The good: This place is just all-so American and I love it…read more My aunt comes here for the berry pie and buys several of them to bring to me in SoCal. She's a frequent customer and she seldom eats pies. She sometimes freezes them. It's packed with so many berries and has a pure berry taste. It's sweet but still maintains the tartness/acidity of the berries so it helps your ability to eat more of it. My husband finished almost an entire pie in one day. The bad: My aunt said the apple pie is too sweet and therefore prefers the more tart/sour berry pie. I wish I tried the pie with ice cream because that would have been a nice compliment. The interesting: They're family owned and have been around for decades. You can pick fruits here too.

Doing U-pick is fun: rounded up for the fun factor. The fruit is not organic. In case you want to…read moreeat the U-pick fruit on the spot: Bring a basket with holes in the bottom, and bottled water, so that you can rinse the fruit before eating. The lineup: 5/5: U-pick boysenberries: June 4: Blenheim apricots, June: $3.70/pound. About 70% were ripe. 3: Dutch apple pie. Kind of meh. 3: Strawberry shortcake. Bring your own maple syrup and pour some on top; it needs some sweetness. 2: Cherry pie. Kinda meh. For boysenberries, consider wearing latex gloves to keep your hands from getting stained red.

Very nice proprietors. The farm is kid-friendly with chickens, goose, goats, and bunnies. The…read morestrawberry fields are spacious with lavenders and other flowers framing them. No overwhelming crowds and parking is along the road. We spent about an hour and half picking berries and wandering around.

I was worried they wouldn't be open on a Wednesday for Strawberry picking even when Yelp said it…read morewould be. I tried calling, but wasn't able to get a hold of anyone. Thankfully they were open because it was a bit of a drive to get here! The farm owner was friendly and helpful. The strawberries were also very delicious and large compared to the ones I picked from Brentwood. I'd definitely return in the future.

After trying several CSAs and not getting any love from the waiting list for other CSAs with drop…read morepoints in my neighborhood - I nearly gave up til I discovered Mariquita. Andy & Julia offer a traditional CSA process of drop offs and have established bi-weekly "Mystery Box" nights at different meeting points around the city of San Francisco. For the Mystery Box - you never know what you'll get - but you'll definitely get far above your $25 worth! You can also sign up for updates from the "Ladybug Buying Club" - notices about veggies and fruit that are available in bulk for pickup at Mystery Box locations. Recently, I have brought home a giant Musquee de Provence pumpkin for $6, a flat of organic fall strawberries for $24, 25# of Braeburn apples for $26 and over the summer - basil for $1 for a generous bunch (I got 12!). Mariquita also hosts "U-Pick" events for tomatoes in the fall - and at fifty cents a pound, you'll find it hard to resist going home with less than 50# of tomatoes... I personally brought home 150# of tomatoes and now have tomato sauce for the rest of the year. Mariquita always has the best produce - unlike other CSAs, it doesn't just go bad in the fridge from being picked too ripe and hanging out in a hot warehouse or truck for too many days. What are you waiting for? Sign up for the Ladybug Buying Club newsletter now!

I've been getting produce from Mariquita Farms for at least the last four years. The mystery boxes…read moreare a blast, with tons of unusual produce that test my creativity and a great value at just $25 each (going up to $30 next month--still a great value). It may be a little pricey compared to your local Asian market, but for the quality and the focus on sustainability rather than the bottom line, it's worth it to me. The farm also sends out a newsletter alerting you to what's predicted to be in the box, recipe ideas, and happenings on the farm, which is great for planning what to do with the haul (because it is a haul!) and learning about where our food is coming from.

Amazing fruit. Kind staff. $3/lb org sic strawberries while others are charging $8/lb. Go here…read more You won't regret it.

Came down to spend the day in Capitola and started with some fruit picking we got a bunch of…read moredelicious tomatoes and strawberries along with some items from their farm stand including potatoes and beets. Can't wait to have them. They look delicious. Their pricing is very reasonable and it's very easy to navigate through their fields. I had sandals on and my arm in a brace and I was still able to do it.

Braeburn Fuji Gala…read moreGolden Delicious Granny Smith Gravenstein McIntosh Pink Pearl Pippin Red Delicious Why exactly am I naming these apple varieties you ask? Prior to my visit to the Hillview Farm these were the only 10 varieties of apples I could name if someone were to ask. For somebody like me who eats more apple pie and drinks more apple juice than I do eating fresh apples I thought 10 was pretty impressive. Then I met Joe Stabile. Joe and his wife own an 18 acre apple orchard in Watsonville. When they bought the property in the early 1980's 4 varieties of apples were grown at this 450 tree orchard. Joe and his wife now have over 200 varieties of apples on this orchard and nearly 4200 trees! Yup, shows you how little I know about apples! For the Stabiles it's all about custom grafting and creating new varieties of apples. Many of the varieties found in the Hillview Farm orchard are not found anywhere else. Joe, a former IBM engineer who retired in 1992 to become a full time farmer, is a man of great patience. He loves the art of taking different types of apple trees, grafting the branches together and playing the waiting game on how successful the graft will be. Some grafts take years to develop. That doesn't faze Joe though; no matter how long it takes the bottom line is that the apple has to taste good. Overall taste is the deciding factor in deciding whether a custom graft is successful or not. For our recent farm tour the Stabiles went all out and pre-picked three big baskets of delicious Gravensteins, sweet Sansas and tart Pink Pearls for our group to enjoy. Judging by how quickly the fruit in the basket disappeared I'd have to agree with my fellow farm visitors that the Pink Pearls were our favorites for its beautiful color and delicious taste. Joe showed us the heavy machinery that sorts his apples by size. Then he showed us his juicer and talked about his juicing techniques. Joe and his small staff presses 80 to 100 gallons of juice per day. He bottles the juices immediately and stores the fresh pressed, unfiltered juices and juice blends in freezers then sells the product in assorted sizes at local farmers markets. Joe also sells dried apples at the farmers markets. He uses an industrial sized dehydrator and gave us delicious samples of both the Golden Delicious and Fuji varieties to sample. Our group was already in apple heaven when we stepped out into his orchard to look at the fresh fruit trees and examine some of the grafting techniques used. In addition to apples the Stabiles harvest dozens of varieties of pears, plums and persimmons plus other tree grown fruits. The different sizes, shapes and colors of the apples in the Hillview orchard were mind-boggling. I took tons of photos but after awhile they all started to look the same to me. The Stabiles didn't seem to have that problem though. They knew exactly which variety was which and even gave us data on the fruit's characteristics when we asked. True apple geniuses those Stabiles are. After our tour we gave the family some business too buying up fresh pressed apple juice, and homemade apple products such as preserves, syrups, dressings and butters. Hillview Farm products are sold at three local farmers markets. They are at the Vallco Farmers Market in Cupertino on Fridays, the Danville Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Jack London Square Farmers Market in Oakland on Sundays.

Hillview Farm has all kinds of fruits on display. not so interested in them…read more what caught my eye was the apple cider. locale: JLQ farmers market (9/7) drink: apple cider(32 oz, $5) -100% pure preminum-cold pressed, -marked "plain" assumed it meant nothing added -so sweet! like drinking candy. hopefully no sugar added 4.5 stars

Nice place for blueberry u-pick. Bring tick repellent and wear proper clothes. Website doesn't…read moremention it, only an email we didn't read until on the way to site did, so I didn't have right clothes or repellent. Ended up with three ticks and one tick bite. Site doesn't offer any bug spray, but maybe should? As far as Covid safety, only thing is a reservation system which limits attendees. About 8-9 rows so plenty of space to spread out, but it's self regulated. Some parents corral their Children and others don't so you're at mercy of others, or have to speak up. We also got chased down rows by an oblivious sneezing and coughing man who prob had allergies and wore a mask... No one from farm is monitoring people once in. No questions or temp checks for admittance, though email prob asks that you mind it. Also: expensive! Expect to pay about $20-25/gallon baggie, which holds about 3-4 pounds. Blueberries are delish. Ticks are not so be prepared.

I can't tell you how delicious High Ground's produce is. I labor under the happy delusion that I am…read morea good cook because my vegetables are always so tasty. When Two Small Farms reorganized, I stuck with my usual pickup spot, which went to High Ground Organics. I was a little nervous. I'd been getting Mariquita Mystery Boxes all winter, so I knew that I liked what Mariquita alone produces. But what about High Ground? My worries were for nothing. The produce is as high quality and varied as I could have hoped.

Love this small mom & pop shop. The bionico, fresh cut fruit & juices are great! Must stop if u…read morewant something refreshing & delicious!

Fruteria Quetzal it's my go to for bionicos. I guess the only complaint that I have it's that when…read moreyou make an order to go, they ask you if you want everything on it and you said yes everything they still spelled each item out and it's very annoying for sample would you like granola? Would you like strawberry? Would you like this? Would you like that? I was like didn't you just ask if with everything?

Salazar Organic Farms of Santa Cruz , brought a bounty of Fruit & Vegetables to the Clement Street…read moreFarmers Market. The Beets & Greens looked good as did the Ripe Strawberries

This is not really a farmer's market in the sensitive beard-toting, subaru-sporting,…read moretepui-tent-habitating eco-friendly organic produce folk sense. No, this is mainly for the street foodie enthusiast, for those into the quickest possible route to $4 slabs of masa packed with an earthy rich mole, chicken, and oaxacan cheese, steaming styrofoam cups of champurado, fresh crispy churros that my fiancee intuitively, aggressively chomps like a pittbull eating strips of bacon, that sort of thing. You come here to binge out on huaraches, sopes, and down horchata like you have no other task in life. You get stuffed here and post up in the old school Ville, only leaving after feeling immensely satisfied, and less impoverished than if you went to a sit-down place pretty much anywhere. I can't help but feeling a couple of these little ladies slanging tamales and empanadas have to be some of the best cooks in Santa Cruz county. More than 4 gringoes max last week sighted in the crowd last time we were there. Bound to blow up. Damn it, another of my favorites out in the interest of the yelper nation.

We haven't been to the farmers market since the pandemic started but it was great to be back! Wish…read morethey had more venders but I'm hoping that comes back when the weather is better. The new restrooms are great and we really enjoyed ourselves Lots of yummy treats and great customer service the plaza is always a great reminder of growing up in Watsonville and gives a beautiful small home town feeling

Taco Tuesday. Yummy!…read more Martes de tacos. No podíamos dejarlo pasar cuando volvimos a casa esta tarde. Gracias.

The tamales and skirt steak ! To die. So much fresh local produce. Grab a gizdich pie too. The…read moreservice was incredible and the staff were super friendly and helpful. Check out their amazing meat department. Cute and quaint amazing little farmer market located in Watsonville.