“The entire Christopher Ranch product line is very popular during the winter holidays, with high demand for garlic and shallots in particular,” said Patsy Ross, marketing manager for Christopher Ranch, headquartered in Gilroy, CA. “These items are available in both whole form as well as peeled.”

For over 50 years the Christopher family has been growing superior California garlic from its privately owned farms in Gilroy. The company takes great pride in providing the highest quality, most flavorful and healthy garlic available today. It offers conventional as well as an extensive line of organic products, which are distributed across North America.

Christopher Ranch’s customer base spans the entire food industry, including retailers, wholesalers, foodservice operators, industrial organizations and processors.

“We carry pearl onions in three colors: gold, white and red,” said Ross. “Our line also includes cipolline onions and boiler onions. These items are popular in the traditional recipes used around the holidays, and they add that flavor that is essential to recreate the dishes. For consumers that don’t want to peel the specialty onions we offer a peeled version of the pearls, cipollines and shallots.”

Christopher Ranch’s five-pound bag of boiler onions, cipolline onions and shallots for foodservice operations.These peeled items, she noted, save the home cook time and convenience. Peeled specialty onions come in a standup pouch and have a seven-week shelf life when refrigerated.

“Foodservice customers have been enjoying the peeled shallots for years,” said Ross. “We are thrilled we’ve added cipollines and boiler onions to our line. This year we expect to have organic shallots available year-round.”

Christopher Ranch started growing organics in 1995. From chopped garlic in oil to fresh-peeled garlic, it offers superior garlic products tailored to customer convenience.

At Christopher Ranch, food safety is of paramount importance, “and we work continuously to improve and maintain high standards of quality and sanitation in our growing, processing and packing facilities,” said Ross. “We are committed to giving our customers the best — and safest — products possible by following strict guidelines to ensure ‘quality from the ground up.’ We keep food safety in mind so you don’t have to!”

Farmers have inherently been stewards of the land in order to ensure the continuation of crops from year to year, and Christopher Ranch is no exception. It has been growing California garlic since 1956, and its commitment to sustainable farming is stronger than ever.

In 1991, Christopher Ranch was the first grower to use drip irrigation on bell peppers. Drip puts water and fertilizer right at the base of each plant, only where it’s needed. Today, almost all of the company’s crops are on drip irrigation saving thousands of gallons of water each year and significantly decreasing our use of fertilizer and pesticides.

“We have reduced our packaging use in general, as well as significantly reducing petroleum-based packaging materials like plastic and cellophane, eliminating white cardboard and phasing out laminates to make all packaging recyclable and biodegradable,” said Ross. “We try to maximize post-consumer materials when packaging is required. And we provide our offices with easy access to recycling bins for cans, bottles and mixed paper.”

The company has also implemented electronic invoicing and electronic transmission of company and customer newsletters.

“We are working with all suppliers to insure that we have the most environmentally friendly and up-to-date packaging available,” Ross added. “And we have applied several methods to reduce our energy use and improve sanitation by centralizing operations to reduce traffic flow; implementing a preventative maintenance program that assesses load rates, amperage and more to maintain electrical motors at high efficiency.”

Christopher Ranch has also switched from propane forklifts to electric, updated its tractor-trailer fleet to address current and future emission standards and designed and implemented a storm water system that cleans storm water of debris prior to being percolated back into its farm which then recharges to local aquifers. It has installed an ozone cleaning system to reduce chemical usage needed when cleaning equipment and it uses a fully enclosed wash system for our forklifts and trucks so no oils or toxins flow from the wash pad.

“We have also remodeled our processing plant to include complete wash-down capability for sanitation,” Ross noted.

The company is also aggressive when it comes to land management responsibility. It has a very stringent field rotation programs to prevent over-farming of the soil.

“We change our growing areas to preserve soil quality and prevent overuse of resources in those areas,” said Ross. “Christopher Ranch is doing its part to reduce, reuse and recycle in all areas of our operations. As we look toward our next 50 years of farming, we are dedicated to protecting the earth and preserving the environment for the generations to come.”