At Forest Home Farms, much of the food was home grown. The Boone family grew vegetables for their own use and raised cattle on a leased ranch in Livermore, bringing them to the meat house for processing. The meat house was built with walls one foot thick and filled with redwood sawdust for insulation against the heat, and its three rooms were used to bring in meat, portion and wrap it, cool it, and store it. Phil Munson, son of foreman Floyd Munson, recalled that the animals were cut up, hung for a couple of weeks in a small shed north of the main house, then taken into the meat house to be cut up and wrapped. Farm families also preserved foods by drying, canning, and pickling. Ruth Quayle Boone remembered that for four years the family ran a fruit stand out front, selling pickles, jams, and salted almonds, including quince jam, honey, orange and grapefruit marmalade, and figs under a Forest Home label. During the busy harvest season, cooking continued constantly for twelve to fourteen hardworking farm hands, who ate in a special dining room behind the kitchen, while a Chinese cook served lunch from a rolling chuck wagon that followed the harvester in late summer.