Meet Your Producers
Our Partners, Your Farmers
Your farmers are the heart and soul of LolaBee’s. We team up with visionaries, the men and women who have imagined a better food system and as we speak are making it a reality. These farmers and ranchers are safeguarding our future by bringing us real food, grown right. They care for our land and animals, they protect our health and they nourish us. So let’s meet them!
Contact us to learn more.
Meet Your Farmers
Balakian Farms
John and Stella Balakian bought their farm in Reedley over 50 years ago. Now three generations of Balakians farm their property - Stella, her daughter Ginger and her husband Clarence Robinson, and their daughter Amber. The 35 acre farm is located 210 miles from our warehouse in San Francisco and is certified organic by Guaranteed Organic Certification Agency. Word from our customers is that Balakian's heirloom tomatoes and princess green, crimson, and autumn royal black grapes are out of this world.
Marin Sun Farms
Marin Sun Farms (MSF) raises 100% grass fed beef, lamb, goat, pasture raised chickens, and pork. MSF's mission is to actively participate in the creation of a more sustainable food model and an agrarian culture that restores, conserves, and maintains the productivity of our landscapes and the health of its inhabitants. To accomplish this they focus on the production of local, pasture based food to feed our Bay Area communities.
Straus Family Creamery
Straus Family Creamery was founded by Bill Straus in 1941 on the shores of Tomales Bay near Point Reyes Station, about 60 miles north of San Francisco. It became the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi in 1994. The creamery produces milk, yogurt, butter and ice cream. The milk comes in glass bottles that preserves the fresh taste and harkens back to the days of the neighborhood milkman. Straus' dairy cows are grass-fed and humanely and organically raised, producing the highest quality milk available. As the demand for organic milk from grass-fed cows has increased, Straus began working with three other Sonoma family dairies, Westview Jersey's, Deer Valley Dairy, and Correia Dairy, that produced milk by the same organic and humane methods.
Brokaw Nursery
In 1955, Hank and Elllen Brokaw began growing avocado nursery stock in their backyard. Their dream was to someday acquire land where they could establish an orchard. Twenty-two years later they moved their family to Cheravo, a 680-acre ranch, which at the time was a steep hillside with bare ground near Santa Paula. Hank pursued his dreams and planted many varieties of avocado, and other fruit crops including cherimoya, citrus, mango, sapote, and guava. Today Brokaw Ranch Company farms 931 acres in Ventura and Monterey County. The Venture county ranch is approximately 372 miles from the warehouse and the Monterey county ranch is approximately 130 miles from the warehouse. Brokaw Nursery raises their produce conventionally.
McGinnis Ranch
McGinnis Ranch is owned by Howard and Polly McGinnis and is located on 17.5 acres in Watsonville, California. Howard started farming in the early 60's and runs his farm along with his wife and six seasonal workers. The McGinnis' pick and pack all of their offerings the day before they are sold so their produce is almost as fresh as if you grew it yourself. Howard is constantly looking for new and improved plant varieties so he can provide his customers with top quality produce. The McGinnis Ranch uses an integrated pest management approach that uses beneficial insects, crop rotation, and some pesticides to keep his crops disease free. All their produce is pesticide free. Weeds are controlled with hand and machine cultivation. Some herbicides are used as well. This level of management results in unusually fresh and tasty produce.
J & M Ibarra Organic Farm
J & M Ibarra Organic Farm is located in Reedly, about 210 miles from our warehouse. Converted to organic in 1993, the 50 acre farm is certified by Global Culture. Founded by Juan Ibarra in the 1940's, the farm was inherited by his son Moses Ibarra in the 1970's which was then inturn passed down to his son Manuel Ibarra a few years ago.
Bariani Olive Oil
The Bariani family, parents Angelo and Santa, and sons Luigi, Enrico, Emanuele, and Sebastian, has origins deep rooted in the Northern Italian region of Lombardy. After closing its construction business in Italy in the late 1980s, the family moved to Sacramento in 1989. For the first few years the family relied on working part time for friends and with their help started producing olive oil for their own use. Relying on his metal working background, Angelo, built his own press and crusher, which were in use for the first few years of production . With the encouragement of friends, the family decided to start their own olive oil company. Today, Bariani Olive Oil is committed in producing an authentic extra virgin olive oil which is raw and produced in a limited quantity. You can taste the quality!
Acme Bread Company
Steven and Suzie Sullivan founded The Acme Bread Company in 1983 to bake bread for restaurants and stores who wanted to offer better bread than was generally available on the wholesale market at the time. Steven started baking bread at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in the 1970's. In 1999 Acme made the switch to all organic flour. They use organic olive oil, organic walnuts from Lake County, California, organic raisins, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds sourced by their flour provider, Keith Giusto, and organic butter from Petaluma Creamery. The bread comes freshly baked and will stay fresh for a few days. You can also slice and freeze the breads for later use.
Devoto Gardens
Stan and Susan Devoto own and farm their 20 acres in Sebastopol, about 60 miles from our warehouse, along with the help of their three daughters, Christina, Jolie, and Cecily. Their farm is certified organic with Global Culture since 2010 but was founded in 1975. The Devotos' specialty is dry farmed organic heirloom apples. The Devoto's dry farming methods create exceptional apples with thick skin and concentrated flavor. Lack of water during the summertime, the most essential ripening stage, stresses the fruit, which concentrates the flavor. The fog that rolls in each evening, which is absorbed through the apples' stems, and the underground water table from the winter rains are the only supply of water for the Devoto's trees, hence the outstanding apples!
Two Dog Farm
Two Dog Farm is known for its dry farmed tomatoes but also brings wonderful greens, squash and flowers to market. It is owned, managed and worked by Mark and Nibby Bartle, along with the help of their children Miles and Lily. The farm is certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). Mark and Nibby always farm with sustainability in mind. They grow a winter cover crop and rotate summer crops to improve soil fertility. They only use natural fertilizers and tractor and hand weeding, never using GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds.
Snyders Bee Farm
Bill and Ann Snyders manage the apiary themselves and take great pride in maintaining an open space for their bees, which enjoy the nectar and pollen of a wide variety of flowers in the Bay Area's unique climate. The hives are located in the pristine Crystal Springs Reservoir, 50 miles south of San Francisco and home to a diversity of native wildflowers. This area contains no commercial farming, thus existing in its natural state. Bill and Ann keep and collect honey from approximately 150 hives.
Hummus Heaven
Hummus Heaven is a San Leandro based company making hummus and other mediterranean foods. They have numerous unique hummus blends made with fresh ingredients along with other mediterranean salads such as baba ganoush and tabbouleh, olives, tapanades and fresh flatbread and pita chips. Though the products are not 100% organic many of the ingredients that go into making them are.
Tofu Yu
Sierra Nevada Cheese Company
Is Our Food Organic?
We source our produce primarily from farmers who are certified organic. Some of our farmers use organic and sustainable practices, but are not certified organic by a third party certifier (it can be quite costly). A farmer’s actual practices are what matter to us.
For our artisan products we always source from local artisans who use local and organic ingredients when possible. This means that some of the ingredients in the artisan products may not be organic and local. We do our best to be transparent about our sourcing. In the product description of each item, you will find information about place of origin and organic certification status.
