionally, Nancy was the Farm-to-College Coordinator at CASFS from 2005-2008 where she engaged university students in activities and classes at the campus Farm and connected the campus Farm & other local farms’ produce with the campus dining halls. Prior to her work at the Center, Nancy apprenticed on a number of farms in Japan, New Zealand, Maine, New York and Illinois.

Nancy splits her time between Pie Ranch and caring for her children Lucas and Rosa. She also enjoys playing fiddle with the band The County Line Pickers.

Mary Ann Brooks, Urban Youth Development Coordinator

As the Urban Youth Development Coordinator, Mary Ann works with Mission High School and John O’Connell High School to collaborate with teachers and administrators to develop program goals, structure, and targets; works alongside youth to teach and model healthy relationships with food, work, and one another; cultivates leadership within student community to set priorities for bringing healthy change in community; and grows the relationship with Pie Ranch to improve access for the whole school community to the physical and cultural context of farming.

Mary Ann Brooks is a youth educator, organic gardener, outdoor educator and artist. Her adventures have led her from California’s back country mountain ranges to dance studios in New Zealand. A seasoned educator and artist, she has directed after school arts programming and taught urban gardening for over thirteen years. In 2001 she completed the apprenticeship at the UC Santa Cruz Farm & Garden where she served as an assistant teacher.  She continues to teach yoga, perform and garden with youth in San Francisco.

The History of Steele Ranch

[Adapted from The Natural History of Año Nuevo, Le Boeuf and Kaza, Eds. 1981].

The parcel is situated in an area rich in natural & cultural history. From the mating grounds of elephant seals, to the fresh water streams where salmon run, the area is known for its diversity of habitats for animal, bird and plant species. For thousands of years the rich resources of the Año Nuevo region sustained one of the largest Native American communities in the Monterey Bay region. Knowledge of their culture comes to us from early travelers, Spanish missionaries, settlers in the area, and artifacts which can still be found today at old village sites.

In 1861, Isaac Steele rented a horse in San Francisco and rode south to Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo, searching for lands to expand his family’s dairy operation. On first look, he proclaimed the area “cow heaven” and immediately arranged for a ten year lease with an option to buy the southern portion of the rancho. It must have been love at first sight, for there was never any question that the Steeles would take up the option to buy.

Isaac immediately began building his home at Green Oaks Creek and moved into it in 1862. Catherine B. Steele, Isaac’s granddaughter inherited the property after Isaac’s death in 1903. It wasn’t until 1981 that the land was sold and held until now. With initial help from the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), the land has been removed from the speculative market. POST has empowered Pie Ranch to launch a capital campaign to permanently protect the site.