Patsy Ross, marketing director for Christopher Ranch, headquartered in Gilroy, CA, said that although the company typically increases its organic acreage every year, this year it will be cutting its domestic organic garlic program short.

“This is due to the unusual weather patterns experienced in California,” said Ross. “We may not have domestic garlic for the full year, and there may be some gaps between growing regions.”

Christopher Ranch’s three-ounce, three-pack organic garlic.Christopher Ranch is a leading grower and shipper of high-quality garlic and an extensive list of other specialty products. It has been growing organic garlic since 1997. And it is the nation’s largest grower, packer and shipper of California heirloom garlic.

The company is also committed to organics in numerous other items in its line.

“The Christopher Ranch organic program consists of fresh garlic, peeled garlic cloves, shallots, pearl, cipolline and boiler onions and elephant garlic,” Ross pointed out. “We also offer a full line of value-added jarred organic items, including garlic, roasted garlic, ginger and shallots.”

Ross noted that Christopher Ranch is fortunate to have a mix of retail, foodservice distributor and industrial accounts in its customer portfolio. Its primary distribution range for its organic offerings is across North America.

The organic market, Ross noted, continues to grow.

“And we are working hard to meet the increasing demand,” she said. “Our ultimate goal is to provide domestic items year round, but sometimes we need to supplement our domestic supply with imported organic items to satisfy our customer’s requests.”

Third-generation family member, Ken Christopher, joined the company in 2010, and now helps to oversee its operations. He said the company’s California organic garlic sales have been growing at a strong rate for the past several years.

“While growing organics can be challenging, we are proud to have a year-round California supply,” said Christopher. “We continue to invest more and more in our organic program to ensure that we’ll continue to expand right alongside customer demand.”

As a conscientious family owned company, Christopher Ranch strives to sustain the environment, and in all aspects of our operation.

“Organics continues to be an in demand segment of the items Christopher Ranch grows, ships, packs and handles,” added Ross. “And we are totally dedicated to expanding our full line of organic products into the future.”