Pie Ranch's Mission is to cultivate a healthy and just food system from seed to table through food education, farmer training, and regional partnerships.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pie Ranch pivoted to compiling and distributing local, organic produce boxes to Bay Area families experiencing food insecurity through the Farm Fresh Food Relief initiative. Learn how the project has grown and changed, and where we plan to go from here.

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Our Programs

FOOD EDUCATION

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FARMER TRAINING

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REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

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Connect With Us

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FARM STAND

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WORK DAY & BARN DANCE

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VOLUNTEERING

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Follow us on Instagram: pie_ranch

View fullsize Help us support one of our community partners, the UCSC Arboretum! With a 135 acre living museum full of rare and unique plant species, dedicated staff, committed volunteers, and a voluminous history of contributing to conservation research, @ucscarboretum inspires botanical stewardship in students, the community, and the world at large. ⠀ Rick Flores frequently guides volunteers at Pie Ranch volunteer days, and he has asked us to help spread the word about a matching grant fundraiser at the Arboretum. "UCSC students have been here laboring, learning, interning, and sharing their knowledge far and wide since 1966. For many, their time here at the Arboretum has been a life-changing experience. Many visitors have complimented us on how well-maintained our gardens are, and this would not be possible without the consistent hard work of our students. Unlike most units on campus, we continued to pay our students through the COVID lockdown and the weeks of closure from the fires. We depend on our student workers in so many vital ways, and now we need your assistance to keep them. We need $100,000 to cover our current number of students through June 2021." Ray Collett has offered to match $50,000 of funds raised. ⠀ Please consider giving to support this important community pillar at UCSC, and be sure to visit their botanical gift shop during the holidays! You can find more details on their page @ucscarboretum 🌿
View fullsize Pre-order your pie for your thankful feasts. This year we have Pumpkin, Apple Streusel, and Pecan for ya’ll. ⠀ The Farmstand will be open Wednesday, November 25th from 10-4pm with pre-ordered pies, plus our farmstand favorite pickles, preserves, and grains for your small, seasonal celebrations. ⠀ We will have a limited selection of retail and frozen pies for first come, first served pickup. Orders close Friday November 20th 4pm- so place your order today with the link in our bio. ⠀ Also, our Farmstand will be closed next week on the 26th and 27th.
View fullsize “As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants ⠀ While our wildfire losses are immense, fortunately all was not lost and actually much was revealed. Fire showed its cleansing powers, but the earth is here still. ⠀ From our beginnings, Pie Ranch sought to heal our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the earth. Since 2005, we have been dedicated to sharing the land’s abundance with thousands of young people, aspiring farmers, and nurturing partnerships to build a healthy and just food system. ⠀ Through each challenge in 2020, our commitment to health and justice grows stronger as we actualize our beautiful vision of a multiracial community of growers and eaters along the coast from San Francisco to Santa Cruz: Black, Indigenous, People of Color, women, LGBTQIA folks, and others who have been denied the possibility of tending the earth and owning their own land-based businesses and homes. I know you can see it too! Let’s realize this vision now! ⠀ So we are calling on each one of you to act with care and urgency. Every contribution from $1 - $1 million will actualize our mission and bring the healing needed for our earth and peoples. Your Regeneration & Emergence Gift will help Pie Ranch be a thriving center for food and farming education as we focus on rebuilding so we can eventually welcome school groups back to this land; your support will keep our farmstand open with diverse food offerings; your care will assist the Cascade Regenerator Project become a great example of food sovereignty; your generosity will help continue our food hub, getting nutrient-dense foods to the most vulnerable communities. ⠀ Please visit our Support Page or simply use the DONATE button to contribute to our next regeneration phase. You can also find the link for our Regeneration + Emergence Campaign in our Instagram bio. Thank you for your reciprocal part in this great healing.
View fullsize We’re pretty excited about @lunariaflowerfarm’s pop up at the farm stand today from 12-4. Come see all the beautiful dried flower wreaths and everlasting bouquets 🌼
View fullsize A look at the process of harvesting our wheat 🌾 ⠀ Here’s Leonard, our director of farm operations, driving the combine out in the field. In this first stage of the harvest the grain is funneled into the combine where it gets threshed. Swipe to see the jammu wheat collecting in the hopper. ⠀ We celebrated the harvest with gratitude, thankful to still have grain from the land this year despite the fire.
View fullsize One piece of the puzzle in trying to create sustainable regional food networks is growing grain. This is our jammu wheat. Each year we plant these tiny wheat berries from our saved seed. The jammu we grow is not only farmed and harvested here, it’s also winnowed and milled right on the farm. This heirloom grain will be used to make our baked goods, and it’s one of the reasons that the pies and pastries we offer are truly farm-to-table.
View fullsize It feels like fall at Pie Ranch! There are lots of crops in season, including apples, pears, and grains. Plus, pumpkins are here, and they’re locally and sustainably grown 🚜 #pieranch #organicpumpkins #supportlocalfarms
View fullsize Are you interested in lending your labor to Pie Ranch? We have received so many beautiful messages and donations after the fire, and we recently decided to open our barn doors to folks to come out and help on the farm! Volunteers come and work on the land Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays and the occasional Saturday-- harvesting produce, weeding, assisting at the Farmstand, and preparing our land for a winter of restoration and rebuilding. All farm activities are capped at less than 15 participants and we take the utmost caution to ensure that proper safety and sanitation measures are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Check the link in our bio to learn how to sign up to come and volunteer at the farm.
View fullsize The Agricultural Justice Project @agjusticeproject aims to make Food Justice Certification FREE for smaller independent family or community farms, BIPOC-led and immigrant farmworker-led farms, and local, independent, small retailer grocers or food co-ops. In their own words: The Agricultural Justice Project supports and recognizes farmworkers, farmers, and food system stakeholders who are making the vision of justice in the food system a reality. AJP’s Food Justice Certification program is directed and governed by farmworkers, farmers, and food system workers. They decided what a fair farm or fair business is. This is empowerment. This is sovereignty and the rules for being Food Justice Certified enable workers on these farms and at these businesses to have the POWER to negotiate and the SECURITY that living wages, right to organize and protection from retaliation as well as transparency of terms and training in their legal rights bring. Food Justice Certified farms and businesses invest time and resources to uphold the standards on top of the certification that verifies their adherence to the standards, because they believe in justice and our mutually interdependent wellbeing and they know that fair washing claims and meaningless internal corporate responsibility programs are all too common. Please consider supporting the AJP during their kickoff fundraiser to provide more access to Food Justice Certifications! They are reserving at least 25% of this social justice fund specifically for BIPOC owned farms, BIPOC-led community farms, and immigrant farmworker owned and led farms. We are inspired by this commitment to justice. As a Food Justice Certified farm, we would love to see more farms able to obtain this important certification!
View fullsize We know climate change is responsible, in part, for increased wildfire frequency and intensity on our California coastline. The fire in August affected many of us on the Coastside, including all of the community here at Pie Ranch. Join the coast community on October 15th at 6pm for an upcoming, interactive workshop with the county of San Mateo and the City of Half Moon Bay on how to reduce the emissions (for example pollution from driving and powering our homes) that lead to climate change. By attending you’ll enter a raffle to receive a gift card to a local restaurant or grocery store! Do you live in Half Moon Bay, Montara, Moss Beach, Princeton By-the-Sea, El Granada, Miramar, La Honda, San Gregorio, or Pescadero? Register at the link in our bio, and also check out other upcoming workshops from San Mateo County including a climate workshop with Heirs to Our Oceans on October 17th, and workshop for Senior Coastsiders Combating Climate Change on October 21st. This is an opportunity to make your voice heard and stand up for the future of our coastline. @cityofhmb @sanmateocounty @visit_smc_sv @sustainsmc photo by @karacapaldophotography
View fullsize Today begins our pumpkin season. Our pumpkin pies and pumpkin patch are here for you, at the Farmstand! 🥧 Delicious pumpkin pies baked to perfection by @companionbakeshop 🎃 Organically grown @brisaranch pumpkins are for sale too!
View fullsize Speaking of community support, @offthegridsf teamed up with us to provide meals for firefighters and essential workers in the area during the fires. Here are a few photos from when the Off the Grid team came out to Pie to see the damage as well as the abundance of food on the land.

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