Frecker Farms

Frecker Farms is an organic farm offering fresh produce to Santa Barbara county and surrounding areas for CSA members, local companies and Farmers' Markets

Frecker Farms was founded by Alex Frecker in 2013. We are an 18 acre certified organic row crop farm located in beautiful Carpinteria, CA.

12/03/2025

Rosalba.

11/18/2025

These videos are taken 72hrs apart. The first video was at 7am Friday morning and the second video was taken this morning around 7am.

If you have followed our farm for the last 4-5 years on social media, you understand the relationship with our property and its particular topography in the Carpinteria valley.

We are the lowest point in the valley. Which means that we get to take advantage of that inherent fertility; and also that we are subject to the +/- 500 acres of watershed every time it rains vigorously.

Our reservoir, known locally as Yule Lake, is a 5 acre farm feature that allows us to grow on our property functionally during wet California winters. Without Yule Lake, our farm would become a swamp during winters with decent rainfall.

I often times get asked if we utilize this surplus of water on our property when it is available; for irrigation purposes or otherwise. To which I always answer ‘yes’, but probably not in the way you may assume…

As stated above, Yule lake is a catchment of +/- 500 acres of watershed. Essentially runoff. This water would be irresponsible to use for most purposes on a farm once captured. However, soil is the greatest filter that we know of. Once this water is captured, it slowly filters and purifies through valley soil. Over time, it percolates, and eventually recharges the aquifer below the farm. The same aquifer that we draw irrigation water via our well to irrigate the crops. In the meantime, it offers another coastal wetland for migratory birds to utilize.

Simple, elegant, utilitarian. In farming, foundational processes aren’t often the most high-tech; they are tried and true…processes that have worked for centuries and will continue to do so. It’s humbling and empowering all in one.

11/17/2025

Well, it rained over 7 inches during the last 48hrs here at the farm.

Thankfully there haven’t been any serious consequences; although it’s been a change of pace so say the least…

some of it welcomed, some of it not; no say in any of it.

We decided at the last minute to stay home from our Saturday markets. It’s never a good feeling to miss the market when they remain ‘open’ but it felt right for our team considering the weather forecast this weekend.

Personally it’s been nice to have a change of pace and honestly I’ve spent a lot of the weekend thinking about this particular creature.

It’s been so wet and gnarly up the creek behind the house. Where do you reside when it rains endlessly?

Nature is so raw. Beautiful, rhythmic…chaotic.

This is a video my neighbor Neil captured last August. An apex predator managing to exist. Rain or shine.

11/06/2025

Dear farmers market,

As you know, I’ve been working with you well over half my life at this point; which is a little odd to think about…and even weirder to put into words.

Even though your hours are ungodly early and long…the recharge that I get from interacting with the community over something that I care deeply about is unmatched. I’ve never left a market feeling worse off than when I arrived. For that I thank you.

It’s been a wonderful thing to feel useful. You’ve been an instant feedback loop of sorts; either affirming or denying what was brought to the table that week, which can be very personal. However, when I take myself out of the equation, you can be one of the most functional tools I have in determining what to grow and when. If I have something you want, it’ll be blatant. And unfortunately, as you know, when I bring the wrong thing, it can be devastatingly obvious.

Your early morning dance has been a weekly ritual in my life, a grounding post of sorts. You are my watering hole - one that I know well.

A lot of the work that I accomplish in my life is when few are around, which I cherish. You, on the other hand, have been a sweet and bustling venue to bring my work into the light of the public.

Some of my dearest relationships to this day have been forged in this setting.

Thank you, farmers market, for being a space that has helped me grow as a farmer, and even more importantly, as a human.

With love & gratitude,

Alex Frecker
Frecker Farms

11/04/2025

Our 2026 ‘Monterey’ strawberry planting.

It’s an annual right of passage at our farm…there is no Spring without strawberries.

Just as there is no Fall without a strawberry planting.

As always, excited for the harvest…and in the meantime, we’ll keep these precious plants properly cared for.

Five months of watering, fertilizing, pruning early flowers and runners, combating pests with biological reinforcements, and properly weeding.

Grateful for the opportunity.

09/30/2025

We are presently producing a plethora of passion fruit.

09/19/2025

Rain kissed squash blossoms = nicest of the season.

09/18/2025

The last few weeks have been some of the busiest of this calendar year. These weeks represent a culmination of months of preparation and physical labor. They also represent:

years of trial and error
navigating group dynamics
establishing company culture
accumulation of tools and infrastructure
years of relationship building
years of reputation building
establishing consistency of harvests
maintaining creativity and sustaining stoke

That reality evokes a variety of emotion…

Stressed?
Beyond belief.

Excited?
Like it’s Christmas every day.

Satisfied?
This emotion ebbs and flows like the tide.

Grateful?
It’s hard to put into words just how grateful I am when I really sit down and think about it, but here it goes…

Tremendous gratitude to everyone who has helped build this farm with me into what it is today.

Gratitude to all of the restauranteurs and farm adjacent businesses that we have had integral and meaningful relationships with over the years.

And a particularly heartfelt gratitude towards all of our farmers market patrons over the years. Y’all are the foundation of what we do here at Frecker Farms.

…beautiful basil bunches harvested yesterday for a very special client.

09/11/2025

IYKYK.

Tomato szn still in full force over here.

09/02/2025

Labor Day shenanigans.

“To eat is an agricultural act.”

- Wendell Berry

08/28/2025

Pretty sure I counted 48 different varieties of organic fruits and vegetables on our market table today

Grateful to grow where we grow, and doing our best attempt to honor the cornucopia that is Central California. It is officially harvest season! Thanks for the photo today Ricky!

08/19/2025

Musings about the future…

Lately, the global chaos both domestic and abroad feels insurmountable. Devastating human issues that are terrifying and dehumanizing. When I get caught thinking about it all at night, it often times leaves me feeling out of control, lost, scared and hopeless.

Then I wake up in the morning and stroll into our seedling house. I gaze upon all of our lettuce starts that Antonio meticulously seeded. Every seed sown by hand at the same depth in each tray to achieve a proper germination.

I start to think about the tireless hours Jose spends mapping out the farm; figuring out which crop will go where, and why.

Broader strokes of individual assignments that are intentionally intertwined.

Intricate systems built and sustained by humans working together with a common goal in mind.

I have no clue how to solve the massive problems human beings face in this world, and I wont even attempt to try. I know at first blush that seems like a hopeless perspective, but I don’t think that is in fact the case.

I have learned in my 37 years of life that I do know how to curate my immediate life to a way of my choosing. I can’t determine all of the outcomes, but I can pick the direction in which I want to go and freely move that way.

I am aware of what a privilege it is to have my perspective and reality, and I think that part of owning that privilege is working to help create a better local environment. Continuing to collaborate with fellow artisans, producers and restauranteurs. Continuing to create and maintain human systems and working to make them sustainable.

I can stay up late at night and worry about the global issues that plague our planet. Quite frankly I’ll never know what the future holds in a broader sense, and ultimately, I have little ability to alter it.

…continued in comments

Address

6701 Casitas Pass Road
Carpinteria, CA
93013

Website

http://www.freckerfarms.com/

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