Rancho el Rincon

OITF visited Rancho el Rincon, just south of Santa Barbara, for the first time last year, and we knew we’d be back. The view of the sparkling Pacific was stunning, and we set the table under trees burgeoning with ripe citrus. Host Jehanne Brown raised her son Nick here. A sixth-generation Carpinteria farmer with a deep love for this land, Farmer Nick tends acres of pesticide-free tropical fruit trees—citrus, guava, avocado, pomegranate, passion fruit, cherimoya. Rancho el Rincon is all about small-scale, labor-intensive farming that delivers hand-picked fruit at the peak of freshness and flavor with minimal intervention. Nick will walk us around and tell us how he does it all. Then The Dutchess team will take over. Opened just last year, The Dutchess took Ojai by storm with Kelsey Brito’s luscious pastries and Chef Saw Naing’s fabulous Burmese-Indian cuisine. Using the harvest from our friends at Tehachapi Heritage Grain and produce from 50/50 Farm—established a few years ago when The Dutchess owners Zoe Nathan and Josh Loeb, who still operate the famed Rustic Canyon and other L.A. faves, moved out to Ojai to start farming—The Dutchess exemplifies the locavore ethic, interpreted through a Burmese-Indian lens. Think tea leaf salad, braised beef masala, tandoori-style chicken and kabocha squash curry.