Eat, Drink, Savor: Greig’s Acres is the place to be

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Bumping his way down a narrow one-way path in a small utility vehicle through his family’s five-acre farm, Nate Greig describes the surroundings as a combination of Disneyland and Jurassic Park. 

It’s more than apt, as 20 varieties of primeval-looking avocado trees, heavy with fruit, vie for space with a sinister passionfruit vine seemingly ready to envelop, like an anaconda, everything it touches.

Greig, one of five family members who tend the San Juan Bautista farm, had an upbringing that was just as eccentric: on a much smaller scale, the avocados are a throwback to a childhood diet that included the occasional roasted guinea pig, courtesy of his South American grandmother and his mother, Jennifer Delorenzi, who raised button quail, exotic pheasants and Abyssinian cats.

“That was normal for me,” he said. “And then one day, my dad, Lance Greig, said, ‘I want to do something for my family.’ So he put every dollar he had saved up and planted an orchard.” 

The results, 250 fruit trees, are predictably unconventional. The lion’s share, Nate said, is 20 varieties of avocados, which, due to the different growing seasons, allows the farm to offer a dozen varieties year-round. 

The variety is remarkable, though focused on avocados. About 20% of the orchard is devoted to the Haas, a grocery store staple most people are familiar with. It is a cool-weather fruit, Greig said, which prefers cooler climates and is known for its durability. 

In contrast, the Reed, which Greig described as a “cannonball,” prefers the heat and can grow up to two pounds. Then there is one actually named the “Panama Cannonball,” which features purple skin and slightly purple flesh. Need something bigger? The Holiday, similar in taste to the Haas. weighs up to a pound.

The list goes on: the Bacon, which Greig described as “the darling of the bunch,” has a powerful avocado flavor that he considers ideal for guacamole. The Zutano, he said, with its milder flavor, is perfect for avocado toast. The Fuerte, Nate’s wife Susan said, has a nutty flavor, as if it were blended with almond butter. And… well, you will just have to check their stand at the San Juan Bautista Farmers’ Market to see what all is available.

Speaking in tandem, the couple quickly rattles off what they can remember of the other fruits grown on the farm: lemons, limes, oranges, kumquats, grapefruit, sweet limes, guavas, apples, passionfruit, persimmons, mulberries and the newly planted dragon fruit.

“I know there’s more,” Susan said. “I am sure we are forgetting a lot.”

And then there’s the other crops on the farm like chayote, which Nate describes as a cross between a cucumber and a potato, pepinos, along with prickly pears and sugarcane. Not to mention a henhouse filled with egg-laying free-range chickens.

While not certified organic due to high registration costs, the farm is cultivated using best practices, some of which have been crafted through experience. 

A defunct dump truck near the front of the house, for example, is filled with food scraps, unsold produce and other organic material. The mix, with help from worms, becomes a very powerful compost. 

“We even use our chicken manure and spread it across,” Nate said. “Everyone says to do it thoroughly composted, but I don’t care; everything’s an experiment up here. But with our holistic approach to fertilizing, everything is happy.”

Part of that experiment includes using their own strain of anaerobic bacteria to make the fertilizer come together. 

“Atmospheric nitrogen is incredibly stable,” Nate said, “and hard to break apart, which is why plants don’t have good access to it. We inhale it and it’s broken apart there, but for plants, they need a friend. This anaerobic bacteria attaches to the roots and exchanges nitrogen for carbon.” 

The payoff, Nate said, can be particularly seen with the citrus crop, which he said was “amazing” this year. 

“Because we’re fertilizing at a level where they’re constantly in bloom or ripening fruit,” he said, “we’ve got an old mature crop right now and babies coming right after it, which has never happened here before.” 

And then there are the bees, vital to any farming operation. 

“If you think you’re an expert at beekeeping,” Susan said, “you’re not. It’s very hard, very challenging. We have six hives  and we check them every two weeks. We’re just basically looking for a queen, eggs and honey to make sure they’re producing ”

Rather than buying commercial bees, the couple collects wild swarms that are already surviving on their own on the property. To keep them healthy, the farm is planted with bee-friendly zero-water flowering plants, like prickly pear, to provide nourishment year-round rather than relying on sugar in the off-season.

“Across the nation,” Nate said, “overwintering is a critical component; he ability for bees to go through the cold period and start anew in the spring. The national average for success in 2025 was 30%  We had double that, a 60% ratio.”

The success of their homemade ecosystem has led them to take on one new challenge every year.  Mulberries are a recent planting, growing so prolifically the Greigs have not had time to pick them. This year, it is grafting their “monster” avocado species to strong root stock in hopes of doubling or tripling the yield. 

“It’s almost impossible to maintain,” Greig said, “because I have a full-time job and my wife, Susan, is homeschooling. But we get to work side by side with our two sons, Luke and Connor, teach them what we’re knowledgeable in, and have good quality time together.”

Greig’s Acres produce is available at the San Juan Bautista Farmers’ Market on Sundays from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. at 310 Third Street. The Greigs can be contacted through Facebook. 

Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.

BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and for giving our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.

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