Planting Roots: A Community Oak Planting on the Hillside at Masada

Planting Roots: A Community Oak Planting on the Hillside at Masada

May 8, 2025

This past Saturday, we gathered with friends and neighbors for something quietly significant. Together, we planted 32 oak saplings along the hillside south of our property at Masada, a stretch of land overlooking the vineyard that has long felt like the kind of place that deserves more trees.

The planting included 18 Black Oaks and 14 Coastal Live Oaks, two species native to this region and well suited to the terrain. Each one was placed with intention, pressed into soil that has been part of this land for generations and will continue to be long after any of us are here to tend it.

Days like this are a reminder of why community matters in farming. The work of caring for land is rarely done alone, and it should not be. Everyone who came out on Saturday, who dug and carried and planted under the open sky, contributed something that will be visible on this hillside for decades. The oaks will grow slowly and steadily, eventually offering shade, habitat for wildlife, and a kind of permanence that feels rare and worth protecting.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who joined us. Your presence turned what could have been an ordinary workday into something worth remembering.

Here is to the young oaks and the long, patient work of growing something that outlasts the season.

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