At Green Gulch Farm, obsidian blades and arrowheads from Miwoks are still found in furrows.

 In 1838, the area was held as a Mexican land grant, Rancho Sausalito, where Portuguese ranchers and workers from the Azores settled several interlocking dairy ranches.

 Green Gulch began its modern era one day shortly after the Second World War, when George Wheelwright, a physicist and co-inventor of the Polaroid Land Camera, drove by the area with his wife Hope, fell in love with the beauty of the land, and purchased it soon after. For many years Wheelright worked the land to raise his prize Hereford bulls. In 1972, after his wife died, he refused to abandon the land to developers and instead opted to grant the property to a non-profit organization with the proviso that they maintain it as a working farm and keep the trails open to the public. Wheelright finally settled on the Zen Center, whose stewardship over the ensuing years drew expert gardeners like Alan Chadwick from UCSC, who arrived to inspire the five original Green Gulch farmers with his imaginative energy. Chadwick also taught them the fundamentals of biodynamic farming and French-intensive style organic horticulture.  

Thirty years later, Green Gulch has created an entire community founded in the practice of Zen Buddhism in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition as taught by Suzuki Roshi. The community has transformed the barn into a Zendo, built a large kitchen, a dining room, a conference center and a guest house. The property is also home to an authentic Japanese Tea House and Tea Garden, and hosts numerous programs, lectures and classes open to the public.

But the centerpiece is still the Farm, all organically cultivated in row crops, with the second field given to hand-cultivated vegetables. Green Gulch is run by a dedicated band of volunteers who work the fields in silence and  are encouraged as they work to be "mindfully present" and to concentrate fully on each action. They stretch often, have breathing moments, work from 10:30 am, breaking for tea and a snack, and then resume work until 12:15.  

Then comes a superb daily lunch, often comprised of an enormous organic salad, with pasta or rice and at least one soup prepared from field produce and herbs usually infused with garlic and ginger, and served with homemade bread. The vibrant food is enhanced by the scenery as volunteers lunch outside at long tables on a deck, under Redwoods surrounded by hills.  

Entry level guest students stay 1-2 weeks. Longer programs for apprentices run six months for the Garden and Farm and three months for other disciplines, including the kitchen program which has turned out some notable culinary talent over the years.  

The evenings are scheduled for studying or reading and in the summer, the apprentices will often walk out to Muir Beach and play guitar and sing. Green Gulch is local treasure, a unique place with a delicate, yet enduring beauty. It is a place where the land is allowed to speak profoundly, imparting to those who are able to listen a nurturing solace and a new respect for all life.

“Through our growing experience in farming and greeting guests we’ve come to acknowledge and appreciate the mystery of plants, the cycle of seasons, and the study of ourselves...which is Buddhism.”  (Mick Sopko, Green Gulch co-director)