Community Farmstand Open Every Sunday for Delicious Organic Produce

Ranchito Milkyway Farmstand is the Farmer’s Market that you’ve been dreaming of. Instead of a collection of different farmers using who-knows-what fertilizers and insecticides, you know exactly what you’re eating from this farm stand.

Christian Frutos and Alyssa Brodsky started their organic gardens nearly four years ago . . . October of 2020 to be exact. Their mission was to connect people to their food and where it comes from.

Christian and Alyssa

Alyssa is from Illinois and has a background in Dairy Science. She lived in France and worked in goat herding. Then she spent three years in the Peace Corp, rice farming in Madagascar. Quite an interesting and well-rounded history preparing her for her current role!

Christian was born and raised in San Diego and has a background in Horticulture Science. He also worked three years at the State Department of Agriculture. He is bi-lingual and can help you with your produce selection in English or Español.

Christian and Alyssa use only organic practices and are always trying to reduce waste. They compost from food scraps, fertilize with compost tea & worm castings and follow Korean natural farming methods. They even make their own natural soap pesticide. All produce is totally organic.

On Sundays, you can pick your produce from the farm stand. You will be given a box and can collect your 5-8 items of choice. The growing is seasonal and provides the following:

Winter/Spring: kale, sugar snap peas, broccolini, beets, carrots, swiss chard, parsley, cilantro, arugula and spinach.

Summer/Fall: tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, a lettuce mix, bok choi, dill, basil, and sweet corn.

The sweet corn was so yummy that I ate it raw! You can also select from a variety of homemade items including sourdough bread, jams, sauces, salsa and even soap.

The Farmstand offers a subscription model (normally called a CSA- Community Supported Agriculture), for those who want to sign up for a season and gain both better pricing and a closer relationship to their food/farmers. CSA members pick out their veggies at the Farmstand on Sundays so each box is customizable. This helps us focus more on our growing practices and less time on marketing! 

Ranchito Milkyway Farmstand also participates in “gleaning.” This is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields —in this case fruit from your trees—after they have been harvested. You can discuss what you would be interested in gleaning with Christian. He will come pick the excess fruit from your trees and give you organic produce in return.

Ranchito Milkyway Farmstand is open every Sunday from 10am to 2pm. You can find it at the end of the road located at 7275 San Miguel Avenue, Bonita. Precise directions may be found under the photos below. Park at the end of the lower road, in front of the iron gate, and walk through the fence to the gardens. It is located in a private gated community and guarded by Rottweilers with guns and killer kitties in off hours.

Head east on San Miguel Road. Cross over the 125, take the first right and then your first left. This is where you'll need Alyssa's help to get through the security gate (see below). Follow the road to the end until you see another gate. Park on the road and the entrance is on your left.

Call Alyssa at 217.369.4003 to gain access on Sundays.

www.Ranchitomilkyway.farm

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