Benicia & Vallejo Food Forest Garden Tour Celebrates Its 10th Year!

Apr 2, 2026

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

Every community has their magical spots and events that only locals know about. I consider our annual garden tour, this year on April 25, one of those special events. It is the sweetest part of our world — kind people that want to open their yards to inspire, to talk about plants, and to see what grows well in USDA garden zone 9b. This will celebrate our 10th year touring the food forest gardens!

Register here!

The tour has evolved over the years to include other types of gardens for a variety of inspiration. This year’s garden tour showcases a mix of new garden sites, established permaculture food forests, native landscapes, community gardens and more. In partnership with the Willis L Jepson chapter of the California Native Plant Society, we are featuring four dedicated native plant gardens. Join us to meet passionate local gardeners, explore real-life examples of flourishing food forests, and get inspired to grow your own edible paradise.

The day opens at 9 am with Lori Caldwell, a.k.a. “Compost Gal,” presenting on healthy soil at Avant Garden in Benicia. Attendees can pick up the itinerary of participating gardens at Avant in the morning and visit Benicia gardens from 10 am-1 pm and Vallejo gardens from 1-4 pm. For those just able to join for the afternoon, there will be an opportunity to pick up the Vallejo itinerary at Pollinator Pathway on Mare Island from 12-1 pm. You can visit gardens at your own pace on this self-guided tour.

Learn more about the gardens on the tour here!

How It Will Work

You can choose to tour for the whole day or for half a day.
Benicia Demonstration Food Forest Gardens will be open 10 am-1 pm
Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Gardens will be open 1-4 pm

Register here

Itinerary pickup:

9-11 am: Itineraries will be available at Avant Garden in Benicia (400 First St., Benicia). This itinerary will include all of the demonstration food forest gardens in Benicia (open in the morning) and Vallejo (open in the afternoon).

12-1 pm: Itineraries for the Vallejo garden sites (open in the afternoon) will be available at the Pollinator Pathway garden at the Global Center for Success (1055 Azuar Dr/BLDG 733, Vallejo).

Highlights and What’s New

Every garden is an opportunity to learn about permaculture, native planting, water conservation, and much more. By attending the tour, you will leave with practical knowledge that can transform not just your own garden but also the way you interact with the environment. Here are a few new projects and educational talks that will be highlighted during the garden tour:

Healthy Soil

Compost Gal, Lori Caldwell will open the garden tour at Avant Garden in Benicia with a talk on healthy soil. After the talk she will be available to answer any questions about compost, soil and so much more!

Native Plants

While all the food forest gardens feature native plants, this year we are thrilled to showcase five specialized gardens dedicated to highlighting native species. 3 in Benicia and 1 in Vallejo, each will have a CNPS Docent to answer your native plant questions!

Free Seeds, Plants & DIY Garden Design Templates

Pick up free seeds at Avant Garden & Pollinator Pathway during registration, and grab free veggie starts at our partner location, Vallejo Unity Garden. We will also have DIY Landscape Design templates for both edible and water-efficient gardens. Available while supplies last! 

Plants & Garden Goodies

Plants and garden goodies will be for sale at some of the gardens so bring cash. At Terraza Dominica at St. Patrick-St. Vincent Catholic High School, tomato plants will be for sale for $5. (exact change or credit card/Apple Pay only)

Pollinator Activities & Guides

Join the Vallejo Environmental Leadership Fellowship interns for a fun community day at the Pollinator Pathway Garden! Make seed balls to support local pollinators. Come make a positive impact on our environment alongside passionate local youth. Vallejo People’s Garden will offer guided tours at 1 pm and 2:30 pm.

HOA

Visit this lawn conversion project designed by Michael Wedgley from Soilogical and installed by the Bay Vista Homeowners Association. This project not only serves as an example of environmental stewardship, but also as an inspiring model for HOA communities everywhere. This project will show resilient plants that are adapted to our local climate and require far less water than traditional lawns.

We are still planning so there is more to come …

2026 Benicia & Vallejo Tour: Featured Gardens

Apr 2, 2026

Scroll through the list below to read about the Benicia and Vallejo gardens that are featured on this year’s tour, and to learn about special offerings at some of the gardens!

Register for the April 25 tour here!

Benicia Food Forest, Pollinator & Community Gardens

Avant Garden

The spring garden tour will begin at 9 am at Avant Community Garden in Benicia with a talk on healthy soil from “CompostGal” Lori Caldwell. Itinerary pick up will be from 9-11 am.

** Refreshments and free seeds will be available

Apricot Alcove

 This front yard food forest primarily focuses on native plants and pollinators. It was established as part of Sustainable Solano’s Fall 2025 Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course. The front lawn was transitioned to a large bioswale, fed by a laundry-to-landscape greywater system. Drip irrigation runs to an apricot tree encircled by natives, and the hope is for the apricot tree to provide shade and privacy once fully grown.

 

Giardino su una Colina (Garden on a Hill)

 

A 6-year-old food forest and pollinator garden installed in 2020 that includes a swale that captures roof water and mediterranean trees and plants mixed with native pollinating and nectar plants to attract bees and butterflies. This site is home to a Monarch Waystation that grows a variety of plants to support Western Monarch Butterflies.

The Monarch Milkweed Project and monarch education will be highlighted. Come to learn how you can support and participate in the Bay Area Butterfly Festival coming to Mare Island on June 14!

Bay Vista Homeowners Association

 In June 2024, Bay Vista HOA in Benicia transformed its common area lawn into a waterwise, sustainable landscape to reduce water and beautify the space.

Michael Wedgley from Soilogical was the designer for this project. A lot of consideration went into plant selection. It was important to provide plenty of native species for habitat and food for native insects and birds, while also considering aesthetics as a critical aspect in HOA common spaces.

The plants selected and water catchment from the roof downspouts to the in-ground basins makes the landscape more resilient and builds healthy soil.

Learn more

Wild Cherry Way

Southern slope food forest focused on pollinators, shrubs, fruit trees and vines, and native plants. This garden also includes perennial and edible plants, swales, raised beds, and a laundry-to-landscape greywater system.

***Sustainable Solano Board Member and Permaculture Consultant Ron Kane will be on-site to offer tours and answer questions.

Learn more

Yggdrasil Garden

An evolving food forest garden and greywater system installed as part of Sustainable Solano’s 2022-23 Permaculture Design Certificate course. Students transformed the front yard with a rain-capturing swale and planted berms with native and pollinator-supporting plants. The west side yard’s passionfruit vines and fruit tree guilds are watered by a laundry-to-landscape greywater system. The monarch butterfly-hosting back gardens were designed by Soilogical, nurtured with specially prepared compost, and supported by a Water Service Irrigation design created as part of a Sustainable Solano irrigation class. The site’s current steward, Heath Griffith of Grow with the Flow, cultivates edible landscapes with flowers and medicinal herbs, with an eye towards community engagement and ecological justice. An herb spiral was created with bricks repurposed from the chimney of the circa 1850s historic home, retaining walls were built from pieces of historic on-site stables, and patios were made from slate and brick on-site. The east side yard (in development) is watered with both a rain-capturing swale and a laundry-to-landscape system. Displays feature the historic aspects of the home; its background and ongoing tradition of art, design, and healing; information about the Ohlone Sogorea Te Indigenous Land Trust and rematriation of Carquin land; and various permaculture systems and landscape elements.

***Heath Griffith will be on-site to talk about permaculture, water harvesting, sustainable water use, and more! They participated in the 2022-2023 PDC and supported the 2025 PDC. Pick up a DIY garden design template with a plant list. The garden will also feature live music!

Learn more

California Native Plant Society (CNPS) Gardens

Bird Haven Retreat – CNPS

Visit this native plant garden and see what 30+ years of gardening dedication to native plants can create. Welcoming shade plants and green grasses abound under thriving and tall buckeye and big leaf maple trees that gain water from harvested roof rain flowing to a dry creek bed. A mature manzanita row lines the side yard walkway. Feel the intimate wildlife habitat backyard space as you find small birds flying between the branches of tall native shrubs such as the fragrant mock orange, red-blooming spice bush and the heart-shaped leaves of the western redbud. Sun-loving native perennials border a native grass lawn, and alum root hugs the shade of the understory. The owners are grateful for the relaxed and comfortable habitat that native plants provide for them.

Habitat & Harvest Garden – CNPS

(Formerly Barley’s Backyard Food Forest — one of Sustainable Solano’s first installations in Benicia — the garden is now with a new family that is adding native habitat)

The view of this welcoming tiered front garden begins right at street level with sidewalk appeal of a chaparral-inspired garden including evergreen manzanita, easy-to-grow buckwheat, and native grasses. Step down to the next tier to find a cozy deck space to sit within the garden and share the space with emerging caterpillars, hummingbirds and native pollinators as the seasons unfold. Tiered terraces and integrated drainage allow for meadow and sage, milkweed, and strawberry groundcover plantings to absorb stormwater while supporting plant health. View coffeeberry, monkeyflower, penstemon, and salvia which attract and support additional wildlife in this habitat-rich garden. Mature fruit trees, perennial edibles and vegetable beds combine with the abundance of native plantings for a harmonious full habitat that supports biodiversity and spills into the back yard as well. This garden family truly feels a calm connection with nature when they are in their garden space.

Tended Wild Garden – CNPS

Come and visit this wild-like garden to gaze upon the beautiful annual flowering natives such as the yellow and white tidy tips and the purples of lupine in the front garden patch. Travel through the side yard of orange California poppies, stepping rounds and a dry creek bed that collects rainwater, to the large backyard garden that flourishes with a thriving tapestry of wildlife-supporting native plants. Verdant grasses and spring ephemerals surround a bird bath that California Towhees are happy to visit. Tall shrubs such as rosa californica or the keystone tree coast live oak have become safe places for nests of breeding small birds. Flowering colorful annuals are servicing the many pollinators such as hover flies and bumblebees that visit the flowers for pollen. This habitat refuge is where the family connects with the wonders of nature. The owner collects seeds of many native plant species to continue the annual flowering habitat year after year.

Vallejo Food Forest, Pollinator & Community Gardens

Enchanted Cottage Garden

 This front yard lawn was replaced in May 2017 with two swales, above-ground rainwater collection and a variety of fruit trees, grapes, herbs, and year-round pollinator plants mixed with annual vegetables. There is a path through it with seating for anyone who walks by. The food forest concept extends to the back garden. This yard has inspired several neighbors to transform their landscapes. Produce from the garden is used in the food forest keeper’s small home-based restaurant and they donate excess produce.

Learn more

Loam Sweet Loam

This 700-square-foot front yard food forest was sheet mulched over 3 years ago and it includes a swale. It includes multiple layers of permaculture plants: young fruit trees, drought-tolerant shrubs such as rosemary and lavender, and soil-amending groundcovers.

The homeowners extended permaculture principles into their 900-square-foot backyard vegetable garden, and hosted workshops with Sustainable Solano and Greywater Action for the addition of a laundry-to-landscape greywater system to irrigate young fruit trees. Future plans may include diverting rainwater from downspouts into existing rain barrels to irrigate the yard, expanding the area irrigated by greywater to incorporate more trees, and increasing plant diversity throughout the yard to support a strong and edible ecosystem.

Learn more

Loma Vista Farm

Loma Vista Farm is a program of the Vallejo City Unified School District in partnership with the Friends of Loma Vista Farm, a community-based nonprofit organization.

The Farm has been a treasured part of the community since it began in 1974. Families and individuals are welcome to visit on a drop-in basis during open hours and enjoy seeing the many animals and gardens. The farm is also a field trip site for schools and groups on a reservation basis from all over the Bay Area.

The Food Forest Garden provides a beautiful demonstration to the public on how they can plant their own yard in a variety of fruit trees, perennial vegetables, herbs, native plants and pollinator rich plants.

***This year’s tour is on the same day as Loma Vista Farm’s annual Spring Open House, making it an extra special day to visit. Plants will be available in the greenhouse for sale. For more information check out Lomavistafarm.org.

Learn more

Terraza Dominicana (St. Patrick-St. Vincent Catholic High School)

SPSV Food Forest comprises six planting guilds, each with a central tree and underplanting on a steep hillside. It is used as a living laboratory for students to explore soil health, water conservation and pollination. The food forest highlights design features to address erosion control as well as techniques using repurposed materials for terracing a hillside. The garden space also includes a beautiful meditation labyrinth for reflection and contemplation.

**The school will have different varieties of tomato plants for sale for $5. Please bring exact change or credit card/Apple Pay.

Pollinator Pathway (Vallejo People’s Garden)

Pollinator food forest garden filled with a variety of California native plants that support the habitat of butterflies, bees, moths, wasps, hummingbirds and so much more. This garden was installed in February 2023 as a collaboration with a variety of organizations including Vallejo People’s Garden, Vallejo Project, Solano Resource Conservation District and Monarch Milkweed Project. Alana Mirror wrote three songs inspired by the installation, featured in her Pollinator Pathway Lawn Transformation Mini Series!

**Join the Vallejo Environmental Leadership Fellowship interns for a fun community day at the Pollinator Pathway Garden! Vallejo People’s Garden will offer tours of Pollinator Pathway at 1 pm  and 2:30 pm. Make seed balls with our interns to support local pollinators. Pick up a DIY garden design template with a plant list.

Learn more

Partner Gardens

Vallejo Unity Garden (Vallejo Project)

A Youth-Led Food Forest & Community Hub

 The Vallejo Unity Garden is a youth-led initiative of the Vallejo Project, rooted in a vision of food justice, sustainability, and community healing. For the past five years, young leaders have worked alongside community partners to transform this space into a thriving food forest and sustainable garden designed to nourish both people and place.

Blending natural, ancestral, and modern agricultural practices, the garden integrates local, Indigenous, and international growing techniques to maximize food production in an environmentally responsible way. From soil regeneration and composting to water conservation and permaculture design, the Unity Garden serves as a living classroom where youth and community members learn sustainable food systems that can be replicated at home and across neighborhoods.

This work is especially grounded in service to our immediate community, providing fresh, healthy food and hands-on learning opportunities for our unhoused neighbors and residents surrounding the Vallejo Project site. The garden is not only a source of nourishment, but also a space of dignity, connection, and empowerment.

In addition to the food forest, the site includes a small-scale farm with animals and a community workshop space where participants build DIY projects and develop practical skills. Every Saturday and Sunday 10  am-4 pm, the space comes alive with volunteers, youth leaders, and community members working together to grow food, share knowledge, and build sustainable solutions.

This ongoing effort has been made possible through the dedicated partnership and support of Sustainable Solano, the Global Center for Success, the City of Vallejo, and Justice Outside. Together, we are cultivating not just a garden, but a model for community resilience, youth leadership, and collective care.

Learn more

Georgia Plaza Garden (4th Second)

The Georgia Plaza Garden is a community garden space designed and led by Vallejo youth. The space was reclaimed as an initiative to educate middle and high school students about environmental health, stewardship, nutrition, and civic engagement / beautification. Since June 2024 the space has expanded to 10 plots for youth to plant seasonal crops, learn about native plants, soil health, and internalizing a life long positive coping skill as part of nature based therapy curriculum. Learn more about environmental cleanups and planting days to come as we expand the green space in the heart of downtown Vallejo!

**Restrooms and water on-site, and can also serve as a cooling center. Stop by to learn more about the program and plant native plants/summer crops to add to the pollinator pathway.

Learn more

Inspired Garden (Wildway Garden)

Homeowners Carolyn and Mike attended the 2025 Garden Tour and dug swales for the garden installation at Touro University. They to apply permaculture principles to their yard.

Carolyn is a pruner and horticulturist working towards a degree in Arboriculture at Merritt College. Mike teaches paragliding locally with Penguin Paragliding. They moved into our house in 2022 and were excited to have our first chance to garden in our own space after having worked on various farms in the past.

They could see the potential in the big back yard, which had been neglected for years and was covered in tall fennel but still had a number of mature fruit trees. They immediately planted a peach tree, a nectarine tree, and an asparagus patch and watched with excitement as the mature trees bloomed: apricots, plums, apples, loquats, and two prolific quince bushes. Over the years they have distributed multiple massive truckloads of arborist wood chips from ChipDrop into the garden to build the soil, in addition to planting cover crops and spreading compost. The sunniest part of the yard now hosts the vegetable garden and some perennial edible plants such as tree collards, walking onions, rhubarb, and raspberries. They installed a drip irrigation system and four valves/zones, mostly for the fruit trees and veggies. California native plants fill the front yard and many other spaces in the back yard, where they attract pollinators and provide habitat to lots of critters.

Transform Your Yard: Vallejo Residential Demo Garden Site Search

Jan 12, 2026

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

Do you live in Vallejo? Are you interested in working with your neighbors and community to install a demonstration food forest garden or native garden in your front yard? 

We are looking for a residential site in Vallejo to install a demo garden. This project will educate community members and transform a water-thirsty lawn into a lush, productive demonstration garden that provides multiple benefits for the community and environment.

The garden will

  • Build healthy soil
  • Capture rainwater to reduce stormwater flooding and create resilience to drought
  • Utilize Laundry-to-Landscape greywater (if feasible)
  • Reduce heat and sequester carbon 
  • Create habitat for beneficial insects, pollinators, birds and other wildlife
  • Provide shade and food 

The garden installation is a collaborative effort between Sustainable Solano and the homeowner and involves two to three hands-on, public educational workshops. These workshops help participants gain the skills and knowledge needed to bring these ideas back to their own gardens and neighborhoods. Homeowners often provide lunch during the workshops, recognizing the deep value of sharing food together as a way to build community. They also agree to participate in the Annual Benicia & Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour. This year’s tour will be on April 25.

The project aims to build wonderful connections within our community, deepen our collective appreciation for the environment, and inspire everyone to consider the positive impact we can have on the life around us.

If you live in Vallejo and are interested in creating a waterwise, edible food forest or native plant garden please fill out the Sustainable Landscape Interest Form. A team member will contact you with next steps. We get a lot of interest forms, so please be patient!

This project is made possible through the support of the North Bay Watershed Association, and we are very grateful for their contribution. Demonstration gardens are part of the Solano Sustainable Backyards Program. 

Sowing Seeds of Connection: 2025 Permaculture Design Course

Dec 30, 2025

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

Our 2025 Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) in Benicia blended online zoom sessions with hands-on, in-person training for nine students from August through December. As part of their training, students and instructors collaborated on redesigning an 850-square-foot residential lawn into a permaculture oasis, featuring rainwater-capturing swales, laundry-to-landscape, and native plant guilds. Local residents Gabie and Kyle opened their yard to host the hands-on weekends. We’re so grateful to them for sharing their beautiful space, fostering hands-on learning and building a vibrant community around regenerative design.

I took a PDC course in 2015 with Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden. That experience was life-changing: the principles didn’t just feel like new information, but rather a “remembering” of ancestral knowledge I already held. Beyond teaching a whole-systems design approach, these PDC courses forge deep connections with each other and the ecosystem that we are part of. I had the honor of supporting the 2025 Benicia PDC led by Lydia Neilsen and Anne Freiwald and saw firsthand how they intentionally cultivate a supportive container for growth and reflection, sharing material that can be applied in both life and work. We were joined by Heath Griffith of Grow with the Flow, a local Benicia designer who graciously volunteered their time to support the program.

“We designed, dug, planted, sang, and became one with the wild, creative, living pulse of life.”

Carrie

Benicia PDC student

A vital part of the PDC was the design projects, with students working in groups to collaboratively design three local sites. The program concluded on Dec. 6 with a public event where these projects were presented to the community. Before the presentations, the PDC group gathered and sang a song of Courage. Each group presented with a unique artistic flair, blending whole-systems thinking and design principles with a deep respect for local indigenous tribes and the historical context of the land. These are aspirational designs, but we hope that the visions will be shared with the stewards of each design location and could influence future decisions.

Here are the visions of all three projects and two Who Am I? poems from the perspective of the land.

Group Name: Gaia Mana Katonda

Design Location: Graceway Church in Benicia

Students: Juliet Majalya-Francis, Karen Borg, Owen Peute

Establish and sustain a sacred garden that reflects harmony through the practice of permaculture. We seek to cultivate a living expression of faith where prayer, reflection, play, and participation unite in a rhythm of growth and renewal. We strive to nurture systems of life that honor the interdependence of soil, water, plants, and people. Through this garden, we envision a community flourishing in spirit and in stewardship, embodying abundance and grace.

Group Name: The Gold Growers

“Sanctuary of Life”

Design Location: Swenson Garden at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Benicia

Students: Carlos Zaragoza, Rianna Samson, Natallia Pulko, David Gustafson

We want to keep the Benicia Community Gardens’ mission alive: Strengthen community resilience by increasing access to sustainable, regional sources of food [and] improving communal space.

Who Am I?

I am a multi-communal space that welcomes everyone.

I am a place where many lives meet —
people, birds, animals, insects, roots, and rivers of quiet things.
All of them belong here.

I am alive, vibrant, full of movement and stillness at once.
Life does not simply live on me —
life flows through me.

I am generous by nature.
Abundance is not something I give —
it is something I am.

I open my fields to footsteps,
my shade to rest,
my soil to seeds.

I enjoy when someone comes and sits with me —
just to be with me,

I am a place for gathering,
for remembering that we are not alone,
that every being here is part of the same story.

I am here to share, to nourish, to hold.
And I welcome all who arrive with gentleness, curiosity,
and the willingness to listen.

Group Name: Subterranean Nobles

“A Vision for a Living Classroom and Urban Oasis for Pollinators”

Design Location: De La Salle High School in Concord

Students: Jazzmin Ballou, Carrie Rehak

We aim to provide a reminder of earthly connection for students amid studies, sports, and other curricular and cocurricular activities. By enhancing especially … the main common spaces for students, such as the Quad and Inner Court … we seek to foster curiosity and connection through intentional planting, habitat creation, and permaculture ethics (Earth Care; People Care, and Fair Share), principles, and design.

This campus will be an oasis for the entire community: students, staff, parents, and wildlife,
supporting pollinators, birds, beneficial insects, plants, shrubs, groundcovers, and soil organisms.

Excerpt from “Who I Am from the Land” (from the Perspective of a Bdelliod Rotifer)

….I want to thrive.
For fungi to bloom. For bacteria to roam. For nutrients to cycle.
I want cover crops to knit soil back together and compost to restore memory.
I want moisture and air in balance, in a breathable, living network.
I want life to move through earth’s restless, resilient web of roots, worms, fungi, wildflowers, oaks, vegetables, bees, birds, and my family of rotifers.

I want students to see me through microscopes, to sense me in the soil beneath their feet and in
their hands, not as something small and hidden, but as part of the pulse of life that carries seasons forward.

I want them to walk mindfully, to plant thoughtfully, to harvest water wisely, so that every clump of roots and drop of rain becomes a handful of wonder or a cradle for my kin.

I want them to pause, to observe, to experience earth as a living, breathing classroom where every droplet, every worm, every microbe is a teacher.

I want them to know that caring for earth is caring for themselves and that the smallest creatures, like me, carry both memory and future.

After their public presentations, the PDC class celebrated their achievements, received their certificates, and discussed future opportunities. Below are some of the actions they hope to take in the year ahead.

  • Continue attending garden installations.
  • Volunteering for related projects and community events.
  • Organizing or attending garden tours.
  • Hosting gatherings to share skills and ideas (e.g., about specific permaculture topics like building soil, water harvesting, or food preservation).
  • Forming community connections to support ongoing sustainable education and build resilient neighborhoods.

The day was filled with heartfelt community connection and the impact of the course is already visible. May this momentum continue to have a rippling effect in our Solano County communities. We are excited to see what the future holds for the students and Sustainable Solano will look for ways to support their future endeavors.

Interested in learning more about permaculture? Check out these trainings and resources:

East Bay Permaculture monthly meetings

Earth Activist Trainings

EcoFarm Conference– Jan 21-24

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

Quail Springs

Bioneers

Localizing California Water

Doing Good: Thistle

Jun 26, 2025

By Sustainable Solano

Shiri and Ash at the Thistle facility in Vacaville

When Ashwin Cheriyan and Shiri Avnery set out to start a business in 2013, their goal was to address the health of people and planet through providing convenient, healthy, fresh food that has a lower environmental footprint. They accomplished that goal through the creation of Thistle, today a Vacaville-based business that provides 500,000 plant-forward meals a month to customers up and down the West Coast and expanded in 2022 to include operations on the East Coast.

“If you choose a product that, by existing, is doing good, as you grow, so does your impact in a positive way,” Shiri said.

But the company’s focus on taking care of people is not only based on the food they eat – it also applies to the culture of Thistle and how it takes care of its roughly 800 employees and wider community.

It is for these reasons that Sustainable Solano is naming Thistle as a recipient of our Doing Good business recognition award. Thistle is an example of a local business that exemplifies the permaculture principles that guide Sustainable Solano’s work and that we want to recognize in others: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, or taking care of the planet, taking care of employees and supporting local communities.

The company’s commitment to Earth Care starts with the food. Shiri said that 80-90% of the climate impact of food-based businesses is from the food itself — from the way ingredients are grown, processed, and transported. That’s why Thistle creates meals with a lower carbon footprint by focusing on plants and sourcing meats that have less impact, such as chicken. There is no beef or dairy in their meals.

Beyond meal design, the company sources sustainably and strives toward reducing its impact in its operations through carbon offsets for customer deliveries, reducing food waste, and focusing on reusable delivery packaging.

Thistle started in 2013 as an off-hours endeavor for Ash and Shiri, who started out with a cold-pressed juice business and made the numbers work by renting space at night in an establishment that had the right equipment. By running a 6 pm to 6 am graveyard shift, they could use the otherwise idle equipment to create their products and grow their brand. They started having third parties produce food items for them, but quickly realized that in order to have the control they were looking for over nutrition, affordability and quality, they needed to move that work in-house.

In 2015, they started renting space in Berkeley, grew into space in Oakland, then more space in Berkeley, and then were looking to grow even more. They also changed their business model, shifting from being an on-demand meals business, which generated a lot of food waste, to a subscription model that allowed them to predict demand better.

That’s how they landed in Vacaville in September 2020. Since making that move, Thistle has grown West Coast operations three times in size, with a peak volume of 135,000 meals a week coming out of that facility.

They said they selected Vacaville because it was business-friendly and still close enough for people they employed in Berkeley and Oakland to commute. It also provided great access to regional farms and was strategically located for delivering meals to the north and south.

“When the food is fresh and perishable, that time matters,” Shiri said.

Jordan, Ash and Shiri in the Vacaville warehouse

The business prides itself on sourcing seasonally with a rotating weekly menu refreshed each season, which means that a large warehouse is full of shelf-stable ingredients, such as grains and spices, but there is only a small refrigerated space for holding produce because it is quickly turned into meals and distributed by the end of each week. Thistle goes through about 37,000 pounds of greens each month.

Today, Thistle does everything from procurement to preparation to delivery of the meals it creates. This is an opportunity to find ways to streamline processes, to make sure the quality and customer experience is positive, and to build the culture of the business around the people who do the work.

“The food we make — it doesn’t work well with robots. We’re here locally and depend on people to do the bulk of our work,” said Jordan Lichman, Vacaville director of plant operations. He said the company has programs to ensure that people are trained well, and have opportunities to grow and stay with the company. This focus on employees addresses People Care.

Everyone who works at Thistle is an employee, from the staff who prepare and package the meals to about 500 part-time employees who drive them to delivery hubs as far as Seattle and San Diego on the West Coast and that final mile to the doorstep. Thistle has around 230 employees at the Vacaville facility, another 140 on the East Coast, and about 75 corporate employees.

Ash said this imparts a level of care and pride in the work and the brand that cannot be overstated.

“None of this happens without great people who really care,” he said.

They will host “family dinners” where Jordan and plant leadership cook a meal for everyone, and host monthly listening sessions. There are quarterly staff recognition events. Thistle creates a space where employees can speak their minds and share from their experiences in ways that help to improve the business.

Employees package meals for delivery

Employees also have opportunities for advancement within the company. The day-to-day work can be learned, but the values of curiosity, hard work, reliability and teamwork are what make people essential to the business, Ash said. Thistle’s job is then to give them the skills they need to advance to the next level. An employee who starts with Thistle and is promoted from within knows the culture best and how things are done at Thistle, which carries over into their leadership and then training of new employees.

And some of the benefits for employees also translate into benefits for the environment and community through Fair Share. Thistle tries to minimize food waste, but slightly overproduces meals each week as part of quality assurance or sometimes has products that have gone past their “best by” date. Extra meals are offered up to employees to take home and distributed through community partners such the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. For products that are no longer able to go into the meals, whether withered greens or expired lentils, those are given as high-quality animal feed to The Lucky Ones Ranch, a nonprofit animal sanctuary in Vacaville.

There are challenges. There is a desire to source local, organic, regenerative produce when possible, but sometimes there are barriers – in particular balancing the high cost of ingredients with the desire to keep the finished meals affordable, as well as smaller local farmers having less infrastructure in place to wash and prep produce for large businesses such as Thistle. The business does source most produce within 150 miles of its facility.

There is also the challenge of delivering food in single-use plastic containers. Shiri said they have tried alternatives, but none have held up for freshness. As the company continues to explore options, they have partnered with rePurpose Global to try to offset their plastic footprint by funding the recovery and ethical processing of nature-and ocean-bound plastic. They also package in 100% recyclable PET plastic that is made from 15% post-consumer materials and manufactured with 15% solar energy, and they take back and reuse the cooler bags and ice packs used to deliver the meals.

“It’s progress, not perfection,” Shiri said. Small steps and continuous improvement make a difference, and over time, it adds up to a lot.

Ash recalls in the early days wondering if donating excess made that much of a difference, since it was only a few meals when Thistle was small and growing.

“Taking that step is important,” he said. “Don’t be shy about taking a small action that can do a little bit of good.”

Doing Good

The Doing Good business recognition program spotlights Solano businesses that stand out in their efforts to support people and planet. Sustainable Solano’s work is informed by the practice of permaculture to form healthy ecosystems. The three ethics of permaculture are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. In business, this can mean authentic sustainability practices, how companies care for their employees, and giving back to the community. Our program recognizes businesses that excel in any of these three areas.

Know a business that is Doing Good in Solano County? Let us know by submitting a nomination form here.

Doing Good: Morningsun Herb Farm

Jun 26, 2025

By Sustainable Solano

Rose at Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville

Tucked away on 3 vibrant acres in Vacaville, Morningsun Herb Farm has been a beloved part of the community for over 30 years. What began as a personal love of growing herbs blossomed into a thriving nursery and farm thanks to the vision and dedication of founder Rose Loveall.

“I never thought I would have a business,” Rose reflects. Before starting Morningsun, she spent years growing plants for the U.S. Forest Service in Placerville. At the time, she was limited to cultivating just five species, but her heart was set on growing hundreds. That dream took root when she stumbled across a magazine article about a small herb business, sparking the idea that she could do the same on her own terms. ​​

Today, Morningsun offers over 800 varieties of culinary, medicinal, and fragrant herbs, as well as drought-tolerant perennials, heirloom vegetable starts, and fruit trees. The nursery has become known for its extraordinary selection of hard-to-find and specialty plants, many of which are propagated from seed and cuttings collected right on the property. For Rose, one of the greatest joys is when a customer lights up after discovering a plant they’ve been searching for, sometimes for years.

Sustainable Solano is naming Morningsun Herb Farm as a recipient of our Doing Good business award program. Their commitment to Earth Care and Fair Share is evident in every corner of the farm.

“We go out into our own garden, collect our seed, and do our own cuttings,” Rose explains. “A lot of the plants we sell we’ve seen from start to finish.”

The farm’s beautiful demonstration gardens serve as a source of mother plants — mature plants that provide cuttings to grow the next generation. Even the plants and seeds that don’t sell find purpose through donation to schools and organizations in the community or composting. “It’s all circular,” she says. The compost and used soil are either returned to the land or shared with other farms, reinforcing a system where nothing goes to waste.

One of the things that makes Morningsun so valuable is its ability to support a spectrum of needs including therapeutic experiences. During the early days of the pandemic, the farm offered a chance for people to safely experience the beauty of the natural world. The lush gardens invite visitors to linger and breathe. “We were a place where people could come and bring their families,” Rose said.

Beyond the farm and nursery, Rose also dedicates a significant portion of her time to land advocacy. As an active member of the Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association, she works to protect Vacaville’s rich agricultural heritage. “We are so close to the Bay Area, we see ourselves getting eaten up by development,” she said. As housing and commercial projects sprawl outward, farms like Morningsun face increasing pressure.

During our visit, Rose led us to a gleaming copper still named “La Bruja”, Spanish for “the witch.” This traditional distillation machine is used to transform fresh flowers into pure essential oils, and on this particular day, it was filled with fragrant lavender. The harvest came from friend and neighboring farmer Alexis Koefoed of Soul Food Farm. Rose and Alexis run Hierbas y Flores as a collaborative venture focused on lavender oil and products. The two laughed about getting “lavender drunk” while removing the flowers from the machine. Even the byproduct of the distillation process, hydrosol, doesn’t go to waste. This aromatic floral water can be used in natural skincare products, room sprays, and therapeutic blends. Another example of how the circular system that sustains Morningsun also nurtures relationships between local farmers.

When asked what advice she’d give to others that want to make their businesses more sustainable, Rose emphasized the importance of autonomy for her employees. “I really trust my employees. They get to rebuild gardens and change things around. They know better than me who does what job the best. … If you have employees, it’s better to give them a lot more freedom.”

Doing Good

The Doing Good business recognition program spotlights Solano businesses that stand out in their efforts to support people and planet. Sustainable Solano’s work is informed by the practice of permaculture to form healthy ecosystems. The three ethics of permaculture are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. In business, this can mean authentic sustainability practices, how companies care for their employees, and giving back to the community. Our program recognizes businesses that excel in any of these three areas.

Know a business that is Doing Good in Solano County? Let us know by submitting a nomination form here.