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Health & Fitness

Island Farms - A True 'Heir' Loom

Get to Know the Market Vendors. This week we spotlight Island Farms owned by the Asdoorian family who has been farming since 1910.

Every now and then I fanaticize about having a farm near the central coast somewhere, waking up early to feed my goats and sheep, planting all kinds of interesting vegetables and fruits. I would sell the cheese that I would make from the goat and sheep milk, and the beautiful vegetables that I would grow to local restaurants and markets. It sounds so serene. But then, I talk to the farmers at our farmers market and quickly return to my senses. Being a farmer is hard, very hard! Even if you have 101 years of experience like the Asdoorian family, owners of Island Farms in Kingsburg, California.

Island Farms was started in 1910 by Alan Asdoorian’s Armenian grandfather Parseg and his wife Margarite. Their story is one for Hollywood. Parseg and Margarite met at a very young age at a Red Cross orphanage in Armenia after being rescued from the violence between the Turks and Armenians prior to World War I.  With the help of the Red Cross, both were eventually able to immigrate to the United States, where, in an effort to put food on their table, Parseg began subsistence farming on 20 acres in Kings California. After discovering that not only could he produce enough to feed his family, but also to sell to others, Parseg expanded his small operation from 20 acres to 40 acres, growing what were then just run of the mill varieties of fruits and vegetables, but which are now coveted heirloom varieties. Parseg sold his raisins to Sun Maid, a growers’ co-op and his peaches to Del Monte for canning. The remainder he kept for his family or sold to friends and neighbors.

Parseg and Margarite were blessed with three sons, Peter, Lem, and Soren. Lem was the only one who decided not to stay on the farm. He had other dreams and during World War II joined the Air Force. In 1942, Soren married Alan’s mother Glady. What a catch she was for Soren as her family were farmers as well. But they were not just any farmers, since the early 1930s, Glady’s family had been one of the fruit and vegetable vendors at the landmark Farmers Market located at Fairfax Boulevard and Third Street in Los Angeles. A match made in heaven!

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As with all things over time, the farming industry began to change and favor shelf life over flavor. Soren and Pete made the decision to turn most of the land over to tomatoes, varieties that could be sold beyond the small grocery store and farm stand. This commercial style of farming paid off, especially in the early 1950’s, when there was a devastating heat wave in Texas that resulted in the destruction of Texas’s entire tomato industry for the year. One man’s loss is another man’s gain as they say, and that year Island Farms was the big winner.

Eventually, because of the high cost of labor required to produce tomatoes, Soren moved back into grapes and cannery peaches. The grapes, Thompson seedless to be exact, were sold to large companies to be put into what those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s remember as “fruit cocktail.” (Oh my gosh! I had no idea that as a country we ate so much fruit cocktail, but based on the size of the trucks in Alan’s photos, we ate a *#!*#-load of fruit cocktail back then.)

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By this time, Alan was a young boy, and the size of the family farm had increased to 100 acres. By the late 1960s, the family was farming over 400 acres, 200 of their own, and 200 that they developed and farmed for family members. The 70s and 80s were good decades for farming, and Alan recalls being able to by his then young wife Lora a BMW. In his own words, “That is unheard of for a farmer!” Unfortunately, this prosperity was not to last, as competition from foreign produce began to unravel the American market. By the early 1990s the farm was no longer profitable, and land had to be sold off to keep the family afloat.

The next few years did not see an increase in sales for Island Farms and Lora and Alan were looking for ways to save the farm and the precious heirloom fruits and vegetables that were being protected under their care (many of their varieties are in the Slow Food Ark of Foods). While talking with an employee of the Kings County Agricultural Department, the suggestion was made that they go back to their roots and take their fruit to one of the local farmers markets. Lora was all over the idea, and Alan’s response was, “You’re crazy!” Well, because the wife is always right (being a wife myself I can say this with confidence), Lora won that argument and she and their eight year-old son Tim, bagged up about 30 bags of their best Island King peaches and headed off to the farmers market in Hanford. Within 45 minutes, they had sold every bag!!! They became regulars at the Market and the farm’s future was looking a bit brighter.

But they weren’t out of the water yet, and in 2002 Alan approached then market manager Polly Ward to see if there was a place for Island Farms in the Studio City Farmers Market. Alan recalls telling Polly that they were on the brink of losing their farm and needed any business they could get. Fortunately for all of us in Studio City, Alan’s plea did not fall on deaf ears, and in 2003 Island Farms became a permanent member of the Studio City Farmers Market. In 2011 Island Farms received their organic certification and is now one of the largest organic produce vendors in the Market.

Island Farms history is not only in the family’s story but also in their fruits and vegetables. Many of the varieties of peaches, plums and nectarines are heirloom varieties that were first grown back when Parseg began the farm, including their Elephant Heart plums, Fay Elberta peaches, Blenheim apricots, Santa Rosa plums and Indian Blood peaches, all of  which were first planted on the farm in 1911.

Take a step back in time with the help of Island Farms and experience produce as it was before shelf life and physical perfection became the standards for what we eat. Island Farms is located on the north side of the Market, near Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Just look for the big flag that announces “Peaches!”

See you on Sunday.

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