A Local's Summer Rhythm In Capay Valley

The Rustic Ramble came and went on April 26. Hoes Down at Full Belly is still four months out. If you live along Highway 16, the stretch between them is the quiet part of the calendar, and it is also the part where the valley is easiest to enjoy without a ticket, a map, or a plan built around one big Saturday.

The thesis of this post is simple. Summer here rewards a weekday rhythm more than a weekend one. The tasting rooms, pizza nights, and farm stands that define the valley's food economy run on a Wednesday-through-Sunday clock, and the events worth pacing yourself for don't return until October. Knowing that shape of the week is what separates a resident's summer from a visitor's day trip.

The Wednesday-through-Sunday shape of the week

Start with the anchor. The Séka Hills Tasting Room sits inside the 14,000 square foot olive mill facility in Brooks, offering an insider's view of how the Tribe's olives are grown, milled and finished into extra virgin olive oils. It is closed Monday and Tuesday and open Wednesday through Sunday, which quietly sets the pattern the rest of the valley follows.

That schedule matters because Séka Hills is not a small operation dressed up for tourists. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation farms and ranches more than 25,000 acres in the region, both on and off the reservation, growing 14 different crops and ranching 800 head of Angus cattle. The deli inside the tasting room is the closest thing the valley has to a mid-week lunch spot with a full pantry attached, and it doubles as the reason a Wednesday afternoon in Brooks looks a lot like a Saturday one, minus the traffic.

A few places to plan around while the summer runs:

The Latin dance night at Taber is a good example of the point. It is a Wednesday, not a weekend. It repeats every month. And it comes with pizza from the same wood-fired oven the tasting room uses. If your standard summer weekend already has too much on it, midweek is where the valley has been quietly hiding its best hours.

Lavender has its own clock

Lavender is the seasonal wildcard, and residents learn to read it the way farmers do. Like any crop in Yolo County, lavender is at the mercy of Mother Nature. Some years, it starts blooming in late May. Others, late June. But peak bloom typically occurs from early to mid-June. It all depends on weather conditions and the type of lavender.

By July that peak is fading, but the farms are not. Capay Valley Lavender in the town of Capay is the easiest one to fold into a weekday, since guests can stroll the fields of organic lavender, cut bouquets, and take pictures, and can also schedule a tour, join a workshop, visit the Monarch Butterfly habitat, and picnic amid the 5 acres of lavender fields. Cache Creek Lavender in Rumsey keeps its farm store open on weekdays for anyone still hunting a dried bouquet or a bottle of oil after the bloom has passed.

Two things to know before you drive out to any of them:

• Ask before you cut. These flowers are the local farmers' livelihood, and it is usually not advised to wander uninvited into fields, or to pick flowers without asking.
• The bouquet is not the only souvenir. At Cache Creek Lavender in Rumsey, the farm store carries lavender-based beauty products including bath salts, perfumes, skin creams, and soaps. You can also pick up a dried bouquet or sachet. They also offer culinary lavender items, including lavender salt and lavender tea.

Luna Lavender in Guinda is worth naming here too, mostly to warn you off an unannounced drive. The farm is open by appointment only, devotes one acre of its 70-acre property to lavender fields, and hosts private weddings and makes a line of lavender-scented products to sell.

A summer dinner, not a summer festival

The valley's small-farm identity is easier to feel over a plate than over a wristband. Two dinners are worth pacing yourself for this summer.

At Polestar Farm in Esparto, the seated dinners run through the season. Enjoy a seasonal farm dinner with ingredients that are currently growing at Polestar Farm and surrounding farms. Chefs will change throughout the season, allowing individual styles and skills to be explored and celebrated. Everyone will be seated outdoors at a 40-foot-long farm table, allowing for a true family-style experience. Be prepared to spend a magical evening under the stars, breaking bread with friends old and new. Polestar is worth knowing about beyond the dinners, too. It is a family-owned, 12-acre organic farm in Esparto, home to 750 Royal Blenheim apricot trees and a variety of other fruit trees, with picnic space on the lawn.

At Capay Organic, the summer calendar bends around one crop. At the farm, July means the annual tomato festival, and September brings Capay Crush, a harvest grape celebration. That is the July date to have on your fridge if you like your food events at the source rather than in a park.

The reason these dinners land differently than a festival is worth pausing on. Lisa Leonard of Wind Dancer Ranch, quoted in local reporting on the Rustic Ramble, put the philosophy this way:

"I'm growing these tomatoes, and I know the people who are going to consume them." "I look in their faces at the farmer's market, and I want to do the absolute best job that I can."

That is the through-line between a Wednesday tasting at Séka Hills, a family-style dinner at Polestar, and a Saturday spent walking the rows at Capay Valley Lavender. The scale is small, the same faces show up, and the summer is long enough to see all of them without racing.

Farms that quietly stay open

Between the marquee events, a handful of farms keep their doors cracked open on typical summer days. These are the ones locals fold into a Saturday drive when out-of-town guests visit:

• Vitis & Ovis Farm in the valley. A small certified organic, regenerative family farm featuring swales that enhance water retention and prevent erosion, while a flock of ducks contributes to natural pest control, grazing and soil enrichment. Visit for orchard and duck tours, and shop the farm stand and let the kiddos enjoy their farm-centric play area.
• Grumpy Goats Farm. One of the few organic olive orchards in the region. Farmers Pam Marvel and Stuart Littell specialize in bold, robust oils known for their high polyphenol content.
• Capay Hills Orchard. A family-run organic almond orchard and one of the few farms in Northern California offering organic, unpasteurized almonds and almond butter. Visit for freshly harvested almonds, tours and demos of how to make stone-ground raw almond butter.
• Full Belly Farm. The gravitational center of Capay Valley agriculture, and the farm most visitors have already heard of before they arrive.

None of these require a ticket in July or August. All of them will be busy in October. That is the shape of the calendar to plan around.

Circle October now, not later

If you want one thing on the calendar before the summer ends, put October on it twice.

The Hoes Down Harvest Festival returns to Full Belly Farm. This year, the Hoes Down will be held in October 2026, with the official date to be announced, and promises another day of learning, dancing, and celebrating farm life. The day after, Open Farm Day opens the gates at the surrounding farms. Participating locations include DragonFly Ranch, Capay Valley Lavender, Vitis & Ovis, Grumpy Goats, Capay Hills Orchard, Polestar Farms, and Taber Ranch Winery. Unlike the spring Rustic Ramble, participation in Open Farm Day does not require a Hoes Down ticket. All locations are free and open to the public. Most farms are open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. unless specified.

That is the payoff of a slower summer. When October arrives, you already know which farms you want to spend real time at, which oils you want to bring home from Séka Hills, and which pizza night at Taber Ranch is worth the drive on a Wednesday when the temperatures finally drop.

If your summer here has you thinking about how a home on the valley floor, a ranchette on the hills, or an acreage property closer to Esparto might change the shape of your year, that is a conversation worth having when the calendar quiets down. Lupe Springer has spent two decades helping neighbors in Yolo County match the land to the life they actually live. Schedule a free consultation and let's talk about what your next Capay Valley summer could look like.