What began as a periodic gathering of friends for a juice-making “detox night” has grown into a diverse business that has nestled itself nicely in the organic scene of its respective neighborhoods. For the past seven years, Juice Ranch has been serving Santa Barbara with a 100 percent organic, revitalizing, and refreshing menu of juices across five different locations — and they have no plans for slowing down. Looking at their company’s future, cofounders Erin Gomez and Scott Walker are seeking to hone their menu’s newest offerings.
As Walker explained, for the past 100 years, a unique method of farming known as “biodynamic” agriculture has been providing an elevation in nutrition through its beautifully simple strategy: no herbicides, no pesticides, no chemical or mechanical intervention of any kind. Biodynamics generate produce through a 100 percent natural cycle. Once the seeds are sown, farmers allow cattle to fertilize the land with their manure before they continue to graze on nearby land. Once reaped, the newer generation of crops is rotated to the next plot of land in coordination with the grazing cycle of the cattle. The Biodynamic Federation Demeter International is the only agency that recognizes and certifies farms that use 100 percent biodynamic practices; among them is Hoskins Berry Farm.
For the past three years, Hoskins Berry Farm has been Juice Ranch’s leading purveyor for one of their newer products: hemp-based juices. “Hemp-based juices are much thicker, viscous, and on their own quite bitter. Yet when you cut it with one of our organic Meyer lemons, it has a wonderfully refreshing taste,” said Walker. While Juice Ranch is 100 percent organic certified, it is through their connections with organizations such as Hoskins Berry Farm that they are highlighting the advancement and gains that biodynamics present. That being said, it is difficult to source biodynamic products with such purity in their contents, given that many cannabis/hemp farms alone have come back with COAs (certificate of analysis) of “three to four times the legal limit of cadmium,” according to Walker’s findings.