Spread the flavor

After growing commodities like alfalfa and wheat in the field in California — and now Oregon — for four generations, the Avila family, owners of Country Vines in Madras, Ore. decided it was time to diversity their offering with greenhouse-grown tomatoes.

So in 2005, after attending CropKing events and classes both in Portland, Ore. and its headquarters in Lodi, Ohio, Richard Avila and his family purchased a double-bay gutter connect greenhouse from CropKing. The 6,000-square-foot greenhouse with 725 Dutch buckets houses hydroponic beefsteak tomatoes.

“We’ve sold and I’ve delivered to 20 different local stores,” Avila says, which include Whole Foods, Newport Market and Erickson’s Thriftway. “I marketed them myself [and] delivered them myself,” he says, until he found a better way to get his tomatoes to market.

A logistical advantage

After eight years of transporting, Avila decided it was time to spend less time on logistics and more time improving the taste of Country Vines’ signature crop. They were contacted by Charlie’s Produce, a wholesale distributor about 100 miles away in Portland, to have their tomatoes delivered through the 3rd party channel that would not only allow the Avila family to keep their current customer base, but expand upon it when the local tomato market became flooded with product from outdoor growers’ August to September harvest period.

“We wanted to keep our initial stores that started with us, which is very important to me and my family,” Avila says. They worked out an agreement that the product would be picked up the day after picking, delivered to key customers first, then any excess may go to neighboring stores within a 100-mile radius. It’s a win-win for Country Vines. Their tomatoes can be distributed steadily throughout the year, and they have a further reach.

Enhanced flavor and yield

Unlike many of the outdoor tomato growers in the area, Country Vines has the ability to hold off on picking its tomatoes grown under cover until the fruits are dark orange. “That’s something that a lot of these big companies can’t do. And that’s what sells our tomatoes,” he says.

And the wait pays off, as customers frequently share that Country Vines tomatoes taste “just like my great grandfathers” — a compliment the business prides itself on.

However, discovering the right nutrient mix and the creating the ideal growing conditions for that tasty tomato isn’t easy, as every growing season can present a different challenge. But every year, they get better.

Country Vines has also steadily increased its vine yield, which was about 12 pounds per plant when they first started, to about 31 pounds per plant today in their 10th season.

“We’re balancing that good yield and having good taste,” Avila says. “If the tomato doesn’t taste good, it puts you in that other category of the imported, nonlocal tomatoes.”

Another challenge for the Avila family is the market. “When you have tomatoes that are being flooded into the U.S. from Mexico, it really affects the price of the tomato. Even though we’re not in that market — we have our own little niche — it still does compete with us,” he says.

Avila says his family business has found success with the greenhouse crop the same way it has out in the field, which is sticking to a budget.

High standards

Country Vines has also recently become GAP certified with a 100-percent inspection, which has advanced safety procedures and helped with record keeping. Everything from handwashing policies to visitor protocol — the business has reduced the risk of contamination in the greenhouse even beyond its sealed-tight rooms and filtered air.

“It’s been a good thing because we’ve been doing business like we always have, but it puts us on a whole different level,” he says.

From logistics, to taste, to finding its place in a competitive market, and to safety, it’s all about taking small steps to improve. “We’re trying to fine-tune it, and the only way is to keep on trying,” Avila says. It’s trial and error, we write things down [and] we have good books on it. That’s how we do it.”