Lush rows of vegetables and herbs growing in CIA at Copia’s culinary garden in Napa.
Lush rows of vegetables and herbs growing in CIA at Copia’s culinary garden in Napa.
Lush culinary garden at CIA at Copia with rows of seasonal vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

Culinary Garden at Copia

Downtown Napa’s Shopping Experience

The Culinary Garden at Copia features seasonal crops and regional plants that account for most of the produce, herbs, and other products used throughout CIA at Copia facility. The 32-bed garden sits prominently in front of the building, greeting our guests as they approach. It is an oasis, perfect for a stroll, to enjoy your Lunch Box take out, or simply to pause for a moment. There are lots of photo opportunities as well!

Please note that our garden is open to the public, and we encourage you to visit—but please refrain from picking any of the produce.

An orange tree in the Culinary Garden at Copia in Napa, CA.

What’s Growing?

Crops include a range of flowers, herbs, veggies, and perennials, and the garden is complete with a pollinator garden and greenhouse. You’ll also find fruit trees, citrus trees, and olive trees throughout. Our Culinary Gardener Jacob Tracy, works with CIA’s executive chef and culinary teams to determine what to grow in the garden. He balances that with crops that grow best in the climate and may not be easily accessible in local grocery stores, like Thai basil, Lebanese za’atar, huacatay, and kabocha squash.

Artichokes in the Culinary Garden at Copia in Napa, CA.

Sustainability

Sustainability plays a huge role in everything we do at CIA. We practice no-till gardening as a way to open up compacted soil without causing soil erosion, crop rotation to improve soil health and optimize nutrients, and companion planting to increase crop productivity. Almost all of the produce grown in the garden is harvested for our restaurants and public classes with little left over. When surplus is available, you can find it for sale at Marketplace. Stay tuned for more information on summer produce and flower sales!

Culinary Gardner Casey Kimmel at CIA at Copia in Napa, CA.

Meet Our Culinary Gardeners

Casey Kimmel

Culinary Gardener
Born in the East Bay and educated at UCLA, Casey has built a career blending food, farming, and education. He lived in Yokohama teaching English in the public school system and spent summers on a farm in Kyushu, experiences that shaped his connection to seasonality and hands-on agriculture. After returning to the U.S., he attended culinary school, worked as a commis at the legendary Mandarin Oriental, and as a chef in San Francisco. A COVID-19 garden project shifted his focus from kitchens to growing, leading to farm management and farm-to-table teaching roles in Sonoma, and later a position as culinary gardener at Cultivar. Outside of work, he enjoys keeping chickens, experimenting with fermentation, spending time with his family, and the occasional round of Mario Kart.

Rachel Kohn Obut, consulting gardener at CIA at Copia in Napa, CA.

Rachel Kohn Obut

Consulting Gardener
Rachel Kohn Obut fell in love with gardening as a child, enamored by the joys of eating and cooking with just picked strawberries. After graduating from Oberlin College in 2005, she dove into farming. She has been managing mixed vegetable and flower farms and culinary gardens in Napa and Sonoma since 2010 and is excited to bring her years of experience to the CIA Gardens at Copia. When Rachel is not working in the garden, she enjoys hiking, yoga, cooking what she has grown, and spending time with her young daughter.