For many in Sonoma County, avocados are a highlight of our California-style food culture, from the brunch favorite: avocado toast, to the “super” in a super-burrito. 

The avocado, native to Mexico and Central America, came-of-age as a local culinary essential during the California food culture movement of the 70s and 80s (I first encountered the idea to swipe it across toast with a sprinkle of sea salt from my school-mate’s hippie mom in 1986) and became a healthy mainstay in our meals here in the Bay Area by the 90s.  

But because of Seven Moons Farm in Sonoma, a new advantage emerges: a thriving local avocado crop grown here in the heart of Wine Country.

The farmers’ deep knowledge of the farm’s geography has helped them identify a microclimate on the land that’s suited to avocados, a real advantage in a region better known for grapes than guacamole.

The 10-acre farm cultivates almost 200 avocado trees, producing Reed, Bacon, Gem, Hass (pronounced like “glass” according to an anecdotal introduction in one of their enjoyable and informative newsletters) and Mexicola Grande varieties. The farmers’ deep knowledge of the farm’s geography has helped them identify a microclimate on the land that’s suited to avocados, a real advantage in a region better known for grapes than guacamole.

The biodiverse farm employs sustainable farming practices and is itself a collaboration among longtime friends and farmers Rebecca Bozzelli, Kate Cherry, Ross Cannard and Nick Rupiper. Though each arrived with years of farming experience on their own, they joined forces only recently under the Seven Moons banner, focusing on high-quality produce specifically for local restaurants and farmers’ markets. Their philosophy runs deeper than what ends up in the harvest bins. The team centers soil health through organic compost, cover crops and rotational planting, and builds their farm’s fertility from the ground up rather than relying on quick fixes.

Seven Moons is featured in Season 4 Episode 4 of the Netflix show Chef’s Table: Legends, where Alice Waters and Bozzelli discuss and taste Spigarello broccoli in the field. Later in the show, Waters says of the local food she curates for the meals at Chez Panisse, “We can’t make that taste—that taste comes from the farmers”.

Local Legends

Besides their own personal love of farming, Seven Moons also carries a remarkable local legacy. Forty-five years ago, Ross Cannard’s father, Bob Cannard, established a farm on the same land and supplied produce to the legendary Chez Panisse. Now, the next generation of farmers, as Seven Moons Farms, continues that relationship supplying Chez Panisse with their exquisite, locally grown avocados, and more. 

Seven Moons is featured in Season 4 Episode 4 of the Netflix show Chef’s Table: Legends, where Alice Waters and Bozzelli discuss and taste Spigarello broccoli in the field. Later in the show, Alice Waters says of the local food she curates for the meals at Chez Panisse, “We can’t make that taste—that taste comes from the farmers”.

These farmers also provide produce and avocados to a growing roster of acclaimed and supportive Bay Area restaurants, including Valley Bar + Bottle, Fava, Swim Club, Buck’s Place (where sometimes there is seasonal Seven Moons pizza!), Dry Creek Kitchen and more.

Their produce and avocados also supply many area restaurants and local families through the F.E.E.D Cooperative, a farmer and worker-owned food hub in Petaluma. On the F.E.E.D website, Seven Moons says, “We have simple goals, to grow healthy food that connects us to our community. F.E.E.D has been an important part of our growth, connecting us to all the right places to sell our produce so we can focus on farming. We especially love that some of our produce is going to local schools and families.”

For home cooks, the farm’s avocados are available through the summer at the Sonoma Valley Certified Farmers Market and the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market.

For home cooks, the farm’s avocados are available through the summer at the Sonoma Valley Certified Farmers Market and the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market. Seven Moons’ crown jewel may be avocados but they also grow (and sell!) a farm full of gorgeous seasonal produce including onions, potatoes, carrots, peaches, cucumbers, tomatoes, speckled gem lettuce, giant spinach, Spanish Roja garlic, Jimmy Nardello peppers, daikon radishes, blood oranges, and more.

Via their newsletter, you’ll discover simple yet inevitable tips like how to hold a Modelo beer and an ear of freshly shucked corn (husks still attached) in one hand while sprinkling Tajin over the beer-drenched cob with the other, devour, then repeat, row by spicy row, finishing with “a chug of beer”.

In some of these newsletters, which they admit come out “randomly” or “jazz-style”, you might find the Seven Moons Farm comic, started earlier this year. It’s a graphic novel version of a farm journal, (see below) chronicling their adventures on the land, drawn by their friend, musician and artist Gio Benedetti. “I wish I looked that cool in real life,” says Bozzelli on Instagram of her character in the comic. 

The newsletters, written mostly by Rupiper, expound on chickens, potato-picking farm equipment that they actually use to mine rocks out of the fields, “machismo” in the kitchen, pop-up dinner benefits with paella and falafel, roasting a goat in the desert, and how ‘women can be farmers’, conveyed as an essay on the more-often-than-one-might-think encountered perceptions of farmers-as-men.

In a county celebrated for wine grapes, artisan cheese and heirloom vegetables, locally grown avocados produced by an enthusiastic group of farmer friends may seem like an unexpected addition. Yet Seven Moons Farm proves that Sonoma agriculture still has a few surprises left growing on the hillside.

Seven Moons Farm produce and avocados can generally be found at the Sonoma Valley Certified Farmers Market Fridays, 9 AM–12:30 PM and the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, Wednesdays and Saturdays 8:30AM-1PM all summer, in F.E.E.D bins.

The farm’s produce is also used at the following restaurants: Chez Panisse, Valley Bar & Bottle, Buck’s Place, Fava, Dry Creek Kitchen, Baker and Cook, Scribe Winery, Swim Club, Enclos, el molino central, among others. To get specific about when and where they will be at the farmers’ markets, follow their IG @seven_moons_farm or subscribe to their newsletter. sevenmoonsfarm.com