Brooke Hazen: Bringing His Art to Earth & Spirit | Sebastopol Living

In 1995, Brooke started his first farm on five acres of land in Sebastopol where he grew cool-season vegetables organically. Brooke sees himself as an “Earth Artist” and this first farm was where he began to hone his art. In 2000, he acquired the 88 acres that is now Gold Ridge Organic Farms. He remembers that move, “For me, this land was an extravagant canvas that I could now paint my wildest dreams on. I was already transforming into a perennial herb farmer and by the time we bought this parcel, I was looking at orchards. So I started out back in 2000 with heirloom apples, a diversity of table grapes, plums, Euro pears, and Asian pears... At that time, Honeycrisp was bursting on the scene... Today, 90% of the apples I have are split evenly between Fuji and Honeycrisp, and about 10% are still the heirloom apples. So I call the heirloom apples, ‘the spice’ and I call the Fuji and Honeycrisp, ‘the bread and butter.’”