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.

OMGoodness Monterey bay farms organic strawberries are the best no joke !!! Driscoll strawberries…read moredon't have the flavor these do . I feel like I'm eating food from my childhood. Keep up the great work growers . Thank you

Excellent berries and ver friendly people there. Can't wait to taste this year's crops.read more

Great barn/farm/orchard setting! The sandwiches were excellent but of course the real star was the…read moreapple pie! Huge slices too, as the apple pie is about twice the height of the other ones. There was simultaneously always a lineup (at 2:30min the afternoon), and yet people were never waiting long. The hot apple cider, and fresh apple cider, are amazing as well.

I really wanted to get my sister an apricot pie, but they didn't have a whole one, only a couple of…read moreslices, so I ended up with a "Very Berry". All the pies looked good, but I won't know how it tastes since it's not for me. My friends ordered slices and they seemed a bit small; the cost per slice is more than for a quarter of a whole pie, but the size seemed much smaller. I guess it pays to buy the whole pie! Very popular shop. There was a line when we arrived and a line when we left. The pie shop is next door to the store where they sold apples and fresh apple juice. There were cups of apple juice in the fridge that you could help yourself to as samples; very refreshing and delicious. The store also sold lots of kitchen knickknacks and some toys and fun things. Made for a great stop.

We love stopping by the apple cart on our sidecar tours. We toss a few bucks into the til, a few…read moreapples in a bag and eat one right there on the side of the road. The apples are crisp, juicy and super tasty.

How about 'em apples? They are in season right now!…read more We were driving down the road, and seen such an abundance of apple trees along both sides, covered in ripe fruit, in all shades of the color palette between green and red, tons and tons of apples on, and under the trees, we just had to stop. So here we are, at the Bella Farms stand, where things seem pretty simple. You could pick up your apples from the already collected pile inside the box, or you could climb the ladder up the nearest tree and get yourself some fresh ones. Several nearby trees had ladders installed on them actually. Self serve $4 per bag this year. Pretty good if you ask me! Thank you, Chuck & John Bella from Bella Farms, for keeping your apple orchards and taking care of them! We appreciate your work and access to fresh crispy fruit.

(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.

Went with my aunt for the first time. Beautiful selection and variation of colors. Yummy green…read morebeans to snack on too. I'll definitely be back again!!!

Amazing flower picking!! so pretty!!! only issue we faded was small bugs on the flowers but i feel…read morelike that was to be expected with home grown flowers!

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 :)

Great farm for apple picking! Relaxing atmosphere, you can roam all the apple trees, 13 differ…read morevarieties of apples. There are also horses you can pet and feed, sweet horses. They have a cool scavenger hunt, Harry Potter themed. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. Great photo op spot. It is hidden, if you go, follow the signs and it will be though gates lined with rows of apple trees, barn is to the right. We bought our tickets ahead of time.

This was such an amazing Fall experience that I highly recommend!…read more Purchase your tickets tickets on their website via Event Brite for an hour slot on the weekend . Tickets are $7/adult which pays for the first lb, and after that it's only $2/lb for organic apples!! The GPS takes you to 1875 Hames Rd which is their house, so keep driving down Hames, you'll pass some horses on the right, and then you'll see the entrance to the apple orchard. Drive through the path to reach the parking lot. You check in at the barn. There are porty potties with hand-washing. It is 17 acres of apple orchards to explore! We came pretty late in the season, but there were still plenty of beautiful, crisp, juicy, perfectly sweet apples (we picked 11 lbs!!) In September they had Gala apples, and in October thy had Fuji apples this year. I had gone berry picking with my kids in the past and wasn't sure if they'd be able to reach apples, but actually all the trees are super short, the apples grow so low to the ground my 2 and 4 year olds had no problems picking all the apples they wanted! The only thing was that the weeds grow pretty high in the aisles, which makes it a little bit of an adventure to trek through- I would recommend long pants. Karell the owner is super friendly, talked to us about the farmland and apples, and was very kind to our kiddos. You can also walk over to their stables to see their horses and feed them apples. Sign up NOW if you want to make the last pickings of 2021! Otherwise we'll see you there in 2022 for sure!

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

My gosh! This place is a hidden gem. I found this place while wondering the streets of DT Santa…read moreCruz. I was amazed that there was an entire shop dedicated to all things mushroom, and then I saw that they served food too! I love mushroom, and when I couldn't get this place out of my mind, I had to head here before leaving town in the morning. Once this placed opened in the morning, we were the first one in. Got to try their truffle oil and sit down for a morning brunch. This isn't your typical brunch place, it was just the time I was there to eat. I tried their empanada, mushroom soup, and then their truffle mushroom grilled cheese, and I have to state that it was the best grilled cheese sandwich I have ever had. My mouth is still watering thinking about that sandwich. I picked up some items to go such as truffle oil and dried mushroom and was on my way. The shop is small and there is only counter space to eat, but the shop is so cute tucked away near a neighborhood street. I can't wait to go back here if I ever have the chance again.

We came here for a tour and to learn about mushroom cultivation. They take you through every step…read moreand every room for the process. Was very interesting. Be prepared to get misted on in the rooms/caves. They had a great potluck after. Definitely bring chairs, blankets and even a card table as there is very limited seating. Anything goes on what to bring for the potluck. Main dishes, sides, salads, desserts, vegetarian and vegan foods. Or bring wine or other beverages to share. Wine was much appreciated. I even saw kombucha there but it went fast. It was well organized and different foods kept replenishing the tables. There were close to 250 people there but there was plenty of food. They provided a big selection of grilled mushrooms and chicken. Also paper plates, utensils and napkins. We'll be back and will bring our picnic basket, table and chairs.