What's actually ripe right now at the farm on Los Angeles Avenue? If you've lived in Somis for more than a season, you already know the question matters more here than it would almost anywhere else in Ventura County.
Right now, in the second week of August, the answer is blackberries and raspberries, both still deep into their run at Underwood Family Farms' Somis Farm Center on East Los Angeles Avenue. The strawberries that took over the fields every spring wrapped by mid-June. The blueberries that filled in after that ran from Memorial Day weekend through roughly early or mid July. What's left on the bramble right now is what's been left every August for years: berries sold by the pound, picked by hand, on a 12-acre parcel tucked just off Highway 118.
That rotation is more than a seasonal detail: it gives Somis a recurring calendar that follows the growing season.
Somis's seasonal calendar includes events at the farm, along with places to eat and shop along Somis Road. The farm's operating calendar is a visible part of the town's annual rhythm.
What's Actually Ripe Right Now
The farm publishes its own projected pick-your-own schedule, and it reads less like a menu and more like a civic almanac for the whole community:
| Crop | Season | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Tangerines | January – March | $1.69 |
| Navel Oranges | March | $0.69 |
| Strawberries | March – mid-June | $3.50/lb |
| Raspberries | June – mid-November | $5.50/lb |
| Blackberries | July – mid-November | $4.50/lb |
The farm itself notes this is a projected schedule and that weather and demand can shift it in either direction. But the shape of it tells you something. Citrus gets priced by the piece because a tree drops fruit faster than anyone can eat it. Berries get priced by the pound because every raspberry and blackberry still has to be picked off the cane by a human hand, one at a time, which is likely why raspberries run a dollar more per pound than blackberries even though both are in season together right now.
If you've been meaning to get out there before the season turns, this is the stretch to do it. Once mid-November hits, both berry crops close out and the fields go quiet until citrus starts back up in January.
The Fall Calendar Everyone Is Already Watching
The bigger date on the farm's calendar, and by extension the town's, is the 29th Annual Fall Harvest Festival, which runs Saturday, September 26 through Saturday, October 31, 2026. It opens with a themed weekend called Friends of the Farm Weekend, also billed as Public Safety Weekend, on September 26 and 27, followed by a Farm Country Weekend on October 3 and 4.
Pricing on both weekends follows the same structure: $25 for online presale tickets, $30 for standard admission, and $32 for day-of admission if spots are still available. Here's the detail that actually matters if you're reading this in August rather than October: the presale window only runs from August 26 through September 23. That's a four-week stretch that opens in about two weeks from today, not a wide-open booking calendar. If you've watched Somis Road get busier every October and wondered why parking gets tight on weekends specifically, this is why. A festival running from September 26 through October 31 with timed weekend admission concentrates a lot of visits into a handful of Saturdays.
After Halloween, the same 12 acres reopen as Christmas on the Farm, running November 27 through December 24, with the tree lot open through December 21. Admission runs $12 on weekdays, gate tickets only, and $16 on weekends and the day after Thanksgiving, with online or gate purchase either way. Santa visits are scheduled for weekends plus November 27, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Spring, summer, fall, winter: the farm has four distinct operating seasons, each with its own admission structure and its own crowd. Together, those seasons make the farm's calendar part of Somis's annual rhythm.
Dining and Errands Along Somis Road
Outside the farm gates, Somis Road itself does most of the remaining work. Somis Cafe & Market, at 3319 Somis Road, has operated as a family-run spot since 1974, when it started as a deli before growing into the sit-down restaurant regulars know now, serving breakfast and Mexican standards from 6 a.m. on weekdays. Longtime patrons often just call it "the Somis Market."
"Definitely old timey feel to the experience. The animals are just an added bonus."
That line was written about the farm, not the cafe, but it captures the same texture that shows up in review after review of both places: nothing here is styled to look rustic. It just is.
A few doors down, Somis General Store at 3335 Somis Road handles the errands the cafe doesn't: beer, wine, lottery tickets, an ATM, the everyday stuff. Between those two storefronts and the farm up the road, you've accounted for essentially every reason a Somis resident leaves the house without getting on the freeway.
How One Farm Shapes Somis's Seasonal Calendar
Underwood Family Farms also operates a second location in Moorpark. In Somis, the farm calls its location the "Somis Farm Center." Its crop calendar and seasonal events contribute to Somis's seasonal calendar.
A harvest festival calendar or a pick-your-own crop chart is part of the farm's agritourism offering. In Somis, it also gives residents a seasonal schedule to follow.
If you're already living by that rhythm, blackberries this month, festival tickets going on presale in two weeks, Christmas lights back up by Thanksgiving, you already understand something about Somis that doesn't show up in a search result or a listing photo. If you're the kind of person who notices that and starts wondering what a home inside that rhythm is actually worth, the Sarah Quaker Team knows this stretch of Ventura County block by block, farm by farm. Request a free home valuation and let's talk about what it means to put down roots on a calendar like this one.
