Halcyon Farms
Arroyo Grande ยท U-pick
The old Rutiz farm on The Pike: pesticide-free vegetables, flowers and U-pick berries
About
Halcyon Farms is the stand on The Pike near Elm Street that many locals still call the Rutiz farm. It sells vegetables, fruit and cut flowers grown right there without pesticides, plus a $20 Harvest Bag whose contents change every week. When the berries come in you can pick your own: strawberries in spring, raspberries in midsummer and blackberries toward the end of summer.
Jerry Rutiz farmed this 25-acre plot from about 2001 and retired in 2022 after 41 years of farming. He passed it to Ariela Gottschalk, who had spent about 20 years managing Growing Grounds Farm in Santa Maria. She and her husband, Jeff Pienack, named it after the old town of Halcyon next door and kept the Rutiz field crew, many of whom had worked this land for nearly 20 years.
What they sell
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Cut flowers
- U-pick strawberries (Apr to June)
- U-pick raspberries (July to Aug)
- U-pick blackberries (Aug to Sept)
Hours
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: noon to 5 pm
- Wednesday: Closed
- Thursday: Closed
- Friday: noon to 5 pm
- Saturday: 10 am to 3 pm
- Sunday: Closed
Where
1075 The Pike, Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
Good to know
- U-pick strawberries usually run April to June, raspberries July and August, blackberries August and September.
- The stand is open only Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
- The $20 Harvest Bag is a weekly mix; the farm posts what is in it on social media.
- In late summer the farm runs pumpkin etching, and the etched pumpkins are picked up in October.