Pedro’s Organic Ranch

farm-stories

Sep 25

Pedro found his niche when he started his farm 21 years ago. “I started with persimmons and pomegranates but I realized that I needed to do something different because I see that at the farmers market all the time.”

Regardless, of his main reason being a good business decision, I think it also takes a special kind of thoughtfulness for a grower to creatively seek out lesser known varieties that brighten up the farmers markets.

His ranch was cooler than I imagined. I felt like I was on a hike in a far away land being guided through a forest of trees. There are all sorts of varieties and they aren’t planted in a linear way.

“I plant 100 trees a year and I lose 50 trees a year.”

That made me feel better about our fig tree in the yard that was doing extremely well, and then one year - that was it. No more figs.

“Sometimes it’s the gophers, they eat the roots.” he said.

I realized then, that sometimes you need to let go a tree go. I also loved hearing that he grows slowly. Each year he plants double what he loses.

I used to drive to Vista and back in a day every Friday where I had made friends with a couple of sub tropical fruit growers. They grew such fun varieties. I took that drive fueled with energy by the inspiration of trying new fruits and sharing them with people who bought my paradise box at the time.

Later I met Pedro and realized he had the best avocados I ever had, along with some other wonderful fruits that grow really well in his area in Fallbrook.

First we looked at the mango trees. They’re coming along.

Dragon fruit is getting closer to the next harvest.

We found the surinam cherry trees, something I have talked about a lot since I first tried them over a decade ago. They are so absolutely wonderful and part of the appeal might be that very little grow here, so they are a rare treat.

There were a lot of avocado trees. End of September, the haas avocados are about at the end of their season, and will be back mid or late December.

He has macadamia trees, persimmons, pomegranates, ice cream beans, pitaya, and more. I’m a huge fan!

At the end of our tour there was a delightful surprise. His pet Llamas.

He grew up on an animal farm in Mexico. His dad raised animals. When his Dad (who is now passed) visited his farm, he was very happy and proud of Pedro.

This Llama got very excited as we walked by. He looked like a little puppy. Pedro shared with me that when he was born its Mother had passed. So Pedro looked after it and fed it milk form a bottle. That’s why when he comes by, this Llama is so excited while the others are pretty neutral.