US (CA): Deardorff Farms - new faces and new products

Deardorff Family Farms is moving into the branded tomato category. For seventy-five years, Deardorff Family Farms has been shipping tomatoes from California. Four generations of Deardorffs have seen many good varieties over those years – some with great flavor or great shelf life, others with better health characteristics or high yield. But, none with everything in one variety – until now.

As explained by Tom Deardorff, II - "Tasti-Lee is a new proprietary variety that
combines health, flavor and freshness into one tomato. It offers the consumer a true tomato taste that can only come from vine-ripe, field grown tomatoes. Like a great wine, the best tasting tomato is achieved only when you have the right variety, grown naturally in the soil, under the right climate conditions, until it reaches the perfect stage of ripening. Greenhouse production and gassed tomatoes simply can not achieve this natural balance that produces the best flavor."

Tasti-Lee tomatoes launched on the East Coast last year to great fanfare and success. Deardorff Family Farms will be in charge of West Coast production and sales for Tasti-Lee.

To drive the Tasti-Lee program, Deardorff Family Farms recently hired Vasken
Khanjian as its business development director. Vasken will not only work on launching Tasti-Lee in the Western US, but he will also be working on business development for several other products coming from Deardorff’s new flow-pack machine.

Prior to joining Deardorff Family Farms, Vasken worked in business development and sales in both the wholesale produce and produce packaging industries.
"Vasken’s in-depth knowledge of packaging and produce make him a natural fit to lead our team on both Tasti-Lee and our other value-added items," Deardorff added.

For more information:
Tom Deardorff, II
Tel: +1 805-487-7801
[email protected]