BIG NEWS!!!!
WE ARE RETIRING!
After farming in the Arroyo Grande community for over 40 years we have finally decided to retire!
This was not an easy decision but we felt it was time to pass on the beautiful farm in Halcyon and it was made easier when we found the perfect people to continue the dream. Starting March 1st Ariela Gottschalk and her husband Jeff Pienack will be taking over as HALCYON FARMS!
HERES just a short history of our farm:
Jerry started farming in the Arroyo Grande Valley in 1981 and almost immediately started going to farmers markets, which at the time, was a whole new thing. The SLO market was at an old Williams Brothers on Broad St on Saturday mornings and the Downtown market was just starting, being set up to stop kids from driving on Higuera at night. Santa Monica was just in the beginning stages as well and mom Evelyn volunteered there and thought it would be a good place to go. It turned out to be one of the best suggestions ever!! We did that market for 36 years before deciding we needed to retire from that in2019!(which turned out to be perfect timing considering what happened in 2020!) Over the course of those years not only did we both do the markets but so did our daughters as well as both of Jerry's parents not to mention numerous friends who helped us. In addition to Santa Monica we also did markets in Torrance and Westwood for many years. We stopped going to the SLO Market and Arroyo Grande after Moira and Julianne went off to college and The Stand was building up and taking up our time. Our operation has always been a family affair, Maureen doing the books, payroll, reports etc. and Jerry handling all the aspects of the farming operation.
In 2003 we had the amazing opportunity to move from Huasna Rd to Halcyon. We are forever grateful to Eleanor and the Halcyon Community for allowing us to move our operation to this wonderful location. It was daunting at first to make this switch as the farm here was twice the acreage we had and we were starting from scratch, no crops in the ground, no structures, no stand. The farm had been in commercial strawberries for 50 years and Jerry immediately started to rebuild the soil with a cover cropping program as well as stopping the use of any pesticides. It was important to bring back the land in addition to protecting our neighbors from the chemicals that had been in use. In the beginning we had one table out on the street where It was always cold and windy, and a one person operation!! The internet was not what it is today so it was mostly by word of mouth that people found us, we slowly built up our CSA program, increased our email list and developed our website and facebook presence.
It's hard to believe that it's been almost 20 years for us in Halcyon and we feel that we have tried our best to be good stewards of the land as well as good neighbors to the community that not only surrounds the farm but come from all over San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County. The last two years have been quite a challenge and it was important to us to supply people with safe ways to get their produce as well as keeping our crew as safe as possible. We have been supported by our wonderful loyal customers in so many ways, helping us win "Best of SLO" sponsored by The New Times many years, 2020 Best Business for the South County Chambers, and Agriculturalist of the year for the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau. We feel very loved and appreciated and would love to thank each and everyone of you, and with that we won’t exactly say good-bye but “See You Around”!
