History and Vision
Pie Ranch was founded on the desire to cultivate deeper relationships between people and the land. Our work strengthens these relationships through care, sustainability, and shared stewardship. Pie Ranch’s Mission is to cultivate a nourishing food system from seed to table through food education, farmer pathways and regional partnerships.
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 nutrient dense food accessible to Bay Area communities; create space for joy and celebration; and build a beloved community through collaborative partnerships.
In 2008 we established our first active Board of Directors, and 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 the1860's. We received our 501c3 tax-exempt status from the IRS in 2009, and completed our purchase of the historic ranch in 2012. We earned our organic certification in 2012.
Pie Ranch is situated on the unceded lands of the Quiroste Tribe. As there are no known living descendants of the Quiroste, the lands at Pie Ranch are tended in their honor. For 12 years (2014-2026) Pie Ranch had a formal partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMTB/AMLT) with the goal of bringing back traditional Indigenous land stewardship to these lands, welcoming all Indigenous peoples and allies to join us. The AMTB/AMLT are now focusing their efforts in their traditional Mutsun territory, but Pie Ranch continues to work in solidarity with the AMTB/AMLT and all Indigenous peoples and to teach about the history and current stories of these lands along with native plant stewardship, demonstrating how to weave together traditional ecological stewardship with regenerative organic crop production.
Our youth education program began in 2005 as a partnership with Mission High School in San Francisco. In its first year the Youth Program served 50 students through repeat visits; it now reaches over 1000 young people annually from three different partner schools and dozens of communities throughout the Bay Area. In 2006, Pie Ranch began hosting its first Farm Apprentices and Interns. As of August 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.
Early in 2018 we secured a 10-year lease at Cascade Ranch, a neighboring 416-acre farm. Here we have developed a climate resilient farm that weaves together traditional ecological knowledge with regenerative agriculture practices. Between 2019 and 2026, the Native Seed Project at Cascade successfully cultivated more than 250,000 plants. This initiative, a collaborative restoration effort between Pie Ranch and the AMTB/AMLT, focused on revitalizing the Coastside landscape through extensive replanting projects. Today, Cascade is home to 4 regenerator farms.
Read more about our Values in Practice
The years 2021-2023 were spent building back from the impacts of COVID-19, the 2020 wildfires, and the 2023 floods. Pie Ranch continues in its mission to cultivate a nourishing food system from seed to table.
Vision, Mission & Values
Pie Ranch is a working organic farm, an education center and an organization building partnerships for a nourishing food system. We envision a world in which:
All people have access to nutrient dense food, and know and value where their food comes from.
Early stage farmers, ranchers and land stewards from all walks of life have access to knowledge, land and capital to build regenerative farms directly linked to local residents, businesses and schools
Lands are preserved and enhanced for generations to come.
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 Belonging & Collaboration; Love & Respect; Responsible Stewardship & Joy.
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.
