“A permaculture nerd’s fever dream, a slick and multi-functional ecosystem that closes the bio refinery’s loop by transforming potential waste streams into more positives.”
Good Times Magazine
Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center is an organic farming, research & development, teaching, and demonstration facility located on 14 acres in Freedom, California, near Watsonville, just a few miles from Santa Cruz and the Pacific Ocean. Our microclimate brings us impressive benefits and challenges.
We grow specialty, high-value organic produce using innovative regenerative and sustainable agricultural practices, including distillation of agricultural waste to make fertilizer and energy to enhance crop productivity and increase yields. Our on-site distillery produces organic fertilizer, soil amendments, and alcohol derived from agricultural plant waste. It can make approximately 100,000 gallons of organic liquid fertilizer and 100,000 gallons of alcohol per year.
The feedstock for the distillery operation can be derived from plant biomass produced on-site, and can also provide benefits to other agricultural operations in the area by using their waste products, for instance importation of apple pulp and damaged apples that cannot be used in the juice-making process.
In the short video below, Farmer Dave gives us a look at the Tropical Fruit Forest at Whiskey Hill Farms!
Photo Gallery
Posts
For Sale! Help Save David Blume’s World-Famous Whiskey Hill Farms
Edible Innovators: Still Farming: Organic vegetables and “the world’s second oldest profession” go hand in hand on Whiskey Hill
2-Hour Farm Tours, Free at Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center
Blume Industries & Whiskey Hill Farms Receive Another USDA / SARE Grant
David Blume Open House at Whiskey Hill Farms
Aerial View of Whiskey Hill Farms
Where Did the Name “Whiskey Hill” Come From?
A Tour of the Alcohol Distillery at Whiskey Hill Farms
Cattails for Protein at Whiskey Hill Farms
