Toro Aqua-Traxx PC Testimonials

Vol 9 • No. 1 • January 2005

1Vegetables WEST / January 2005

Whole Leaf Lettuce Program

Restaurant Trade Generates Demand

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Greg Lazzerini, farm manager with
Boss Farms LLC, is a partner with Mills
Family Farms, both of Salinas, Calif.
Of the 3,500 acres he oversees, one
crop that garners a lot of attention is leaf
lettuce for Mills’ whole-leaf lettuce pro­gram.

The whole-leaf product is used by
the restaurant trade throughout the coun­try as a garnish on plates or on appetizer
trays or to decorate salad bars—and a
variety of other uses.

Lazzerini oversees fields in both the
Salinas Valley and in San Benito
County. The crops include iceberg, leaf
lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower,
kale, parsley, green onions and other
minor crops.

The biggest crop is leaf lettuce us­ing romaine, green and red leaf variet­ies, where the leaves are separated from
the stalk and then processed in-house
before it’s shipped out.

“We use certain proprietary variet­ies with attributes such as a special leaf
texture and leaves that are a little thicker
and that stack well—not over-curled,”
said Lazzerini. “That’s what the trade is
looking for.”

To help encourage good leaf pro-

One of 18 filtration stations that serve the Boss Farms Land. All fields are started with
sprinklers and then finished off with drip tape.

2 Vegetables WEST / January 2005

Greg Lazzerini said the whole-leaf program requires special varieties and growing
practices. He is the farm manager of 3,500 acres in partnership with Mills Family Farms

duction, the crops are farmed a little
differently. “We do different spacings,
(which again are proprietary,) in order
to get equal growth of the leaf with
more room to grow,” said Lazzerini.
“We want uniformity and a good leaf
count.”

In the field, the heads are cut,

trimmed and put in totes. The leaves are

separated, washed and packed at the
processing facility.

“We remove the cover leaves and
use every leaf down to the core. The
smaller leaves at the core are used in a
baby spring mix,” noted Lazzerini. The
leaves get smaller as you go into the
stalk. Of course, there is more profit in
the larger leaves because it doesn’t take
as many to make a full box.

“We have the patent in doing the
whole-leaf process. By carefully snap­ping the leaf off the core in a certain
way by hand you do not disturb the cells
as you would if using a knife. The
special snapping of the leave helps re­tain freshness and increases shelf life,”
Lazzerini said.

The crop is grown in the spring and
summer in Salinas and then moved to
Yuma in winter. In April, the daily
harvest begins again in Salinas.

Mills Family Farms has been pro­ducing the whole-leaf product for about
10 years. Lazzerini became a partner
with Mills in 1999 and at that time Boss
Farms began. The name “Boss” refers
to a popular Hansen Farms label that
had been around for many years. Mills

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