South Coast Farms

Crops We Grow!

Green Beans , Squash, Tree-Ripened Peaches, Field Fresh Lettuce, Herbs,                                                             

At South Coast Farms we grow naturally good food. Our goal is to grow the greatest variety of fruit and vegetables which is seasonally possible. We grow over forty different varieties of fruits and vegetables. We grow artichokes, arugula, green beans and yellow beans, beets: red, gold and beet greens. We grow broccoli, cauliflower, chards: green, red and rainbow. We grow carrots, super sweet white corn, fragrant, delicious Ambrosia cantaloupes and cucumbers for slicing, pickling and long oriental types too! Eggplant, Italian and Oriental types, garlic and gourds.  We grow many types of lettuces, red, green, romaine, butter and salad greens too. We cultivate delicious ollalaberries, sweet Walla-Walla onions, oranges and peppers, sweet, hot and too hot, green, red, yellow, purple and even chocolate!  We plant potatoes, red, russet and Yukon gold.  We grow pumpkins big, small and in between.  Spinach is in our fields as are many types of summer squashes: zucchini, yellow, gold, straight and crookneck. We even harvest squash blossoms! Winter squash we grow for the autumn. Herbs from our fields include basils, arugula, dill, fennel, rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage and oregano. We grow flowers too: Gladiolas, ranunculas, sunflowers, stock and zinnias.  And we grow the finest, best eating strawberries & tomatoes  in these parts!

Strawberries   

Chandler Strawberries:  "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did."     William Butler (1535-1618) Oxford dictionary of quotes
The Chandler strawberry variety was developed by the University of California in the early 1970's. So it is not the variety Mr. Butler was referring to.  But we believe his words still apply today! The Chandler strawberry is a descendent of the Sequoia strawberry, perhaps the best tasting strawberry of all time. Unfortunately the Sequoia begins melting the moment it is harvested and is not feasible to grow, even for a stand/market grower like ourselves!  Nonetheless, our customers all agree, Chandler strawberries are the best!  They are sweet, soft, succulent, old fashioned reminders of what a stand berry should taste like! South Coast Farms is one of the few farms in all of Southern California which still grow Chandlers.

Our strawberries begin producing fruit in February but it is not' until March/April that we begin harvest in earnest. In years like this harvest is delayed by the rain!

Strawberry Facts

Strawberries are thought to have been cultivated in ancient Rome.

The strawberry, as we know it, was originally grown in northern Europe, but     species are also found in Russia, Chile, and the United States.

The berries seem to be strewn among the leaves of the plant. The plant first had the name strewberry, which later was changed to strawberry.

In France strawberries were cultivated in the 13th Century for uses a medicinal    herb.

Historical Medicinal Uses of Fragaria Vesca (Alpine Strawberry): It is said that the leaves, roots and fruits of this variety of strawberry were used for a digestive or skin tonic. Internally, the berry was used for diarrhea and digestive upset, while the leaves and the roots were used for gout. Externally, it was used for sunburn and skin blemishes, and the fruit juice was used for discolored teeth.

The first American species of strawberries was cultivated about 1835.

The first important American variety, the Hoveg, was grown in 1834, in Massachusetts. The hybrid variety was developed in France.

The strawberry is considered one of the most important small fruits grown in the Western Hemisphere. Today every state in the United States and every province in Canada grows the strawberry plant.

Tomatoes  

      Heirloom Tomatoes    Tomato Field,Ist String    Same  Field, 6 weeks Later

As Summer quickly approaches tomatoes become our focus. As good as the weather in San Juan Capistrano is for strawberries it is even better suited for growing tomatoes.   Our mild summers days and nights seem custom made for the tomato grower.

Accordingly, at South Coast Farms we grow tomatoes and more tomatoes. We have yellow tomatoes (Flamme), purple tomatoes (Cherokee Purple) , black tomatoes ( Black Plum), pink tomatoes (Pink Brandywine), striped tomatoes (Striped German, Big Rainbow), big tomatoes (Red Brandywine) and little tomatoes (Sweet Millions, Red Pear, Yellow Currant). And yes, we even have good old fashioned, regular sized, vine-ripened red tomatoes (Super Tasty) which are good enough to eat out of your hand.

If you haven’t heard of these varieties it is because they are not your Home Depot pony pack garden tomatoes. These varieties are Heirloom varieties which are old-fashioned varieties with old-fashioned taste! We buy our Heirloom seed from Tomatoes Grower Supply, Johnny’s Seed and Burpee's. Heirloom varieties are grown from seed which has been saved from old-fashioned varieties, many dating back to the turn of the century.  This was a time when food was grown to be eaten, not grown to be shipped hundreds or even thousands of miles.  Many of the names of these Heirlooms highlight a story.  Dad's Mug because it is shaped like a coffee mug or Mortgage Lifter, a variety which saved a farmers field from foreclosure!

We at South Coast Farms trial dozens of tomato varieties every year. We look for the same qualities in a tomato as we do for our strawberries: eating qualities! You can be assured when you buy our tomatoes, you are buying tomatoes which are the best eating varieties and which have been picked red-ripe and flavor full!

Our tomatoes should be ready for harvest around the first of June!

Tomato Facts

Grown in 16th-century England as an ornamental plant, the tomato was carried by colonists to North America. But it didn't appear in American marketplaces until the 19th century. In 1835 the Maine Farmer reported that tomatoes were being cultivated in that state and "are a useful article for every man's table."

Like bananas, tomatoes should never be refrigerated-not until they are dead ripe anyway. They should be kept in temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit or they will not finish ripening and will be tasteless. Tomatoes should also be stored with the stem side up, and never in the sun.