Pat Herbert’s Hollister farm – which once provided lettuce, cooking greens, carrots, melons, peppers, onions and squash for dozens of his neighbors and friends – now yields a full-time business.
Eating with the Seasons, a growing eight-employee company, provides boxes of fresh produce from local farms to more than 1,000 members at 125 sites in the bay area including streets in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister and the headquarters of Google and Twitter.
“(Pat) just liked the whole idea of giving families a box of his produce every week,” said Pat’s daughter Becky Herbert. “That was kind of an up-and-coming direct marketing thing for farms.”
Crates of fresh produce are dubbed community supported agriculture boxes, and they’re fast becoming a trend. At least three CSA box companies have taken up residence in Hollister, Gilroy or Morgan Hill in the last 14 years including Eating with the Seasons, TIMptations and Heirloom Organics.
TIMptations – owned by third generation Santa Clara County farmer Tim Chiala – blossomed into a CSA company that serves more than 400 members in just four years, said Matt Kanter, sales and marketing manager of the Morgan Hill-based company. They’ll be expanding their services to include home delivery this year and will charge $5 to deliver a small box and $7 to deliver a large one.
“Our stuff is picked when it’s at peak ripeness. We don’t pick fruits and vegetables when they’re green and still ripening,” said Kanter, referring to the common practice of trucking slightly green produce to grocery stores with the hopes that it will ripen by the time it arrives.
In Gilroy, CSA boxes are still taking off.
Gilroy Demonstration Garden Manager Brenden Zimmer has been driving CSA boxes from Heirloom Organics in Hollister to Gilroy for about four months with the hopes that he can build a large enough clientele that the company will add a new stop to delivery routes.
“This is only my second week, but I’ve gotten boxes in the past,” said Gilroy resident Jennifer Farrington, 41, who purchased her first CSA box from the Gilroy Demonstration Garden in February.
With the help of her two kids, she unpacked the week’s box brimming with mixed salad, cabbage, carrots and a mystery green that tasted crispy and salty.
“I don’t always know what it is, but I’ll try and cook it,” Farrington said.
According to Becky, there are two types of customers who want CSA boxes: young adults in their 20s or 30s without families who love cooking and those – including Farrington – who want to raise their families on fresh produce.
Boxes fill a community need for fresh, local produce – especially since the Gilroy Farmers’ Market is seasonal, according to Farrington. Since the year-round Morgan Hill Farmers’ Market is about 10 miles away from her Gilroy home, Farrington is glad to see some other fresh produce options popping up closer to home.
“I’m really excited to see this and to see people becoming aware that we need fruits and vegetables in our diet,” she said.
Farrington’s family of four splits the large $25 box, and she’s become an expert at juicing or freezing any produce the family can’t eat with their meals. Her goal this year is to make at least 50 percent of her family’s diet fresh fruits and vegetables.
“It’s one of those things where you can taste the difference,” she said.
Zimmer has found the size of the Heirloom Organics boxes can be overwhelming and urges Gilroy residents to share a box.
“If you’re an individual or even if you have a partner – that’s a lot of produce,” he said.
Companies like TIMptations and Eating with the Seasons operate on a larger scale with more clientele and allow customers to personalize orders.
TIMptations publishes a weekend newsletter highlighting items in the box. Then, clients can make substitutions over the phone, through email or by logging in to their online account – before their box even arrives. The company offers two box sizes: small for $18 and large for $26.
“People get to see what is going to be in their box before they get it,” Kanter explained.
Eating with the Seasons has an even larger clientele and offers four box sizes, which range in price from $19 to $49. Each week, clients have a window of time to log into their online account and select which items they want to receive. Additional items, including meat, dairy, eggs, herbs, tofu and tea can be added for an additional charge.
As for how the company picks the items they carry: “If it tastes good, we like it,” Becky said.
• Eating with the Seasons Extra small (6 items): $19; Small (8 items): $25; Medium (12 items): $37; Large (16 items): $49; Meat, dairy and eggs can be added for an additional charge. Drop-off locations: Ticonderoga Place and Wayland Lane in Gilroy; Fallon Road and Severinsen Street in Hollister; and Berkshire Drive, Hazelton Court and Woodland Avenue in Morgan Hill; corporate sites including Google and Twitter. Contact: (831) 245-8125
• TIMptations Small (6-7 items): $18; Large (9-11 items): $26 Drop-off locations include: LJB Farms on Fitzgerald Avenue in San Martin; People and Planet on Vineyard Boulevard in Morgan Hill; corporate sites including Applied Materials, Intel and Adobe. Contact: (408) 778-7398
• Heirloom Organics Large box: $25 Drop off location: Gilroy Demonstration Garden Contact: Brenden at (949) 981-0268
