At Five Crowns, the sweet corn is too sweet to pick with a machine because the kernels burst on contact. So every ear that ends up in a Southern California grocery store has been snapped off the stalk by hand in the Imperial Valley sun, by someone Kevin Kenagy knows by name.

Five Crowns is a forty-year-old family-owned farming and marketing company based in Brawley, California. They are best known for sweet corn and melons. Their corn moves under the Majesty and Glori Ann labels. Their melon program includes cantaloupes, honeydews, watermelons, and aromatic Galia melons, alongside the proprietary Picasso and the Majesty and Royal Majesty lines. 

The company also grows and ships asparagus, cauliflower, and mangoes. With fields across Imperial Valley, the San Joaquin Valley, Arizona, and Mexico, Five Crowns keeps California-grown produce on grocery shelves 365 days a year.

Generational Agriculture, Forty Years Strong

Five Crowns’ agricultural roots trace back to the 1940s, when the Colas family moved from Philadelphia to the Imperial Valley. The next generation, Joe and Bill Colas, formally launched Five Crowns Marketing in the early 1980s. Four decades later, the company still runs on a tagline that doubles as an operating philosophy: family, faith, and farming.

“The Colas family has been very strong in their Christian faith over the years, and they try to instill that in everything that they do from top to bottom in the company,” says Kevin Kanaghi, who runs marketing for the operation. “It’s one of the things that attracted me to this company.”

Kevin’s own path to farming was nearly inevitable. His family moved from Iowa when he was four years old. His father was a large-animal veterinarian. Kevin was driving tractors by the time he was fifteen. “I’ve always been involved in agriculture,” he says. “It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Super Sweet Corn, Hand-Picked and Pre-Shucked

The thing most consumers don’t realize about really sweet sweet corn is that it won’t tolerate heavy machinery. “We choose varieties of corn that are super sweet,” Kevin says. “Because of that, the kernels are actually pretty fragile. What we have to do is hand-harvest it. Mechanical harvesting will actually cause these kernels to burst very easily.”

That is why they hand-pack corn into boxes in the field, then deliver it to Five Crowns’ cooler facility, and then out to the grocery store. Start to finish, that whole journey usually takes less than a week.

The consumer-facing innovation here is the Glori Ann brand, Five Crowns’ line of pre-shucked corn packaged in cellophane. By Kevin’s count, Glori Ann was among the first in the country to shuck, trim, and package corn this way inside a processing facility, which means the ear on your dinner plate is ready to cook the moment you pull it out of the bag. No silk in the sink, no husk in the trash.

The shift from husk-on to husk-off sounds small. It isn’t. It’s the kind of quiet rethink of produce presentation that has reshaped how sweet corn shows up at retailers like Albertsons.

Melons, Bees, and the Proprietary Picasso

Five Crowns’ melon program reads like a tour of summer. Cantaloupes, honeydews, watermelons, and aromatic Galia melons come off the fields in the Imperial Valley from early May through late June, alongside a deep bench of specialty and cross-bred varieties. Each variety gets its own moment at retail, and the rotation continues north to the San Joaquin Valley once the desert heat climbs.

And then there is the Picasso. “Five Crowns Picasso is our proprietary melon,” Kevin says. You won’t find that name anywhere else, which makes the late-spring arrival of Picassos on California grocery shelves a quiet seasonal event for Five Crowns’ loyal customers.

Every melon on the roster depends on something the average grocery shopper has probably never considered: bees. “Melons need to be pollinated,” Kevin explains. “It’s usually done by insects. We use honey bees to aid in that process.”

Each melon vine produces separate male and female flowers, and a melon only grows when pollen crosses from one to the other. Five Crowns brings in honey bee colonies during bloom season and sets them in strategic locations around the fields so pollination happens at scale and on schedule. No bees, no melons. It really is that direct.

Year-Round California Corn, from Field to Store

When you pick up an ear of corn at the grocery store in July, it is not coming from the same field it came from in March. Five Crowns runs a multi-region rotation to keep California-grown corn moving to retailers year-round.

“We start growing here in the Imperial Valley,” Kevin says, “and we move to other regions, and that enables us to have a 365-day-a-year supply of corn for the consumer.”

The seasonal map looks roughly like this. Imperial Valley planting begins on December 1 for sweet corn and January 1 for melons. Harvest runs from April through mid-June for corn and from May through June for melons. 

From there, production shifts to the San Joaquin Valley through the fall, out to Arizona for September and October, and even down to Mexico. The handoff between regions is a result of careful planning so Five Crowns corn rarely leaves the shelf.

Drip Irrigation Arrives on the Corn Rows

Traditionally, corn was a flood-irrigated crop. Five Crowns has been quietly changing that. “Our biggest push on technology in the field side of it is the drip on the corn,” Kevin says. “That is not something that’s been done a lot. We are now shifted to 100 percent as of this season. It’s something that we started playing with almost ten years ago now.”

Drip irrigation is not the only sustainable measure. In the winter months, corn at Five Crowns grows on a south-facing sloped bed to capture as much low-angle sun as possible. The drip tape runs just above the seed line. This means water reaches the seed immediately, and the crew can micro-feed fertilizer exactly when the plant needs it. “It’s never under stress,” Kevin says. “At the end of the day, that’s what gives us our better quality.”

The results in the pack house speak to it. Production is up modestly, but pack-out quality is up dramatically, resulting in fewer rejections upon arrival at the store. Even the drip tape itself is pulled out at the end of the season and sent off for 100 percent recycling.

Where to Find Five Crowns

You’ll find Five Crowns corn and melons across the Albertsons chain and a long list of other retail partners in California and the Southwest. Look for the Majesty and Glori Ann labels on corn (Glori Ann is the pre-shucked, ready-to-cook line). Look for the Picasso, Majesty, and Royal Majesty names on melons. If you want to really taste the difference, buy in late spring when the Imperial Valley harvest is coming in fresh.

Kevin’s pitch for buying California Grown is, ultimately, a plug for the people behind the food. “There are a lot of really hard-working, good people who are producing the food in California, and it’s not easy,” he says. “I just hope people understand how difficult that task is.”

Plan Your Imperial Valley Visit

“Imperial Valley is in the middle of everything,” Kevin says. It’s a couple of hours to the beach in San Diego, a few more to Big Bear and the Colorado River, a half-day to the White Mountains in Arizona, and just across the line from Mexico. If you want the truest-to-place experience, Kevin says, skip the chains. “The best thing about Imperial Valley, in my opinion, is the food, especially if you love tacos. There’s no other place.”

Pair a visit with the Imperial Valley, California Midwinter Fair, a run through what grows in Imperial County, and a side trip up north for Palm Springs and Coachella Valley agritourism. For more California farming stories, browse CA GROWN grower profiles or plan your next agritourism stop on Experience California Agriculture.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Five Crowns

Why is Five Crowns corn hand-harvested?

Super-sweet corn varieties have unusually fragile kernels. Mechanical harvesting bursts them, so Five Crowns hand-picks every ear to protect quality from the field to the store.

What is the Picasso melon?

The Picasso is a proprietary melon variety exclusive to Five Crowns, part of the company’s specialty melon lineup alongside traditional honeydews and specialty crosses.

Does Five Crowns grow year-round in the Imperial Valley?

Imperial Valley is the winter and spring engine of Five Crowns’ production. For year-round California-grown corn, the company rotates through the San Joaquin Valley, Arizona, and Mexico throughout the rest of the calendar.

Where can I buy Five Crowns corn and melons?

Five Crowns distributes broadly to major grocery chains, including the Albertsons family of stores. Look for Majesty and Glori Ann on corn, and Picasso, Majesty, or Royal Majesty on melons.

What else does Five Crowns grow besides sweet corn and melons?

Alongside sweet corn and their full melon lineup (cantaloupes, honeydews, watermelons, Galia melons, and the proprietary Picasso), Five Crowns also grows and ships asparagus, cauliflower, and mangoes from their farming operations across Imperial Valley, the San Joaquin Valley, Arizona, and Mexico.

This article was written by CA GROWN Content Creator Aida Mollenkamp, and images from Salt & Wind.