Lassens

King of Kiwi, that is! Glenn was on a quest — a quest to create a healthy, convenient, and shelf-stable drink. He loves juices, but the sugar level is high. He also hates the sugar spike that goes with drinking fruit juices, which always ends with a crash. He didn’t have to look far, since

You Won’t Find Purer Honey! It was a lovely summer day when we drove up the canyon above Santa Maria to visit Alisha of Rock Front Ranch. We were there to see her beekeeping operation, as well as her Jujube orchards. The Cuyama Valley is famous for its rich soil and agricultural productivity. Alisha and

Not a Newcomer to the Industry! Urbana, Iowa was the place and 1982 was the time. The Essential Oil Company Aura Cacia was begun to provide natural and organic personal care products. They believed in using only 100% pure essential oils in their products, and the Natural Products Industry took notice. After several years of

If you know the words “Yogurt” and “Probiotics,” you have the folks at Natren to thank. Natasha Trenev’s father was the Official Food Supplier to the King of Yugoslavia, Peter the II, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But in 1941, after the fall of the Yugoslavian monarchy, the family fled to Vienna. They

Colony Collapse Disorder Bees have had quite a hard time for a while. For about a decade, they’ve been dying off at an alarming rate. In 2006, beekeepers reported that they were losing between 30-90% of their hives over the winter. What was so alarming was that up to 50% of those hive losses were

These are some of our Anniversary Celebration Sponsors! CAL-ORGANICS Starting with a quarter acre of lettuce back in 1984 and an idea of doing things differently, Danny Duncan formed Cal-Organic Farms. More than three decades later, we have taken the business to include approximately 60 different year-round and seasonal vegetable and fruit items. Today the

Chino Valley Ranchers Organic Eggs   Chris Nichols went off and did his own thing for a few years, but his grandfather’s business drew him back. Now he leads the crew at Chino Valley Ranch, where Organic is in their DNA. Some of us at Lassen’s got to drive out to see Chris and his

Chas Blueberries Lassen’s has found a wonderful local blueberry grower right here in our back yard! And last week I got to tour their farm on the Oxnard Plain! Born in Hawthorn to a farming family, Chas grew up down dirt roads and in the midst of acres of tomato plants. He  started farming in

A lot of origin stories go back a few years or even a few decades. But when I visited Joni from Puremedy at her office and production facility in Westlake Village, I learned a totally different kind of story. In 1865, Joni’s great grandfather, Joseph Piquette, was a toddler in Quebec, Canada. He suffered a