What's the best place in California to move and live on a small farm?

I love Novato. I have thought of retiring there.

Well, summers are hot here, but, you have a beautiful icy cold river to enjoy.
I love where I live in El Dorado county. The Lotus/Coloma area of Placerville in the heart of the goldrush zone.

Tons of outdoor recreation, an hour to the best ski resorts, premiere wine country with hundreds of vineyards and wineries, hiking, rafting, kayaking.

I have 5 acres and a micro-farm thing goin’ on.

Low crime, good schools, diverse community. Hows that for a promotional speech. ;-)

@Cruiser Novato is nice but not a lot of land right?

www.eldoradoguide.com

San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara Counties would be good – lots of ag. in that area. Near the ocean so the weather is mild. Housing prices have dipped tremendously in SLO county. Now would be a good time to get in.

I think you may have better luck in Oregon or Washington, and be closer to some major metro areas. Portland or Seattle areas.

@pallen123 You can find lots of land outside the city limits!

Both Novato and San Luis Obispo are quite expensive.
Anderson, near Redding, is great, but probably too hot for you.
Perhaps Oakley or Gilroy.

What about Arcata/Eureka area? There’s areas like Fieldbrook, Blue Lake, that are really nice, quaint smal town areas and just about 30 minutes away from Eureka, which is fairly large, but not large enough to have a Wal-Mart or Home Depot or most box stores.

That being said, it never really gets above 70 in the summer, and it usually hovers around 50 in the winter, often lower. So the weather may not be ideal for farming. But it’s certainly a nice area.

I live there.

You will have a much easier time finding such a situation in a place without hot summers in Oregon or Washington, and it will probably be cheaper and more scenic! Most of the farm land in CA is in the Central Valley, which is decidedly non-scenic, boring and hot.

For an idea of what is available in some parts of OR and WA, go here and search (or here for raw land.)

How big of a farm are you looking for? What will you be raising? We own a small farm in La Center, WA.

@filmfann San Luis Obispo isn’t as expensive as it used to be, in fact compared to most beach towns, it’s pretty reasonable.

If you don’t want extremely hot summers (not to mention a lot of its springs and falls), I would cross most of AZ off of your list.

For me, WA and OR have delightfully temperate summers, as long as you stay west of the Cascade mountains.

Inyo/Kern County – especially the Eastern Sierra along Highway 395..

Los Banos, CA is INCREDIBLE (and 39k population). Look that up on the map, and then fan out from there to find your dream location ;) But LB is small enough that you may want to live right there.

Check it out.