As the weather turns cold and the first frost of the season
seems just around the corner, local farmer Grant Brians is focused
on providing year-round fresh produce to residents in San Benito
County.
As the weather turns cold and the first frost of the season seems just around the corner, local farmer Grant Brians is focused on providing year-round fresh produce to residents in San Benito County.
Brians, the owner of Heirloom Organic Gardens, Inc, which is located off Shore Road, spent Wednesdays this summer at the Hollister Downtown Farmers Market. But when the market closed in September, he found customers still seeking out locally-grown produce. He decided to start a CSA – community-supported agriculture – to deliver fresh goods to local residents in San Benito County the week after the seasonal market ended. He has plans to set up a location in Gilroy and Morgan Hill in the coming weeks.
Brians and his family have been running the Brians Ranch in San Benito since 1973.
“We were first certified organic in 1976,” he said. “We haven’t given that up since.”
Brians took a group of visitors around his farm for a tour on a recent weekday afternoon, showing off plenty of products in season. Brians was tall, with a bushy, graying beard and long hair covered up with a ball cap as he walked around in the later afternoon sun. He spouts of scientific facts about soil and the nutritional content of his vegetables; cites a study that shows about 50 percent of people don’t like bell peppers – and that most who don’t like them can’t be converted – adding that he is one of those who dislikes them; and recommends reading Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” in Middle English before the afternoon is through.
But the main focus of the conversation is the vegetables, including the tomato varieties he is still growing, which include early girl and shady lady.
“We are still doing tomatoes,” he said. “Summer was barely a summer so they didn’t start to produce until November.”
He has greens that include heirloom varieties of spinach, kale and lettuces. He calls his Bloomsdale spinach a signature product and said it is hard to grow in mass production.
“It has a higher solid content and more fiber and nutrients, and lower moisture” he said of the specialty spinach. “But the reason to grow it is because it tastes so good.”
Every stop along the tour, Brians pulls samples start from the ground and offers a taste to his visitors. The greens are crunchy and crisp, and as Brians said, the Bloomsdale spinach has none of the bitterness of flat spinach.
“It’s the heart of the philosophy,” Brians said. “Taste and nutrition is at the heart of what we’re doing. It’s mostly heirlooms we are growing. There are a bunch of studies showing that you have a chance of better flavor and more nutrients.”
Brians operation includes 100 acres at his Shore Road site and 80 acres in other areas. He refers to his farm as a medium-sized business.
See the full story in the Pinnacle on Friday.
