Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...After living in the shadow of the wine industry for decades, a Sebastopol farmer is betting that apple growers are on the verge of reclaiming the spotlight.
With a downturn for winegrowers opening renewed interest in local farming, Gold Ridge Organic Farms owner Brooke Hazen on Thursday gave The Press Democrat a tour of the 20,000-square-foot apple press he plans to open in Santa Rosa in time for this fall’s harvest.
RELATED: Could a fertilizer breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore Lab spark the next Green Revolution?
Hazen has made a name for himself tending the soil and trees at the well-known 88-acre apple and olive farm in Sebastopol for many years, since his family bought the land on Canfield Road in 2000. Now, he’s confident that he has a team and vision ready to “drastically expand” with the county’s newest apple pressing facility.
The press, which will likely employ 15-20 people this season, is intended to serve family and small-scale farmers throughout Northern California, including Sonoma County, Mendocino County and the Pajaro Valley. It will be able to process apples for fresh-pack, juice, cider, vinegar and custom pressing.
The ambitious plan is to open Gold Ridge Organic Farms Apple Press by sometime in October, with a capacity for processing about 50 tons of apples per day, to service small-scale and family farms growing organic apples. There aren’t many remaining in Sonoma County, and they have had to turn elsewhere for processing their fruit, he said.
But Hazen, alongside managing director Merrilee Olson, said he’s got an eight-year lease at the facility – recently listed for sale for $6.6 million – and a plan to “revitalize” the local apple industry. While Hazen says he doesn’t have investors, and it isn’t clear how much was spent to expand into the facility, he and Olson said they think the timing is good for “bringing hope” to producers.
The pair showed off the facility at 3320 Industrial Drive, demonstrating some preexisting infrastructure. The space already has some equipment ready for juice pressing and holding tanks, with ample room for drying and storing fruit and for filling and packaging products.
It was clear that the facility was originally designed for a dairy manufacturing operation. Olson said the facility’s former owners – who formerly owned fermented foods company Wildbrine – had sold to buyers who envisioned manufacturing nut dairy products there.
The warehouse today stands largely empty, save for leftover packing and organization materials and idle processing equipment, and is chilly from the ample refrigeration space. The equipment that stands quiet invites visions of what Olson promises come fall, when tons of apples will arrive to pass through colorful and noisy pressing, drying and production lines. She said it’s ideal for Gold Ridge Organic’s plan as a small apple press, as it already had infrastructure ready to meet standards for the operations planned.
“That was the hardest part, just nailing down a location,” Hazen added. “Sebastopol just didn’t have it. I wanted to be in Sebastopol, but there was nothing like it there.”
Hazen positions his new plant as a crucial local resource as Sonoma County waits for the exit of longtime apple producer Manzana Products Co. Inc. from its Graton plant. He also knows that apple farmers were hit hard by blight and high fuel costs this season, and is confident his facility will not only help them get access to more revenue opportunities both by processing their product and, eventually, selling their fruit for a branded products line.
Gold Ridge Organic apples have been sold for years at Whole Foods Markets all over Northern California. Hazen said his background in this business, as well as being a small vegetable farmer for several years at Green Gulch Farm – an organic farm and Zen center in Marin County – has informed his passion to help support other local producers. He said he hopes to make the new apple press work for as many local apple farmers as possible, as larger apple producers may consider moving like Manzana. Small producers typically make ends meet with other sources of revenue, including trucking products between Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Mendocino counties, and were likely impacted by contract losses when the Martinelli’s facility on the Central Coast shut down.
Olson said farmers reliant on these endeavors need more options. She said she hopes that the local agricultural community and partners could help draw more interest to the apple industry, taking a page from the Northern California Apple Hill destination near Placerville, organized by Apple Hill Growers Association, to increase “agritourism” in Sonoma County.
“There is no future for small and mid-sized farms with the traditional wholesale model,” Olson said. “We have to have an innovative way of connecting with the community.”
Hazen agreed that the time is right for increasing tourism focusing on the diverse agricultural output in the valley, as wine tourism seems volatile. He said he wants apple growers to have new hope for success after what he said were decades of feeling “ignored” in Wine Country.
“It’s been pushed aside because of the hyper-focus on wine grapes,” Hazen said. “We have to change with the times. New generations and demographics are demanding innovation. They’re demanding healthier products. We’re really at a crossroads.”
“We have a bright future for the apple industry here. We’re not gonna let it go, we’re gonna keep fighting,” Hazen added.
The plan has also excited other stakeholders in the industry. Mike Meyer Jr., who with his father has helped run one of the largest bulk producers in Sonoma County, said that the facility will be an asset for smaller local apple growers. His family grows apples on more than 100 acres for sauce, juice, vinegar and hard cider, as well as fresh Gravensteins for eating.
“Brooke and his team are passionate about the local apple industry,” Meyer said. “I’m looking forward to working with them and seeing how they highlight our local apple industry. This is the encouragement that our local apple growers needed. I hope this helps keep the remaining apple orchards going.”
Evan Wiig, director of membership and communications with the advocacy group Community Alliance with Family Farmers, said his organization supports Gold Ridge Organic’s local farmer-led processing option to address the “missing” pieces of the processing line, including packing sheds and mills, which are sorely lacking in many farming communities.
“Over the last few decades, we’ve seen rampant consolidation and centralization of certain industries,” Wiig said. “Apples are really being concentrated in Washington right now. Because we’ve lost these packers, processors, distributors, it’s been really hard for farmers to stay afloat. Sebastopol alone once had multiple processing facilities. As of very recently, it was only Manzana.”
Carmen Snyder, executive director of Sonoma County Farm Trails – the nonprofit supporting direct farm sales since the ‘70s – said she is excited to hear about the facility as the county gears up for the annual Gravenstein Apple Fair taking place August 8–9. The fair, held at Ragle Ranch Regional Park in Sebastopol, kicks off the apple harvest season and celebrates many local apple products, with everything from fruit and cider to fried fritters and leather sold.
Of the prospect of a new processing facility, she said “It breathes new life into the apple industry. It seems like it’s going to be a real community resource and asset.” The nonprofit had a strong relationship with Manzana, and the company’s decision to close by 2027 has been a pain point for years.
Snyder said if successful, the facility could present a model for other sectors looking to share resources to help process products and grow their businesses.
“I love that it’s a collaborative model, not competitive,” Snyder said. “It’s growers supporting growers, and coming together to find solutions that can help with the economic loads that are hard to carry on one’s own.”
Staff Writer Natalie Hanson reports on business and agriculture for The Press Democrat. She can be reached at natalie.hanson@pressdemocrat.com or at 619-665-5887.