Pie Ranch

v\In 2002, three founding partners — Nancy Vail, Jered Lawson, and Karen Heisler — accessed a 14-acre slice of land on California’s San Mateo coast, 55 miles south of San Francisco along Highway 1, in the unceded lands of the Quiroste Tribe of the Awaswas Nation, part of a larger homeland known as Popeloutchom. These lands are represented and cared for today by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Land Trust with whom Pie Ranch is in an ongoing partnership. Pie Ranch's founding partners shared a vision to create a regenerative farming and food system education center to build community; provide a space for healing our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth; steward the land and the environment; sequester carbon through climate friendly farming techniques; engage and employ young people on the land; share resources with new farmers; make healthy food accessible to Bay Area communities; leverage privilege to address systemic racism; dismantle white supremacy and all forms of oppression; create space for joy and celebration; and build a beloved community through strategic partnerships. We began a youth education program in 2005 as a partnership with Mission High School in San Francisco. In its first year the Youth Program served 50 students; it now reaches over 1500 young people annually from three partner schools and dozens of communities throughout the Bay Area. Over 6000 participants of all ages engage in food and farming education programs on the ranch each year. In 2006, Pie Ranch began hosting its first Farm Apprentices and Interns and as of January 2020 had trained over 100 new farmers, the majority of whom are still engaged in farming, gardening, food education, or are working within the food system in some capacity