Rancho Siempre Verde Farm rebuilds from fire with a compassionate purpose.
On the night of August 16, 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex fire swept through the hills behind Rancho Siempre Verde (RSV) in Pescadero, narrowly missing their 100-acre Christmas tree farm.
But the next day it “came down like a freight train” and burned to the coast, says Jake Kosek, who has tended the land for decades with his family. In just two days, the fire burned numerous structures and acres of their cultivated trees, drastically altering the landscape and the family’s main source of income from the farm. They spent the next two weeks fighting the fire from creeping back in. Now, the RSV family was facing a defining moment. How should they rebuild?
Jake’s father purchased the land in 1965. Jake recalls fond childhood memories of running around the farm with his sisters as his parents worked. Raising a family on a small farm income was hard even back then, and his parents held other jobs to make ends meet. His dad planted Christmas trees (Rancho Siempre Verde translates to “Always Green Ranch”), because he didn’t need to drop everything to harvest for months out of the year.
As Jake and his siblings grew and pursued education and careers, they spent long stints away, but eventually returned intent on establishing RSV as a community and family project where everyone could bring their unique skills and ideas to create something of greater purpose. Jake defines family as everyone who touches the work at RSV, blood kin or not, and there are about 30 kind-hearted family members who get their hands dirty on a regular, volunteer basis.
“Everyone takes on the pieces they love and that’s kind of defined the way the farm has been used over the years. Some of us are into the work of it and some of us are like, ‘ I want to go for a hike or jump into the pond,’” said Jake.
Visiting the farm two weeks after the fire, Jake’s dad almost didn’t recognize it. The fire had burned many of their ancient oaks, completely opening up the landscape to more light and visibility to the coastline.
One of the last things he said was, “You see all the things that are missing. What you don’t see is it’s cleaned up everything. There’s so much potential here now to do things you couldn’t do before”, recounted Jake.
His dad was right. Before the fire, the family maintained a small vegetable plot to grow food for themselves and some community members. The 2020 fire had given them a new ground of fertile ash to expand the plot’s potential.
As is the case for the rest of his siblings, farming is a part-time job and a full-time passion for Jake. He works as an Associate Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley and spends half the week at his home in West Berkeley, just around the corner from The Berkeley Food Network.
About a year after the fire in 2021, he was passing the BFN warehouse with his daughter Ruby. Observing their neighbors waiting for assistance, Ruby, then 13, posed a big idea: why don’t we grow food for them? Ruby was coming of age at a time when the economic challenges of a global pandemic were everywhere. “She could really see it and feel it in a meaningful way,” said Jake.
Admittedly, Jake brushed the idea aside for months, but Ruby was insistent on the family doing something to help. It was hard to make a profit growing vegetables and it got Jake thinking, “Why are we doing this? What is the community we want to create? What do we want this to be?”
Jake connected with BFN’s founding Executive Director Sara Webber about donating the fresh, organic produce they were growing to community members in Berkeley. Jake and Ruby were inspired by Berkeley Food Network’s model that expands access to fresh food where gaps exist, builds community, and serves the neighbors with dignity. Berkeley Food Network felt like an extension of the RSV values of community, equity, and resiliency.
“This was a moment where people needed more and we have a bunch of land that’s just been cleared,” said Jake. “We decided, let’s expand what we’re doing by four-plus acres.”
And so, out of the ashes of the CZA Fire and from the depths of the pandemic, The Phoenix Food Project was born. Since 2021, every weekend from April through November, community members in Pescadero and beyond gather at RSV to harvest and process hundreds of pounds of cabbage, beets, rainbow chard, apples, pears, and much more for Jake to deliver every Monday morning to the BFN warehouse.
More than 10,000 pounds per year of this organically grown-with-love produce makes it onto the dinner tables of the thousands of neighbors BFN supports every week at our 9th Street Pantry.
RSV takes no profit from The Phoenix Food Project. What fuels it is simply the compassion and hard work of the RSV family and the sales from their Fall Farm and Pumpkin Picking Fest, which directly support the seed purchases to grow food for BFN in the coming year.
Support RSV and Your Food-Insecure Neighbors at the Fall Farm and Pumpkin Picking Festival
The Rancho Siempre Verde Fall Farm Fest runs Saturdays and Sundays from September 28th through October 20th. Harvest pumpkins, cut your own flowers, grab a peck of apples, make a fall wreath, have a picnic, take a swing on their swings, and enjoy the farm activities all overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Your support of RSV will directly benefit food-insecure neighbors in Berkeley.
Discover how RSV is turning its new chapter into a beacon of hope and generosity. Purchase your tickets today and be a part of their incredible story.
