Capay Organic Farm Tour

Curious about where food comes from? Or do you want to be part of the green movement of safe and sustainable farming? If you answered yes then visiting the 400 acre second generation family farm of Capay Organic could be in your future.

Lucky for you they host a monthly open house that is free to the public to attend that takes place every second Saturday. I attended the tour in April and had a wonderful time on the beautiful property that is Capay Organic. Included in the farm tour was an educational walk that highlights the farms practices and crops, an overview of the property, a chance to give back to the farm by helping with ongoing projects, harvesting a handful of the seasonal crop, hanging out with the farms animals, and a tractor ride.

After the tour, visitors can meet in the farms main garden and enjoy their picnic lunches while listening to live music, making arts and crafts, dancing, and purchasing some of the farms other delicious products like their dried fruits and nuts.

The Bottom Dwellers

Fresh organic radishes

This farm also runs their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project Farm Fresh To You. This is a program that delivers fresh, seasonal organic produce to your home or office straight from their fields. There are many different options for delivery depending on your needs and wants.The program offers an excellent opportunity to introduce nutrition, get your family making dinner together and to teach your children where our food comes from.

The farm was founded by Kathleen Barsotti and Martin Barnes in 1976 and is now run by their four sons who have spent their lives growing up and working the farm from every aspect. Their crops can be found in many farmers markets, restaurants and at a retail store in the San Francisco Ferry building.

Our visit to the farm included a talk from Thaddeus Barsotti on their efforts to maintain biodiversity on their property and create a space for native plant species to thrive.

Thaddeus Barsotti

Capay Organic has done this with the creation of their wildlife pond reintroducing native grasses around its banks. They received a grant from the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and established the pond and a sediment trap. Some of the native grasses they have planted include deer grass and creeping wild rye. The grasses around the banks are irrigated with water from the pond. Once the native species were identified we were then given the opportunity to help out with the weeding of the non-native invasive species. It was a fun way to learn about the native plants that can be grown at Yolo county homes and give a little back to the farm.

Tour participant Evan filling his hat full of asparagus

Thaddeus demonstrated how they plant potatoes on the farm and pointed out other seasonal crops, we then got the opportunity to harvest some of the spring asparagus and radishes. Visitors were given instructions by an employee on how to harvest the crops and were set free into the fields with their rubber bands and twist ties to grab their bounty.

After harvesting we rode the tractor back up to the main house and garden and hunkered down with our picnic lunch to enjoy the live music of The Bottom Dwellers, and create some art with our son thanks to artist Jesse “Nemo” Pruet. The atmosphere was joyful and friendly as children danced to the honky tonk styling of the Woodland based band The Bottom Dwellers. We mingled with like minded families in the gorgeous Capay valley. It was a wonderful experience on many levels and I strongly suggest taking advantage of Capay Organics second Saturday monthly farm tours.

For more information on Capay Organic and Farm Fresh To You please visit: http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com

For more information on The Bottom Dwellers please visit: http://www.bottomdwellersmusic.com

For more information on the National Resource Conservation Service please visit: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov