Growing Together on the Hill: A 2025 Reflection
As we step into a new year, we’re pausing to reflect on 2025, a year shaped by shared effort, steady growth, and a deepening sense of responsibility to the land and to one another.
This past year marked an important moment for us at Ma’alot Farms. After years of planning, building, and learning as we went, 2025 became our first full year operating as a working farm and community resource. It was a year of showing up consistently, tending carefully, and continuing to build something meant to last.
Here’s what 2025 looked like on the hill, and how it’s shaping what comes next.
A Farm We’re Growing Into
Ma’alot Farms began as a vision rooted in care for people and land. Throughout 2025, that vision continued to take form through daily practice.
We stewarded a diverse landscape of crops, fruit and nut trees, and integrated livestock, working in harmony with the rhythms of the hillside rather than against them. Our focus remained on biodiversity, soil health, and long-term resilience, knowing that regenerative farming is built slowly, through observation, adjustment, and patience.
Much of this work happened quietly: refining systems, learning from what thrived and what struggled, and deepening our understanding of what this land needs from us. These seasons of learning are foundational, even when they don’t always come with visible milestones.
Feeding People as Part of Our Purpose
From the beginning, we’ve understood farming as an act of nourishment that extends beyond our gates.
Throughout 2025, we continued to direct fresh produce grown on the hill to community partners, including Loaves and Fishes, ensuring that food reached people quickly and with care. Our harvests were planned with immediacy in mind, moving food from field to table while preserving quality and dignity.
Our 2026 goals:
- Pounds of produce donated: 2947
- Frequency of deliveries to our community partner, Loaves and Fishes: Biweekly during harvest season
- People welcomed onto the farm: 650
These numbers matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. What matters just as much are the relationships we’ve built and the shared commitment to nourishing our community in meaningful ways.
Welcoming Community Onto the Land
2025 was also a year of gathering.
We welcomed people onto the farm for tours, workshops, farm-to-table meals, and seasonal events that invited connection, curiosity, and presence. These moments reminded us that farming is not only about growing food, but about creating spaces where people feel grounded and connected.
Throughout the year, we hosted:
- Guided farm tours and tastings
- Hands-on workshops focused on growing, cooking, and seasonal skills
- Farm-to-table dinners prepared and shared on the hill
- Community markets and special gatherings
Each gathering strengthened the sense that this farm is not just a place, but a shared experience shaped by everyone who steps onto the land.
As we look ahead to 2026, we’re excited to continue offering opportunities to gather, learn, and grow together. To stay connected and be the first to hear about upcoming events, we invite you to follow along and join us where we share what’s happening next.
Explore upcoming events on Eventbrite
Sharing Our Story Beyond the Hill
In 2025, we were grateful for the opportunity to see our work reflected through local media coverage that helped share what’s happening on the hill and why it matters.
- The Los Gatan spent time with us as we prepared for the growing season, offering a glimpse into the daily rhythms of farm life and the care that goes into stewarding this land in Los Gatos.
- The San Jose Mercury News shared a deeper look at our role in addressing food insecurity, highlighting our commitment to donating much of what we grow, our partnership with Loaves and Fishes, and our belief that feeding people and feeding the land are deeply connected.
We’re thankful for these moments of visibility, not as an endpoint, but as part of an ongoing conversation about how local, regenerative farms can serve their communities. As we look toward the year ahead, we carry these reflections with us as motivation to keep growing thoughtfully, staying rooted in our purpose, and continuing to learn alongside the community that makes this work possible.
Looking Toward 2026
While 2025 marked an important step forward, we know we are still early in the life of the farm.
This year, our focus remains on deepening what we’ve already begun: strengthening our agricultural systems, expanding opportunities for connection, and continuing to grow with intention. In the year ahead, this looks like a continued commitment to people, food, and place.
Our 2026 goals:
- Growing our community on the hill by welcoming more members, volunteers, and partners into the life of the farm and strengthening the relationships that sustain this work.Continuing to support our community through food distribution by maintaining and, where possible, expanding the amount of fresh, local food we share with partner organizations and neighbors.
- Using the land as a gathering space by hosting more events, farm tours, workshops, and shared meals that bring people together in meaningful connection to food, place, and one another.
We’ll share more as these plans take shape, guided by the land, the community, and the lessons we continue to learn together.
Thank You for Growing With Us
None of this happens alone. Whether you visited the farm, attended an event, supported our work through membership, volunteered your time, or followed along from afar, you are part of this story. Your presence and support allow us to continue growing Ma’alot Farms as a place of nourishment, learning, and care.
As we begin 2026, we do so with gratitude for this community and with intention for what we’re growing next.