Meet Bill & Barbara Spencer. They Grow Awesome Tomatoes.
(Photo: Windrose Farm)
While Windrose Farm may be located up in San Luis Obispo county, owners and accidental farmers Bill and Barbara Spencer have been supplying some of the most iconic LA restaurants with their famed tomatoes as well as a variety of other produce since the nineties. They've also been a staple at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market since 2002.
Their gorgeous farm is tucked into a little valley between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles, and covers about 50 acres, with an impressive list of seasonal produce from greens to squash to radishes and beyond. But it's their tomatoes—their 65 varieties of heirloom tomatoes painstakingly cared for by real human hands—that are worth seeking out, whether from a local farmers’ market, a restaurant’s menu, or even a drive all the way up to their farm. Every year, the Spencers host their annual Heirloom Tomato Festival, which is a weekend filled with the most wonderful tomato-related events one could ever imagine, followed by a Tomato Tasting dinner on their farm. The food is exquisite and, of course, when in wine country...there will always be wine.
While the farm was certified organic from 1999 to 2009, they are now known as a biodynamic farm, which is actually quite similar organic farming. The Spencers are very clear about what they do and do not allow. For example, they do rotate crops. compost, interplant, and listen to the seasons. They do not use pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or chemical fertilizers.
“We subscribe to Rudolph Steiner’s philosophy that the farm should be seen as an ecosystem in its own right and that our striving should be to move towards building and maintaining plant and animal communities which are ecologically suited to its unique combination of soil, climate and place.”
Be sure to visit the farm if you head up north or catch them at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market every Wednesday from 8:30am - 1:30pm.