Jim Shanley used to grow avocados on his hilly, 113-acre plantation in Morro Bay. Now, finger limes, dragon fruit, passion fruit — even coffee plants — are holding root. And, together, they’re distant some-more essential for a longtime farmer.
“It’s about what can we do where,” he said.
Shanley and his daughter, Megan Shanley Warren, are among a initial locally to welcome layered agriculture, that involves flourishing opposite crops together in a same space, maximizing resources and land. They’re also brainstorming ways to seductiveness directly to consumers with their crops.
Shanley Farms’ products are accessible seasonally in San Luis Obispo County during Whole Foods and online during shanleyfarms.com.
When their smaller avocados were deserted by furnish buyers, for example, a dual satisfied that a immature fruit could be marketed as singular servings. So they grown Gator Eggs — mini avocados packaged in egg carton-like wrapping — a play on alligator pears, a nickname for avocados.
The small avocados finished adult holding off a few years ago as partial of a grocery smoothness use in New York, and Shanley pronounced they’ve finished best on a East Coast. He pronounced they’re now formulation their subsequent Gator Egg push.
“We usually have to figure out how to take these small brands with not really large budgets and get a word out,” Warren said.
A new kind of farming
Shanley and Warren — who came to work during her family’s plantation after a army during berry hulk Driscoll’s — started out flourishing normal avocado trees during Shanley Farms off Highway 41. The family changed to a Central Coast from Visalia in a 1990s, following Shanley’s career as a line trader. The family also maintains an organic plantation nearby their aged hometown.
The Shanleys’ incursion into outlandish fruit in Morro Bay started when Shanley detected finger limes in a early 2000s, usually as they were being introduced to American farmers. He was immediately entranced, job them “the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I wanted something unique,” he said.
The small fruit — many finger limes are 2 to 3 inches in length — isn’t associated to limes or lemons. It’s a microcitrus local to Australia with a pearl-like strength that looks like beads of caviar. The pearls recover sweet, citrus-like extract when bitten.
Shanley was among a initial farmers in a United States to start flourishing finger limes. This year, increase from his 2,100 finger orange trees will pass those of his 4,000 avocado trees.
Through his seductiveness in finger limes, Shanley met Jay Ruskey, a Goleta rancher and Cal Poly alumnus flourishing cherimoyas — scaly-looking fruit with a tawny white interior — and other outlandish plants, while also experimenting with coffee plants.
Ruskey introduced Shanley to a thought of layered agriculture, that involves flourishing opposite crops together in a same space, maximizing resources and land.
“It’s usually a pristine business model,” Ruskey pronounced of his tillage techniques. “Does it work financially for a farmer?”
Eighteen acres of a Shanleys’ plantation stays dedicated to avocados, and 12 acres have been layered with 4 opposite plants for a past 3 years. Coffee plants are grown between avocado trees, that yield a breeze mangle and defense a plants from a sun. Less-productive avocado trees are also used to column adult dragon fruit plants.
Purple passion fruit flowers cover a blockade surrounding a avocado trees — a ripening fruit flourishing underneath a blossoms.
“If we stop looking during things conventionally, we not usually had a deer blockade around this avocado grove, we had a ideal gazebo for passion fruit,” Shanley said. “So that’s usually another income tide — all we have to do is supplement water.”
Passion fruit, a usually layered stand in full production, has already increasing a farm’s income by 10 percent, Shanley said.
California coffee
Shanley’s partial of a organisation of about 24 farmers perplexing to grow high-quality, artisanal coffee in California, something Ruskey’s had success with.
In 2014, some-more than a decade after Ruskey started flourishing coffee, his Good Land Organics stand constructed a crater of Caturra coffee that received a 91 out of 100 from Coffee Review, a consumer publication. Ruskey’s plantation is a usually one now offered coffee beans.
“I usually demeanour during coffee as a fruit,” Ruskey said. “I wish to grow a best fruit possible.”
Shanley and Ruskey started Diversitree Nursery in Goleta to favour coffee plants, with Shanley as a owners and Ruskey as a consulting grower. Through California Grown Coffee, they sell trees to growers on a Central Coast in Santa Barbara County and in Southern California nearby San Diego.
Shanley’s plantation is a farthest north they’ve attempted to grow coffee. He planted his initial stand of 14 plants 4 years ago, “just to see if they’d live by a winter.” Now, Shanley has 3,200 plants flourishing among 4,000 avocado trees, nonetheless he pronounced they expected won’t be during rise prolongation for another 3 years.
If Shanley Farms’ coffee reaches projected production, it should during slightest double a farm’s income, Shanley said. He and Ruskey also sell coffee trees constructed in their hothouse as residence plants.
“We’re doing one some-more iteration 120 miles north of (Ruskey),” Shanley pronounced of his farm. “‘Where’s a boundary?’ is a doubt this competence answer.”
Consumer-centric marketing
The Shanleys are also removing artistic with their marketing, appealing directly to high-end consumers peaceful to compensate for unique, better-tasting products.
“Our plantation starts between a ears of a customer, and we work back,” he said.
Shanley characterizes branding as a “promise kept and an address.” Along those lines, a Shanleys grown a Morro Bay Avocados code with a believe that their fruit has some-more time to rise and rise a aloft fat calm than those grown in other places, interjection to a area’s cooler climate. This allows them to sell a avocados to Whole Foods and other retailers after in a season, around September.
“The consumer starts to lift it through, instead of us convincing a customer to put it on a shelf,” Warren said.
The dual have spent a past 3 years entrance adult with new ways to marketplace finger limes, that American consumers don’t intuitively know how to use. This summer, they’ll hurl out particular jars of Citriburst finger orange pearls, that they report as “citrus caviar.” They’re also building finger orange recipes to uncover intensity business how they can incorporate them into their cooking.
Shanley pronounced they’ll expected continue holding chances with their tillage — he pronounced they “haven’t had any failures yet.”
“The thought that I’m going to take a risk and it competence not work out generally doesn’t disquiet my sleep,” Shanley said.
Where Shanley Farms’ products are sold
Shanley Farms’ products are accessible seasonally in San Luis Obispo County during Whole Foods and online during shanleyfarms.com.