So now we are in search of a new farm site to house our project. POST is supportive under the farmland protection program of acquiring land along the San Mateo Coast, we are looking throughout the bay and even in urban settings. We believe our project will continue and we are excited to take the next steps with Eco-farm and our other partners. We hope to gain some funding for capacity building for the next steps in building our project. 

Please contact us if you are interested or know of a good place to build such a vision.

In good relations and in good practice, Benjamin 

The last six months has been spent working on manifesting an idea. In that process we have learned so much in the realities and innumerable ways this project could take shape. Not just what we are creating but how has been a present mantra. The relationships we have built with foundations, organizations, non-profits, farmers, artists and most importantly the Ohlone people are invaluable. These relationships give us energy and the true belief that this project will happen. 

Last week we made our counter offer of $1.7 million with due dillegence to be had and assessment of equipment. Another group the Ananda Church of Self-Realization of Palo Alto came in with a little bit more money but no terms of sale, thus going into escrow immediately. Although the Wolf Ranch is an excellent location there are unknowns that the process of due diligence in a land acquistion provides so that a project can begin with knowing the truth about water and access issues, adjacent land use and land profiles. 

Given this new unfolding I am finding myself more determined to make this happen and learning more about non-attachment to the place.  However our core idea of transferring land ownership from POST to an Ohlone Community Land Trust with a regenerative farm lands perfectly upon the upper watershed of Frenchman's Creek where Wolf Ranch sits.

We hope to reach out the Ananada Church and ask them to retract their offer on behalf of the Ohlone people or if they want to purchase the land, then do so but then donate the land over to us to create our project,the latter seeming highly unlikely.  

I can imagine they would like to set up an nice Ashram for yoga retreats and self-realizing workshops. Having managed the farm at Esalen for two years and living with that community, I know the energy that gets generated , and the good feelings that people experince at these type of retreats. Being so close to the Bay Area, they will create a nice yoga farm like the one they have in the Sierras and probably make alot of revenue with all those seeking happiness. Especially as the tech industry generates alot of money for the people working so hard in office buildings, alot of wealth, yet empty often in overall purpose of life. The Ananada Church then fills a vital role for these people as they seek something with more meaning, going to a farm and eating the food there while deepening your spirtual practice is an ideal recipe to meet that need, yet often it is temporary and some become "workshop junkies" or end up abandoning their lives to live at the ashram and follow the teachings. Interestingly enough this is the same group that gave Oceansong in Sonoma County it's name in mid 1980s. I was the farmer there many years later from 2003-2007. 

Cornerstone Farms is to fill the needs of physical and spiritual hunger yet in a very different way, without a religion at it's core. We realize we come from all walks of life and practices, yoga only being one of them, thus no prescribed ashram schedule or guru would commandeer the purpose of our project, nor would we allow people to abandon their lives as they awaken to all the un justices. Instead we will work on making connections, living by examples, saving seeds, discussing deeply and encourage people to re-awaken their own lives by participating more within their own food system. More community meals in their own homes, garden days in their own neighborhoods, solar on their own roofs and meaning in the work they are doing. Our farm will be a cornerstone as we all build in these transformative  ecological and economical landscapes. What an amazing place and time to be alive. Our farm is to be a bio-regional hub of organic seeds, art and culture. 


So what to do?
 We met tonight with our Ohlone friends and came up with a way to move forward 

If you have any resources, ideas or contacts to help materialize this in a good way, 
please contact me at csfarmhub@gmail.com 

we will see...

Last week I was able to join Steve Peters with some of his trials he is doing over at Fifth Crow farm in Pescadero. Steve was the seed production manager at Seeds of change before they were bought out by Mars and closed their operation. I met Steve at Seed School in Arizona in 2010 wil Bill McDorman and we have been conversing since. Mostly about the revolution that is needed within the seed industry and how to collaborate in making that happen. 

Steve is a wealth of information and inspiration and was one of the first i reached out to when thinkin of how we were going to create a bio-regional seed hub here on the central coast, and he and his wife Moria live just over the hill in San Mateo! 

Steve started a couple of seed selection trials of Broccoli, Chinese cabbage and now some peas and is selecting for the size, vigor, posture and resilience  in a couple of beds at Fifth Crow. This last week we took out any remaining straglers who weren't making the cut and were left with a little over 100 plants of each after her had started with 700+.
The best part is you get to eat the rejects! Made a huge batch of kraut from the cabbage and the broccoli is outstanding! Below are a few pictures from the selection process.

Nicely forming Broccoli head,  OP variety marked for seed. Will harvest the central head and then allow side shoots to flower. Not as massive and tight as the hybrid varieties but the flavor is out of this world!

Broccoli after thining

So those of you who have been apart of the California real estate market in the last decade have an idea of time, energy, money, hope and higher callings you have when buying a piece of land. After a few months of visioning, creating and many discussions we have officially partnered with The Peninsula Open Space Trust  in the land acquisition of Cornerstone Farms which we are very excited about. POST has been preserving open space for the last 35 years.

June, the solstice and summer begins with rain. 

As we enter the third month of trying to secure the land for Cornerstone Farms I reflect on the incredible learning that seems to place everyday in how our current system of real estate, non-profits, farming projects and investors overlap and weave together to create a complex matrix of ideas and strategies to raise $1.5 million dollars to secure a 67-acre farm in half moon bay. Our partnership with the  Rumsen Ohlone Tribe, descendants of the native people of this land, will re-establish a permanent  presence for them and their tribe on the San Francisco peninsula since the horrific genocide that took place in the early 1800's that caused a huge dispersion of the Ohlone.  Our hope is in the creation a Ohlone Community Land Trust in which our farm will have a long term ground lease. These structure will allow the land to be tended by the Ohlone in collaboration with regenerative agriculture in which we share and learn how to tend the wild. I can imagine the days of harvesting Tule from the pond with A Tonio....

In creating the reality of a working farm it has been great working with Steve Peters on the seed side of things,and getting guidance from the folks at Organic Seed Alliance, Don Tipping, Michael Abelman and my good friend Ken Dickerson from the Ecological Farming Association. This has been inspiring and as I wake everyday and try to piece the puzzle together more, it sometimes feels overwhelming, yet I know it is the work that is needed in order to build out something new, a revolution in regenerative agriculture. 

 To date we have been able to secure about 1/3 of the asking price in our partnership with the Peninsula Open Space Trust, POST as they will help us place a agricultural conservation easement on the property and be a partner and sponsor of the project. POST will be the buyer of the land, with a transition to the Ohlone Community Land Trust as it is established in the first 5 years. This will allow foundations and individuals to  donate funds to help secure the land. 

As we figure this out and build our relationships with the numerous foundations, organizations and groups that work in this field we hope to provide a model of how other can do similar projects. Soon I will start to build a resource page here on our website. 

Thank you friends and family for your support, it has been a challenge to wade through the possibilities, yet the opportunity exists to collaborate in a very positive way and build an amazing farm.  Onward and upward!  

 Our inquiry of the Silva Farm for Cornerstone began at the end of January 2013 when Rupa came across this farm in an early morning web search. We have been doing a feasibility assessment on the 67 acres since then and have created a comprehensive business plan that we are feeling confident with and now seek more partners and. investors in the project. 

Cornerstone farms is an LLC with 10 memberships valued at $200,000 each. We have 7 left, 4 active members and 3 silent partners. Active memberships are secured with a $20,000 deposit and will be contributing $20,000 a year in equity for 9 years. Silent members secure with a $40,000 deposit and $20,000 a year for 8 years. LLc members will benefit with a 2% increase is assets every year and a  40% of all profits (i.e. each member receiving a 4% share of total profit) which will begin in year four. 

We are also seeking personal financial backing along with the partnership we have with Peninsula Open Space Trust, POST, who has given us a verbal agreement of support as we await final board approval in early May. We will be placing an Agriculture Conservation Easement on the property and will be receiving an additional loan with POST. They will be investing $500,000 to collaborate in the purchase.

The farm we are creating is one that is so needed in our day and age. Our food system has been industrialized and even our very seeds have become privatized. At Cornerstone Farms we are providing a platform to engage in a social and ecological transformation towards that of a vibrant local food system that confronts the challenges we face as a culture. We are very confident in what we are doing because of the team we have assembled, the significance of the mission and the location.

If you are interested in additional informational documents, like our prospectus and business plan please contact me directly and we will be happy to share with you. We hope to hear from you soon.