The Morgan Hill farmers market set on Saturday mornings from nine to one is one of the better…read moremarkets providing farm raise vegetables, fruits, cheese, and meats that I've saw in quite a long time. Everyone is super nice wanting to sell their products and everyone seems to be giving out free samples at every booth. The ambience is very down to earth and inviting and you'll see a vast ray of locals and people coming from out of town to enjoy the market.

This is always a great spot to walk around, especially if you're in downtown Morgan Hill. It is…read morebecoming a very beautiful town and public transit is convenient. Colorful fruits/vegetables/crafts/pastries/music/pantry goods/flowers/etc. It a small Farmer's Market with quality apple pies and other items too. Yes, much smaller than most. People are happy and friendly as usual. Next to the children's railroad park playground, there are high tech public restrooms now. Convenient and flexible. All are walking distance to the Farmer's Market here. There's plenty of free sidewalk street parking and free public parking lots, but you may need to circle around. Downtown Morgan Hill gets busy at and around lunch hours. I noticed new homes/buildings across the street too. Farmer's Market locations are always a blessing. Location is outstanding 5/5 as you can walk to restaurants/cafes/shops nearby. Who doesn't want to stop at the Morgan Hill train stop nearby? It was certainly a beautiful autumn day after Halloween Day out here today. Peaceful pumpkin vibes everywhere.

I'm very happy to have found Royal Greens Farm - they have great produce at affordable prices, and…read moreI like to know that I'm eating local produce and that it's supporting local farmers. I bought a veggie box and threw in some extra items - the order was delivered on time, and everything looked, smelled, and tasted great. Will definitely order again when we run out!

They had many varieties of peaches and plums when I visited. I love that they give descriptions of…read moreflavor, recommended use, and history for each variety. They had cling stone, semi, and free stone peaches. They even had coral champagne cherries. The cherries were so sweet and delicious!

We were lucky to book a tasting & tour at Andy's Orchard well in advance (5 months ahead) before…read morethey sold out. I highly highly recommend it for families, kids, and outings. They only do tastings during the summer months, so it is a bummer we can't go ahead until next year but we are totally already looking forward to it! Each ticket was $25 for adults, or anyone over 11 years old. Children under 11 are free and there are discounted prices for seniors. I want to take bet that we probably tried over 50types of peaches, nectarines, plums and other fruit varieties. And even though you are only to take 1-2 pieces of each variety, my plate was full at the end of each section. Who would've thought there are like 20+ different kinds of peaches in the Silicon Valley? Some of my favorites were the Snow Beauty peaches, the Italian Ice peaches, as well as the green gage plums. But many were delicious and after awhile, they start to taste the same but they were still flavorful. The kids enjoyed fruit picking on the tour of the orchard and were able to pick some and taste along the way. You can purchase by the pound the fruit you pick or you can get some at the store. They also sell chocolate covered treats and desserts in the shop. Overall, still highly recommend trying this out. You can also just visit them and purchase fruit by the pound. I like that they have a"cheaper" section for "ugly" fruits and I was able to snag a couple of bags of delicious peaches there.

After trying several CSAs and not getting any love from the waiting list for other CSAs with drop…read morepoints in my neighborhood - I nearly gave up til I discovered Mariquita. Andy & Julia offer a traditional CSA process of drop offs and have established bi-weekly "Mystery Box" nights at different meeting points around the city of San Francisco. For the Mystery Box - you never know what you'll get - but you'll definitely get far above your $25 worth! You can also sign up for updates from the "Ladybug Buying Club" - notices about veggies and fruit that are available in bulk for pickup at Mystery Box locations. Recently, I have brought home a giant Musquee de Provence pumpkin for $6, a flat of organic fall strawberries for $24, 25# of Braeburn apples for $26 and over the summer - basil for $1 for a generous bunch (I got 12!). Mariquita also hosts "U-Pick" events for tomatoes in the fall - and at fifty cents a pound, you'll find it hard to resist going home with less than 50# of tomatoes... I personally brought home 150# of tomatoes and now have tomato sauce for the rest of the year. Mariquita always has the best produce - unlike other CSAs, it doesn't just go bad in the fridge from being picked too ripe and hanging out in a hot warehouse or truck for too many days. What are you waiting for? Sign up for the Ladybug Buying Club newsletter now!

I've been getting produce from Mariquita Farms for at least the last four years. The mystery boxes…read moreare a blast, with tons of unusual produce that test my creativity and a great value at just $25 each (going up to $30 next month--still a great value). It may be a little pricey compared to your local Asian market, but for the quality and the focus on sustainability rather than the bottom line, it's worth it to me. The farm also sends out a newsletter alerting you to what's predicted to be in the box, recipe ideas, and happenings on the farm, which is great for planning what to do with the haul (because it is a haul!) and learning about where our food is coming from.

I've walked by their Saturday Ferry Farmers market stand, most times located along the south…read moredriveway. Their stand is across the Wise Sons, Bini's Kitchen, Mangosay, and Farmer's Wife stands. They have mainly a variety of vegetables and tomatoes. I've bought cabbage, heirloom tomatoes when in season, and cauliflower from them. Heck, they even have purple cauliflower if your timing is right. Recently, I started buying their salsas since it's my current craving, best eaten watching sports (especially football these days, Go Niners!). I opened my bottle of their salsa (https://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=chl0CMVW9F5KsLAFjjv1Zg&userid=saJuyv784apZzH--psHZ3Q) and finished almost half of it in one sitting. It was mildly spicy but smooth with strands of tomato to make it more interesting. Let's just say, I made a point to get another one the following Saturday. I happened to but a head of cabbage which was light in weight but was enough for two stir fry servings for our family of four. Will stop here again at the Ferry Building on Saturday and see what veggies I may get for our Sunday dinner. I also need to check out their other salsa flavors.

OYA Organic Farm brought their crops to the Clement Street Farmers Market San Francisco…read more From their CCOF Organic fields located in Hollister where they grow over 50 crops, and today we got to experience part of their offerings. From Basil Plants to Heirloom Tomatoes & Vibrant Peppers and so much more, yes the crops looked so good.

This is a two-acre specialty fruit and flower farm tucked away in a residential neighborhood, the…read moreremnant of the Cosentino family's larger produce farm that succumbed to progress when Hwy 85 was built. They have a super cute little farm stand selling produce, jams, syrups, and a few knickknacks. The staff are friendly and welcoming. Cosentino's also offers classes and events among the fruit trees and flower gardens. I went for a beginner's watercolor class on a warm spring afternoon. Shaded by fruit trees, about 20 of us sat at a long table decorated with fresh-cut ranunculus flowers and learned to paint tulips (very badly in my case!) from a local artist. It was a really sweet way to spend a couple of hours and remember back when orchards were the life blood of the Santa Clara Valley. The farm features heirloom fruit varieties and picks them ripe, so I'll definitely go back in the summer for stone fruits and berries. It was a little early in the season for a good selection when I went.

I finally got the chance to visit this local fruit stand and it really didn't disappoint. It's…read moretucked away in a really nice, quiet cul-de-sac in a clean neighborhood behind Branham High School on the south side. If you live in the Almaden or Branham area, it's such a cool little hidden gem and definitely worth stopping by. The fruit looked super fresh, though the prices are higher than I expected, more like Whole Foods level prices. I thought going straight to the source would mean much lower prices, but what you lose in price, you definitely gain in freshness. For example, their strawberries were $5 per little green basket (three for $15), which comes out to about $5 a pound. At Costco, organic strawberries are $5.49 for 2 pounds, roughly $2.75 per pound. The giant seeded watermelons were $12.49 here, compared to $6.49 at Walmart. (Suggestions from a visitor) A couple of friendly suggestions that I think would be really helpful: It would be great if they posted online what fruit is in season and what will be at the stand, along with the prices. That way people can plan ahead and know when to make the drive when their favorite fruits are available. Also, there are no signs letting customers know they can go in the back. I only knew because I saw pictures on Yelp. Locals who've been here before probably already know, but as a first-timer, it looked like an employee-only area so I didn't go back there. A simple sign would be awesome, it would bring more people to the back to sit, eat, and enjoy the space since most fruit stands don't have that nice extra feature. Overall, worth visiting if you don't mind paying a bit more for freshness.

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

This is actually a positive review for the seasonal pumpkin patch (with giant pumpkin pyramid) at…read moreTennant Avenue and Murphy Avenue, same location as the farmers market. It's a fun place to take your little kids and at least today, October 20, 2024, they have "fill a barrow for $60" deal which could get you a lot of various colored pumpkins. The proprietor there today was very nice.

Pumpkin Patch Open Friday through Sunday, small, but nice displays and love the hat/pumpkin…read morepyramid!! Great Food Vendors, Crafters, (Sea Moss, Gift Items, Seasonal Soy Candles and Soaps.