Zava Ranch is a Certified Organic, veganic, chemical-free family-owned farm and orchard in Somis, Ventura County, California. Across twenty acres of mostly citrus, avocados, herbs, and a variety of other crops, we have chosen to take on the challenge to farm without pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers, manure, or other animal-derived agricultural inputs. We do not wax or coat the fruit, artificially ripen it, or apply post-harvest chemical treatments to improve its appearance or extend its shelf-life.

The fruit from our orchard is chemical-free, veganic, unsprayed, and unwaxed. We call the way we farm Beyond Organic because our practices go far beyond the requirements of organic certification.

We live here. We raise our family here. We eat the fruit from these trees, and our children play in the same orchard where our food is grown. That makes the decisions we make about how we farm deeply personal.

We grow food in a way that respects the people who eat it, the land that produces it, and the wildlife that shares the farm with us.

Doesn’t Organic designation automatically mean not grown with chemicals?

Organic certification does not mean that no pesticides, fertilizers, or agricultural inputs are used. Organic standard only restricts which chemicals can be used.

We have voluntarily chosen to exclude all chemicals, regardless of their permission status under organic standard. We use only water, sunlight, the existing orchard ecosystem, and plant material such as mulch generated within our farming system.

We have chosen to farm without chemicals.

Isn’t all Organic Farming Veganic by default?

People are sometimes surprised to learn that organic agriculture is not necessarily veganic. Quite the opposite. Unfortunately, due to the fact that organic standard restricts which chemicals can be used, many organic farms rely heavily on animal-derived materials such as manure, blood meal, bone meal, feather meal, fish meal, or fish emulsion.

We choose not to use animal-derived inputs.

A Working Farm and a Site for Applied Agricultural Research

At Zava Ranch, we are challenging practices that agriculture has accepted for decades without always asking whether they are necessary.

• Instead of asking which product to apply, we ask whether anything needs to be applied at all.
• Instead of routinely removing vegetation, we ask when it actually begins to interfere with the orchard.
• Instead of treating every pest as a problem that requires chemical control, we look for ways to manage pressure through timing, habitat, and orchard design.
• Instead of assuming that more water is always better, we critically analyze irrigation approached.
• We ask how can wildlife and pollinator habitat expanded without compromising farm productivity?
• And after a major wildfire, how do damaged trees recover, how should irrigation and production areas be rebuilt to increase resilience?

The potential impact of Zava Ranch research is beyond our orchard: less chemical use, cleaner soil and water, lower exposure for farmworkers and nearby communities, more habitat for pollinators and wildlife, more efficient water use, more understanding of wildfire recovery, and better evidence for growers to make informed decisions on how they want to farm. That is why we do this work.

Purchases from Zava Ranch directly support this research and the field work behind it.

Do you have questions for us?

Email: [email protected]
Call/Text: (805) 770-0834

We spend much of our time working outside rather than by the phone, but we will get back to you as soon as we can.