UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology

06/19/2026

Last call for blueberries at our u-pick this Saturday, 9am-12pm! We anticipate we will continue to have strawberries available until early September.

06/17/2026

Helen Neidhoefer has never grown grapes before. For a senior project at UC Santa Cruz, Helen decided to plant 14 varieties of table grapes in the Alan Chadwick Garden — a crop that has never been grown there in the garden’s nearly 60-year history.

The inspiration came from a visit to a friend’s family home in Mendocino, where an older grower tended many varieties of table grapes with deep knowledge and joy. “I got to see and taste this grower’s work, and feel how connected he was to his garden,” Helen writes. “I have felt that connection while working on the land, and long to establish a relationship with one place that comes with time and consistency.”

The 14 varieties, including Himrod and Cassandra, were chosen partly for their adaptability to cool coastal climates, and will provide useful information to home growers in the area curious about growing table grapes in Santa Cruz.

At the Center for Agroecology, students can choose their own adventure. Helen’s adventure started with a grape grower in Mendocino and ended up here. 🍇

Thanks for sharing with us, Helen!

06/17/2026

06/11/2026

Reminder: no u-pick this Saturday, 6/13. Happy commencement!

06/10/2026

You’re invited to our Farm to Fork Benefit Dinner at the UC Santa Cruz Farm on Saturday, August 29 🍽️

Enjoy a reception and benefit dinner on the farm followed by dancing in the Hay Barn! This event will feature music, appetizers, tours, and local beer and wine followed by a seasonally-focused, locally-sourced meal featuring produce from the farm and local partners. As the sun sets, head down to the Hay Barn for music, dancing, and dessert. 🌅

Visit the link in the comments to purchase tickets!

Thank you to our generous event sponsors! Pie Ranch, Redtree Partners LP, Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden, Bay Federal Credit Union, New Leaf Community Markets, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation, The Penny Ice Creamery

06/05/2026

As spring quarter winds down, the farm keeps going 🌷🥔🥬

05/27/2026

Strawberries are one of California's most valuable crops—and one of the most vulnerable to pests and soil disease. For decades, most growers relied on chemical fumigants to protect them. We've been working on a better way for nearly 40 years.

By the late 1980s our work exploring alternatives to fumigants was underway: experimental plots, soil biology, insect ecology, beneficial predator mites to replace miticides, broccoli rotations to suppress soil disease. Over time the organic strawberries thrived. The yields were high, the fruit tasted great, and farmers were profiting.

Fast forward to the early 2000s when former Center for Agroecology director Carol Shennan learned about Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation, a method that eliminates soil pathogens using carbon-rich amendments and irrigation with no synthetic chemicals required. She saw its potential for California strawberry growers. Working with researcher Joji Muramoto, she brought it to the UCSC Farm and they spent years figuring out how to make it work.

Ultimately, they demonstrated that ASD can provide comparable yields to fields treated with fumigants. Within the last decade, acreage of organic strawberries with ASD-related practices increased by 1,640 acres, which, according to Muramoto’s calculations, translates to a reduction of about 465,000 pounds of fumigant active ingredients that would have been used in growing conventional strawberries.

Today, we’re still researching organic methods of pest and disease control for strawberries, with continuing ASD trials and exploring steam soil disinfestation.

Taste the legacy: come pick our organic strawberries on Saturdays, 9am to noon (except June 13). 🍓

05/14/2026

A spring day at the Chadwick Garden — tomatoes going in, bees tended, roses blooming 🌹

05/12/2026

Growing blueberries in our area without synthetic inputs requires some creative problem-solving.

In 2004 we planted 15 varieties to find out which ones thrive in our climate without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Four stood out: Southmoon, Jubilee, Jewel, and Millenia. These are among the bushes you see growing on the farm today.

Keeping them healthy takes some creativity. We top-dress with wood chips, compost, and sulfur each year to maintain the soil acidity blueberries need — and run vinegar through the irrigation system to keep the pH just right. The netting is there for a simple reason: birds love blueberries as much as we do.

We’ve recently replaced some older bushes that weren’t producing as well, and the patch is thriving.

Come visit the patch and taste our varieties during u-pick Saturdays at the UCSC Farm, 9am-12pm (except June 13).

Thinking about growing blueberries in the Santa Cruz area? Drop your questions below 🫐

Photo 1 by Jim Clark