ON THE FARM

Livestock farmer Ryan Abelson is the owner of Pajaro Pastures.

ON THE FARM SCALING SUSTAINABILITY

The 10 year struggle to grow Pajaro Pastures

BY ASHLEY OWEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL TROUTMAN

It’s dinnertime at Pajaro Pastures and farmer-owner Ryan Abelson scatters feed to the pigs, chickens and goats in a series of sprawling hillside pens. “It’s like a little mosh pit,” he says with a laugh as the animals drown out his voice with a cacophony of squeals and squawks.

Abelson started Pajaro Pastures in 2012 as an ecological ranch. To him this means farming in harmony with the environment and society, sustainably and mindfully. He raises egg-laying hens as well as heritage breed pigs and occasionally other animals, and recently started partnering with other small farmers to diversify what he sells to a growing network of chefs and individuals through his website and at farmers’ markets.

The current iteration of Pajaro Pastures looks quite different than when Abelson started it 10 years ago, farming on rented land and using homemade equipment.

“Living somewhere else, renting land, it’s hard to build a business on that,” he shared. “Today things are still hard but there is a path to make more money and to have work-life balance. I still like it and I think it’s fun, even though being a pig farmer is sometimes really intense…you know, like loading a 700-pound animal into a trailer.” MOBILE FARM Raising animals was not Abelson’s lifelong calling but after pursuing environmental studies at UCSC and interning at Fogline Farm, TomKat Ranch and Everett Family Farm, he got his first flock of laying hens.

“I really liked working with the animals, and I had always noticed that eggs were the hottest commodity,” said Abelson. “I started off with a few thousand dollars loaned from my parents. I bought 350 day-old chicks, they came in the mail and I built a little PVC hoop house with heat lamps…all at my spot in Soquel where I could have this little shanty chicken coop.”

A DIY enthusiast, Abelson made every single piece of equipment by hand in the early days. When his mail-order chicks needed more space, he transformed a 30-foot motorhome from the junkyard into a mobile chicken coop, and then relocated to a larger plot in Watsonville.

“Building stuff has always brought me joy, but when you’re making something from scratch, you inevitably mess up or something goes wrong,” Abelson admits. “I’m a better builder and fabricator because of it, but the learning curve was really steep. Now I don’t build everything…but I do still build a lot of stuff.”

When living 15 miles away from his farm proved too difficult, Abelson moved his operation to a 90-acre spot he rented across the street from his house in Soquel and then to the nearby Seventh Day Adventist Conference Center. The arrangement with the church was mostly good, except he had to vacate for a month each summer when camp was in session. Even still, he made it work for three years while maintaining sustainable practices and expanding beyond eggs to also raise ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep and pigs.

“Each time to move the farm I would be dragging all these animals across town,” he says. “Between every property, there were so many moments of almost giving up but there was always some glimmer of hope. Somehow, I always made it work, networking and knocking on doors. I thought it was worth it, and I still think it is.”

DOUBLING DOWN In 2016, a serendipitous conversation connected Abelson to the property that started as another rental, but eventually became the permanent home of Pajaro Pastures and Abelson himself: a sweet plot of farmland and a classic farmhouse and assortment of barns and sheds situated near Corralitos Creek.

“One of my customers said, ‘We need more eggs,’ and I was like, ‘I need more land!’ so she told me to call her friend,” he says. Two weeks later Abelson started leasing the land and then eventually moved into the house when the previous tenants left. Things seemed to be settling down, until Abelson was greeted by a bank fore-

“I used to think we just need more small farms, but I am stepping away from that idea and from the idealization of the American small farmer.”

He’s expecting a new litter of piglets this fall that will be raised with their mothers until weaning.

closure notice on the door. The property owner hadn’t paid the mortgage since 2007 and the bank wanted him and his animals out.

Luckily, Abelson had learned from his past experiences to get a formal lease—which protected him as the bank tried to evict him while simultaneously listing the property on auction sites. After being summoned to court by the bank and showing up in his farmer’s best (muck boots and Carhartts) to prove he had a legal lease until 2023, Abelson got to thinking. The bank only wanted one thing, to sell the property, so he started making lowball offers. Eventually, the bank accepted one.

“Now that I’m here on this property I don’t have to worry about all that crazy stuff, like ‘where am I gonna be in three months?’ That was like eight years of my life, worrying about myself and all these chickens and dogs and goats and everything.”

With the search for a “forever pasture” over, Abelson refocused on eggs and pork. Nowadays, he usually has 20 to 30 pigs, ranging from Berkshire to Gloucestershire old spots to duroc heritage breeds, around 400 laying hens that produce 120 dozen eggs a week and random assortments of goats and sheep at times. The pigs spend their days in pens that roll into a dense oak forest full of acorns and other morsels, while the chickens and occasional goats or sheep have far-reaching yards in which to mill about in search of tasty treats.

NEW TERRAIN Pajaro Pastures’ success has come not just from raising animals but also from constant creativity. In the early days, that meant making tools or fixing old equipment. These days, it means building added value things like meat smokers for special events and collaborating within the local food system to scale sustainable farming practices.

A few years back, Abelson started working with Carmel Valleybased rancher and “pig guru” Linda Ferrasci to learn more about the art of pig raising. With the recent addition of a 700-pound heritage breed boar from his guru, Abelson is starting to breed pigs for the first time. By October he expects to have 30 piglets that he will raise in the same pens as their mothers until it’s time to wean, a very rare practice in pig farming according to Abelson.

More recently, Abelson started renting commercial kitchen space in Scotts Valley to butcher, prepare and package meat—taking on another step in the process. Renting the space has been a game changer, making the business a bit more lucrative and giving him creative control over the product, like his perfectly seasoned, top-selling Italian sausage.

It’s also allowed him to cut and sell meat for lamb and beef ranchers in the area, helping them expand their reach while offering Pajaro customers a wider array of protein both online and at markets. “This way, I don’t have to have my own cattle breeding operation or lease a 200-acre ranch. I can diversify and get more product, and customers want it.”

The kitchen is further connecting Abelson to other players in the local food system, like chef Jessica Yarr who featured his meat in an Outstanding in the Field event last June. “That’s what it’s always been about for me, not being an island,” he said. “Everyone has been along for the ride, and that part has kept me going, how excited and passionate the community is about this.”

In addition to new connections, Abelson has long-time collaborators like Full Steam Dumpling chef-owner Andy Huynh. Abelson and Huynh hit it off after meeting in 2016, first becoming friends and then business partners when Huynh started using Pajaro Pastures products in his cooking. The two talk weekly about the current inventory, whether it’s pork, chicken, lamb or eggs, and how those items might appear on Full Steam’s menu.

“I’ve seen his processes and it’s really cool to see someone farming like that. And it’s nice really knowing your farmer and getting to go out and see the animals and interact with them,” said Huynh. “His stuff is so delicious; it inspires me even more. I am always trying to prepare it in a way that makes it shine in the best way possible.”

ON THE HORIZON With his operation established, Abelson is eager to get more people to the farm by participating in the Corralitos Open Farm tours this fall, and hosting more farm dinners. He’s also finding more chances to collaborate with existing chef friends and meet new chefs to work with for events on and off the farm.

After years of just focusing on production, Abelson can now dig into “all the good parts of farming that no one tells you about,” like price sheets, marketing, sales software and everything else that goes into making a farm a business.

“I used to think we just need more small farms, but I am stepping away from that idea and from the idealization of the American small farmer,” he said. “I enjoy farming more now because I have a more realistic perspective of it. You can only make the small farming model so efficient, and then it becomes a scale thing. In small farm circles, scale is the anti-Christ. But I am getting serious about diversifying and scaling my operation, not in a scary way but in a way that will really sustain this.”

Ashley Owen is a writer and recent Massachusetts transplant. Her passion for learning about local food is only overshadowed by her passion for writing about it. Or maybe eating it. Safe to say, she is a lover of food and words, and also driving very fast in the left lane.

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Char Siu: Chinese Barbecued Pork

Courtesy Andy Huynh, chef-owner, Full Steam Dumpling

3–5 pounds Pajaro Pastures pork shoulder

For the marinade ½ cup brown sugar 1 cup light soy sauce ½ cup dark soy sauce ½ cup Shaoxing cooking wine 2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon sambal paste 2 cups stock or water (enough to submerge pork)

For the char siu sauce ½ cup brown sugar 2 cups honey 1¼ cups hoisin sauce 7/8 cup soy sauce 1½ tablespoons Chinese five spice blend 1½ tablespoons Korean chili pepper flakes 2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 tablespoons fermented bean curd (if you can score this, it takes the sauce to the next level)

Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl, except for stock or water. Whisk well to dissolve sugar.

Slice pork shoulder into pieces measuring about 8 by 3 by 3 inches. Cover with the marinade and add enough stock or water to submerge pork pieces.

Marinate in the refrigerator for 8–10 hours or preferably overnight. The next day, preheat oven to 350° F. Remove pork from the marinade and let it drip a bit.

Place pork on a wire rack over a baking tray and roast for 45 minutes.

Lower oven to 280° F and roast for another 45 minutes, until slightly charred and internal temperature reaches 165° F.

While meat is cooking make the char siu sauce by combining all ingredients in a sauce pan. Bring it to a slow simmer and stir well to dissolve the sugars.

Simmer for 15–20 minutes to let the flavors and spices marry and mellow out the hoisin sauce.

Brush finished sauce on the pork towards the end of the roasting time or use it later for dipping.

Remove pork from oven and let it rest for 15–30 minutes and slice right in. Or refrigerate and enjoy it in fried rice, in sandwiches, on salads or on its own.

Note: If you don’t have dark soy sauce, you can substitute regular soy sauce in a pinch. If you don’t have Shaoxing cooking wine, you can substitute sake in a pinch.