4 minute read
Of Interest
By Sara Hall
Planted at the heart of Orange County, amid the hustle and bustle, is a family-run farm that locals have come to love -- Tanaka Farms.
You may know these 30 acres for its popular pumpkin patch, strawberry picking fun, and educational farm tours, but there also is a history of perseverance, resourcefulness, and innovation rooted here, too. Tanaka Farms was first planted in OC about eight decades ago -- and through generations of hard work, adaptations to the changing market, and by avoiding persecution during World War II, the Tanaka family farmers have fought to become a rural staple in urban Orange County.
Tableau recently had the honor of interviewing Kenny Tanaka, a fourth generation Japanese American who joined the family business in 2005 after graduating college. He now manages the operation and shared with us some of the family’s, and the farm’s, rich history. The story of Tanaka Farms begins in the early 1900s, when Kenny’s great-grandfather, Teruo, immigrated from Japan and started farming in Northern California. In 1922, George, a nisei, or second generation Japanese American, was born to Teruo and his wife in Dinuba, just outside of Fresno, where they continued to work on a small ranch as farmhands.
George Tanaka grew up in the family business and got his own farm truck in 1941. After the family moved to Orange County, George began a produce-shipping business in La Habra. In 1942, he had to flee to Utah to avoid the Japanese internment camps. While in Utah, he met his soon-to-be wife, Chris.
After the war, George and Chris Tanaka returned to California, settled in Fountain Valley, and worked as wholesale farmers on various properties where they grew tomatoes, green beans and strawberries. Glenn Tanaka, a sansei, or a third generation Japanese American, was born to George and Chris in 1957. He continued the family farming business and studied agricultural business at Cal Poly Pomona. At college, he met his wife, Shirley (also a sansei), who was studying nutrition. From 1977 to the 1990s, Glenn expanded the farm’s wholesale operation to 300 acres in Southern California. In the 1980s, he grew strawberries for roadside stands in Huntington Beach, Irvine and other local cities. He then started his own packing company and distributed produce across the country. “It almost got too big, too fast,” Kenny Tanaka said of the operation. Then, when produce started being imported from Mexico, the local market crashed. Kenny’s father was forced to sell some of their property to stay afloat. As suburban development spread across Orange County, the farming operation was forced to move. “Fast-forward to about 1998, when we came to our current location in Irvine,” Tanaka said.
The Tanakas lost a big source of income in a roadside stand in Cypress around 2000, so they continued to pivot and started focusing more on the agritourism side of the business. Hosting tours on the farm and letting people pick their own produce helped keep the business going. “People really liked the tour and learning about the farm,” Tanaka said. “It was kind of a new idea at the time.”
They started small with just two tours, but that quickly grew with word-of-mouth marketing. Tanaka Farms now hosts 12,000 school kids for tours during the strawberry season. That crowd grows to about 15,000 student visitors during pumpkin season, and
to more than 90,000 visitors overall to the pumpkin patch each year. Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit at the peak of the strawberry season, the farm’s business structure had to adapt once again. Before 2020, the Tanaka Farms produce stand wasn’t very busy. But once the family started the drive-thru produce stand to accommodate COVID-19 safety guidelines, it became a highly popular amenity and more people came specifically to shop for fresh produce. “That pretty much saved us,” Tanaka said. “Without the tours and drive-through stand, we may not have lasted.”
Tanaka Farms still offers the drive-thru stand (as of mid-June) and people seem to want to keep it, so they are “playing it by ear,” Tanaka said. They are also offering the walk-in option to give people a choice in how they’d like to shop. While things are slowly returning to normal, they are still utilizing safety precautions (social distancing, 50% capacity wagon rides, masks, etc.) and everything is still reservation only. The need for evolution in order to keep things interesting and encourage visitors to return to the farm has become part of the Tanakas ongoing business plan. Today, Tanaka Farms features 60 varieties of fruits and vegetables. The primary crops are strawberries, pumpkins, corn, and watermelon, but other offerings include kale, tomatoes, blackberries and carrots. In addition to the produce stand and farm tours, Tanaka Farms offers a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, a true “farm to table” community food program. The farm also hosts fun and educational workshops, events like goat yoga and scarecrow contests, and Hikari, a seasonal/holiday mile-long drive-thru festival of lights. Most recently, the Tanakas opened Hana Field in Costa Mesa, which features sunflowers, zinnias, herbs, and more. Hana, which means flower in Japanese, came about after discussions with the Sakioka family (who own the land in Costa Mesa) over the last few years. Now a father himself -- with children ages five, three and a new baby too -- Kenny Tanaka says whether his kids eventually go to work on the family farm is up to them...and to the market.
“I want to expose them to different things,” Tanaka said. “We’ll see what the next 10 to 15 years hold.” Tanaka Farms, 5380 3/4 University Drive, Irvine tanakafarms.com.
