CALIFORNIA FAMILY FARM KIWIS
California Family Farms kiwis are grown in the Central San Joaquin Valley and harvested riper for a sweeter than the average kiwi. The higher brix content makes for incredibly flavorful kiwis and helps keep the integrity of the fruit in storage. The season is forecast to go through February. Meet the farmers from Family Farms Kiwis!
Green Knoll Farm
Mark and Cindy Nielson were originally from the Bay Area, where Mark built greenhouses and installed skylights. They decided to move out to the country and in 1981 bought the property south of Gridley, California that they call Green Knoll Farm. This was the time period when kiwifruit was coming into popularity, so they started a kiwifruit nursery. Eventually demand for the plants dropped off, so in 1985 they planted their remaining nursery stock into a producing kiwi vineyard. They used the pergola style trellis that allows them to train the vines to form a solid overhead canopy, giving the fruit good shade so they stay a nice golden color and achieve good size fruit. In 1986 they became certified organic with CCOF. A few years later they joined together with several other organic farms and had their fruit packed and sold as a pool under the Family Farms label. This group signed on with Fantastic Produce in 1999 to sell their organic kiwifruit.
Brenner Ranch
Jim Brenner grew up in the Bay Area, and always wanted to be a farmer. When his father sold his business there, they bought a property in the rolling foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Newcastle, California in 1976. The family built houses on the property for Jim, his father and Jim’s siblings to help with the farm. They started farming the plums that were already on the farm. But kiwifruit was the new exciting fruit, so they pulled out some of the plums and planted kiwi on a T-Bar trellis system. Later they modified the trellis into a hybrid T-Bar/Pergola system for additional shade and better production. Jim sourced local manure and composted it, which led to nice crops and large fruit. In 1996 Brenner Ranch kiwifruit became certified organic with CCOF and they joined the Family Farms group of organic farmers to combine their efforts for picking, packing and marketing of their harvest. In 1999 the Family Farms co-op signed up with Fantastic Produce to sell their organic kiwi crop.
