Visiting A Local Farm: Underwood Family Farms in Somis

Strawberry picking with the kids at Underwood Farms, May 2020

The kids have been cooped up for 3 months. School is ending this week and there will be no more Zoom classes for the time being. Now that more places are opening up after the 3-month COVID-19 shutdown, it’s a perfect time to visit a local farm to pick produce. It’s an outdoor activity, it’s educational and it’s very low-cost.

Underwood Farms: A Local Farm That Welcomes Families

If you’re an L.A. local or you’ve vacationed here, you probably already know about Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark. You can pick a huge variety of crops and get a great education for the kids. However, the crowds are very heavy lately.

Luckily, there is another location in Somis, just north of Camarillo. It is one of the great “undiscovered” outdoor gems of the L.A. area. You can pick blueberries and strawberries to your heart’s content, with blackberries and raspberries ripening during June and July. There are no lines, the crowds are very light and people are well-spaced between crop rows.

We visited on two consecutive weekends in May, collectively picking nearly 20 pounds of blueberries and strawberries.

After You Harvest, Do Your Weekly Produce Shopping

If you want to do your weekly produce shopping, there is also a huge and well-stocked fruit and veggie stand on the way out. The selection runs the gamut from the very common (romaine lettuce, red beets, cilantro, parsley, white cauliflower, orange carrots, spinach, green beans, snap peas) to the more unusual (kohlrabi; purple, yellow & green cauliflower; orange, purple & yellow carrots; candy-striped & golden beets; tatsoi; mizuna). Depending on the season, you may also find many different varieties of tomatoes, avocados, zucchini, hard squashes and peas.

What I love about Underwood (in case you haven’t noticed, I am a big fan!), is that they practice sustainable farming. Although Underwood is not certified organic, they incorporate many organic farming techniques, in addition to sustainability principles. At the veggie stand, though, they will occasionally sell produce that is from other local farms. Although I know Underwood’s growing techniques well, I cannot vouch for the growing methods used by those local farms.

Have you visited any other local farms during the pandemic? Please tell us about your experiences!