The Orchard
'Ohana Farms is nestled against a hillside in the heart of Corralitos, with gorgeous views of the Santa Cruz mountains. The orchard on our property was originally planted in the 1960s by "Apple Bob", a local character and small-time farmer. Some of our older trees are the products of this first planting, and produce unique varieties of red and golden delicious that are almost forgotten, even by the "old timers" that have come to teach us how to be orchardists. Our current list of apple trees in production include: Red and Golden Delicious, Gravenstein, Newtown Pippin, Granny Smith, Jonagold, and Fuji. We plant replacement trees whenever a space opens in the orchard, and due to the recent surge in the need for heirloom apples we will be planting more of these unique varieties of apples in the future.
Although the term "organic" was not yet coined in the 1960s, Apple Bob was one of the first to grow his apples with no chemicals. As a result, when the organic certification organizations did come about, this property was easily added to their list of organic producers. We continue to farm organically, and are a certified organic producer by CCOF. We dry farm our apples and pick them only when truly ripe for exquisite taste and sugar content. Our yearly harvest varies from 20-35 tons of apples depending on that year's rainfall and weather.
Before we bought the property, the apples that were harvested were sold to Martinelli's Award Winning Apple Cider for their well-known brand of cider. We continue to sell to Martinelli's, and now also enjoy working with some fantastic smaller cideries, vintners, and a sauerkraut producer. Our apples have been used to make Solana Gold Organic cider, Sante Arcangeli's Sante Sidre (a unique hard cider sourced solely from our pippin apples), Santa Cruz Scrumpy Cider (regular, PomCider, and Chider-- with apples, pomegranates, and cherries, respectively), and Farmhouse Culture's apple-fennel kraut (delicious!).
We love meeting local farmers, food artisans, and neighbors. Please give us a call and stop by!
Apples are picked and placed in bins that are then delivered to cideries.
The delivery crew loads the bins of apples onto trucks that will take the apples to be processed for cider.
The bins will be loaded onto trucks; a semi-truckload of apples holds up to 40 bins (approximately 20 tons) of apples.
One of the prettiest times of year at the farm is when the apple blossoms fill the trees in the spring.
An aerial view of the farm.
A wonderfully dry cider produced by Sante Arcangeli Family Wines using 100% Newtown Pippin apples from 'Ohana Farms.
In early spring, before the apple blossoms come out, the orchard is carpeted with oxalis blooms.
A harvest party is a great way to celebrate the close of a warm fall day and the end of another successful harvest.
It is amazing when all of the fruit is picked and in the bins. The colors of the harvest are beautiful!