Hi Guys,
I hope that you have been enjoying the delicious apples from Cuyama Orchards this season. We were a bit afraid that the lack of rain last season was going to damage Byron’s crop this year. But it has proven the opposite, especially for his Pink Lady’s, which have been exceptionally beautiful and flavorful.
Right before Covid started we went up and spent the day and night in Cuyama and got to spend some time with Byron. Here are a few pictures of his beautiful Orchard and a little bit of insight into the mindful farming practices that he has incorporated on his family farm. He is truly one of the most intelligent, adventurous farmers that we have ever worked with.
Not only is he on the cutting edge of trellising, but he is also at the forefront of understanding and working with soil micro-biology. We are looking forward to getting back up to visit him soon to check in on how his practice has evolved in the last two seasons.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this short story and trip and that it gives you a hankering for me of Byron and more of his Pink Lady Apples.
Jason
If you follow HWY 33 out of Ojai, over the mountains, past the Los Pinos “resort,” and down into the Cuyama valley you will see an apple orchard on the far side of the river right as the valley first begins to open up. This little gem of an area is where Byron Albano’s father bought land and began planting apples nearly 30 years ago. What started as a small apple orchard and a larger hay farm, has evolved into one of the few remaining apple farms in Southern California and the last of its kind in the Cuyama Valley.
Right before Covid, Katherine and I traveled to Cuyama Orchards to see Byron’s operation for the very first time. This is something that we had been wanting to do for a long time and it was even more magical than we could imagine. Today Byron’s orchard spans 280 acres, grows more than 12 varieties of apples including heirlooms that are not in existence elsewhere in the U.S., and utilizes multiple different trellising strategies. If you take a look at the pictures of the orchard above you can easily see why we wanted to re-marry each other in his field. Maybe perhaps just have a farm dinner but let’s just all agree that that is the most magical field in the world.
For the agriculture nerds that we are, Cuyama Orchards was a joy to tour in the sense that Byron takes great joy in learning and adapting his farm, with his ever evolving trellising strategies and his extensive soil care. While organic is at his core practice and at our core integrity as a farm business, organic requirements are not the end all in truly sustainable farming practices, and Byron is taking that to heart. Byron has teamed up with the Quail Springs permaculture school to begin grazing sheep in his orchard blocks. While he stopped tilling his orchard paths long ago to keep his soil life in full structural integrity, he has begun to think more deeply about incorporating live stock grazing to do both his weed control and to supply valuable material to his soil life.
We look forward to seeing and being apart of the evolving Cuyama Orchards as Byron continues to do more great work as a farmer.
We also had the epic opportunity to stay at the newly renovated and almost opened Cuyama Buckhorn Hotel. While this hotel has been around for ever and is the ultimate roadside pitstop. It’s recently been taken over by awesome new owners and has had the ultimate facelift. Our room was so cute! They currently are open on the weekends and are ready for all you great veggie people! Cruise on over the hill, check out the snow on the mountain, check into the Buckhorn and relax for an entire weekend! Did I tell you how great the food was also? They have a restaurant that’s open breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their chef is the same chef that has put on Alex Frecker’s farm dinners. We hope you enjoy!
