History and Vision

In 2002, three founding partners — Nancy Vail, Jered Lawson, and Karen Heisler — accessed a 14-acre slice of land on California’s San Mateo coast, 55 miles south of San Francisco along Highway 1, in the unceded lands of the Quiroste Tribe. As there are currently no known descendants of the Quiroste, today these lands are tended and cared for in their honor by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Land Trust with whom Pie Ranch is in an ongoing partnership. The AMTB/AMLT invite other indigenous peoples and allies to join them in their efforts.

Pie Ranch's founding partners shared a vision to create a regenerative farming and food system education center to build community; provide a space for healing our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth; steward the land and the environment; sequester carbon through climate friendly farming techniques; engage and employ young people on the land; share resources with new farmers; make healthy food accessible to Bay Area communities; leverage privilege to address systemic racism; dismantle white supremacy and all forms of oppression; create space for joy and celebration; and build a beloved community through strategic partnerships.

We began a youth education program in 2005 as a partnership with Mission High School in San Francisco. In its first year the Youth Program served 50 students; it now reaches over 1000 young people annually from four different partner schools and dozens of communities throughout the Bay Area. Over 6000 participants of all ages engage in food and farming education programs on the ranch each year. In 2006, Pie Ranch began hosting its first Farm Apprentices and Interns and as of January 2020, the year the apprentice program ended, the program had trained over 100 new farmers, the majority of whom are still engaged in farming, gardening, food education, or are working within the food system in some capacity.

In 2008 we established our first active Board of Directors, a group that has evolved to include a diverse range of expertise in social justice, law, finance, education, program design, governance, philanthropy, traditional ecological knowledge, architecture, food and farming. Also in 2008, we launched Phase 1 of a capital campaign to buy an adjacent 13-acre parcel of land, the Steele family's historic Green Oaks Ranch which operated as a dairy farm in the 1860's. We received our 501c3 tax-exempt status from the IRS in 2009, and completed our purchase of the historic ranch in 2012, where renovations will result from Phase 2 of our Capital Campaign. We earned our organic certification in 2012 and our Food Justice Certification & Animal Welfare Approved status in 2014.

Early in 2018 we secured a 10-year lease at Cascade Ranch, a neighboring 416-acre farm. Here we are developing a climate resilient farm that weaves together traditional ecological knowledge in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band with regenerative agriculture practices including row crops and livestock. The Regenerator Program at Cascade Ranch supports new farm business ownership specifically for women, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, People of Color, including the LGBTQIA community and others who have been historically marginalized from equity-building pathways in agriculture.

In 2020 we committed to an ongoing partnership with Be Present Inc with the goal to further examine the impact of race, gender, class, and power issues within our organization and build the Be Present Empowerment Model into the culture of Pie Ranch.

The years 2021-2023 were spent building back from the impacts of COVID-19 and the wildfires, and the flood of January 2023.  Pie Ranch continues to strive toward becoming an antiracist, multiracial organization that cultivates health and justice in the food system.

Vision, Mission & Values

We Envision a World in which:

• Agricultural lands are preserved and enhanced for generations to come.

• Farmers have access to knowledge, land and capital to build sustainable farms directly linked to local residents, businesses, and schools.

• All people have access to healthy food and know and value where their food comes from.

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

Pie Ranch's Values are Justice, Equity, Solidarity, Diversity, Inclusion, Commitment & Collaboration, Love & Respect, and Responsible Stewardship. Read more about our Values and working definitions here. 

Why pie?

We call ourselves Pie Ranch for several reasons:

• The ranch is in the shape of a slice of pie. The triangular shape of the land inspired the farm’s distinctly fitting name and programming around pie as a literal and figurative learning tool.

• 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 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.

• Native environmental activist, Winona LaDuke, has allowed us to use her quote: "We don't want a bigger piece of the pie, we want a different pie." Her words help us to envision what that different pie might look like and inspires us to think critically.