Rancher-farmer Erin O’Bryan is hands-on in working her property at Hidden Canyon Ranch Farms in the Santa Rita Hills near Lompoc. “It never ceases to thrill me that you can put a seed into the ground that then grows into a plant that you can actually eat,” she says. 
Welcome to Hidden Canyon Ranch Farms near Lompoc. 
Erin O’Bryan found herself at a crossroads after her divorce, but decided to embrace the opportunity that presented itself and has since turned her 44-acre ranch into a thriving ecosystem. 
Erin O’Bryan with her flock of chickens, the first of the animals to contribute to Hidden Canyon Ranch Farms. 
Hidden Canyon Ranch’s Log House has become a popular vacation rental and prized location for film and photo shoots. 
A vineyard planted in pinot noir grapes is very much a part of the farm and is managed by winemaker Ryan Roark.
I first met Erin O’Bryan at an artisan market event in Santa Ynez. She was standing in front of her mobile farmstand stocked with a delicious display of fresh produce along with eggs, herbs, honey and handmade candles.
Considering that I write about farmers, ranchers, fisherpeople and other growers and gatherers of the foods we eat, I asked her if she had a good story.
“If starting a farm as a single mother at age 50 is a good story, then yes,” O’Bryan replied.
And so the story goes.
O’Bryan was married with a house full of kids. She had stepped aside from her law practice to tend to her family. They had a home in Malibu and a vacation property in the Santa Rita Hills. Life was good.
One year later, O’Bryan was divorced with joint custody of the children and full custody of the vacation property, a stunning log home on 44 acres. And that’s when she took a serious interest in farming. After all, the property had to support itself.
But farming for a living is hard work and, at 50, a real challenge.
O’Bryan caught her breath and started a check list:
» Hire experienced farmhands.
» Study and practice regenerative organic farming.
» Create a farmstand.
» Develop ranch-made products.
» Invest in livestock.
» Offer farm tours.
» Offer the property as a venue for weddings and other events.
» Listen to the land.
Digging deep into nature wasn’t all that new to O’Bryan. Her father had been a zookeeper and an avid outdoorsman and her mother a practiced gardener. O’Bryan literally grew up at the Los Angeles Zoo and often joined her father on hunting and fishing outings.
“I gardened with my mother as a kid, and — really — gardening is just small-scale farming,” O’Bryan said as we traveled the rolling hills of Hidden Canyon Ranch Farms in her utility vehicle. “It never ceases to thrill me that you can put a seed into the ground that then grows into a plant that you can actually eat.
“It really lights me up.”
While carefully stepping into her farming operation, O’Bryan went back to school for a year and earned her certification as a holistic health coach. Her studies in health and nutrition — then and now — applied not only to the human body but to her land for they are interconnected.
O’Bryan envisioned a farm guided by the principles of sustainable, organic and regenerative farming. A good student, she read a lot of books on the subjects. She visited neighboring properties to see what and how they were farming. She listened to the land.
And then O’Bryan planted a vegetable patch up the hill from the house. I must admit that I suffered some tomato envy walking through the vertically farmed vines hanging heavy with varieties of tomatoes.
Today the patch — which is significantly more than a patch — is rich with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, kale, corn, melons, edible flowers and “other good stuff” that’s happy to grow organically.
O’Bryan has listened to the land over the years, and it keeps telling her what to grow.
As the farm evolved, she began developing products that would extend the life of her produce beyond harvesting. Corn, grown from heirloom seeds that one of her farmhands gets from Oaxaca, Mexico, is hand-ground into cornmeal, retaining all the flavor and nutrients of the whole grain. And it sells.
O’Bryan also dries and packages her herbs and spices. She’s partnered with Santa Ynez Valley-based Botanical Notes to creatie soy candles scented with lavender and sage from the farm.
And Glory Bee parks its bee hives on the farm during the winter months, resulting in a beautiful sage honey.
There is a farmstand on Hidden Canyon Ranch but, considering its remote location at 5425 Campbell Road near Lompoc, O’Bryan turned an old horse trailer into a mobile market so she could take her goods to the people — to Flying Flags RV Resort & Campground in Buellton every Saturday morning, to pop-up events at various locations, to private parties where she sells what she produces while entertaining with stories about farming and ranching.
O’Bryan’s farmstand wasn’t exactly covering the costs of expanding her farm, but renting out both the guest quarters over the garage and the outbuilding nearby certainly helped. And then she decided to rent out the log house, now a popular vacation rental and prized location for photo and film shoots.
She then moved into a 34-foot vintage trailer that she parked not far from the house. She insists it keeps her closer to nature.
O’Bryan’s next step was Savory Institute’s online course in Holistic Planned Grazing, “a planning process for integrating livestock production with crop production … while protecting land regeneration, animal health and profitability.”
In simple terms, it ensures that livestock are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. Good for the animals. Good for the soil. Good for us.
O’Bryan was all in. She started with chickens and followed with ducks.
“We tried goats for a little while, but goats are tricky,” she said. “There’s not much demand for goat meat, and I didn’t want to do the goat milk cheese thing.
“Sheep are easier. Ours are Dorper hair sheep. They’re good mothers. They’re easy to care for. And they’re valued for their meat.”
And then there’s Trixie, a sweet-faced Jersey cow. As of now, Trixie’s job is simply to create manure, pure gold for the compost piles.
All the animals living on Hidden Canyon Ranch Farms, including the horses and miniature donkeys, contribute to the soil’s health while enjoying a pasture-raised life.
This is permaculture at its best, a thriving environment. The animals contribute to the compost pile that feeds the vegetables. A nutrient-rich cover crop is planted between the rows of vegetables interspersed with flowers. The flowers attract beneficial insects so that there’s no need for pesticides.
The sheep graze the weeds while naturally fertilizing the soil. The chickens follow the paths of the livestock, eating their fill of pests and leaving their own brand of fertilizer.
The scenario changes with each season but always with the objective of soil and plant health.
O’Bryan still commutes to Malibu where her youngest child is in school but imagines living full time on the ranch some day.
“When I’m at the ranch, I’m buying and planting seeds, farming and harvesting, stocking my farmstand and taking my little trailer on the road,” she said. “In the 11 years that I’ve owned this ranch it has always led me down the right path.
“It’s been magical. And healing. I’m rather proud of myself.”
She should be — at any age.
— Jamie Edlin heads Hollywood & Wine, a marketing communications agency geared to the wine and hospitality industries. She is also brand manager/marketing director for Cordon of Santa Barbara, a small batch wine producer in the Santa Ynez Valley. Contact her at jamie@hollywoodandwine.net. The opinions expressed are her own.