Santa Maria area gaining in popularity and reputation
Santa Maria area gaining in popularity and reputation
The Santa Maria, CA, area located in Santa Barbara County has plenty of advantages for produce growers, with its excellent ground and long growing season.
In recent years Salinas, CA-based Pacific International Marketing has been increasing its acreage in Santa Maria by 5-10 percent annually, said Melinda Richardson, PIM's director of marketing.
The company grows, packs and ships broccoli, leaf lettuces, Iceberg lettuce, cauliflower and strawberries in Santa Maria. PIM grows broccoli year round in Santa Maria and grows cauliflower about 10 months out of the year there.
PIM farms in the western United States and Mexico. Harvest starts in the desert, moves to the San Joaquin Valley and then moves to the coast in Santa Maria before reversing the order. Santa Maria offers a "gap-filler," Ms. Richardson said.
"[Santa Maria] supports our production in Salinas and Yuma," she said.
Santa Maria can produce earlier and run longer than Salinas and goes year round.
The Santa Maria and Salinas deals begin in earnest around the first week of April. The harvest runs to around Thanksgiving in Salinas and into December in Santa Maria.
Santa Maria is a viable option for helping PIM cover its contract agreements, and there's also less turnover in the ground in Santa Maria, Ms. Richardson said.
Having growing operations in the Santa Maria area is positive in that the land is less expensive than in Salinas Valley. Santa Maria also has fewer issues with available water, she said.
"This is the first year we have conventional strawberries [from Santa Maria]," Ms. Richardson said. The conventional strawberries are the Albion variety. PIM has shipped organic strawberries for many years out of the Salinas Valley. Ms. Richardson said that PIM always is evaluating its options.
"We're committed to Santa Maria for the long term," she said. "We're very stable in Santa Maria - it's been a great area for us."
PIM has hired Ted Lazarus as its sales manager in the Santa Maria office. Most recently he was with Fresh Kist Produce in Santa Maria.
Bab? Farms in Santa Maria, grows, processes and ships more than 100 commodity items, focusing on baby and specialty vegetables including spinach, carrots, cauliflower, squash and 15 lettuce varieties and salad blends.
Bab?'s product is all hand-harvested and most of its produce is available year round. Bab? also has value-added specialty salad blends, baby spinach and baby Romaine that are in chef-ready packaging.
Bab? Farms was one of the early U.S. shippers to produce the spring mix "Continental Blend" and, shortly thereafter, specialty baby vegetables on a large scale.
Bab? Farms' specialty salads are marketed under the brand names "Continental," "Italian" or "Spring" mixes, depending on the number and variety of baby lettuces used in the blend.
The company handles customized salad blends and sells to retail, wholesale and foodservice. Most of Bab?'s retail sales go to retail specialty chains. "We harvest to order," said Ande Manos, Bab? Farms' sales and marketing representative. "We harvest that day and load that day."
Bab?'s orders typically are bought by the box and result in mixed pallets. But the company can take a pallet of its product to a neighboring company's cooler so that a truck can pick it up there in one stop.
"Santa Maria is one of the best broccoli valleys," Ms. Manos said. "There's great climate here. We grow certain varieties year round."
The company's growing fields mostly are on the cooler west side of Santa Maria Valley near the Santa Maria River, where the soil is rich.
Santa Barbara County offers some good, relatively low-cost housing, which helps in retaining a workforce in the fields. Another plus for the Santa Maria Valley is its ability to sidestep corporate underpinnings, enabling it to retain a "friendly feeling," Ms. Manos said.
Bab? Farms visits top chefs in the Las Vegas area in an effort to learn what consumers want. "We talk to the chefs and see what the trends are," Ms. Manos said.
"Steady" and "stable" best describe Santa Barbara Farms. The company grows Iceberg lettuce, celery and cauliflower around its home base in Lompoc, near Santa Maria.
Santa Barbara Farms began its lettuce harvest March 26 in Lompoc and will run perhaps through November. The company also grows celery in California in Brawley in the Imperial Valley and in Oxnard, and it grows lettuce in Brawley. Its last harvest day for lettuce in Brawley for the season came during the week of March 24.
Santa Barbara Farms has lettuce and celery 12 months a year and cauliflower all but January and February.
Lompoc fields sit a bit closer to the coast than Santa Maria, and temperatures typically are a bit milder -- around 60 degrees -- as a result. The company owns its own cooler.
"All of our fields are within three or four miles of our cooler," said Ron Berghoefer, vice president of sales and marketing for Santa Barbara Farms. Though microclimates exist within the broad Santa Maria area, Santa Barbara Farms does not have to deal with them.
"We don't have discrepancies in temperatures," Mr. Berghoefer said.
There's limited acreage in Lompoc but also limited competition for acreage from other growers. The company also doesn't feel housing pressures that other farming regions feel, Mr. Berghoefer said.
Santa Barbara Farms has turned more to contract deals, which "set a nice base for us" and gives the company a "built-in business focus," Mr. Berghoefer said.
In recent years Salinas, CA-based Pacific International Marketing has been increasing its acreage in Santa Maria by 5-10 percent annually, said Melinda Richardson, PIM's director of marketing.
The company grows, packs and ships broccoli, leaf lettuces, Iceberg lettuce, cauliflower and strawberries in Santa Maria. PIM grows broccoli year round in Santa Maria and grows cauliflower about 10 months out of the year there.
PIM farms in the western United States and Mexico. Harvest starts in the desert, moves to the San Joaquin Valley and then moves to the coast in Santa Maria before reversing the order. Santa Maria offers a "gap-filler," Ms. Richardson said.
"[Santa Maria] supports our production in Salinas and Yuma," she said.
Santa Maria can produce earlier and run longer than Salinas and goes year round.
The Santa Maria and Salinas deals begin in earnest around the first week of April. The harvest runs to around Thanksgiving in Salinas and into December in Santa Maria.
Santa Maria is a viable option for helping PIM cover its contract agreements, and there's also less turnover in the ground in Santa Maria, Ms. Richardson said.
Having growing operations in the Santa Maria area is positive in that the land is less expensive than in Salinas Valley. Santa Maria also has fewer issues with available water, she said.
"This is the first year we have conventional strawberries [from Santa Maria]," Ms. Richardson said. The conventional strawberries are the Albion variety. PIM has shipped organic strawberries for many years out of the Salinas Valley. Ms. Richardson said that PIM always is evaluating its options.
"We're committed to Santa Maria for the long term," she said. "We're very stable in Santa Maria - it's been a great area for us."
PIM has hired Ted Lazarus as its sales manager in the Santa Maria office. Most recently he was with Fresh Kist Produce in Santa Maria.
Bab? Farms in Santa Maria, grows, processes and ships more than 100 commodity items, focusing on baby and specialty vegetables including spinach, carrots, cauliflower, squash and 15 lettuce varieties and salad blends.
Bab?'s product is all hand-harvested and most of its produce is available year round. Bab? also has value-added specialty salad blends, baby spinach and baby Romaine that are in chef-ready packaging.
Bab? Farms was one of the early U.S. shippers to produce the spring mix "Continental Blend" and, shortly thereafter, specialty baby vegetables on a large scale.
Bab? Farms' specialty salads are marketed under the brand names "Continental," "Italian" or "Spring" mixes, depending on the number and variety of baby lettuces used in the blend.
The company handles customized salad blends and sells to retail, wholesale and foodservice. Most of Bab?'s retail sales go to retail specialty chains. "We harvest to order," said Ande Manos, Bab? Farms' sales and marketing representative. "We harvest that day and load that day."
Bab?'s orders typically are bought by the box and result in mixed pallets. But the company can take a pallet of its product to a neighboring company's cooler so that a truck can pick it up there in one stop.
"Santa Maria is one of the best broccoli valleys," Ms. Manos said. "There's great climate here. We grow certain varieties year round."
The company's growing fields mostly are on the cooler west side of Santa Maria Valley near the Santa Maria River, where the soil is rich.
Santa Barbara County offers some good, relatively low-cost housing, which helps in retaining a workforce in the fields. Another plus for the Santa Maria Valley is its ability to sidestep corporate underpinnings, enabling it to retain a "friendly feeling," Ms. Manos said.
Bab? Farms visits top chefs in the Las Vegas area in an effort to learn what consumers want. "We talk to the chefs and see what the trends are," Ms. Manos said.
"Steady" and "stable" best describe Santa Barbara Farms. The company grows Iceberg lettuce, celery and cauliflower around its home base in Lompoc, near Santa Maria.
Santa Barbara Farms began its lettuce harvest March 26 in Lompoc and will run perhaps through November. The company also grows celery in California in Brawley in the Imperial Valley and in Oxnard, and it grows lettuce in Brawley. Its last harvest day for lettuce in Brawley for the season came during the week of March 24.
Santa Barbara Farms has lettuce and celery 12 months a year and cauliflower all but January and February.
Lompoc fields sit a bit closer to the coast than Santa Maria, and temperatures typically are a bit milder -- around 60 degrees -- as a result. The company owns its own cooler.
"All of our fields are within three or four miles of our cooler," said Ron Berghoefer, vice president of sales and marketing for Santa Barbara Farms. Though microclimates exist within the broad Santa Maria area, Santa Barbara Farms does not have to deal with them.
"We don't have discrepancies in temperatures," Mr. Berghoefer said.
There's limited acreage in Lompoc but also limited competition for acreage from other growers. The company also doesn't feel housing pressures that other farming regions feel, Mr. Berghoefer said.
Santa Barbara Farms has turned more to contract deals, which "set a nice base for us" and gives the company a "built-in business focus," Mr. Berghoefer said.
