Spring season yielding strong harvest from Santa Maria region

With the arrival of spring comes the onset of a plethora of nutritious fruits and vegetables from California’s bountiful Santa Maria Valley.

Santa Maria, Calif.-based Babé Farms Inc. will have a colorful array of specialty root vegetables, baby head lettuces, friseé, fennel and celery root, said Ande Manos, director of sales and marketing.

“Notably, our Baby Butter Cakes lettuces have become a trending option for chefs seeking to craft a special-occasion salad,” she said.

For the 2024 spring and summer salad season, Babé Farms has developed a line of Luxury Lettuces — elevated components exclusive to Babé Farms that were “developed for culinary specialists who aspire to stand out from the mundane,” Manos added.

Weatherwise, the season has been relatively mild, she said, “so availability has been good with marketable quality and conditions across the board.”

Beachside Produce LLC, Nipomo, Calif., is known for its broccoli crowns but also grows cauliflower, celery, cello lettuce and a full line of Western vegetables as well as a variety of Asian vegetables in a partnership with Oceano, Calif.-based Pismo-Oceano Vegetable Exchange, said Steve Adlesh, director of sales and marketing.

Above-average rainfall disrupted some planting this season, he said, but the future looks bright.

“It will be an up-and-down springtime,” Adlesh said, but harvesting should be back on schedule by mid-May.

Santa Maria-based Corona Marketing already is shipping strawberries, said company President Jose Corona. The company also will offer squash, chili peppers and green beans this spring.

Corona’s biggest concern is for his strawberry deal and the lengthy gap between Easter and Mother’s Day, May 12, he said.

“You have pretty much the whole month of April with not that many promotions,” he said. “April is going to be an interesting month.

The company also is working to expand its organic strawberry program.

Good-quality squash will start shipping in mid-May, and chili peppers, which have not yet been planted, will be available in July.

Green beans will start harvesting in late April or early May.

“Those look fantastic,” Corona said.

Overall volume at Corona Marketing should be similar to last year, he said.

Santa Maria-based Pacific Coast Produce also will have a plentiful supply of strawberries this season, said Derrick Doud, vice president for produce sales.

The company, which started its Frontera variety March 1, was preparing to harvest its Monterey strawberries in April and will have Portolas during the summer.

“Quality on strawberries has been excellent,” Doud said, “and it should be good through the summer with good numbers.”

Pacific Coast Produce will start its summer vegetable program, which consists of eight kinds of chili peppers and includes conventional and organic green and yellow squash, in early May and continue through November.

The company’s core products are broccoli, celery and cauliflower. Quality is excellent on all commodities, and volume will be similar to last year, Doud said.

Santa Maria-based Gold Coast Packing Inc. is increasing its focus on the retail side of the produce business, said Robb Bertels, vice president of sales and marketing.

“The company has always been involved in the foodservice side, but we’ve made a concerted effort to develop more retail business,” he said. “We’ve got multiple products that are focused on that.”

The company, which specializes in value-added items, offers products that range from small-format 12-ounce packs of broccoli florets to 2-pound packages of items that are more specific for retail, he said.

Gold Coast also is developing salad kits for retailers. That program was launched last summer with Costco with a Better Than a Burger salad kit.

“It’s kind of like a salad version of a cheeseburger,” Bertels said.

The company also offers broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, spinach, Brussels sprouts, cilantro and various product blends.

Santa Maria — a unique growing area

California’s Santa Maria growing area includes up to 50,000 acres of farmland in the Santa Maria Valley, which is made up of acreage in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, said Claire Wineman, president of the Guadalupe, Calif.-based Grower Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.

And there’s some additional land outside the valley as well.

Acreage has remained consistent or edged upward in recent years.

“We’re seeing continuing strong demand for fresh fruits and vegetables,” Wineman said.

Strawberries (approximate valuation of $1 billion), cauliflower ($135.5 million), broccoli ($133.2 million), lettuce ($124.2 million) and avocados (($93.2 million) are the region’s top commodities. There has been a decrease in vegetable acres planted in recent years and an increase in strawberries, she said.

The valley is recognized for its diversity of high-quality crops, she added.

“It’s definitely a unique growing environment,” she said. “We have very favorable growing conditions, and a robust agricultural community here.”

Wineman said Santa Maria-area growers have implemented many advancements in growing technology, which have made fresh produce available “for an increasing portion of the year, which is important for consumer nutrition locally and worldwide.”