On Farm Day, the Organic Garden Club members were so happy to celebrate our local farmers who grow our food! The beautiful shirts of our Organic Garden Club members were much appreciated at Farm Day and got people talking about eating and growing organic foods! It’s time to go Organic!

We started the day at Petty Ranch, the Farm Day Hub, where we met some agriculture farm partners, got farm fresh produce, and saw demos.

In the Educational area at Petty Ranch, Organic Garden Club members enjoyed learning more about our past speaker, Chris Sayers, who grows avocados at Petty Ranch. Since 2008, he has partnered with SEEAG to yearly bring 2000 local third graders to his ranch to learn about plants, soil, and beneficial insects. 

At Petty Ranch, members experienced different kinds of fruit trees for the SEEAG classes, a newly installed vermiculture bin, and raised beds to teach the kids how to grow their own food. We had fun visiting booths from Rincon Vitova Insectary, Saticoy Farmers Market, Gill’s Onions, and Blue Ridge Honey.

Next, we visited Prancers Farm, a fruit and veggie farm on 40 acres in Santa Paula, who is working on their organic certification. They had stunning fields of marigolds and sunflowers, which are terrific for pollinators and repelling pests, in a beautiful scenic setting.

At Prancers Farm, we enjoyed a farm tour on a wagon behind a tractor through organic strawberry, tomato, and veggie fields and avocado orchards. We saw their year round petting zoo, rescued animals, and lots of pumpkins. Then we went to Duda Farm where they gave us veggie starter plants and celery!

Nine of us met for lunch, with some organic ingredients, at the Urbane Cafe in Oxnard, exclaiming how much fun we had on Farm Day this year. The end of the day at McGrath Farm, we took a tour with past speaker, Mike Roberts, through some Farmivore CSA fields. We watched them pick for us vibrant marigolds (cempasúchil) to celebrate Día de los Muertos!