What’s In A Name?

Laura Avery
Mirror contributing writer

   You will not find See Canyon on a standard issue AAA roadmap. I tried. I happened to know its whereabouts because I visited See Canyon several years ago at the invitation of canyon resident and apple grower, Brett Schulman, who is still remembered by the many loyal customers he gained over several years of selling at farmers’ markets. Brett’s outgoing personality and fascinating “apple talks” even caught the eye of L.A.’s favorite television teddy bear, Huell Howser, who featured Brett on one of his shows.
   Brett and his See Canyon neighbor, Mike Cirone, didn’t just grow and sell apples at their various farmers’ markets (which they divided up so as not to step on each other’s toes.) What they sold was the product of a unique geographical and historical region, rich in loamy soil and rain fed ground water, that happened to be some of the best fruit in California.
   See Canyon is one of a number of small canyons just south of San Luis Obispo, perfectly situated to capture rainstorms that gather around nearby Point Buchon. The canyon gets 60 inches of rain each year in the back, and 35 inches in the front, and has a creek that runs year round. It also has plenty of chilling due to its north-south orientation, when the sun disappears by mid-afternoon during the winter months. The soil is a well-drained loamy shale, and the water table is shallow enough that the whole canyon can be dry farmed, not irrigated.
   One of candy maven Mary See’s distant relatives planted the See Canyon Fruit Ranch in the 1890s and this was the land that Brett Schulman farmed. It was mostly apples, with some peach and apricot trees that Brett added later. Mike got started eighteen years ago in See Canyon by pruning and maintaining orchards for owners who let him keep the fruit as payment. He was a botany major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at the time, but he was attracted to the classes in pomology and soil science that put him working on projects outdoors. One property that Mike took over was the Daisy Dell Ranch, a venerable apple orchard planted in 1906 that was being stripped for juice by its new owner. Brett has moved away from See Canyon, and Mike is now farming a total of 30 acres which he leases from thirteen owners. Aside from the See Canyon Fruit and Daisy Dell ranches, most of the remaining farmland in See Canyon is divided into very small two-and-three-acre farmlets held by owners who just want Mike to maintain their orchards.
   This year Mike brought in one of his best crops ever. He grows sixty-six varieties of apples, four pear and two quince varieties in See Canyon, and farms his coveted Blenheim apricots over the ridge in Castro Canyon. Among his most popular apples are the Braeburn, five kinds of Pippins, Molly Delicious (gone before you knew it), a really good golden Supreme and a unique sweet-tart Pearmain. His pear varieties are Bartlett, Bosc, Seckel and d’Anjou, all of which benefit in taste and texture from See Canyon’s unique climate and soil. Due to his pears’ popularity, Mike has been planting them like crazy, increasing from 150 trees planted last year to 440 this year. He has purchased some land east of Morro Bay in a traditional avocado growing area where he is putting in tropical fruits like sapote and cherimoya. With his apples, pears, apricots and tropical fruits, Mike is reviving a farming tradition that began in See Canyon over 100 years ago.
   There are others out there trying to cash in on the See Canyon name who have nothing to do with tradition or great tasting fruit. A wealthy individual has bought some land in See Canyon itself and a much larger section of farmland in the Avila Valley along Highway 101 that he is trying to peddle as “See Canyon Estates.” Among the interested buyers are wineries that would like to capitalize on See Canyon’s name recognition and set up shop in a region that comes with a ready-made “denomination of origin.” In spite of preservation efforts by the American Farmland Trust and the Nature Conservancy in nearby Irish Hills and Davis Canyon, remaining farmland in See Canyon and the immediate vicinity is rapidly disappearing.
So what does the name See Canyon mean? We first heard about it here at the market through the efforts of Brett and Mike who brought us all that great-tasting fruit. Some of us have made the trip to the canyon to see first hand rich topsoil that resembles chocolate mousse and gnarled, century old apple trees that still bear exceptional fruit. To those of us at farmers’ markets the name See Canyon means being surprised and pleased each week from August through November with the fruit Mike brings to market, and then waiting with increasing anticipation for his return the following year. I hope that’s all that See Canyon ever has to mean.
   Thanksgiving Market hours: All Santa Monica Farmers’ Markets will be open regular hours during Thanksgiving week with the exception of the Saturday Downtown Market, which will be closed on November 24th.