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Caption: The Land of Oz Huckberry takes a trip to a "former" hippie commune
Caption: San Francisco is an incredible place to live. But one of our favorite things about the city, really, is how easy it is to escape the seven million folks who call the Bay Area home. Drive 20 minutes north, east, or south and you’ll find it impossible to avoid rolling hills, redwood forests, and bountiful vineyards. Got a few hours of driving time to spare? Well, that’s when things really get good.
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Caption: Welcome to Oz We headed three hours up Highway 1 to Oz Farm for a long weekend of swimming holes, late-night bonfires, and geodesic domes — the stuff of classic California, come to life.
Today it's a working organic farm and perfect spot for everything from work retreats to weddings. But yesterday? Old-school hippy commune.
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Caption: Previously known as Village Oz, the farm began as an “ecotopian” cultural experiment in the early 1970s, founded and run by computer and science wizard Lawrence “Redwood” Kroll — yep, the “wizard of Oz,” who would later go on to become an esteemed science professor at San Francisco State University. We’re a bit muddy on the exact details of what went on there, but judging by all the geodesic domes and meditation meadows, we can only assume it was all the typical stuff that comes to mind — free love. Ganja. Djembe circles. Organic vegetables. You know — Woodstock stuff. (Ask your parents. They were there.)
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Caption: These days, not much has physically changed about Oz — it’s sprinkled through with many of the original geodesic domes, yurts, and cabins; walking trails line the property, which is still planted with more than 50 varieties of heirloom apples and rows and rows of vegetables that the farm crew sells at nearby farmer’s markets every week. The farm has a pre-tech era vibe to it, the kind of place where dogs and kids can roam around and get dirty and no one cares.
Oz is the epitome of “off the grid” — no cell service, no Wi-Fi, no uploading every moment to Instagram. In many ways, the original ethos of Oz — the idea of community, of food and energy that are good for you and good for the earth, of buying local, of living in the moment — are still alive here. Make no mistake — running a farm is hard work. But it’s worth it.
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Caption: “We’re living our dream,” they tell us. “Every day, we wake up and we’re living our dream.”
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