PRESS
EatingWell Magazine
"Roam the sprawling pastures along with East Friesian-Lacune sheep, Nubian goats, Duroc pigs and Cornish Cross chickens at this Santa Margarita farm—a two-hour drive north from Santa Barbara. There are only a couple of accommodations here, but they’re charming as can be. Stay in the exclusive guest room at proprietors Christine and Jim Maguire’s colorful hacienda, and they’ll treat you to a meal of fresh eggs and bacon from their acorn-finished pigs. Or book the apartment tucked upstairs inside the barn, and your fridge will be stocked so you can cook your own breakfast. If you’re game, you can help the Maguires milk and feed the animals or gather apples, pomegranates and quince from their orchards. Afterward, hike Santa Margarita Lake, popular for boating and fishing largemouth bass. When you’re ready to venture further, there’s plenty to do nearby: check out otters and elephant seals along the coast; taste at Paso Robles wineries; or grab a burger at Pozo Saloon, a former Pony Express stop.”
Sunset Magazine
"Jim and Christine Maguire's sheep and goat ranch is set outside quaintly dusty Santa Margarita, California. Try your hand at milking a goat, then taste one of the dairy's three award-winning cheeses. Whatever you do, get up in time to have breakfast: Everything, from eggs to bacon to plum jam, comes off the Maguires' 92 acres. The farm makes a good base for touring San Luis Obispo County wine country too."
Cooking Light
"For the softer side of the farm-stay experience, head 25 miles south to Rinconada Dairy in Santa Margarita. There you'll find a cozy guest room in Jim and Christine Maguire's Spanish ranch-style home, or a private apartment in the barn. During milking season (spring through summer), more than 100 ewes and goats will be standing by in the morning. Breakfast is prepared by Christine, who attended Manhattan's Natural Gourmet culinary school, with henhouse eggs, garden produce, and homemade jam. Even the bacon is sourced from ranch-raised pigs."
Traveller (Japan!)
← Our Fiesta Room featured in
Traveller Japan!
The colorful Fiesta Room with private bath is located in the guest wing, which also includes an inviting reading nook with a view of the patio and gardens. A cozy apartment in the barn has its own kitchen and the capacity to sleep four, with a bedroom and a hide-a-bed in the living room. Wireless internet access is available. If you stay in the house, you’ll start each morning in the cheerful farmhouse kitchen enjoying a sumptuous gourmet breakfast.
Edible San Luis Obispo
“Our chicken taste like chicken. I have the advantage of being older, so I remember what meat tasted like back in the 50s and what it’s supposed to taste like. Our chickens are the same breed as the industrial chicken, but it’s a completely different tasting chicken. They are raised differently—that’s the whole secret! They are fed a non-GMO grain mix and compost from the garden, and they graze on organic pastures. The industry usually kills chickens at 6 weeks old because they’ve been pumped full of God-knows-what; we harvest at 8–9 weeks old. Our chicken meat has texture, and the aroma of an older bird roasting in the oven is just so good.”
LA Times
RINCONADA DAIRY — Santa Margarita
pasture raised kid & lamb · acorn-finished pork · pastured chickens
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