Apple Surprise: New Hope for Pajaro Valley Apple Growers By Mark C. Anderson

Apple Surprise: New Hope for Pajaro Valley Apple Growers
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July 14, 2026—The press is on.

It’s on for Watsonville apple growers, given the news S. Martinelli & Co. is discontinuing contracts with regional growers who sold them vast quantities of Pajaro Valley fruit for decades.

“We’ve grown up together,” says Jake Mann of Five Mile Orchards (formerly Mann Orchards), a fifth generation Pajaro Valley apple family currently stewarding 100+ acres in Corralitos. “But now they can get fruit from Washington grown for the fresh market [versus cider]: big, really juicy—almost perfect, because they’re rejects for a grocery market or farmstand—for super cheap.” 

The press is also on for an operation out of Sebastopol called Gold Ridge Organic Farms, in a more literal way, because pressing is what it proposes to do with all that Watsonville-area fruit left without a processor.

“Staying cool and coastal makes sense for us, and we feel camaraderie with Santa Cruz because of the same pressures as Sonoma and Mendocino counties,” Hazen says, noting the retraction of the wine industry and rising real estate costs, among others. “At the same time, apples have been overlooked, underrepresented and underpriced.” Brooke Hazen.

“Fresh apples are a focus, but the product line we plan to develop also celebrates our areas’ fruit and uses vast quantities of juice,” she says. “We also need more awareness around the industry,” said Merrilee Olson. “This is about protecting growers,” she says. “I also believe we can do better than Martinelli’s.”