January 13, 2015 – We’re stoked! Surfing legend Jack O’Neill has purchased one of the last remaining farms within the city of Santa Cruz. Escrow closed January 2 on a six-acre parcel of prime cropland on Ocean St. Extension, which has been farmed for the past 30 years by Route 1 Farms. “The farm represented an opportunity to support family farming that my father embraced,” said Bridget O’Neill, daughter of the 91-year-old inventor of the wetsuit. “It’s the best possible outcome,” beamed Route 1 Farms owner Jeff Larkey, who leases the land and scrambled last summer to find new owners when the property was put up for sale.
Jack O’Neill has lived in Santa Cruz for more than 50 years and is a huge fan of local, healthy, sustainable agriculture. “He buys local and eats organic, our whole family is into that,” said Bridget. “In fact most surfers, at least the ones I grew up with, are really healthy. I think it goes hand in hand with being out there in nature all the time.”
The property sold for $1mil, according to Realtor.com, and O’Neill hopes to keep it as it is now. “It’s one of those unique places with perfect climate and perfect soil, along a riparian corridor, where you can grow anything,” says Larkey, who also farms 8 acres of adjacent land and 40 acres at Waddell Creek on the north coast. But the recently purchased parcel is especially important to the farm’s survival because that’s where his well is located.
While the property is zoned for commercial agricultural, Larkey was also looking into the possibility of getting a conservation easement to ensure that it remains as farm land “in perpetuity.” But O’Neill said it was too soon to talk about that. “We haven’t sat down yet and looked at all the possibilities, but our goal is to keep it as is,” Bridget said.
Larkey says more than half the produce he grows is sold locally: “If we are going to protect ourselves from external threats like climate change, along with the ongoing financial pressures, then more and more, it’s important to conserve these kinds of places that act as buffers, as well as being highly productive.”
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
