Organic Garden Club members had a fabulous, feel good day with Karen Meir touring Mulberry Lane Farm!

Gardening is therapeutic. Karen explained how working in the orchard and gardens improves the lives of two of her sons and their special needs adult classmates with down syndrome. The act of tending to living plants reduces stress, improves mood, and fosters a connection to nature in everyone.

Each week, special needs adults volunteer a couple hours in the garden, doing what is needed that day, connecting to the rhythms and subtle energies of Nature, and finding small, joyful moments over a new found flower or fruit.

Mulberry Lane Farm was planted by the former owner, Jerry Katz, a California Rare Fruit Grower, who gathered unusual fruit trees from around the world. Organic Garden Club members wandered through the six acres tasting small, delicate, sweet treats that rarely make it to the market. 

We saw banana, papaya, palmetto, calimyrna fig, strawberry and pineapple guava, pomegranate, MacArthur avocado, Asian pear, cherimoya, Peruvian cactus apple, jujubes, mango, macadamia nuts, ginger, caper bush, and Asian santol trees!

We were accompanied by the farm’s friendly dog and cat. As we experienced the sights, sounds, textures, smells, and tastes of Nature, we couldn’t stop smiling!

Besides the incredibly abundant fruit orchard, Mulberry Lane Farm has cement raised bed gardens covered with hinged wire cages, an aquaponic shed with tilapia fish, 40 year old koi fish pond, and a field for veggie crops.

Mulberry Land Farm is the most extensive rare fruit orchard we’ve visited! We were so happy and grateful to be in such an incredible garden. Visit Karen Meirs at the Camarillo Farmers Market on Saturday, 8 – noon.  Please donate to their “Upside of Downs Mission”! https://upsideofdowns.org 

Inspired by Mulberry Lane Farm’s amazing rare fruit orchard, we ended our day at Braxton’s Kitchen in Camarillo, which serves yummy farm to table meals with some organic ingredients.