Snackin' for a Cause

“It’s easy—you just say no,” Victor Martino told me when I asked him about the pressure from housing developers on farmers in California’s Central Valley. Martino’s family farm, Bella Viva Orchards, is only 100 miles from the Bay Area, where he sells his dried fruits to customers at Ferry Plaza and other popular farmers markets.

We salute Martino for his commitment to keeping his land in farming—and for his involvement with Peeled Snacks, a socially conscious company currently donating 10 percent of the proceeds from their special-edition American Farms Sampler to American Farmland Trust. Read below for more from Martino about his orchard—one of the many family-run farms growing healthy food in communities around the nation:

Life Is Sweet at Bella Viva

Business has grown steadily at Bella Viva Orchards in Denair, California, since owner Victor Martino decided to transform his family’s fruit orchard into a dried fruit operation that sells at farmers markets in the Bay Area and to companies like Peeled Snacks, an all-natural snack company now partnering with American Farmland Trust.

When Martino took over the family business from his father in the early ‘80s, the orchard had been selling its fruit wholesale to large companies like Del Monte. “I didn’t like the idea of working all year and bringing the fruit of our labors down [to the canneries] and saying what will you give me for it?,” Martino says.

Once he started drying the 50-acre orchard’s many fruits—which include cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, persimmons, nectarines, plums, apples, grapes, figs, lemons and more—Martino discovered that customers really enjoyed the dried fruit, and his business grew. “People are looking for healthier food choices all the time and we offer an all-natural piece of fruit,” Martino says. “And more people are looking for a product that was grown regionally and for products produced in the United States.”

The climate in the Central Valley, where Martino and surrounding orchardists grow their fruit, is the “best in the world,” he says. But only 100 miles from the Bay Area, the threat from development pressure looms. That’s one of the reasons Martino is happy to be growing for Peeled Snacks, a socially conscious company who recently began donating a percentage of their proceeds to support the work of American Farmland Trust.

“We especially like to deal with people who are passionate about what they do and interested in supporting California-grown and American-grown produce,” Martino says.*

*This profile originally appeared in American Farmland, the magazine of American Farmland Trust. If you are interested in receiving the magazine click here to become an American Farmland Trust member.

About the Author: Kirsten Ferguson is Editor/Writer for American Farmland Trust. She works in the Saratoga, NY office and can be reached at kferguson@farmland.org