Yes, you can cut down a Christmas tree in California. No, you should not expect snow. Yes, you…read moreshould expect it to be like 70° when you're cutting down a tree. LOL! We've been coming here for a couple years now since we moved to the peninsula and it's been a great experience. Like any tree farm, come early because all the good trees are gonna get taken right after Thanksgiving. Definitely wear good walking shoes because a lot of the best trees are uphill and require walking on a path of roots and tree branches. My toddler struggles a little bit with the paths to get up to the trees in the "best trees" part of the lot (I don't know if it's actually the best place to find trees or that's just what their sign says, but that that's always the area that we go to to grab a tree). Note that they only take cash and trees are around $80. Be prepared because there's no cell phone service and if you do forget cash you'll have to drive back about 20 minutes to get some (might be speaking from experience there...).

The most beautiful trees that last FOREVER. I put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving and,…read moregranted it guzzles 3 gallons of water in as many days, but they consistently last well into the new year. As long as you water these trees, they will last beautifully! The people are really nice and we make a tailgating event of tree finding ("treegating") with our neighbors. All that for $85 bucks (when you would've spend hundreds in the city?)? SIGN ME UP. Annually. No but seriously I'll see you next year.

Five stars simply for having the tallest, best silver tips available anywhere at this point in time…read moreso close to Christmas. It is high in price but these are super rare trees that need EXPENSIVE permits and the permitting process got lots worse and more limiting this year. The second wave of silver tips never came this year. I usually wait around on the sidelines to get them - these trees grow only at 6,000 feet and some years they get snowed in. Still, today if you want a 11+ foot tall tree that is silver tip - I think this is your only option. There is one more on Park St Alameda and another on Solano Ave in I think Albany - but they all have lower inventory of the tallest and nicest and most expensive. The best it just good enough for me when it comes to Christmas trees. This year it has become a careful chess game with the low inventory, the blizzard situations in the mountains and the new more limiting and expensive permitting process. Yes, I lurk around these tree farms and kick tires and take mental notes about what's going on. And I can guarantee if you have a hotel lobby or a beautiful home with vaulted ceilings and you want the tree to go all the way to the ceiling - this is your best bet.

They have an excellent selection of trees and decoration. There is plenty of helpful staff. They…read moreare friendly, too. They offer delivery service so you don't gave to put the tree on your car roof or wherever. Everything you need is there, and the process is quick. About the only thing I'd improve is the scheduling for delivery. We were promised 1-2:30 because we had some business meetings in the afternoon. After a couple calls the delivery folks showed up at 2:50 -- fortunately his meeting had ended and my 3 o'clock one hadn't started yet so we tag teamed and got the tree up in the living room okay.

If you're a sunflower lover like me, then you HAVE to come to Andreotti's! For $20 per person, you…read morecan pick 6 flowers from their field and take cute pictures. I love seeing the field of yellow. It just makes me so happy. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers. They're just bright and happy looking and BIG! Whenever I was picking which ones I wanted, I told my boyfriend "it's go big or go home!" so I tend to always pick the biggest ones! Lol We ended up getting a dozen as he purchased the $20 per person for both of us. So much sunflowers! Hahaha I love it. We trimmed the stems in their tables area, and returned the cutter to the front. I saw that the person offer twine so I asked for some twine to help tie our bouquet of sunflowers. I definitely enjoyed being here, and I've been here twice so far. First time my bestie took me here to celebrate my birthday two years ago. Then the second time I came here with my boyfriend! :) They don't have a parking lot, but you can park on the street for two hours according to the street sign. Yes, there were so much bees and other little buggies around and on the flowers.

Stopped by Andreotti Farms while in Half Moon Bay, and it was such a fun experience!…read more Of course October is pumpkin season in HMB, which they had a great selection of but we decided to try our hand in the u-pick sunflower experience and it was a fun experience. To get this experience going, you'll check-in with the staff and let them know you want to do the sunflower experience. It's $20 for 6 sunflowers and they give you looper (thing used to cut the flowers), sign a waiver, and you can into the two different sunflower fields to pick which ones you like. If you want to walk the fields, without picking flowers, it's $12 per person. Once we paid, we grabbed our looper and headed out. We had the dogs with us, and they had a blast just walking around and taking in the scenery. We found the sunflowers we wanted, and headed back toward the entrance to cut and clean the ones we picked. When we were finished, they wrapped up our flowers in a bag with some water so they could make the journey back home with us. The staff here were amazing. Since it was our first time doing this, they were patient with us and explained their best tips to cut and clean. Very nice people all around! Definitely a fun coast side experience and a great thing to do when the weather is as nice as it's been. If you are planning on going out into the fields, highly recommend bringing shoes you don't mind getting dirty.

Wide variety of produce, eggs, and local honey…read more On the side of San Mateo Road leaving Santa Cruz with a solid amount of parking at the front. They take both cash and card/Apple Pay but each credit transaction has a 75 cent fee. Their local honey selection was quite large--they have small containers (super small) for $5, medium for $20/$23, and large for $44.

We bought two pineapples for $4 each as were leaving Half Moon Bay…read more When we got home, we cracked open the pineapples and they were limp, spongey and tasted bad. These pineapples were no good. The produce here was not fresh. Beware of this place. Hopefully the owners can learn that they shouldn't sell crap like this.

So much Christmas tree options to choose from!…read more They all come in many different sizes for whatever size home you live in. They even have white Christmas trees available which is on the pricier side. The staff are very helpful to carry the tree and tie them on top of your car. They also do cutting and netting!

Cute place, wasn't charged for entrance, like they do for the pumpkin patch…read more.. I do have to say, they have a nice set up! Had a section for kids to write letters to Santa! Santa's sleigh with a reindeer and presents. A decorated tractor! At the end we saw the flocked trees ranging from $140-$266, my jaw dropped! Lol

My family and I have been picking our Christmas tree at Nativity School Tree Lot since my oldest…read moreson was 5 yrs. old, he is 21 now. Their service along with the quality of trees is next to none. The lot is run solely by parish and school volunteers. They unload, sell, prep and delivery your tree, always with a smile. Everyone their is always so eager to help, sometimes a little to much, but it is alway a great experience. This year again we pre-ordered (www.nativity trees.com) our tree. This year we went with a Nordmann a cross between Noble and Frazier, beautiful tree and it smells great. Thank you Nativity Volunteers for making my family's holidays that much more special.

Wonderful experience and great service! We were looking for a small tree (3-5 ft) and yelp told me…read morewe could find it here and given the Nativity School is very close to where we live, we decided to try it. We came after dinner and there were only a couple of families there. They had good covid measures with temp checks at entry and everyone was wearing masks. There were some choices in our size range and a very helpful lady opened up a couple of other trees for us to pick from. We went for a 3-4 Noble Fir; it's beautiful! We were very happy with the price point, especially for a small tree. We also loved that they had a bowl and stand service so we didn't have to bother with that. We didn't need help loading our small tree but we saw volunteers helping others strap their trees to roofs. Overall, a great experience; definitely recommend!

Just tried the Aleppo hot sauce and it transformed an 8/10 homemade Pozole into a 10!!!…read more Love that they use no vinegar and so the chilies' flavor shines through!!!

Nice mix of herbs and roots from the Alameda farm of Raised Roots at the Clement Street Farmers…read moreMarket

I was shopping at a Latino-owned plant store in San Jose that recommended this shop. I thought it…read morewas really neat another plant store would share other plant store recommendations and knew I had to check it out. My first visit was at the start of the pandemic. I almost walked right by the store. My kiddo was registered in their plant pals club which offered a plant kit. We didn't continue taking part in the club as the store is far from us but it's a neat program. On my recent visit the store was a tad bit more spacious at the front but towards the register everyone was crowded in a line. I came looking for a specific plant with my kiddos and sister and found it! I also grabbed this cool sticker I found there. I got in line and noticed the owners both up front one completing the purchase and the other providing tips and support on the plants being purchased by each customer. This ended up delaying the line quite a bit. It was so hard to get help so I had to wait till it was my turn to pay to have them grab the plant I needed. The store has a large variety of plants, pots, and stickers/pin/keychains made by locals. The plants are affordable and they focus on having "exotic" plants at affordable prices so everyone can own one. The plants pals club is a cool program for young plant parents. The layout of the store is like a long strip. It can be really crowded if there's too many people inside. It's a really neat store and can improve on having the owners walk around the entire store and check in on their customers.

I went to the San Mateo Plant Sale & Craft Fair event today and saw Ricardo and his plant stand at…read morethe event. Beautiful selection of plants there and I was so sad someone bought the plant that I wanted that I went to the store the same day. Lots of beautiful, healthy plants that are hard to get, at prices that are super fair. No shade to stores like Plant Therapy, but over $35 for a maranta lemon lime is not cool. Nothing like that here. I got my first Alocasia polly (4") for $15, a stromanthe triostar (4") for $15, and a silver monstera (2") for $10. There's also lots of lovely accessories like pots, foldable moss poles, spray bottles, ADORABLE keychains, and tile coasters. All super cute and great prices. I've got my eye on a queen anthurium too... will definitely be back for that :)