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.

Every now and then, during strawberry season, we pop into Gizdich Ranch, seeking out a Strawberry…read morePie like one that we got about 8 years ago. While we didn't see it listed on the menu board, when my wife asked the order taker, she knew exactly what we wanted and told her that the wait would be 15 minutes as they made them to order. OMG, it was beautiful! Loaded with fresh strawberries and just enough glaze to bind it, the glaze did not overwhelm the taste of the strawberries. You can't really slice it as created. Instead, you pick off some of the fruit on top until it's down to a manageable height and then we use a large spoon to parse it out. Whipped cream? Ice cream? Both would be excellent accompaniments to be sure, but we used neither.

What an adorable and fun way to spend a few hours! My family visited for my birthday and was able…read moreto pick strawberries and apples, as well as do a walkthrough of the veggie garden and ALL the peppers. The farm is gorgeous, small enough to feel like you won't get lost or bite off more than you can chew, but big enough for plenty of people. We brought our own small boxes to use for picking and transporting berries. Everything was delicious!

We've come here twice now, once in the summer for strawberry picking and then in the fall for a…read morepumpkin and apple picking festival. When we did strawberry picking, it was very quiet and at one point we were the only party in the field. But the strawberries were amazing and actually the best strawberries we've ever had. I would highly recommend! The pumpkin and apple picking event was a special weekend event, with live music, food for sale, pumpkin painting, and fresh apple cider. It was a really nice family event and we enjoyed ourselves! The Fuji apples were also very good, sweet and juicy. This farm is a bit of a drive but we have found their fruit to be very good quality. It's also not too far from Gizdich so you could make a trip to both :)

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.

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

(Ryan Reynolds voiceover)…read more The vibe is pure Americana apple orchard in Watsonville! Clearview Orchards is a fabulous family destination! Andrea warmly greeted us! She is so nice! We were guided to the large parking lot! Mr. Mel Larussa, the proprietor himself, gave us a quick orientation and gave us directions to have the greatest apple picking time of our lives! Mrs. Larussa went out of her way and provided fresh cut samples of the Honeycrisp! Wow! Delish, sweet, firm. Like my fave IG models. Gonna leave with a bunch of Fujis and Pink Ladies! Had to nab several jars of the fantastic Sage clear honey! Nectar of the gods! Thank God for the birds and the bees! And before headed out we had a mini picnic on the veranda with picturesque views of the Clearview orchard! The apple bread was divine! But the apple juice and frozen popsicle apple juice was the absolute best! Apple juice as God intended! Delectably sweet and refreshing! (So good that busloads of Stanford students have blocked the road before! So make an appointment and reserve a time!) What a great time! But one of the best parts is just hearing the laughter of families and children enjoying America! Gonna make some apple pie tonight! Thanks Mr. And Mrs. Larussa and Andrea! Will be back! Woohoo!

Apple of My Pie…read more Family-run 7.5-acre farm that operates a U-Pick for two months out of the year (Sept-Oct) and specializes in apples, squash, and honey. The Good: *All the trees planted on site are dwarfs to make life easier on everyone, especially kids. *Certified organic farm *Play area for young kids *Staff were all friendly and very helpful *Accept CCs to purchase *Reasonable pricing *Baked goods (e.g., apple turnovers, apple bread), lavender products, and fresh-pressed Apple Juice available for purchase. *They'll provide you with bags to collect your harvest, but you are also welcome to use your own reusable grocery bags. The Meh: *Wasn't a fan of their "Apple Butter," as it was more applesauce than apple butter. But, with that said, it was a fine applesauce fwiw. *Make sure you bring a cooler with ice if you plan to buy juice unless you're going straight home. I forgot to bring ours like a dummy. :( *No pet policy, so leave Fido at home. *Weekends only. Check their IG (@clearvieworchards) for updates. The Ugly: *Make sure you purchase a parking ticket/reservation ($7) ahead of time, or you'll be SoL. This started during Covid, and they're continuing it due to helping them control the number of visitors. TLDR: Fun family-friendly activity to do on the weekend and teach kids where their food comes from. Highly recommended.

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

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

I was picking up some avocados at the Farmer's Market when off to my left I hear, "Are you looking…read morefor something when you stare into my eyes?" The guy stood there frozen, his only response was a weak,"Huh?" "Are you looking for something when you stare into my eyes?" repeated the heavily tattooed avocado girl. I think the dude had misinterpreted her come-on as an accusation because he could only stammer out,"I didn't realize I was staring." I watched this scene unfold as I absent mindedly plopped avocados in my bag. I could do this with confidence because Will is obsessed with avocados. Each one is perfect. He handles each one like it's a baby chick. Don't even think about placing a bag on his avocados either and to be perfectly honest, he kinda LOOKS like an avocado. He was wearing a green polo today. Perfect. That's dedication. Anyway, before I know it the tattooed avogodess and the stunned customer are trading phone numbers. So if you're ever at the Farmer's Market on Saturday at the Ferry Building go grab one of Will's avocados and you might even pick up a sweet ass come-on line.

The very best avocados at the Farmers Market, and some of the best clementines in all of California.read more