Manassero Farms preserves its link to Orange County’s past
As Orange County continues its enduring march toward development, a few family farms still grasp onto the scarce remaining plots of open land.
Down the miles-long stretch of Jeffrey Road in Irvine, Dan Manassero, his wife, Anne, and their employees toil in the sun, procuring food the old ways for the local community.
The 96-year-old organic and conventional farm occupies about 50 acres in Irvine, Brea and Tustin.
At one of the two Irvine farms — this one next to the Irvine Valley College campus — Manassero talked about his grandfather, James, who started the farm in 1922 in Yorba Linda after emigrating from Italy. Since then, the farm has evolved, spreading to various cities.
Manassero, 62, of Yorba Linda started working on the farm in 1977. Like any young adult, he went through the obligatory questioning of one’s future during his college years, but he harnessed the lessons passed down to him from his progenitors and inherited the Manassero Farms brand.
The farm, a part of Orange County for nearly a century, has a following of loyal customers.
Under Dan Manassero’s leadership, the farm has particularly become known for its strawberries. The fruit’s season is usually met with a rush of customers to Manassero fruit stands all vying for the taste of something grown within driving distance of their homes.
“We pick ours dead ripe and that’s why everybody likes them,” Manassero said.
The farm also sells such other produce as heirloom and beefsteak tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon and various kinds of squash.
Manassero Farms is competing with giant, convenient grocery stores, but Manassero contends that most stores’ produce isn’t nearly as good as his farm-fresh product.
“You can’t get good tomatoes in the store no matter how hard you try,” Manassero said. “They pick them green because they have to travel. So they are three to five days old. We pick them the morning you buy them.”
Anne Manassero, 56, said it’s crucial to eat the fruit as soon as possible after it’s been picked.
“The second you pick anything, it starts to die,” she said. “The nutrients start to diminish — so the faster you eat it after it’s picked, the better it tastes and the more nutritious it is.”
The farm does sell some of its produce in local stores like Whole Foods, and a distributor ferries their fruits and vegetables to various stores throughout the country.
The farm also has a few other competitors in Smith and Tanaka farms — which are both located along Jeffrey Road just miles from Manassero. But for the most part, the farmers get along well with one another.
“They are just a good group of people,” Anne Manassero said. “We are in competition, but are friends.”
With the advent of the farm-to-table movement over the past few years, Manassero Farms has seen a boost in sales.
“People want fresh food and they want to know where it’s coming from,” Dan Manassero said.
With the Manasseros’ acreage splayed out in full view for passers-by, local residents can witness the growth of the food they consume.
But, the Manasseros still have to be innovative to attract customers.
About five years ago, they began improving their flagship stand near Irvine Valley College. After various additions, the location has become a community gathering spot.
Anne, who runs the non-farming logistics, wanted to create a place where the community didn’t just shop, but came with their families to lounge or enjoy events.
The intimate area is decorated with rustic adornments. In addition to the gift shop, there’s a big tented room, “The Barn,” where events like cooking classes are held. For kids, there are tractor swings, tic-tac-toe and cornhole games. There’s also a stage where musicians perform. Much of the facilities were built by Anne.
The farm hosts bridal and baby showers, birthdays and graduation parties, but on any given sunny day, parents relax on benches watching their kids trace their fingers in the gravel or swing on the tractors.
“It’s grown out of customer interest,” Anne said. “They keep asking for more and more events, so we do more. We now have weekly events. We try to make many of them a learning experience so people know why farm-to-table is important.”
Customers can also become initiated into the farming process when they pick their own berries from the farm or mint, chives or basil from the herb garden.
“The adults love picking their own stuff as much as the kids do,” Anne said.
While the community support is appreciated, farming is not getting any easier.
Vast amounts of paperwork, stringent regulations and that oldest of adversaries — the weather — threaten to overwhelm even the most practiced farmers, Dan Manassero said.
The Manasseros, like McKay Smith and Glenn Tanaka, seek to hold onto their land and in the process preserve a piece of Orange County’s past.
For a list of Manassero Farms events, visit manasserofarms.com/events/.
Twitter:@benbrazilpilot
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