Forbidden Fruit Orchards – Sandra Newman – Off Season and Unusual Fruits
The first of the year blueberries are starting to become available at local farmers markets.
Today at the La Canada Farmers Market which is a popular market, I had a chance to try out some of the blueberries frown in Lompoc, CA.
The blueberries are sweet and not bitter at all, looking forward to a bumper crop of blueberries this year.
Forbidden Fruit Orchards – Off Season and Unusual Fruits
Sandra Newman – Horticulturist
4001 Forbidden Fruit Ln
Lompoc, CA 93436
(805) 735-4648
(805) 735-9819
sandy@forbiddenfruitorchards.com
www.forbiddenfruitorchards.com
Our farm is located about 15 miles from the ocean in Pinot Noir country in northern Santa Barbara county. The soil is very sandy providing excellent drainage and the ability to grow just about anything we choose.
Our main crop is southern highbush organic blueberries. We also farm organic yellow raspberries, mulberries, currents, cherries, avocados, kiwis, and green tea. This year we planted over 6 acres of wine grapes.
Please explore our website and feel free to contact me at 805-735-4648 to purchase any of our produce.
Blueberries
Our highbush blueberries produce off-season fruit from October to July. Large, crisp, flavorful berries that are sold throughout California. Our fall and winter production is very weather driven and our volumes vary. We sell to a key wholesaler, Earl’s Organics, who distributes our fruit in the San Francisco area to numerous small and medium size stores and a few chain stores, New Frontiers, Gelson’s Markets and Whole Foods.
Raspberries
We grow yellow raspberries which are sold locally at this time due to our limited production but hope to produce enough to supply to our small chain stores soon.
Wine Grapes
We planted 6 1/3 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay just recently and will be crafting our own wine in 3 years. I’m sure we will have some very interesting dessert wines mixed with our fruit.
Currents/Gooseberries
A few varieties of our currents produced fruit this year. We are waiting and watching to see how viable they are.
Fresh Dried Green Tea
We have about 300 Camilea sinensus bushes planted about 3 years ago. Very slow growing, we are continually propagating new plants. We have picked and processed the tea leaves and are selling a limited number of hand filled tea bags.
Cherries
We have about 160 sweet cherry trees that should come into commerical production in 2 years.
Avocados
Our Haas trees are young and production is a few years away.
Kiwis
We have a small number of baby kiwi vines planted. This is one of our test plots but feel confident this will be successful for us.
Mulberries
We are growing Morus alba ‘Pakistan’. Our mulberries will be available on a limited bases next year.
