Ande Manos, marketing and new business development director for Babé Farms, headquartered in Santa Maria, CA, said the company has been a leader in specialty vegetables and gourmet salad blends for more than 25 years. She noted that specialty produce trends are ever-changing.

“Chefs covet the latest, most flavorful, unique produce item and they look to growers like Babé Farms to inspire their latest gourmet creation,” she said. “Among our extensive menu of year-round specialty vegetables are seasonal specialties like baby purple and green Brussels sprouts, baby purple artichokes and later this winter, Babé is ‘expecting’ baby watermelon cucumbers.”

Other popular specialty produce items offered by Babé Farms are organic Lacinato kale, also referred to as Tuscan, Black or Dinosaur kale, its signature Blonde Frisée, watermelon radish and Cylindra beets.

Babé Farms, Manos said, has long been recognized as a pioneer in specialty vegetables.

Its year-round harvest includes 11 varieties of specialty radishes, seven varieties of assorted baby carrots, three different colors of baby and large beets, multiple varieties of baby head lettuces and salad blends, baby leeks, fennel, kohlrabi, parsley root, celery root, baby cauliflower, romanesco, baby squash, baby bok choy and Tokyo turnips. The company ships year-round from its Santa Maria location to distributors and well-stocked retailers across the U.S. and Canada.

This fall, Babé Farms will debut the new “Coastal Valley Farms” label on its retail one-pound organic spring mix clamshell. The smartly designed retail clamshell displays the gourmet greens beautifully, provides improved shelf life and has a unique safety seal.

Manos pointed out how much of the produce industry is geared toward corporate.

“Some larger foodservice operators are less willing to try new or specialty items because they’re concerned about shrink and additional costs,” she said. “Most of their customer bases have set menus and pricing where there’s simply less flexibility.

“Locally grown and farmers markets continue to be a strong trend for consumers and smaller, fine dining restaurants,” she continued. “The drawback is that specialty produce they offer are often short-term, low volume production with inconsistent availability. Specialty produce seed availability is limited and seed costs tend to be higher. Most growers can’t afford to speculate on sales of an item that may not be desired by a broad range of end-users. Chefs and retailers have to allow for some flexibility.”

On food safety, “Thorough audits and certifications are now the norm for all farming operations and processing facilities,” Manos said. “Food safety is certainly a cost contributor to all fresh produce, but it’s an absolute necessity in this day and age. Babé Farms’ director of food safety ensures that our company is in total compliance at all levels from the field to finished product.”

Sustainability is also on the trend table today, and it’s an issue to which Babé Farms is strongly committed.

“At Babé Farms we feel strongly about being good stewards of the land, and we are committed to implementing practices that preserve our natural resources, as well as producing safe, fresh produce for our end-users,” said Manos. “Now with over 200 acres in organic certification, many sustainable practices are implemented in not only our organic crop but also with our conventional vegetables.”

She added that cover cropping is a standard practice, and by planting a variety of blends crops are plowed under to help build organic matter, provide nutrients and help curb weed pressure. Commercial fertilizers are no longer used in the organic program. Using compost and other natural compounds has increased the quality of the company’s soils for future plantings.

Crop rotation with a variety of other vegetables also has been beneficial to Babé Farms. It helps suppress disease in the field. With efficient means of irrigation, the company is able to reduce water usage with the use of drip irrigation.

“Drip irrigation allows for better placement of water and fertigation,” explained Manos. “All irrigation water on Babé Farms ranches is tested monthly by a third-party lab to ensure safe water quality.

She also pointed out that the specialty category, just like the produce industry, is a supply-and-demand business. Babé Farms supplies a niche segment of the foodservice and retail sectors.

“In the last few years we’ve seen the demand for our label continue to advance, as such we are increasing our acreage to accommodate advancing sales,” added Manos.