Healthy Ecosystems Make the Best Fruit.

We are passionate about fruit. 

We're also passionate about the health of the ecosystem in our orchard & vineyard. 

And we've insisted since day one that we don't have to sacrifice one to have the other. 

It hasn't been easy, but we've always stuck to our mission and trusted what we knew to be true: 

A healthy ecosystem produces better tasting fruit. And it makes us better humans.

Please read on to learn more about our work to support native pollinators and wildlife and reduce our footprint on and off the farm.      

Osito Farms is proudly Bee Better Certified through the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation. This means that we are committed to a strict set of practices beyond the requirements of our organic certification aimed at supporting the health of native pollinators on our farm.

These commitments include designating 10% of our total acreage as permanent pollinator habitat, including undisturbed ground for soil-nesting bees, and butterfly host plants so butterflies have a place to lay their eggs. 

We also maintain 25 acres of continuously blooming cover crop under our trees and vines, which provides a constant source of food, shelter, and nesting sites for bees and other beneficial insects. And we are committed to using the UC-IPM Bee Precaution rating system to evaluate the lowest impact inputs for our trees and vines throughout the growing season. 

Join us for a farm tour to learn more about our work to support and protect native pollinators like this wild bombus nevadensis bumblebee, who graciously posed for photos while pollinating our Jonagold apple blossoms last spring.

We are committed to eliminating single use plastic packaging and shipping liners for all of our fruit. 

Recently a wholesale customer asked us to consider packing our grapes in clear plastic clamshell containers like fruit in the grocery stores. We were excited for the opportunity, but we just. could. not. bring ourselves to pack our beautiful heirloom fruit into single use, non-reusable, non-recyclable plastic clamshells. 

So we embarked on a search for something better.

After months of research, we finally found a packaging solution that we are proud to put our name on! Our trademark 'clamshell alternative' boxes showcase our fruit with their sunshine and raindrop shaped vents, while an innovative clay inner coating helps our grapes stay fresh without the use of plastic. Which means these sweet little boxes are completely plastic-free and home compostable! 

Our customers love them and we do too! 

Best of all, our new packaging designer is helping us tackle the last stubborn piece of plastic in our line-up -- stay tuned for updates! 

 Did you know that our farm is named in honor of the bears that visit the orchard in summer and fall? Osito means little bear in Spanish and is used as a term of love and endearment. 

Our location on the edge of a national forest brings bears as well as many other wild visitors to the farm each year. Some are attracted to the fruit, others come for the insects or the ideal nesting sites that the trees provide. And while some folks encouraged us to haze or kill the wildlife that might affect our fruit crop, we followed our intuition and took a different path: 

We embraced the wild permaculture.

This approach is not without challenges, but it also comes with so many rewards and concrete benefits. Like the fact that greater biodiversity makes significantly more complex and fertile soil, which means more complex and flavorful fruit. 

Best of all, we are treated to the less tangible rewards that nature brings: the sunrise songs of migratory wild birds, the whistle of a curious marmot, the calm stare of a fox resting in the trees, and a chorus of frogs to sing us to sleep.

We know first-hand that beneficial insects are the most effective tool in the box when it comes to pests that threaten our crops, trees, and vines. Just ask us about the year that ladybugs saved our peach crop from a particularly virulent onslaught of aphids.

And while ladybugs are probably the most widely known beneficial insects, we also rely on a very long list of lesser-known orchard guardians including solitary wasps, spiders, lacewings, lizards, toads, and hummingbirds (psst - did you know 80% of their diet is actually insects, not sugar water??) as part of our comprehensive pest control strategy.

To make sure our beneficial insect community is healthy and able to confront a pest infestation when the need arises, we make sure each population has access to appropriate habitat and nesting sites, and critically evaluate our inputs with the health and sustainability of each population in mind. 

Next time you visit, be sure to ask Tiffany which beneficial insects watch over your favorite fruit. You'll make her whole day.   

Osito Farms is a Zero Waste Orchard and Vineyard. This means none of the food we grow ends up in the landfill. 

When our fruit comes in from the field, it's sorted according to size and quality. Fruit that is optimal size, shape, and color is packed and sold directly to retail customers & markets. This is the majority of what we harvest.

Fruit that has some cosmetic imperfection but is still safe for human consumption is sold to organic food companies to make cider, juice, jams, and sauce.

The fruit that's left over -- sometimes called thirds -- is somehow damaged and considered unfit for human consumption. We are proud to partner with local, humane hog farmers who use our thirds as supplemental feed for their pigs.

None of the fruit we grow is thrown in the trash. 

If you are interested in learning more about the local, humanely raised pork that is finished on our organic peaches and apples, please contact us -- we're happy to provide an introduction.