From colorful baby beets to specialty lettuces and radishes, the Babe Farms has spent four decades cultivating creativity, innovation, and a love of California Grown produce in the Santa Maria Valley.

At Babe Farms, vegetables aren’t just something you eat. They’re a canvas for creativity. From jewel-toned beets and colorful radishes to delicate baby lettuces, the specialty produce grown on this family-owned Santa Maria Valley farm is as beautiful as it is delicious.

“One of my marketing people said that a chef actually said to them that we are the paint, and the chef is the painter,” explains Jeff Lundberg, a third-generation farmer who helps lead the family business. “So we give them the tools, and they actually create.”

It’s a philosophy that has shaped Babe Farms for four decades, transforming a small specialty vegetable operation into a nationally recognized grower supplying chefs, restaurants, and grocery stores across the United States and Canada.

And behind those beautiful vegetables is a California farming family with deep agricultural roots and a willingness to try something different.

Breaking the Mold of Traditional Farming

For Judy Lundberg, farming has always been a family affair. Her grandfather was a farmer, her father was a farmer, and she and her husband continued that tradition after taking over her family’s 186-acre ranch in the Santa Maria Valley.

For years, they grew conventional vegetables, but an opportunity in the 1980s would change the direction of the family business.Their neighbor, Will Souza, had been traveling extensively in Europe, where he’d noticed a growing appetite for specialty vegetables. He believed there was an opportunity to bring those same colorful, distinctive varieties to American consumers.

In 1986, he approached the Lundbergs with an idea: start a small company dedicated to growing specialty vegetables.

Babe Farms was born.

“We started basically with a mesclun mix, ’cause that’s what was big at the time,” Judy recalls.

At the time, American grocery stores offered relatively limited choices when it came to fresh produce. Specialty lettuce mixes and unusual vegetable varieties were still novelties, but restaurant chefs were eager for something different. As more growers entered the specialty lettuce market, Babe Farms continued expanding its offerings, particularly its colorful root vegetables.

“Every chef we went to wants color,” Judy says. “And when people eat in restaurants, they want to be able to go to a retail store and buy what they eat in the restaurant.”

That connection between restaurant trends and consumer demand helped shape the farm’s identity and remains central to its success.

Small Vegetables, Big Flavor

Today, Babe Farms grows approximately 60 varieties of specialty vegetables on roughly 1,000 acres, including about 100 acres of organic production. Its signature offerings include three colors of specialty beets, seven varieties of radishes, and eight types of specialty lettuces, along with an assortment of other baby vegetables.

Unlike conventional produce grown primarily for size and uniformity, Babe Farms specializes in vegetables prized for their distinctive colors, delicate textures, and concentrated flavors.Some baby vegetables are grown from specialty seeds, while others are simply harvested young.

“I think baby beets are cuter, but I think they’re also tastier,” Judy says. “The smaller varieties have a little bit better taste. The carrots I know do. The baby lettuces, I think they’re better flavored.”

The visual appeal is just as important.

“Our watermelon radish and our purple plum, and those kinds of things are like making a bouquet on your plate,” Judy explains. “I think people are getting more and more into that. They want a pretty plate like they see when they go into a restaurant.”

While chefs were among the farm’s earliest customers, today home cooks can also find Babe Farms vegetables at retail stores, making it easier to recreate restaurant-inspired dishes at home.

The Art and Science of Growing Something New

Keeping chefs inspired means never standing still.

Babe Farms works closely with seed suppliers and chefs to identify, develop, and test new varieties, often spending years evaluating whether a particular vegetable can be grown consistently under local conditions.

“You may try 10 or 15 things and none of them stick, but if you get one, it’s worth it,” Jeff explains. “And if you don’t try, you don’t get anything.”

One example is a specialty Little Gem lettuce with striking red and pink coloration throughout its leaves. Unlike varieties that lose their color toward the center, this beauty maintains its vibrant appearance from the outside in. It’s exactly the kind of distinctive product chefs are looking for, but bringing something new to market requires patience.

Babe Farms tests varieties in its own fields because even a vegetable that performs beautifully elsewhere in California might struggle in the Santa Maria Valley. Fortunately, the region offers an exceptional growing environment.

Located just miles from the Pacific Ocean at the northern edge of Santa Barbara County, the Santa Maria Valley benefits from cool morning fog, afternoon breezes, and a mild Mediterranean climate. These conditions help Babe Farms produce specialty vegetables 52 weeks a year, providing the consistency chefs and retailers depend on.

Growing Responsibly, Giving Back

For Jeff, sustainability means more than caring for the soil. It means building a business that can continue supporting employees, customers, and the community for generations. That responsibility extends to the farm’s approximately 240 to 250 full-time employees, whose specialized skills are essential to cultivating, harvesting, packing, and shipping delicate produce.

“Babe Farms doesn’t really exist without the employees that do this every day,” Jeff says.

The farm also works to reduce food waste through its relationship with Veggie Rescue, an organization that helps distribute surplus and imperfect vegetables to people who might otherwise have limited access to fresh produce. Not every vegetable meets the size or appearance standards required by customers, but that doesn’t mean it should go to waste.

“The last thing we wanna do is let Babe’s products end up in the landfill,” Jeff says. “We’d rather it end up at the food bank, Veggie Rescue, or on somebody’s plate.”

It’s a practical approach to sustainability that recognizes the value of the food being grown and the resources that go into producing it.

A Family Farming Legacy That Keeps Growing

While innovation has helped define Babe Farms, family remains at its heart.

Judy has watched the operation grow from a small venture into a thriving agricultural business, and she’s especially proud to see younger generations carrying on the tradition. Her son Jeff grew up working on the farm and eventually joined the business after graduating from Cal Poly. Today, additional family members, including Judy’s granddaughter and grandson’s wife, are involved in its future. But Judy is quick to point out that the Babe Farms family extends well beyond the Lundberg name.

“The big thing too is it’s not just my family, my immediate family,” she says. “I have employees whose parents worked for me, and they went to college and came back to work for me. They’re part of our family too.” In fact, some employees have been with the farm for more than three decades, helping carry its traditions, knowledge, and commitment to quality forward. 

Four decades after Babe Farms first began experimenting with specialty vegetables, that combination of family, creativity, and adaptability continues to drive the business. And as Jeff and the next generation look for new varieties to grow and new ways to inspire chefs and home cooks, Judy remains optimistic about the future.

“It’s been a great 40 years,” she says, “and I have very firm belief that it’ll go another 40 years with my young family starting and the enthusiasm that they have.”

From the fields of the Santa Maria Valley to colorful plates in restaurants and at home, Babe Farms is proof that a little imagination—and generations of farming know-how—can transform even the humblest vegetables into something extraordinary.

Article written by Alison Needham (@atable_defloured), images and video by James Collier, Paprika Studios.