Regenerative Farming
La Puma Farms is a three acre certified organic urban working regenerative farm which produces a highly diverse set of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, herbs and edible flowers. Cover crops, mulching, serious composting, building a soil web without tilling, saving and storing water, feeding pollinators and synergistic planting inform our farm stewardship. La Puma Farms has been called “A Shangri-La for Food”, after the mystical valley of longevity. Sharing our Santa Barbara farm with others in this special place allows us to teach, entertain and feed people. Often visitors experience awe, well-being and profound relaxation, resetting their minds and even bodies towards something more peaceful.
It's Nature that Nurtures
Designed by John La Puma, the farm features 14 different “rooms” of orchards and gardens, lined with reclaimed redwood pathways and benches, and many planter beds of vegetables and herbs.
Avocado and banana grove • Rare citrus orchard • Apiary • Berry patches • Oak grove and native understory • Tropicals and exotics • Olive orchard • Culinary herb and flower gardens • Kitchen vegetable and herb garden • Chumash medicinal garden • Cider apple and Asian persimmon orchard • Heritage plum orchard • Gamay Noir vineyard
What we farm
The property’s sandy soil provides for excellent drainage, and the ability to grow, with much amendment, care and love, wildly diverse crops. These include:
*tropical fruit such as cherimoyas, mangoes and papayas;
*culinary medicinal herbs such as lemon verbena and mugwort;
*culinary herbs such as rosemary and thyme;
*subtropical and Mediterranean fruits such as Haas avocados, rare citrus (bergamots, etrogs, yuzus, caviar limes),
figs, olives, grapes and pomegranates;
*temperate delicious fruits, such as heritage apples, European plums and hybrid stone fruit; and
*accessory fruits such as rare persimmons, raspberries and blueberries.
The farm also features a rich array of succulents, cacti and yucca, as well as native wildflowers and wildlife.
How we farm
It mulches heavily, relies on wild biodiversity for insect control, and aims to improve soil health and with it, human health.
The farm attempts to re-use, recycle and repurpose everything that can be.
It uses biochar, comfrey and compost for fertility and no-till agriculture for all of its crops.
It devotes over 10% of its land to insectary plants and the beneficial insects that those flowers attract.
It captures, stores and re-uses rainwater in innovative ways, and utilizes timed drip irrigation as needed.
It utilizes a unique multispecies cover crop mix for its orchards, combating climate change by reducing emissions and drawing down and sequestering carbon and nitrogen.
