Farming is a Labor of Love for Us.
The three of us who own, run, & work Brisa Ranch - Cristóbal, Veronica, & Cole - started Brisa Ranch as our own farm business in January 2018 as a side project while each initially managing different Pescadero-area farms.
Cristóbal
Cristóbal Cruz Hernández grew up growing food in a way that centered ecological and conservation principles in Oaxaca’s Valles Centrales region. Cristóbal immigrated directly to Pescadero from Oaxaca in 1989, and began working as a farmworker in conventional artichokes and brussel sprouts agriculture operations, initially coincidentally on the same farmland that we current lease at Cascade Historic Ranch. On his off-days, Cristóbal took on landscaping and gardening projects for private families in the area and also stewarded a herd of cattle. In 2015, Cristóbal began working at Pie Ranch and soon became the farm manager. At Pie Ranch, Cristóbal returned to the organic production principles he had grown up with, and was one of the leads for giving instruction to apprentices and interns, managing volunteer groups, maintaining agricultural equipment and infrastructure, and managing Pie Ranch’s vegetable, orchard, and livestock production. In 2021, Cristóbal decided to transition away from his work at Pie Ranch in order to exclusively focus on growing Brisa Ranch, and has been doing so full-time ever since. He now leads Brisa’s field production and equipment & infrastructure operations. From his decades of experience, Cristóbal is an expert in managing soils and in all things tractors.
Veronica
After graduating from New York University with a dual degree in International Relations and Economics, Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou started her career in agriculture during her Peace Corps service in Togo, where she worked as a small business advisor in a small rice farming community on projects to strengthen the governance of farming cooperatives, develop regional branding & collective marketing, and collaborate with agronomists, researchers, & farmers to set up demonstration plots to promote sustainable farming practices. She later spent a couple of years in Washington, D.C. working at an international development consulting firm specializing in impact evaluations. Inspired by her work in agriculture, Veronica moved to California in 2016 to apprentice at Pie Ranch’s Emerging Farmers Program. In 2017, Veronica managed the sales and operation of Pie Ranch’s 35-acre Año Nuevo operation. After managing this operation and being moved to take on broader food systems work, Veronica went on to obtain a Master’s Degree from Cornell University in Applied Economics and Management where she focused on food & agriculture, agriculture finance, and agriculture business management. She is the Food System Specialist on a USDA Local Food Promotion Planning Project. Among several boards and advisory groups, she sits on CDFA’s inaugural small and mid-scale producer advisory committee.
Cole
While growing up interested farming with extended family members in agriculture, Cole Mazariegos-Anastassiou began building his farming expertise as a college student at UC Davis, where he graduated in 2012 studying agriculture, wildlife conservation biology, and animal behavior. He worked extensively in conservation, working on a USFW-funded project breeding critically endangered Mexican wolves for reintroduction into the wild and doing wildlife research in Yellowstone National Park, the Peruvian Amazon, and Honduras. In 2015, Cole apprenticed in Pie Ranch’s Emerging Farmer program in Pescadero. After finishing his apprenticeship, he began installing and maintaining gardens as a contractor for private families while a fellow in the Youth Outside Rising Leaders Fellowship in Oakland, CA (a fellowship aimed at developing leaders in the field of environmental education). From 2016-2018, Cole managed Green Oaks Creek Farm in Pescadero, CA, a six-acre certified-organic diversified vegetable, fruit, and flower operation that sold at farmer’s markets and to restaurants and other small local businesses. Since 2019, Cole has worked full-time on growing Brisa Ranch, and leads Brisa’s sales, marketing, harvest coordination, orchard production, and greenhouse production. Cole currently sits on the San Mateo County Agricultural Advisory Committee to the Board of Supervisors.
Cristóbal, Cole, & Verónica have all been great friends since first working together at Pie Ranch in 2015 & 2016, and have each been involved in service to our local agricultural community. Here are highlights of the work we do on & off the ranch:
Partnering with TomKat Ranch, Kitchen Table Advisors, and the San Mateo County RCD to create a SMC Ag Markets Working Group to plan & develop a food hub to serve farms in our region.
Contracted by California Association of Food Banks (as part of the Farms Together program) to pilot a food hub (to aggregate produce from about 10 Pescadero area farms) to service Bay Area food banks.
Named 2021 New Farm of the Year by Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF).
Member, CDFA small and mid-scale producer advisory committee to CDFA Secretary Karen Ross.
Member, San Mateo County’s Agriculture Advisory Committee.
Fellow, National Young Farmers Coalition Land Advocacy Fellowship.
Founding Members, National Young Farmers Coalition first California chapter.
Member, California Farmlink Farmer Advisory Committee.
Member, California Food and Farming Network Steering Council.
Member, California Farmer Justice Collaborative.
Trustee, La Honda Pescadero Unified School District Board.
What’s in the name Brisa Ranch?
“Brisa” can be translated to mean breeze in Spanish. However, many people in our Pescadero community use the word "brisa" with an alternate colloquial meaning: mist. This cooling mist subtly coats all surfaces with a delicate layer of moisture and is common in our area, particularly when the coastal fog settles just above the ground. We like to think of our farm as a mist of stewardship that has settled on these lands - hence the name Brisa Ranch.
We previously called ourselves Brisa de Año Ranch (the de Año because because we farm alongside Año Nuevo State Park), but decided to shorten our name to Brisa Ranch for simplicity.
Some brisa - which gives our ranch its name - sitting over our farm on a cool, misty morning.